Have you ever seen a hardwood floor where the boards are either higher in the middle than at the edges, or the reverse? At the least, it looks odd, but when it’s severe, it can lead to buckling of the floor and require expensive repairs. What’s the cause of this problem? In a word, moisture.

Wood swells when it gets wet, and shrinks when it dries out. If a piece of hardwood flooring has more moisture in the wood on one side than the other, the side with more moisture will swell. The moist side expands, forming a crown, while the dry side cups.

One common cause of cupping in a new hardwood floor is that the hardwood is installed on a subfloor that contains too much moisture (as in a new home where the air ventilation system, dehumidifier, and/or central heating are not yet operating). When the subfloor begins to dry out, moisture moves into the underside of the drier hardwood floor above and causes cupping.

Other situations can cause cupping in a preexisting hardwood floor: basement flooding, moisture problems in a crawl space, or drying of the air above the floor. In some locations, these conditions are seasonal. Crowning, of course, involves the upper surface of the wood absorbing moisture, which is less common.

The good news is that cupping and crowning of hardwood floors frequently corrects itself if the moisture problem is resolved and the wood dries out. If the problem persists, it may be necessary to sand and refinish the floor.

The moisture content of a subfloor should always be checked before hardwood is installed to be sure it conforms to manufacturers specifications. Moisture problems should be corrected first.

My grandmother’s house had a pantry. I remember it as a small cool room with shelving and counter space where she kept the shortbread. None of the houses I lived in while growing up had pantries though – it seems they were phased out in favor of using the space for something else. Now we’re seeing a return of the pantry in various forms: large deep pantry cupboards; walk-in corner pantries; even separate rooms with cabinets, drawers, and counter space.

In our last house, we had a pantry cupboard, and this was great for storing everything from canned goods to flour and dog food; the problem was that things tended to get lost at the back, and getting to them involved moving everything in front. In designing our new home, we knew we wanted to include a walk-in pantry of some sort, preferably a corner pantry, with lots of shelving that wasn’t so deep. Designing a pantry of this sort solves other problems as well. It:

• avoids the problem of the awkward corner cabinet, usually wasted space
• provides maximum cupboard space in a small kitchen
• provides a place to keep things like potatoes, bags of flour, and dog food with easy access
• can hide some of the clutter and mess of a busy kitchen when company comes
• can be a place to put small appliances away
• creates a perfect place out of sight for cookbooks

I wanted some counter space in my pantry for my electric mixer, with space underneath for larger items like a bag of potatoes, a basket of onions, and a bin of dog food.

Working out the best dimensions for the walk-in pantry took some thought. We found that examples we looked at in show homes were four feet wide along each of the back walls and as deep as the counter with the door in the front diagonal wall. That would have been a little cramped for anyone standing at the counter in the pantry, so we made our counter four feet long, with the other wall five feet long. This allowed shelving 11 inches deep above and opposite the counter, and 9 inch shelving along the back wall above shoulder height. The space under the shelving on the back wall proved to be a good spot for a bulletin board for a grocery list, clipped recipes etc.

Another nice touch was having the light switch located in the door frame, so the light comes on when you open the door, and goes off when you close it. (Don’t do this if you think you might want to go into the pantry and work inside with the door closed.)

Our corner walk-in pantry proves that a pantry needn’t use up space that could be better used for something else. Rather, it makes optimal and very convenient use of space that might otherwise be wasted.

Incandescent light bulbs are being phased out and replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL), halogens, and light-emitting diodes (LED) – and probably other things I haven’t come across yet. All of these bulbs are much more expensive to buy than the good old incandescents, but they theoretically last much longer, and save energy – and therefore money – over the life of the bulb.

My experience with CFLs so far has been patchy: some that I have bought didn’t last five months, let alone five years, leaving me wondering whether I need to keep all my receipts and a light bulb log: on November 22, I put such-and-such a light bulb, purchased at Canadian Tire, in the #1 socket of my dining room chandelier. Bah – that feels really obsessive to me. But, the alternative is to suffer the monetary loss of a poor quality $2 bulb that doesn’t last a fraction of the time a 50¢ incandescent would have. And, the manufacturers of poor quality CFLs get to keep the money and go on producing them.

I was pleased to see an article in the Feb2012 Consumer Reports Canada issue which rated CFLs equivalent to 100W incandescents (“New bulbs, new choices;” p.14-15). Utilitech, Feit, and EcoSmart came out on top, in that order, so that gives us some guidance for choosing CFLs. I’ve also learned some other things that can shorten the life of a CFL:

• Dimmer switches: unless the packaging specifically states otherwise, don’t use a CFL with a dimmer switch.
• Turning a CFL on and off a lot, with short on/off periods, is hard on the bulbs. Walk-in closets and pantries, motion sensor fixtures, etc. are not good locations for these bulbs.
• Recessed and/or enclosed fixtures: read the packaging and make sure you buy bulbs that are okay for this type of fixture.
• Vibration.

Although I bought exclusively CFLs for my new house, I'm no fan of them so far. I like LEDs. They appear tough and bright, but the price is still prohibitive and the selection is limited. I expect that LEDs will evolve and become more affordable over the next few years. If all my current CFLs – which are mostly, I think, EcoSmart – last as long as they’re supposed to, I may never have to buy any more.

I’ve been told in the past that one should never touch the glass of a CFL bulb because the oils in your skin will remain on the bulb (fingerprints) and cause hot spots which will shorten the life of the bulb. I’ve heard the same thing about microscope bulbs. Is it true of CFLs?

Some CFL packaging instructs you to handle CFL bulbs by the base and never screw them in holding the glass spiral. This seems to add weight to the argument above; however, after visiting many websites, including government websites, manufacturers websites, and special interest websites (both for and against CFLs and at least one of which has a list of “CFL killers”), I have found absolutely nothing to confirm it.

I did find the instruction to handle the bulbs by the base on a number of reputable sites; however, the reason given is that the thin glass spiral is relatively fragile and the bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, so it’s important not to break them.

My conclusion is that it is probably no big deal if you touch the glass of a CFL.