I mist with a little neem oil with a drop of soap in water solution every couple of weeks and the leaves stay very clean and shiny. before i discovered neem oil, i used to wipe or wash the leaves with little soap and water. However, with my non-orchid plants i used to get spider mites or aphids in the winter. since using the neem oil, those pests seem to be under control so far. sue

Hard water in and of itself is it's own problem. Mildew in the grout is usually moisture being held in the wall. Today's construction methods; topical membranes, better ventilation, better grout formulations, should eliminate that. Streaky walls? I'm a bar soap guy, for years we used Zest which had no oils. We did absolutely nothing to clean our shower other than a brushing down maybe every 6 months or so. If even that. A few months ago we started getting residue on the walls. Checked, a sure enough Zest reformulated their bar soap. Same holds true for hair care products. Watch the labels. Dark tile will show more than light tile. Glass will show everything. If you go with a hand held shower on a hose, you can use the hand held to rinse down the walls. That'll prevent "dirty water" from drying on the wall and leaving a hazy film of product residue behind.

Thanks for the laugh about "purified angel's tears"! I'm really leaning towards marble in the shower area...I did some internet research and read that a diluted bleach solution is okay. I'm not sure what think! I printed out catmom's reply (THANK YOU!)with all the product names in case we decide to go with natural stone. Went tile looking again today and saw some pretty porcelains, which I know are much less maintenance. Nothing is "set in stone" LOL:)

Thanks for the link to the furminator and all your tips. I will also look for that charcoal for the litter boxes. I understand why someone may miss the house bc of no lock box, but I can't take the chance that someone would come over without calling me. I do work mornings and would be very upset if one of my critters got out of the house while I was not here. We already lost a cat that way when we remodeled this house. I will have to buy one of those furminators. It looks like it works great. One of my cats is a Persian and I usually get his hair cut in the spring and summer in a lion cut to help keep down the fine hair that floats off him or comes off in clumps. My dog is a 5 lb. toy poodle so he doesn't really shed. He just gets groomed every 4-6 weeks. Because of his size I do not leave him alone outside at all. And I always pick up outside right away, so no worry about stepping in any doggie stuff here. Besides we will probably still have snow on the ground when I sell. I already have an allergic free vaccumm, so I just gotta remember to really go around and vaccuum everything every other day if I can (including the curtains where the cats end up rubbing against). Fortunately, we live in an area in upstate NY where the housing market is still stable. Our houses did go up in price, but did not rise as much as some other areas on the east coast. Also, there is new industry starting to come in here so people are still buying here. Most of the homes for sale near me have already sold this year so I am hoping that next spring will be good still. I think I will stick to appointment only and probably for qualified buyers only as our house although not the most expensive in town, is one of the more expensive and nicer ones. We will be moving out of state into a rental if and when we sell as my new home is yet to be built. So we will have some time to list this home if it doesn't sell right away. We are still working with an architect on the design and the house build is to start at the earliest in fall 08