All right

They're in fixing the vinyl now. Fortunately it's mostly an easy fix -- has to do with the carpet strips causing bubbles for most of it. The vinyl has a pressure-sensitive adhesive, which is why there are some spots that are looser and spots that are nice and tight. It should all be fine long-term as long as there are no ripples.

With regards the carpet strips, we've decided to keep them, since they'll protect the edges of the carpet better against dirt (and boy do I remember how nasty the dirt in our carpet was), and also help protect against water spills/leaks. Which, given the number of fish tanks we own ... it's a ponderable.

Whew. At least we don't have to have it all done over.

On a more fun note

Added to my slowly-growing (but probably quickly-growing once we move) SCA library are two Osprey books: _The Samurai_, by Anthony J. Bryant (also known as Duke Edward of Effingham), and _Japanese Castles: AD 250-1540_, by Stephen Turnbull.

Both are spiffy. I particularly like the castles one as it's got more day-to-day living stuff in it, and includes the tidbit that the Japanese had flush toilets as early as 700 AD ... at least if you lived near a moat. Otherwise, the cesspits got mucked out by prisoners, which I think is a perfectly reasonable thing to have prisoners do.

Really wacky: they did not use toilet paper. They used small wooden slips called chugi.