?

1) My kitchen has two large windows over the sink, and it gets hot during the summer unless I have the vinyl(?) roller shades pulled down during the day. I'd like to be able to look out without roasting my kitchen.

2) I hate looking at the shades, which are hideous yellowed beige vinyl or plastic.

3) I also need privacy because sometimes my spouse walks around in his underwear! :p

I'm looking for a solution that will provide privacy, insulation from the weather, and look less depressing than my current window trimmings. I already have window film in a couple places in my house, so I'd like to avoid that if possible. Thanks for your advice!

I like the idea of taking a world map and letting houseguests put a pin in it to show which part of the country or the world they are from.

But, I don't like the idea of a bunch of straight pins or thumbtacks sticking out. Is there another way to design this kind of map? I have a friend visiting from overseas in a few weeks and would like to get this up first.

Sometimes when I throw a ball, and one of my cats loses track of it, I try to help them find it by pointing to it. But they don't seem to understand (especially the kitten, even though she is very smart). They also look at my finger as if I'm holding something out for them.

Is this normal? Can I teach them how to understand?

Hi there, I recently moved into a place that had been uninhabited for months. The cast-iron bathtub was leaking a bad smell (sewer gas?). We ran a lot of water through the bathtub, and this helped. It seems that the tub's P-trap had been dry from lack of use.

Since then, I've grown more concerned because the clawfoot bathtub pipes do not have anything around them to seal them to the wood floor. Should there be a wax seal (like under a commode), or some sort of flashing with caulk, or something else? Right now there are squarish holes in the wooden planks around the bath's pipes. There is quite a bit of empty space visible in my bathroom floor around these pipes.

This was lower on my to-do list because I shower in the other bathroom. But since we had gas leaking into our bathroom from the tub's plumbing, I want to make sure that this won't be a health problem / cause any more gas leaks. Thanks for listening!

I'm looking to buy a home that has no heating on the top floor. Luckily, the walls are plaster, which is insulating, but this is a cold area, and we will need heat.

I'm thinking of buying a boiler and cast-iron radiators (or cast-iron radiant baseboards, not electric baseboards) to heat the second floor. This would also require buying and installing a boiler, as the main floor uses forced air and central cooling.

I know that the cheapest route (based on initial investment) would be to add ductwork to the top floor and bring the forced heat through. However, my husband has bad allergies, so I'd rather get radiators installed. Radiators are also energy efficient and just plain cool.

1) How expensive would it be to add this boiler / radiator system to the second floor?

2) How feasible would it be to remove the forced air on the first floor (furnace in basement) to also replace with radiators? There is central air on the first floor, which I'd like to keep, if possible.