I was afraid you'd say something like that! ;) Oh well, I'll survive or enlist the helpmeet to fire up the weedwacker and cut the stuff off at the knees, as it were... Thanks!

Hi Chris & Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hoyas, I'm posting on the fly here, just a few quick comments to get you started & I'm sure others will add on more. Hoyas don't mind being crowded (either in pots that seem too small for them) or all wrapped around themselves as it sounds yours is. If the person who gave it to you got it to a good size, he/she probably knows what they're doing & you could probably benefit from listening to their advice 'til you have some experience of your own in growing this, esp. if you're new to indoor gardening. First rule of thumb is not to cut plants back in Winter, it's (generally) best done after Spring has started & certainly when the plant is in active growth (showing fresh new leaves that have just sprouted). If you'd give some descriptions as to shape of leaves, their size & color, whether speckled or not, etc., we can probably guess which one it is & give you better advice on its care. Also is in in plastic pot or clay, how often are you watering & what/how much light is it getting? If you trim those bare vines now, you won't be able to do anthing else with them (bare vines once cut, won't make new leaves). If you wait 'til they have leaves & by then maybe have an idea what kind it is, you may be able to then take cuttings of the vines & put them in water to make more plants (for yourself or to share w/ others) or even add them back in the Moma plant's pot to make it even more full & lush. Pls. read around this forum abt diff. topics, you'll learn a lot & get a starting idea of how these plants like grow. HTH = hope this helps!

If you posted in the "Tool Shed" section you would have found enthusiastic response! I'm one of those guys that loves to do it all myself. I have the chainsaws and even a chipper to turn it all into compost. For a chainsaw I think you are on the right track. Consider the Echo CS-370 with the 16" bar. You could get by with a 14" bar with this little cabbage palm but you will be glad to have the extra length on other projects that will come along. I also have a gas pole saw with extensions and a 12" bar. It isn't telescopic. I just add or remove a section as needed. Wonderful tool. I keep my neighbors properties and my own pruned and tend to do it at the onset of Hurricane season. I never charge them but I seem to get a lot of cold beer from them. For this tree, I would drop it whole to the ground since you mentioned that you have plenty of room. Buck it after you drop it. Be sure to keep your chain out of the sand as it will dull it instantly on contact. Palm wood is hard on chains to begin with. It is stringy stuff and actually has sand in it. It would be advisable to purchase an extra chain and a sharpening file so you can touch up the chain between tanks of fuel. One thing to add here is that there is more to buy then just the saws. You should be wearing chainsaw chaps, steel toe boots, and eye and ear protection. I have a forestry hat that takes care of the eye and ear protection and use it for lots of other chores like running the chipper and even weed wacking. The great thing about the forestry helmet is that the eye screen and ear muffs can be pivoted up between cuts. Have fun with the job and be safe.

Overall, I can't work up much love for this house. Random thoughts: - You say you're a family with four kids + live-in grandparents ... yet you've allotted space for two cars. What about when the kids start driving? - Note that you're parking in the front of the house ... yet your kitchen is at the back. This means every day /week you have to tote groceries the whole length of the house. - A door between the scullery kitchen /pantry /laundry and the main living area would improve circulation. It would mean people could enter this hard-working room without cutting through the kitchen. (Note: This is not a butler's pantry.) - Does the dining table go in the empty space by the back doors? Lots of space for it, and it should be a pleasant spot. - This living room doesn't look all that big for a family of eight. Where do you anticipate placing a TV? Other living room storage? - Lots of odd wasted space in the entry. - You say that you value common gathering areas over bedrooms ... yet you've placed the bedrooms in the prime square footage (on the outside of the house so that they receive the best natural light /breezes), while the main gathering room is completely in the dark /will require lights to be turned on even at mid-day. This is the single biggest problem in this house. - You say that the large desk area is for kids' homework /Legos ... but it's going to be a dark hallway. Who's going to want to sit there? Again, this area is in the dark while the bedrooms (where people sleep) are going to be filled with lovely natural light. - I would want a door on this kids' area so a teenager could sit and do homework without hearing the common area just a few steps away. Similarly, I'd want a door on that secondary seating area on the left side. - Why does one kid get a desk /much larger room, while two kids are sharing a smaller room? - I like the four kids' bathroom concept. Two toilets /one full bath. It's a reasonable number to share /build /keep clean. - Not a tub in the whole house. No one likes to take a bath? No one ever washes a dog? The kids are all shower-age? - On the other hand, you have three full baths on the adults /guest side. The two master bedrooms definitely need a private bath ... but I'd skip the full bath for occasional guests. Maybe rearrange so that the occasional guest could share with one of the masters ... or place this space nearer the kids' area so those bathrooms could be shared. - Pocket doors are great for places that stay open most of the time (for example, your scullery kitchen) ... they're awful for doors that're opened /closed frequently ... for example, your master bath. If this is your parents' room, pocket doors aren't good at all for older hands that may have arthritis. - Consider bringing large furniture through the turn into the back-of-the-house master. I'd add a door to the back patio. - One master has only a small closet -- looks like 5' or so? -- while the other master has two space-wasting "Ls" that're both larger than the other closet. What's the rationale here? - One master will be occupied now by a set of grandparents ... possibly in the future by boomarang kids, right? I'd consider setting this "apart" from the main house ... perhaps accessed through a breezeway. This would allow greater privacy for the grandparents ... and it would allow you (later) to cut off heating /cooling to this area if it's sitting unused for a time. My parents' house has a one-bedroom apartment attached, and I can't tell you how many different functions that apartment has served ... but the flexibility to "detach it" from the main house is quite valuable. - The back patio is nicely sized, but what are the two closets on the far ends? And why do they face outward instead of into the patio? - A pass-through between the kitchen and the patio eating area would be wonderful. How to cut back /how to save: Ditch this plan and start again. You can have these same spaces /functions in less square footage. That'll save you money. Here's a stab at a different layout. Consider: - This places the parents', grandparents' and kids' private spaces far apart. - The dining, kitchen and living spaces are all positioned so they'll benefit from natural light. - The grandparents' area /den is more of a separate apartment /can be "closed off" if it's not being used -- or if you ever rent it out. You could also have a second entrance into the den.