I also prefer hardwood floors, but since this house is in a flood zone, it made more sense to put in ceramic tile. And yes, with vinyl I'd be researching to find out if there is off-gassing and such, depending on hardness. I have a lot of area rugs on the tile (at the moment I have a small rug on the floor under my desk for when I kick off my shoes but Cookie has decided she must sleep on that rug, so gets nudged off of it several times a day.)

Thanks for the thoughts about Richard. The county coroner finally listed his incident. The information is less complete than it was a few years ago so there is no incident location, he died at the hospital, but I believe it is as you suggest, he was walking along a highway frontage road with no sidewalk and wasn't up on the rough beside the pavement.

The kitchen is creeping toward a more organized and less-cluttered look. I have a couple more bags of things to donate and items to offer on the Buy Nothing FB page.

I've realized that it's time to bump finishing the back yard fence (and adding a gate) to the top of my to-do list, despite the heat. It would be convenient to both households to be able to go through a gate in the back, in particular when the neighbor gives the dogs their treats. If I finish that gate, he could feed them more easily if I go out of town (going into my house via the side door means they'd gang up on him at the door, but in the yard their collars keep them a few feet back from the fence and he could feed them without being jumped on.)