Hi alieliza, Your plant and spike look very healthy, but six months is a very long time for an autumn spike to stay at that stage. Even with winter sun and cold nights (60-64 degrees) my "windowsill" phals begin to open in less than 4 months. This is a guess, so please consider it with a grain of salt. I think that I remember your post spiking phals earlier--they were either yours, or those of someone who clamps in the same way. The clamping is what made me notice them. When clamping a spike to a stake, I carefully avoid touching the leading several inches that carry the flower bud beginnings. In fact, I place the clip Below the top-most bract (that flat, green scale-like thing below the buds). My theory is that the spike tip might stall, or grow wrong,if it "thinks" it is pinned down or blocked. If you care to test the theory :) you could reclamp the spike Below (but not touching) the upper bract, and Very Gently remove the clamp that is presently holding the top of your spike. It might take the spike a week to figure things out, but releasing the tip might give it the jumpstart it needs. I hope it goes well. Sweetcicely

Instead of having a small separate dining area in its own nook, have it continuous with the living area - no pinch points. That way if you have guests you can turn the table or extend the table into the living area - flexible space. In some of your plans you'll never sit more than six comfortably. Our dining room is 10'x11' and it seats eight with the table turned on the diagonal. We have to squeeze in eleven or twelve for Thanksgiving dinner. There's a nice big breakfast area in the kitchen, but there's a pinch point -can't join the spaces at all. And the LR is in an L-shape to the DR - but the LR is up three steps - arrgh! No flexibility! Which is what you NEED in a small space. You don't want this order of connection DR-K-LR but K-DR-LR. You could save a lot of space by having a much smaller, more efficient U-shaped kitchen. Save a lot on cabinetry and counters too. How many people will work in it at once? I'm the primary cook in my house; 8x11 workspace is plenty big enough for me. Your kitchen corridor eats a lot of space and those islands are really bulky - how about just having people sit at the table to socialize? I'd put the kitchen in one of those dining nooks in the plans and give myself a view while I worked. Your wanting a one-level house, and maybe having your parents live with you, maybe adopting or fostering children, makes me think you ought to consider an accessible bathroom. All your bathrooms look big enough if the layout is right. Look at roll-in showers. At least put in the blocking in the walls for handrails before the drywall/tile goes up. You and I have a lot in common with what we want in a house. Same size, passive solar, low energy use, healthy living conditions - I even want to move back to Western NC which is where my family is from. I just started sketching my plans - a two story, 40'x22' rectangular layout - the minimum number of expensive corners. I'm thinking of it in modular terms - on the west side, a 14x22 great room with dining area. In the 12x22 center module, foyer, stairs, and kitchen. On the east side, 14x14 study or ground floor bedroom, with an 8x14 area behind for accessible bath and laundry. Double pocket doors between great room and foyer and foyer and study - more flex space. Maybe have panels to close off the kitchen for more formal dining. Maybe a masonry heater in the GR? I know the interior walls will shorten the spaces - and maybe I can shave a couple feet off the edges. I've read though that you should build in 2' increments - eliminate some waste. Upstairs, master bedroom and bath over the study. Two more bedrooms over the great room. Window seat, gallery, bath in center module. Walls line up; the plumbing lines up. Strong enough joists and steep enough roof that I can finish a couple rooms in the attic if need or desire arises. So a really boring rectangular layout. Small by today's standards. I figure beauty will have to come from harmony of proportion, materials, colors. No mean, stingy narrow trim, doors or hallways. Actually there isn't much at all in the way of hallways. The foyer is a SPACE, not a passageway, same for upstairs landing.

Bob-- the window isn't perfectly plumb vertically speaking: If I measure the width a few inches from the top, it's one figure; if I measure it closer to the bottom, it's off by a small amount, a fraction (can't recall exactly, it's been awhile since I measured it), so I would see slightly more light peeking through the sides at the bottom third. I realized the problem when I went to install a roller shade. I had measured for it about a third up from the bottom, and when I went to install it, it was too tight to fit at the top. Went to Next Day Blinds today--the $400 price for 2 windows was kind of jarring, so I'll do a few more price checks elsewhere and online (tho as I've said, that self-install can only get me in trouble--just not good at that stuff!).

Hmmmm, I'm going to look up the link to skylight covers in a sec. Interesting. But if Steph is thinking of making her own, it isn't that difficult, you know. The Home Depot sells 100 foot rolls of what is called SHADE CLOTH. I bought a roll of it intending to make roman shades from it, but DH opted to have plantation shutters installed here in Alabama like the ones I persuaded him to install up in Massachusetts. He really likes them. Now, I will probably use the shade cloth to make a cover outdoors for my shade loving hosta that I've gone nuts over. I have two roll up shades made of it on the totally Lexan walled sun porch, and it truly cuts the heat down, plus like Shelayne says you can see through it looking out. You don't want to put a shade on the INSIDE of your skylights Steph, because in AZ what you have is radiant heat, which will come in regardless of you stopping the LIGHT, if you don't stop it on the outside to keep the glass from heating up and transmitting/radiating the heat inward. If those purchased skylight covers can be bungeed into place, then you can see about making them yourself....or maybe ask your SISTER to sew them up for you? Are you handy with the sewing machine? Didn't we just chat about that sitting unused in most of our homes? Well, think about running a few flat hems easy as making a towel, threading the bungee through the hem, and get some young buck of an Arizona cowboy to climb up there on your roof and install it for you. Isn't your neighbor's boy big enough to help you do that? Think about it, Steph. You get the shade, and still have the light. It will make a difference.