Sweetcicely (and all), I know it's mites becasue I have recently had to research them myself :( Just like Judy. The 1st, biggest giveaway is the roundish sunken dead areas. Typical mite damage. Those yellowish areas appear to be being attacked from behind, which is where mites love to hang out. (OP- any pics of the under side of the leaves?) Since you can't easily see mites, only their damage, a tried and true test (although I can't say that I see it) is to take a tissue, swab, cotton ball, etc, dampen it (H2O, or I use alcohol) and wipe the underside of the leaf. If you come up with a reddish tinge, you've got mites. But, since I don't really see anything when I do it, I just know what the damage looks like. If you google spider mites or mite damage, you should find pics. Also, orchid viruses are supposedly more or less uncommon. Most hobby growers have insect or fungal/bacterial damage if there's a problem, rather than viral, unless you happen to get an infected plant (again, more uncommon). But, after you've looked at enough pictures of both mites vs virus, you get an eye for what mite damage looks like. here's a discussion of this topic from this forum http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg0710185229356.html Here's some other picts http://www.ionopsis.com/Pests_and_Diseases.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg011644515336.html http://www.users.on.net/~gmcorbin/BOS/virus.html I'm no expert, but this just screams mite damage to me. Carolyn

The hex tile is by Crossville and the style is Savoy. Try this website and go directly to the certified showroom. http://www.crossvilleinc.com/ Hope that helps! It was expensive..hope to love it, eek. I went ahead and ordered the same 4' hex for the shower as its a small room..thought it was keep it clean looking. Here is a link that might be useful: Crossville Savoy

I don't think the wall sheathing is designed to only be attached around the edges either and will probably warp pretty badly. That's why you'll need studs spaced at least 24"oc in the walls as well. Using pressure treated for the base plates is necessary (as you knew) but the rest is totally unnecessary. Make sure you use galvanized nails when using PT lumber. I'm thinking 4x4s because it will make stronger joints especially at the corners--toe-nailing 2xs together to make a sill seems too flimsy if there should be strong winds. Flimsy? Most houses are built using 2x4s, so it will be plenty strong enough for a little shed. Plus, if you want to make something stronger, it is much more beneficial to use 2x6s than 4x4s. And, if you don't like to toenail (even though there is nothing wrong with that) then build the walls laying on their sides so that you can nail up through the base plates and down through the top plate, and then tip the wall up into it's proper position and attach it to it's neighbours.

Original poster here....again.... I have an update...but unfortunately, no solution to the spotting problem. It's been a while since I've posted, so let me give a quick summary of what I've done. Over the last couple years, I've had 3 water quality professionals come to my house to help me diagnose my water spot problem. The first guy (a Kinetico rep) had no idea what the problem was but offered a solution: install a Kinetico system and if the problem goes away, then great! If not and the spotting problem still exists, then he will uninstall his Kinetico system for $200. I passed on that offer. The second guy was unsure of what the problems is. I mentioned I had some silica in the raw water (lab tested it 15.9 mg/L) and he suggested utilizing polyphosphate/siliphos. Although he said it was food grade and harmless, my wife and I weren't so sure about adding that to our water supply, so we passed on that too. The third guy pretty much said "it is what it is"....he said they installed a whole house RO system for someone with similar problems....obviously, i declined that expensive proposal.... I contacted another water professional. He's a little far from me, but he helped me over the phone. He had me do a Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) test with a local lab. The results were a -1.5 (serious corrosion) on the LSI Index and the lab stated "Water is undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. Undersaturated water has a tendency to remove existing calcium carbonate protective coatings in pipelines and equipment." So, the professional had me use a blending screw on my softener to leak a little hardness into the treated water (approx 1-2gpg of hardness). Well, I still got spots unfortunately...and the water is no longer slippery/slick. I gave up on that idea. As far as the silica, does anyone have any input on that? Are the levels (15.9 mg/L) high enough to cause issues? Has anyone used any siliphos or polyphosphate treatments? Are they safe? Do they work? One other thing: I have noticed that I have some etching/pitting on the glass shower door chrome hinge and chrome screws....Not sure what would cause that....and I did have that before I tried the blending screw.... As I said previously, I've been trying to get to the bottom of this spotting issue. Up to this point, I have been merely wiping down the chrome fixtures after each shower. But, that doesn't fix the problem..........that's the same thing as just adding oil to car that's losing a quart a day. Plus, I can see where spots are starting to accumulate on the tile walls of the tub....and on the sink bowls....and bathtub.... So......fast forward to the past few months: In order to try to figure out what exactly the spots are made of, I took the lid from one of my wife's stock pots (I think it is aluminium?) and filled the lid with water.....about an 1/8" inch or so. Then i put the lid on top of my wood pellet stove. The heat caused the water to evaporate leaving only the white residue (and some wood pellet dust). I attached pictures of the lid for all to see. I did this for a few days and then I took the lid to the local lab and had him test it. Here are the results of the tests on the residue on the lid: Copper: 3.16 mg/L Iron: 10.29 mg/L Manganese: .96 mg/L Hardness: 64 mg/L Sodium: >1265 mg/L Just for reference, here are my water specs (from my original post): Here is my raw water analysis: Hardness - 21 GPG (grains per gallon) Iron - 0.05 mg/l (ferrous) Manganese - ND (not detected) pH - 7.3 standard units TDS (total dissolved solids) - 472 ppm My treated water analysis : Copper - none detected Iron - none detected Manganese - none detected Chloride - 11.9 mg/L Hardness- none detected Sodium - 110.7 mg/L Nitrate as N - none detected Nitrite as N - none detected Color - 0 Odor - 0 PH - 7.8 Turbidity - 0.3 NTU Sulfate - 40.5 mg/L TDS - 364 ppm Silica: 15.9 mg/L My existing water treatment setup: 1. Big Blue sediment cartridge filter 2. Autotrol 255/762 48K water softener (installed in 2006) 3. Big Blue RFC cartridge filter I confirmed that the treated water is at 0 gpg hardness at all fixtures using a Hach 5B Hardness Test Kit. On the stock pot lid, there is a bare spot. I was able remove some of the spotting build-up with CLR. BUT..............and here is the big BUT............the CLR will NOT clean the sink stoppers that have the spotting on them. The only thing that cleans them is my Never Dull chrome cleaner. NOTE: I was also able to clean additional sections of the stock pot lid with water, vinegar, and Clorox cleaner... I attached pictures of the sink stoppers also showing the spotting accumulation. I had nothing to do with the clean spot in the center of the stoppers....i think it's because the stoppers are slightly rounded, no water sits there, so no spotting accumulates. I also attached pictures of the chrome cover piece for the bathtub overflow. There is some slight spotting there. I usually wipe it down after each shower/bath....but some spots have still accumulated. CLR or vinegar will not remove them.....only the Never Dull chrome cleaner. So, in summary, I'm still at a loss. Thank you in advance for helping. mm