If you have a common garden variety reed stem epidendrum you do not need to fuss over it at all. Garden variety is what they are here, just garden plants, common name crucifix orchid. Some people collect different colours. I like Nancy's description of huge snarly messes. That is what you you will get if the plant is given too much shade. There is a clump down the backyard. Almost full sun. Annual temperature range 1 to 40C. I have some better ones where orchid breeders have reduced the plant size somewhat and improved flower quality. They are with my Cattleyas in a shadehouse. My Phals are in the house, they would not survive "outside"

First lets talk about your gallicas. Whatever was wrong has died. That's good. And what's left seems to be healthy. That's also good. Some plants get a disease, and the disease is isolated by quick death of the infected plant parts. A gallica in Madisonville IN died in a very similar way about five or six years ago and it is very close to where RRD had become entrenched in a state park. I've seen similar quick death in Cl. Old Blush and on my found rose Cleveland Cemetery White. On both Old Blush and CCW, there were witches' brooms of new growth, then the whole stems died. And left behind some plant parts that came back healthy. Can we say that these had definite RRD? No. But they had enough RRD symptoms to strongly suggest RRD. Hearing about your gallicas sounds a lot like what happened in Madisonville. The Powdery Mildew...sometimes when it would appear in a normal summer on a usually PM-unsusceptible plant, the PM would be followed by RRD. This year, that doesn't seem to be the case, in my garden, at least, as my big PM infected plants seem to be putting out normal regrowth. BUT, my plants aren't doing the hyperthorny " Very red, extra thorny, kind of twisted down on top - or wilted, or something. I looked at it for a long time. There are several of these shoots on one branch." That's at least five symptoms of RRD on that one cane. Can you cut that cane off really low (better yet pull off the roots that support it?) re the bristly locust....I've never heard of that plant in any of the plant pathology literature I've read. I'll check it next time I go to the library. I think, though, you may have gotten lucky and had a few isolated roots left behind that didn't get the problem into them. I'll see if I can find out what it's causal agent is. I plan to go to the library this weekend. ALoha's vegetative growth is sort of normal for Aloha. This year, especially, there've been lots of reports of the vegetative growth extending into summer. The only two blooms I've got on Aloha right now are on the top of the arbor so I can't see if mine are normal now or not. Hope this starts to help. Ann

So here's the bathroom. We're working mostly with the layout we had, however the bathtub room entrance used to literally be in the bedroom with no separate door to the bathroom, so we've closed that off and made a new opening near the shower entrance, and rotated the tub around to face the rest of the bathroom. I've included pics of the crazy bathtub room and its ceiling, as well as the view from the shower, and the area where the vanity will go. My arched windows already had cut frames (shame, I know), so we're doing a windowsill, and I'd like to see some painted wall between them and the tub backsplash (since the tub isn't centered with the windows, I want them to fade into the wall). I hope this all makes sense. Still wondering. Do I do the shower in all mosaic one inch? Or just floor and ceiling with more 16' on the walls? Do I use mosaic on the tub backspash (I also fear this might draw attention to my un-centered windows. My designer friend says as long as I put a great piece of art or mirror on the focal wall, it'll work). I hope this all makes sense! it's a weird but magnificent room. Oh one more thing. We're returning a beautiful leaded glass window to the wall on the tub room that faces the closet doors AND the wall separating shower from tub room. It WILL BE properly encased in tempered glass for the shower. Note the vanity area is much wider than it looks - the ceilings are rather high.

I respectfully disagree. Hire your friend as long as he's professional. Keep the channels of communication open, respect each other's space...and let him show off his work for you. I'm not a tradesman, but I 'work' with friends and family all the time...we establish expectations from the start, and communicate appropriately. Regarding whether you need a GC or not, it all depends on whether you have the energy and time/motivation to coordinate the job yourself. All things considered, this is a small project, and no one's going to be fussing with the structural integrity of the property. Your plumber friend can supply and install the new tub and fixtures, a good tile guy can make sure he's working on (and with) appropriate materials/surfaces, and whoever you get your vanity from can install it.