greentoe, 1) watering frequency... al has said over and over on this forum that he waters according to his plants' needs, and that this is often around every three days. ray barkalow recommends watering once a week, or at a minimum every 14 days, even if a particular plant still has water in its reservoir. this means watering one half to one quarter as often. if you are seeing information from ray that conflicts with this, please post some links, because this is what i remember from reading his websites and orchid forum posts years ago. 2) dan's watering frequency... the critical thing in semi-hydro is keeping a nutrient water source in the bottom of the grow pot. the media needs to stay damp. however, this level needs to be relatively low in the pot so that there is still plenty of 'airy' media above the water for the plant to grow its roots. this water level should be about a fifth the height of the grow pot. it is NOT ok to add water above this line to try to reduce your watering frequency... but it IS ok to add a wider water tray for the grow pot to sit in. the larger tray can hold a larger volume of water, and so you can reduce your watering frequency. just be sure to only ever have a water level height at the proper place. in my case, i set my plants in saucers that are only a tad bigger than the grow pot. these saucers will hold enough water for about a week and a half or so. but, when i travel, i move the plant, in its grow pot, to partly covered trays that hold a much larger volume of water. 6" pots go into those disposable salad boxes with a hole cut in the top to accommodate the pot. and the large pots 10+" go into 12" by 18" plastic trays i found in the organizer section of a big box store. i loosely cover the top with painter's plastic to cut down on evaporation. then i fill them with water/nutrients to the same 1" for small plants or 2" for large plants as i usually do with the smaller trays. with this set up, my plants can easily go 3 to 4+ weeks before they need watering again. the reason i don't leave my plants like this all the time is that ray, and many other semi-hydro folks, including companies who manufacture the media, believe that most plants are healthier with a water level that rises and falls more frequently... such as every week or two. the idea is that a falling water level will pull oxygen into the root zone. a few of my plants, such as some Homalomena "Emerald Gem"s, could care less, but a few of my variegated Aglaonemas lost some of their good looks during a 1 to 2 year period when i was away from the house a lot, and they remained in the 'vacation' trays most of the time. none of them died or anything... but their leaf color was faded looking. they bounced back when moved back into their normal trays. 3) evaporation... remember that most of what ray has written concerns his method for growing orchids in a humid greenhouse. in a dry, indoor home, surface evaporation will be much greater. however, as mentioned earlier, the media surface will dry and act as a kind of mulch of sorts. i, like petrushka, have begun to add a 1/2" or so layer of gravel to the surface of the hydroton. it sounds like my gravel may be a bit larger than hers, but it will work the same. the kind i use is sold as a decorative polished gravel and the pieces are about the size of the hydroton. now, in my case, i'm not doing this to reduce watering frequency (and it won't change it much, if it all). i'm doing it because i think it looks nicer... and most importantly, to help reduce salt accumulation in the media. salt deposits at sites of evaporation, and reducing evaporation will therefore reduce salt deposition. even with this, i still flush all my pots in the shower, or outdoors, every 3 months at least. 4) watering volume... if you read and follow rays watering instructions, you will burn through a LOT of water. his watering instructions are to fill the grow cups (that have two small holes about an inch up from the bottom) to the top with a running stream of nutrient water, and then let the excess drain out through the holes. his plants are beautiful and he has been doing this for years. so his method works. however, to me, this seems like such a waste of water. also, if you search for forum posts where ray talks about his own indoor houseplants, he doesn't water the same way. he merely waters until he has a little flow out of the overflow holes... and then every month or two, he takes the pots to the sink and gives them a good flush with water to prevent salt accumulation. he said that this seems good enough for most house plants. he believes that they aren't as salt sensitive as some orchids. also, houseplants are growing and respiring at a much lower rate than actively growing plants in a much higher light greenhouse. 5) as for 'water roots' versus 'air roots' and such... the short answer is that as dan and petrushka mentioned above, roots will grow down into the water. what you don't want to do is drown the "air roots" by raising the water level too high. they're not used to this. also, for most of my plants (primarily aglaonemas), their soil roots survived the move to S/H just fine. very, very few roots died during the transition. most of the time i don't even tent the plants (though i did water the media more frequently to keep it a bit damper than normal. thinner leaved plants would likely appreciate a little extra humidity though. 6) how i water... first, i never let my plants go dry. if i see a tray that's empty or very low, i usually water all of the plants so that i can forget all of them until next time to water. i don't walk around every two or three days checking on how 'everyone' is doing. when i water, i dump out any remaining nutrient water in the water tray, and then re-fill to the proper water level with fresh solution. never, ever just "top up" your remaining water to the proper level because salts will accumulate. and, as i said, flush with plain water from time to time as well. oh, and i place a piece of blue tape with the level marked on the outside of the drip tray in case anyone else ever needs to water my plants for me. if someone else is watering, this is the only time i 'top up'. i just tell them to water until the water is up to the line. easy, peasy. even a 5th grader can water my plants now. for feeding and watering my plants, i add 1 tsp of Dyna Grow Foliage Pro 9-3-6 to 1 gallon of water. i just use tap water, which here in portland or, is pretty decent tap water. i don't adjust pH or anything. our water is very soft, and a bit on the acidic side. folks who live in areas with hard water will likely accumulate minerals on their ceramic media faster. you might want to try to water with rain water or distilled water instead. you also might be fine as long as you're even more careful about flushing. well, and a gravel top dress might help as well. do NOT use softened water on your s/h plants. i hope some of this helps. i really like this method of growing houseplants. it takes the guess work out of watering... cheers, nancy

