Welcome Mark! Welcome to garden web. From what you have said it seems you really care for your plants. That being said Norfolks do not always show their love for their owners as fast as we would like. You are in zone 3a I see so your plant will grow very very slowly. What you are doing so far is great except for moving it! Once you pick an ideal location (free from drafts, good lighting, etc) NEVER move the plant as that is the fastest way of killing it. NIPs (Norfolk Island Pine) grow slow and you will not see any improvement for weeks, months, maybe even a year. Pick one location and stick with it. If it's a warm bright spot, stay on top of watering. If it's a cool bright spot, you can let the soil dry a bit. I had a beautiful one I bought after Christmas December 2010. I put it outside every summer under the shade of large maple trees and a cedar hedge. In 2012 it was getting late in the season and in late September I didn't want to bring it inside yet and stuck it in my Dad's greenhouse for the night. The next day was unseasonably warm and sunny and I was at work and didn't get to it in time and by 4 o'clock the damage had been done at one side turned brown. It's still recovering from that to this day but slowly is getting better. Tip: they like to be showered with COLD water. I put mine in the bath tube once a week and turn the water all the way to cold and use the shower head and spray it.

Don't plant it within 100 feet of anything you care about. It's not invasive, but they're extremely brittle. One across the street came down in a mild March thunderstorm - not a hurricane - a couple years ago, crushing my boyfriend's car. The storm snapped it off at 10 feet above the ground. The ten-foot stump finally came down in a thunderstorm a few months ago, taking out a neighbor's fence. (these were planted in the right-of-way and the whole neighborhood had to beg the city to take its twin out.) They also tend to get kind of scraggly looking as they get taller. They don't keep that pretty conical shape down here. And because they get so tall, taking one out can require a tree guy with a cherry picker to top it several times in order to get rid of it without endangering nearby houses (had to do that in another house years ago, it's expensive.) I'd advise against anyone down here planting them. I know Geico would.

you might want to try the houseplant forum .... we had one upwards of 20 years ... easy peasy .... we even had a set of small one inch xmas ornaments for our charlie brown tree ... lol ... often we see posts about peeps finding 8 footers being found at the curb.. and new peeps coming along and trying to jam them in their house ... only to realize why they were at the curb .... that darn ceiling was in the way .. lol... before we got a humidifier .... dry forced air heating .... could be a winter problem in the frozen north .... aka .. lack of ambient humidity ... for years we spritzed it with water ... every now and then ... no real clue if that did much of anything other than make the wall wet .... which resulted in a loud lecture from a parental unit .... about wet walls.. lol ... rather forgiving regarding light levels ... but the upside is.. low light ... reduces vigor ... aka annual growth rate ... which make that ceiling further away ... lol .. never repotting it .. once you get to about a 15 gal pot .... also reduces vigor .... on the other hand.. they are huge telephone pole trees in new zealand i believe .. well.. norfolk island ... lol ... so there is vast potential ... fear your success ... lol ... ken as always ... converting to the latin gets you better info https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Araucaria+heterophylla+forest&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Easier, yes, but not cheaper, since I already own this tree! But really, I just have a sentimental attachment to this one. I even have the space for it to be 10 feet, the size isn't the problem, but it looks ridiculous now that almost all of the lower branches died. Like a pine palm tree. I'll be sure to post if I do any work on it. Considering trying to graft on a couple lower branches instead of making the big cut, as a test.