My neighbor gave me an amaryllis in a pot with no drainage hole, and it has bloomed for 3 years in a row. I don't get it. I just water when it gets dry, but I don't let it out in rain to get soaked. I keep it under a covered porch or carport in summer. And bring it in for winter. I had several plants survive for about a year after my mom died, sent in a nice hole-less pot but I repotted them after a couple years---pothos, coffee, dracaena, prayer plant. I wish I could use all those pots without getting out a drill, but they are too shallow. But I do tend to root plants in water and they seem happy for a year or so at least. So maybe those--anything but succulents--won't mind these kinds of pots? I have all kinds of plants rooting and growing in water.

Actually, good chance the wood DID dry out. As it dries it contracts, which would explain the cracking tile. One way or the other, there's movement due to moisture getting to the framing, whether it's from being wet and drying, or after drying out, it's now getting wet again. Either way, it never should've been covered up wet. You don't know how long it was wet, and how much damage has been done top the wood. Sometimes, there's more damage than can be seen while it's wet. No real way to tell for sure without opening up the wall, but then again, it's certainly a moisture/ movement problem involving the framing, and the only way to solve that is to pull it all apart and redo it.

We did discuss strengthening the joists. DH hasn't been in the crawl space since last fall. One thing that makes us lean away from the tile is that when our front load washing machine spins, we do notice how the floor bounces. Didn't realize it before the floor guys brought bouncing up. Maybe after we look at different floorings tomorrow we can wrap our brains around what we want. I'll leave the final decision to DH, he'd have to be the one to fool with any problems. I could be happy with either one, I'm sure. Like I mentioned in my original post, we do have laminate in 3 bedrooms and the "east" wing (great room facing lake) and we do like it. I have done a search here and found some good info. Anyone else have any thoughts on this we would sure appreciate them. Thanks, Kathy G in MI

If you have a solid base on the tile below and there is no height issue there is absolutely no reason you can't tile over it. If the old tile has cracks, or if the floor shows any flex at all you should start fresh. Putting old on top of new is often done in many applications of home improvement. I just finished tiling over tile on my bathroom where the first layer was firmly tiled to my cement slab. It came out wonderful. My toilet flange happened to be elevated to the point that my second layer of tile is at a better level than the initial layer for seating the toilet. Picture is of this bathroom with the tile going in. The bathroom I did last summer had cracked tiles and appeared to flex a little, I took off all the old tile and the cement bed, added a layer of plywood to the subfloor and backerboard and retiled. Again, it just depends on what you are working with.