Guilty to all of the above and many more. Have been known to take a couple of seed pods from plants I've seen in shopping center medians or the parks. I just figured I had RESCUED a few seeds that needed to be transplanted somewhere else. (Like my place) LOL I have even dug tulips up that were in a bar ditch. They are the ones that multiply like crazy and come back year after year. There use to be an old farm house there and now it's just an empty pasture and the tulips take up about 5 acres. Of course when the maintainers (big heavy road equipmnet) come in and grade the road several times a year they throw a ton of dirt on them. They are at least a ft deep in dirt on the side of the road now. I really should go dig some again next spring so I can have some at this house. LOL I've also called real estate people and ask if I can harvest seeds from houses I see for sale or rent that might have a flower or something I'm interested in. LOL Yelp, we're all addicts but I'd rather be a flower/garden/plant addict than any other kind. However when your not working and can't even afford to send postage to others for plant swaps it's not good. You suffer from empty mailbox syndrome. Happy Gardening all you Addicts and Enablers! Love Marian

OK, I'm on the other computer, I haven't updated the spreadsheet in a year so not all the finishing costs are here, but basically construction costs were (rounded up): $225K house plus garage plus porch (less Trex, screws, window, and rear door we bought at HD) $120K site work and subcontractors (electrician, plumber, incl HVAC system install and equipment) - cost overrun on well $8K garage doors, basement door and window, porch materials, basement insulation (DIY) $13K professionals(engineer, soil scientist, surveyor lawyer) and permits Total cost of construction (structural, electrical, HVAC) $366K for 2700sf Colonial with 7x48 front porch and oversized 2-car garage. So maybe $400K for a similar-sized Cape (with heating system, finished flooring, crown molding, painted walls etc.) isn't really bad, assuming builder pulls all permits, pays the engineer, surveyor, and all the trades? I'm assuming you'll have a garage, but the front porch cost us about $12K labor and materials. I'm shocked we spent that much, I was really thinking it was less than that, but I forgot about garage doors and such, and wasn't thinking professionals were that much so I was off by a good $12K last night. Finish work (tile, carpet, HW floors, painting, island countertop, lighting, mirrors, etc. plus landscaping, stone for driveway) - this really needs to be updated since I have bought/spent more in past year but at least $25K to date, probably more like $30K and we still need to finish master bath and build deck/steps out back door. I was off here too last night - had no idea we'd spent that much already. Unless you really love the land, it seems like (esp. true in this market) you'd get more house for the $ buying existing.

Do you know what type of stain (if any) is on your deck right now? What condition are boards in? Are they badly splintering? Usually you can clean the deck using a deck cleaner. Many here have used the RAD stuff www.restore-a-deck.com with great success. The website has a lot of good info on how to do that. After you clean then you can apply a new semi-transparent oil based stain. Faron on this site has some guidelines on sanding, but I would only venture down that road if your board surfaces are in bad shape or you are trying to remove some stubborn stain. Do a search and I'm sure you can find his instruction. Good luck. Riles