Hi, I live in a house with between 80 and 100 plants at any given time. I also have two cats who are six and seven years old. Even though quite a few of my plants are poisonous there has never been a problem. They pretty much leave everything alone. Sure I will find bite marks in the Christmas cactus, monstera, oxalis and the few others. They have never got sick from it. The only plants that I have a problem with is anything that looks like grass. They will not leave my palms and spider plants alone. Those plants I have to put up out of there their reach or they will devour them. I would suggest that you watch your kitties closely and see if they leave the plants alone. Unless they are devouring it like it was salad, I wouldn't worry about it. A few teeth marks here and there is not a problem. As pirate girl said, lots of us have cats and plants in the same house. We would do nothing that would harm our cats. I hope this helps, Larry

I like the stand alone dehumidifers better than ones incorprated in to hvac system. When you place the dehumidiferes in the conditioned space they sense the RH in that space, many central dehumidifiers sense the RH in the area they are located in and do not dehumidify the conditioned space as well. Where are you located? Where are central units located? Have you talked to hvac company about adjusting dip switch settings? Many times they are installed with factory settings and need to be adjusted for your climate. ERV's are usually not for cold climates..that would be an HRV, so I wonder about your location. Also ERV's are for 'tight' houses..with less than .25 air changes per hour. If your house is not at this level of air tightness the ERV can bring in moisture adding to the dehumidification load of hvac. Was the house tested for air tightness with a blower door? To 'see' what is happening behind the walls and between floors of your home would require a thermal scan of your home. This will show you moisture intrustion sites and moisture in walls, ceilings and floors. IMO this will be the way to go to actually KNOW what is happening. Then whatever the IR scan shows will be on you to address. Around here (Louisiana) thermal scan (InfraRed) scans are used often when home owners and builders are seeking solutions. I've even seen them used in court cases. But hopefully...it won't come to that! best of luck.

One of the principles guiding the design is to minimize floor/foundation space - I've got TOO much space up on the 2nd if I use the space above the garage. Scratch that, both of my master suites are actually larger than I think is optimum but if I make them smaller, the left over space can't really be consolidated into a central additional room and even if it could, I don't really have a need for another room. There is something odd about my personality - I just can't stand the thought of wasting cheap 2nd floor space when it comes to the 1st versus 2nd floor layout process. Putting more space on the main floor will involve foundation and roof expenses. When I pay for foundation and roof, I want to squeeze 2 floors out of that investment which means that it irks me to only get 1 floor for that roof and foundation. Now what makes this quirk particularly funny is that my roofing is going to be high pitch and metal, which means very expensive, but for some reason the idea of spending money there doesn't bother me. Your idea of first floor flex space with nothing above it or below it, just slab and simple roof, would probably cost me less money than doing what I'm doing which is trying to squeeze maximum use out of space. All I really want on the 2nd are two bedrooms and 2 full baths. I've actually solved the layout problem by rejigging the roof lines- very steep pitches and gables allow me to treat the spacious attic as a complete 2nd floor, almost, while still maintaining the look of a 1.5 story, and because of the high pitches, I'll actually have attic space above the 2nd. My 1st floor is 1,100 sf and my 2nd floor is about 1,000 sf. The 2nd consists of the open stairway, hallways, elevator, 2 masters, 2 master baths, and 2 walk in closets. All pretty spacious and there are some interesting ceiling lines where the roof intersects into the living space. My latest conundrum is whether I should do something with the 600+ sf above the garage. I've laid out the 2nd floor so that a hallway leads to that space, rather than simply incorporating the hallway space into a room, and this is my concession to a.) keeping my options open and b.) thinking about some future buyer - it would be easy to fit 2 more bedrooms into that space with only some modest renovations. The thing is though I really don't know what to do with that space right now. I'm giving serious thought to walling it off but then, as per above, I'm peeved that the garage space is not being used to its highest potential. Oh, the problems of being ME! Not using that space bugs me but I don't know that I need that space so building more livable space than I need or want bugs me too. I don't know which is the lesser evil.

I agree mikerno_1micha ! Plus that info you gave on the dried root makes sense !! As something like that happened with my last mini orchid , the roots dried out wet spagh and my heater on high aniliated there roots, it did not rot them they were green and shriveled and I pondered why the uptake of water was slow bout time I tried to recover with soaking it was too late crown rot settled in, but your explaination make sense! Its own Dry covering was suffocating the desicated root. Its interesting the problem is orchid roots are long and wirey and keeping consistant moisture to them is key. Thats what the velamin does naturally supplying warmth moisture and nutrition 24/7 as long as we give them drenching. And as far as the manure I know this is true, orchid are heavy eaters not through the fertilizers we give them which causes complications, though it works but through the more organic matter as they would get lieing on a tree, or rock and water way, debree , old leaves, manure from passing animals, dead insects, fish bone meal etc . I learned this when a fruit fly landed on a dendrobium seedling I had growing in water culture and died ,the seedling had a growth spurt and was gleaning like thanks for the protein ! I kid you not And all evidence of fruitfly was gone I never looked at that orchid the same way again. Aparently they get hardy diets in the wild feeding off many things gaining nutrients to survive.