nutty

Just wondering if I should have a contractor relocate our laundry room or just call a plumber and gas guy myself? The job is not too difficult as the house is on a raised foundation and the new location is near a bathroom.

I am traveling in 3 weeks and just realized my Canadian passport expired. I am traveling from the U.S. to Canada and while I know I can return to the U.S. with my green card, I'm not sure I can enter Canada with an expired passport and additional photo I.D. Does the Canadian boarder accept additional I.D. and/or an expired passport?

We are flying out for 10 days and want to find the best place to park by LAX that is reasonably priced.

We are traveling soon and because the fees for passports are going up this month, it will take forever to get an expedited passport! We won't be able to get our babies passport in time... Can we cross the boarder between U.S. and Canada with just his birth certificate?

We just started a new home day care that all of my co-workers highly recommended. We checked out the home and met the caretaker and they were all great. After the first week that my baby was there, my husband went to visit the day care and could hear our son crying. When he got in he found our 8 month old son sitting in a jumper crying uncontrollably while the carers were feeding other children. He had never seen my son so distraught so he picked him up, left and then called me. I arrived on the scene 15 minutes later and it was clear that my son was REALLY upset, he had a rash across his forehead and was still heaving when I held him, I have never ever seen him in this state, EVER. Can this be considered a form of child neglect? I understand its standard for children to cry in a day care, but this seems unreasonable to me, the caretaker should have been holding him.

What are the laws for child neglect? I'm not so much interested in charging the home care for neglect, but she is demanding 2 weeks notice payment and our child has only been there 1 week! If my husband hadn't spontaneously dropped by to find our son ignored, we would still be using her services, so I don't think this is fair.

We have pergo flooring that we would like to replace with solid hardwood. We were told that we can't put in solid hardwood unless we cut the doors to accomodate the higher flooring. I guess that pergo comes in 1/2" thickness while solid hardwood is 3/4" thickness. Is there such a thing as solid hardwood in 1/2" thickness? And we do not want to use engineered.

We understand that original craftsman homes used Oak flooring. We'd like to keep the home looking and feeling original, but we love teak flooring. Would it ruin the feeling of an authentic craftsman home to use a warm/medium deep toned teak instead of oak? The teak we're looking at is called Asian Teak and has red tones in it.

This money is going from Canada to the U.S. and is in the hundreds of thousands. This is gifted money between one family member to another. Are there any duty fees and or tax implications for the giver?

We're in the process of purchasing a home built in 1917. The home is not bolted down to the foundation, is it reasonable to make this demand from the seller? The estimated expense is almost $5000 and we'd like to request a credit.

I was just checking my credit report and noticed that chase, first usa, first entertainment union amongst others, have been running credit checks without my consent. I have accounts with all of these companies and have had them for years but there should be no reason for them to check my credit. Does this affect my fico score and how can I stop them from unsolicited credit checks.

I heard it on the radio and have no clue who sang it or the title of the song. I think the father wrote this for his baby son and he talks about how his son will grow up to be a man, and all the quirky things his son will do - like want to be independent and leave home, but cry when he does, and how these actions are just like his own actions when he was young. So his son would be just like him.

I know my description must seem pretty vague but I'd love to find this song!

A lot of older homes have galvanized steel pipes. Why is it recommended that the pipes be changed to copper and is this absolutely necessary? How much does it cost to change the pipes?

We have $175000 for a downpayment and the household income is approximately 160,000. What can we reasonably afford that is a low risk number?

I have 5 new indoor plants but only have a big bag of outdoor potting soil for gardens. Is it ok to use the outdoor potting soil for my indoor plants?

I was just wondering if there is a $500 penalty or something like that, or will I just have to pay interest on that one day... or is it no big deal and they are a day or two flexible?

I think we have under paid our income tax for 2008 and want to find out how much we owe and avoid any late penalties on unpaid taxes. How can I do a quick calculation to figure out how much we owe?

Did you take a lot of days off of work and did your boss understand? Or did you just work through it and suck it up with a nausea bag close by.

We found a house we really like, but it needs serious work - the previous owners were working on the foundation and there is termite damage. The home is up for short sale and if it doesn't go through they will have to foreclose. What is the best way to make an offer on a short sale? Should we rely on our real estate agent to do all of the work?

Any stories of other people's experience would be greatly appreciated!

We had a trip planned for Shanghai for about a year and bought our plane tickets in August. Yesterday, I received an email from the company I bought my tickets from and they said that AirCanada canceled the flight that I had choosen, and I have to change my dates of travel. We are meeting family from Canada and the UK - we are from the U.S., and are taking a tour around Shanghai and into the mountains. The dates they offered me are 1 day earlier and later... and on the return its 1 day or 3 days later relative to our original perfectly good flight dates! They also offered to refund the tickets, but how are we suppose to find tickets to Shanghai, from Los Angeles, for the same discount price 1 week before travel! We agreed to travel on different dates, but feel like we should also be compensated for this kind of error. What would be reasonable? We have an additional night stay in Shanghai before our family arrives, and are now leaving early and missing 1 day of the tour.

We're interesting in shopping for clothes. I hear there are places that sell brand name clothing (without the labels). What kind of pricing should we expect?