Claire has given you good advice about the pot size. A 6" pot is probably way too big for a root-challenged phal. A 6" pot is the size for a big, honking, healthy phal, not one with problems. You should rethink your decision, since you love the plant. The slots on the side are desirable, but they won't help the plant if the pot's too big. What happens with a pot that's too big is that the volume of the medium increases at a much bigger rate than the holes for aeration. ie there's too much medium per hole, so the mix stays soggy. It especially stays soggy in the middle of the pot, and root rotting begins. Your questions: the one on the left in the small pot looks like it has doritis in it-- the shape of the flowers. The one on the right, your favorite, looks to me like it has equestris in it-- the reflexed sepal is common in equestris hybrids. Multifloras often have quite a bit of equestris. Use google photo search and google up doritis and equestris and study the shape of the flowers. That will give you a clue what some of the ancestry might be. "When will it grow new leaves"? When it has established itself and roots are growing healthily, it will put out a new leaf. A new leaf is often a sign the plant is recovering. Your light situation-- I would increase the light to 16 hours/day. Good luck.

alliekj -- thanks for the kind words. Funny because we live in a 1969 ranch, so midcentury mod would work perfect in our house, but we like the craftsman/cottage look, just with a little modern update. Anyway, our Ikea cabinets came out to be about $2200-$2500. the original price was $2200, but I made some changes and broke a couple of cabinets during assembly so I think I wound up spending about $2500. This was my fault not the cabinets and so far we are impressed with their quality especially for the price. What can easily add to the price is the time spent revisiting IKEA if you make changes or need parts. We were lucky that an IKEA opened in Portland right when we started our project. Actually we waited for it to open instead of driving to Seattle, but I made about 10 trips back to store. Again, this was mainly due to me making changes in the design and needing a couple replacement cabinets, however since you mentioned you don't live near an IKEA this is something to keep in mind. I would spend a lot of time in the planning process and scrutinizing your plan to make sure it is how you want it. If you haven't done so, check out www.ikeafans.com. There are a ton of kitchen ideas and modifications that can be made to their cabinets to make them more custom if your plan requires that. Assembling the cabinets is relatively easy, even though I messed up a couple of them. If you do get the IKEA cabinets, make sure and pick up a handful of spare screws, bolts, and dowels -- which are all free at the store -- before you leave just in case some are missing or get lost. Also, make sure the sales clerkk includes the drawer dampers in your order. They do cost $6 per drawer but are so worth it and a major highlight of the IKEA cabinets. My clerk didn't put them in the order and it caused another return trip to the store to pick them up. And, if you haven't been to an IKEA before there is almost no way to simply run in, get something, and get out. It always takes forever, and I know our local store like its my house by now. One thing I've noticed about anyone with IKEA cabinets is that everyone I've heard from who has them loves them, even people who were originally skeptical are impressed once they're installed. My contractor, who's also an engineer, who installed them had a crush on them. He couldn't stop talking about how simple and well made they are especially for the price. And, everyone who's been over to see our kitchen can't believe they're from IKEA. Feel free to ask any more questions, good luck in your project.

angelina 101, that isn't odd, it's the sweetest compliment you could have possibly given, thank you! And thank you too cresent, vanisleevt, and budge1! I agree about looking around for a local carpenter/wood craftsman and seeing if they can do it for you. No doubt, walnut will cost more than American cherry, but not THAT much more. The finish on the counters is pure tung oil cut 50/50 with citrus solvent. Took several coats the first time around, but has held up beautifully and only needed refreshing once. I took a chance with these, for $1000, I figured I could tear them out and make furniture in a couple of years if they weren't functional. But they're fantastic. Hard as nails, stand up to anything, only get better with use. The color of the cabinets is from FPE's "Selekt" fandex, #7430. The walls are F&B White Tie...close, but not the same.

while i don't think you should go into debt etc i do hope you don't give up your dream for a new kitchen. if you need to move things around, pay to have that done and get your cabs in. set up a temp/mini kitchen somewhere - microwave, toaster oven. meals won't be what dh is used to til done - and that's ok. he will live.lol! I found -back when I was married - and sister says her dh is the same - that men don't like an idea coming from dw - but it's a fine idea when THEY come up with it. often (I found and so does she) that a few wks or so later he suddenly has this GREAT idea - exactly what I/she already brought up! lol! men... if you have to go with laminate for a few yrs - they have some awesome laminate now. I don't want granite /tile because I drop stuff so much (daily) and the tile also because of my feet/legs/back. and there's the habitat restore. I'm even gonna go there next fall and look myself - just in case they have something I can use. I know what I want my cabs to look like and if they have them - great! while your kitchen is torn up for 'rearranging' and cabs - do the ceiling and whatever else you can get done. I'm not really doing enough i think to hire a gc (tho dbf would be that anyway - as he has done that most of his life) but I do have an electrician I can call (dbff's brother) and plumber (the sub on my sister's house does work on the side). other than that dbf and i (not much help from me tho) will do it with the help of his son (I think) and one of his workmen (maybe). I'm thinking of hiring my neighbor boy (18) to clean it up and paint for me. if he can lay a laminate wood floor, i might pay him to do that... but depending on what all needs done, maybe you can sub it out? I do think bids from other subs is a good idea. surely another 1 or 2 around there also have a good reputation and you just haven't heard about them - yet. btw - did you say that engine cost 52K?