Hi all. I don't know too much about hoyas (or any plant really) but I can post what has worked for me. Apologies for repeating some of the things others have already suggested earlier! Seems like lots of plants, be they EA or anything else, suffer from either over or under watering at the hands of store employees. Sometimes it is difficult to even find something healthy to purchase in the first place. I think the EA guys, hoya in particular, are set back by over watering. If I find a EA hoya that I *need* he comes home, the attached saucer or sleeve around the pot is removed and the plant is placed in a fairly sunny area in the home and gets a good dose of benign neglect. So far I have not repotted an EA hoya for at least the last 10-15 years although I do take cutting on occasion. I *used* to repot them but found quickly that was the kiss of death ... sort of like transplanting Bird of Paradise. At least in my hands they don't tolerate being disturbed. I tend to keep my potted hoyas on the drier side as far as watering. I do have humidity for them though. A *most* sophisticated piece of equipment ... a Vicks vaporizer from Walmart that was less than $10.00 US. LOL! It's VERY easy to get going otherwise it would be beyond me. Right out of the box the water reservoir gets filled with water, a gallon I think, and gets plugged in. That's it! I started to add a drop of Miracle Gro liquid plant food to the reservoir every other day hoping that would weakly feed my S. American orchids and H. curtsii, H. tsangii and others that I grow mounted on tree fern bark as epiphytes. Hope that does not gunk up the works. Has any one tried that or have suggestions? The reservoir gets topped off once or twice a day and takes one or two minutes at the most each time. The vapor that is emitted actually increases the air circulation around the plants! :-) I used to have the pebble trays primarily for my orchids but still needed to mist them all the time! With the vaporizer I mist the plants that are no where near the vaporizer. I am very lazy and the less work I need to do the better and I can just enjoy my plants. I have no GH although that is on my "dream about it" list. No fans either. I conserve my energy for the late spring when the whole herd of plants do go outside to get unfiltered variable light and rain and storms and all the fun stuff that Ohio weather brings. I know everyone has different growing conditions and their own individual levels of commitment or abilities to try to grow hoya or any other plants. The only plant I have ever pulled from a pot and washed the roots free of potting medium are orchids which I want to grow as epiphytes or those who were purchased as "rescue" plants and were in the wrong sort of medium for me namely sphag. moss. The hoya I grow as epiphytes were from potted cuttings and then mounted on branches or tree fern bark. I for one cannot grow an ivy if my life depended on it! I have tried and murdered several so I spare future plants from a similar fate. I just don't have, or can't get, the right conditions here. LOL! I can get Orchids galore, Anthurium galore, Ginger galore, Hoya galore and others to thrive and bloom but not an ivy! So there is what I do and know about the hoya. Hope this helps some and does not annoy any one either. If nothing else ... this longer than intended post is probably a very good cure for insomnia! Any one still awake? Hello???? Hmmmmmm. Goodnight then! :-) C3D

Congrats Mickey! We're 3 months to go ourselves. While some things don't happen as much as they did leading up to pregnancy, I must say that eating like a pig has been nice the past few months. Of course, I look as pregnant as my wife now, but that's another matter. As far as overseeing is concerned... I don't think the natural place for the homeowner is to be the QC person. It's best to have an objective professional in that position. We should understand what I'm saying here, though. We're not just talking about how well the joints fit on the oak trim or where the lights are offset. There are a myriad of construction issues that must be closely looked at before the finish items are put in place. Now, you, the homeowner, will have oodles of things to look at and make decisions about. It's best you be concerned with what you want and where you want, allowing the GC and/or your inspector to handle the "go / no-go" on the actual work. I'm NOT saying that the homeowner should altogether be out of the picture, just that on resolving issues of construction, the homeowner would do best to have an advocate. If the trust and relationship isn't there with the GC, hire someone to help on matters that we homeowners just do not have the knowledge or respect to handle. Also, do not underestimate the importance of "knowing what you want and where you want it". The building process is either 0 miles per hour or 100. It's never 50. If you're not prepared for the decisions @ 100mph you're gonna cause trouble. If you have a GC you trust to handle construction items, you can focus on the stuff that you absolutely need to handle, like picking out/ordering finish items. This is not a small job and will directly impact the finish feel of the home. Do not expect that you can pick everything out in a day. Do not expect that your exact picture in your head will pan out. You will be making adjustments that directly impact everyone on the job. If you're convinced that you need to be on the job as the GC, then these other duties that only you can perform will suffer.

