Let the soil dry out completely should be your first step. Next, how often, and what are you feeding it? How often do you water? Is that where the plant is always located? Spots are fusarium or some other fungal disease. I'd have to look it up, but I will need more info first. You don't have black rings. That is a good thing.

After hearing so many of your suggestions, I now know that my concerns about the dreaded wall in my living room were legitimate. I really appreciate all the comments, ideas and helpful suggestions. This site is like having your own private staff of decorators at your disposal. Parma is right, the space was supposed to be for a fireplace, but we decided that we wanted the fireplace in the family room in the basement. Couldn't afford both. Probably was a mistake. I read your suggestions and looked again at my pictures and could see exactly what each of you meant. Things I had never noticed before. 1. The backs of the shelves do need color to make the display pop. Right now everything just fades into the background. 2. There's no cohesiveness to what's on the shelves and there is way too many things. 3. I have already taken down the two small prints on the sides of the mirror. What was I thinking? 4. The jobots are too long. I had never noticed that. Do they need to go to bottom of the window trim? 5. The mirror does not do justice to the space. It may be too small, wrong shape, something's not right. First of all, I really want the upper ledge gone. The problem is talking my DH into letting me find someone to close it in. I love the idea of finishing out the shelves as a bookcase. I think that would look wonderful. Do you think old books would look better in the space rather than newer books? I am a book collector and have many shelves full of novels in various areas of the house. Les917: I really like your idea of the Sunburst Pediment and would like to find a way to incorporate it into the redesign of the space. Any other suggestions or pics would still be appreciated because this project will take place slowly in the spring. Thanks so much in advance.

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You may still be able to save the cactus you showed us in the picture. It will be a rather drastic, last ditch attempt but, I don't see what you would have to lose at this point. Rot such as that would probably spread to the rest of the plant. It appears to be "gouged out" and has most likely reached the middle part. With a very sharp..very clean knife I would slice the top part of the cactus off making sure to cut so there isn't a trace of the rot on it. Make it a quick, clean cut. Do not use a sawing motion. Place the good piece that you just cut on it's side on top of some stones, perlite, anything that is clean and dry. Place in a shaded area. No direct sun! You can even place the cutting upright in a small cup..the needles should keep the cactus from falling into the cup. I would wait at least 6-8 weeks before I try planting it. When you do plant it..use a c&s mix and also add more of a gritty element such as: coarse sand, decomposed granite, pumice, crushed lava rock or perlite if that's all you have. Most of us here when we have to buy C&S soil...we always always add more grit elements to our soil. Cactus and succulents love water they just hate sitting in it waiting for days on end for the container to dry out. Within 3 days, my containers are dry. within 6 days my containers are like sand, bone-dry and I still don't water yet. Another week then I would water depending on the plant. When I do water, this is what I do: I water thoroughly. I water slowly until the soil is saturated into the pot. The water starts to drain. I let it drain out..and then, I water it again the same way. Why do I water twice back to back? Because sometimes the water does not penetrate all the way through to the middle of the soil where the roots of the plant are. Water can sometimes just seep into the sides of the pot, never reaching the center. My watering technique removes any doubt of that happening. I have known some people to get a large bucket or basin and submerge the entire container, remove and let drain. It's up to you and what would work best for you and your plants. Before you go ahead with any of this ..keep your cactus dry. Leaving it out of the pot for a few days would not be detrimental to it at this point. Check back here at the forum. Other members will read what I told you and they may have better advice for you. Then, you can make your decision. The well-being of the plant will always come first to us. When I had to do this in the past, I got lucky. Where I cut the top part...6-8 months later, I got a bunch of new cactus growing as offshoots. Hang in there and the best of luck.