I've been doing a LOT of research about this - I've been having some awful symptoms for the past 2 years (since turning 40) -- some of which are typical menopause related stuff and some are not, but I suspect all are related to hormonal decline. I've been getting bloodwork and basically, my estrogen and thyroid are both circling the drain --- my last bloodwork showed the estrogen level of a 60 year old (I'm 42! WTH!) I am pursuing bioidentical hormone replacement via cream. I don't have it all figured out yet (I get the feeling that there's a lot of experimenting on yourself til you find the right combo) but from the reading I did, I am pretty confident that this is what I need. Those of you saying you can't take HRT because of pre-existing tendency to blood clots or migraines or whatever might want to investigate the bioidentical stuff via transdermal cream. Blood clots are only an issue when estrogen is taken orally and passes through the liver -- if you are delivering it via skin or patch, there is no increased risk of blood clots (and in fact, your risk of other heart issues goes way down). Migraines are also one of the things that estrogen can help. And even the connection between estrogen and breast cancer is not as cut and dried as I thought -- I feel safe taking the bioidentical estrogen. I have read probably 20 books on the subject of menopause and HRT and the one I found most clear ad helpful is called Screaming to Be Heard by Elizabeth Vliet. I would recommend reading it - it pretty much debunks a lot of the things that I had heard about HRT including the results of that women's health study that caused everyone to abandon HRT -- did you know that whole study was done with synthetic hormones, not bioidentical? And that none of the horrible side effects found in that study have been found in studies that use bioidentical hormones? They are all related to the synthetic stuff like norethidrone and premarin. Because the pharmaceutical companies can't patent a naturally occuring substance and therefore can't make big bucks of bioidentical, there have been few efforts to educate doctors or do controlled studies on bioidentical hormones, but the studies that have been done show amazing benefits without the scary side effects. (Of course, the pharma companies don't want you to know that, because they want you to keep taking your premarin....)

Yes, I was concerned about grime too. Like you, I wanted a hood that "rested lightly" in my kitchen, so I wanted it to match the cabinets. So I took a chance that it would stay good looking even after being lived in, and so far I'm very happy. I'm not the most enthusiastic housekeeper, so I try to clean as I go, and I think that using the ventilation blower really helps. I have a Vent-a-hood BH228SLD liner in a custom cabinetry hood. The liner is 28.375" wide by 19.25" deep, and the decorative hood adds about one inch all around. The hood is flanked by 12" deep upper cabinets. The blower is vented with an 8" round duct straight up and out the roof. I'm happy with the Vent-a-hood, but I should disclose that I didn't do much research on brand since the Vent-a-hood was what was offered by the cabinet company. My advice is whatever hood you chose, make sure to use it. The blower motor draws air at up to 600 cfm. I know there are those who post here and in the Appliances Forum who can give better advice that I can about this sort of thing. I relied on an article about choosing a range hood to select the cfm rating based on the potential btu output of my range. The decorative hood and cabs were made by Crestwood, Inc. in Salina, KS. They're an off-white color called Antique by Crestwood. I found it closely matches BM Cream Silk. We have a freestanding GE gas range, 5 burner, standard 30" width, 27" depth. Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: How to Choose a Range Hood

Tracy, I still weigh them on a digital scale and keep a log if I really want to be on top of it. But when they are left for more than a week, I'll just drench the mix and at the instance I would definitely hear the sizzling sound, which is a big indication for me that the mix is definitely dry/part dry. I usually watering until I stop hearing the sizzle. I did notice though, that some pots dry much faster than others, knowing that the plants take in more water. ie my Gollum Jade, it shows the deflation pretty easily when I neglect on my watering. I'm with k8 as well on dunking if you want to ensure the mix is completely hydrated. Sometimes I can still hear the sizzle after my 4th time watering the mix. - Bernard

One of the best things we did was find an architect early on who understoord our budget and understood that we were doing almost everything ourselves. His design was smaller and more efficient that what we had sketched out on our own - he showed us where we could make compromises to get down to our budget, we still got everything we needed, and we LOVE the house. I'm sure not every architect would have been this way, but it's worth interviewing some (interviews/initial meetings are free) to get some ideas and see if you can find someone who can think about how to simplify and what can be done to make the building process more efficient. In our case, or architect defintily saved us money and we got a nicer house. You want to be really upfront about budget here (and maybe give a number a bit lower than your actual max), beacuse it's easy to have your eyes get bigger than your wallet. We were acting as GC as well as doing the carpentry and a lot of the other work ourselves (but we contracted out things like plumbing/heat, electric, roof, insulation, excavation, etc.). All during the design process and initial planning, we kept a spreadsheet of known costs. We broke down all the parts of the house (foundation, roof, doors, windows, plumbing, tile - everything down to the $100 medicine cabinet) and plugged in the best cost info we had. We used the homewyse online estimators for services and home depot online pricing for products at first, then plugged in actual estimates from contractors as we got them, then finally the actual costs when they occured. This allowed us to keep a really good eye on the budget, and understand when something had gone over and we needed to cut something in the future, or up the total budget. We had enough cash saved to not take out a loan, and I think that actually saved us a lot of money. Because we weren't having to draw down from a loan, we could pay the sub-contractors right away (I am postitive we got better service/prioritization because of that), and we were also able to put off some finishing details that a bank would have required be finished on a certain timeline. I know a family member who still has wall to wall carpet in their house, because the bank required it 20 years ago. They hate it, but that's what was required, and once it's in, it feels like too much work to change. Someone else told us they rushed all their detailed finish work (trim, stair railing, etc.) because the bank needed it done in x amount of days - it didn't come out very nice, but it was done on time. For us, the only penalty of taking longer was having to pay another month of rent - so that was a huge freedom. It was also really nice to be able to make all the decisions ourselves, rather than checking with the bank to see if they would allow things - just one less stressful thing in a very stressful project.