Just for grins - and also because I'm behaving a bit obsessively on this detail (ya think?) - I cruised the FKB slide show seeking out island hoods. I found more than I expected to find, 26 in all and I determined that half of those fell into the traditional design mode, according to my criteria, which may or may not jive with someone else's. I also counted downdrafts for island cooktops - 39. Frankly, I expected to see a greater percentage than that. Don't ask me why, though. I haven't a clue. If you're looking for inspiration like me, here's a quick list (including 2 that posted above): arc1017 billyc busymom2 camargo Diane2566 formosalily Gary64 hiltonc jcthorne jill_77 julier1234 KaCee2002 lnersesian markbr michoumonster Nicole_ pharaoh pjsluna riverrat1 saydiver smooya sue7972 sweeby tobler TommeCA TxRunner Huh, I know I didn't see the kitchen that's on the home page so the latest kitchens might not be in the slide show yet. Here is a link that might be useful: FKB

Late to the game but would echo the Waterlox idea. We have BB counters at the lake and have "experimented" with multiple finishes: 1) Our first try was satin urethane. Bulletproof, no maintenance, but even satin has the very glossy look of "plastic" and would seem to defeat the whole purpose of using reclaimed wood. Even on our BB counters it screams "fake" and I hated it. 2) Next, we went traditional with mineral oil. A huge PITA. Applied many many coats, laboriously worked them in, and the counter still stained at the first hint of wine, strawberries, grease etc. We also had some delamination which required repair, and I think that was in part due to the poor water repellency of the MO. I considered the beeswax/mineral oil approach but still felt it would be way too much trouble for less than ideal protection. I'd be even more concerned if we had used more "delicate" wood like yours as opposed to generic BB. 3) My "light bulb went off" moment. We had already done our floors in Waterlox and loved the look--totally natural wood with none of the plastic appearance of urethane. It's been four years and they are holding up great. Checked to confirm it was food safe and, having done so, sanded away and then used it on the counters. They look great and are totally stain repellent. Water beads up, unlike with MO. If you use the Satin finish after the initial coats of Sealer the final result will be quite matte. Waterlox is polymerized tung oil. It maintains many of the advantages of pure tung oil but to quote my definitive expert source (see below): "Polymerized tung and linseed oils dry faster, harder and are more durable than raw oils." Pure tung can take days to weeks to dry between coats. We didn't have that kind of time. And, on the subject of mineral oil: "Mineral oil is recommended for cutting boards. MO will not cure as it is a non-drying oil and will continually leach out with every washing, requiring periodic reapplication. It will also leave a mess on your countertops if you apply too much Ick! The problem with cutting boards is that you cut on them, so any type of film finish is pretty much out of the question." I do not cut directly on the BB counters. I'm careful to use cutting boards, mainly for sanitation purposes (I can throw them in the DW, as opposed to having to try and scrub down countertops after raw meat exposure, for example). Therefore a film-forming finish like tung makes sense for my purposes. BTW: I have been cautioned rightfully in the past to warn folks with nut allergies that there is at least a theoretical risk of reaction to tung oil based products including Waterlox. Though, as I said then, given the consumption of peanut butter in our household, anyone with a real allergy would anaphylax just walking into the kitchen. Here's my source: Incredibly detailed, extremely useful discussion by SteveRussel of oil finishes for wood