What you wish you knew...
Lin barkingdogwoods
4 years ago
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Anyone willing to help me choose my first orchid ?
Comments (7)Welcome! Your first orchid! And you live in a terrific part of the country for growing orchids. You're asking the right questions, and Cody's suggestions are good. If you go to that nursery, or somewhere else, tell them the aspects of your "environment" - light and rainfall, and that you're getting your first orchid. They'll be able to recommend several types of orchids that will be suitable for your place. One question for you is the "dappled shade." What % full sunlight would you estimate will get to your orchid? (It may vary by morning, noon, and afternoon.) That will be important for the nursery staff when making suggestions for an orchid. Once you decide on an orchid... or two, :) staff will know options for the type pot and potting medium. Be sure and tell them your orchid will hang in a tree so they'll include a pot hanger, or you can make your own. Just look in an orchid supply catalog to see what they look like. (See link below.) You'll also need a fertilizer suitable for orchids and a schedule for fertilizing. Be sure and ask what strength the fertilizer mixture should be, if it's different from directions on the label. Ask how dry the potting medium should be before you water and how to tell when the medium is that dry. That last one may sound strange, but it's critical for the health of your orchid. You're in luck, being a "forgetter," aka "underwaterer." Water - if your water is softened, the salt will kill your orchid. You'll need to buy distilled water or filtered water that grocery stores here sell by the gallon from a stand with a spigot. Watering - water at the top of the potting medium until water runs out the bottom of the pot, then for 1-2 seconds longer. Another factor - because fertilizer salts build up in potting media, they need to get "flushed out" or "leached" periodically. Leaching means running regular water through the pot like you're watering it three times. If your plant's in bark (actually, a mixture of bark and other ingredients), the rule of thumb is to leach every 4th watering, with the 1st watering tap water, the 2nd fertilizer water, and the 3rd tap water. If it's in sphagnum moss, it's every 3rd watering: 1st watering is plain water, 2nd is fertilizer water, 3rd is leaching. The nursery staff will also know about pests in trees and hopefully effective prevention. You can ask all these questions here, too. However, people who live in other parts of the country - such as myself - will have limited experience with your environment. An orchid friend moved from Minneapolis to Florida and needed to change a lot of what she'd been doing in Minnesota. Caveat - there may be other factors to consider. Hopefully, others will chime in. Whitecat8 Here is a link that might be useful: Kelley's Korner Orchid Supplies...See MoreThings you wish you knew BEFORE you built....
Comments (20)We have lived in the John Tee "Abberley Lane" for nine years. Here are a few things to consider: 1) Upstairs bedrooms have small closets. 2) There is very little storage in the plan unless you utilize some from the bonus square footage. Note that the pantry in the kitchen is small. Note the lack of coat closets. Ask yourself where you will store Christmas decorations, cleaning supplies, winter coats and the vacuum. 3) The kitchen island is narrow and long. The placement of the sink and the cooktop opposite of each other on one side creates what is essentially a galley kitchen. Two people CANNOT work on that side of the island...not enough room. And please do not try to pass me on that side of the island while I am cooking and you are trying to get to the back stairs!! The kitchen needs to be wider. 4) The family room is not huge. The dining room is not huge. Use a tape measure to lay out the room measurements and allow for walkways, etc. We find that when we have our dining table fully extended it leaves barely enough room for chairs at the ends. 5) The linen closet in the upstairs hallway in not enough storage for a house this size. There were some modifications to the plan before it was built. A laundry room was carved out of the bonus area, as well as another bedroom and bath. The room over the garage is a large office/TV room for my husband. (man cave). The 2nd downstairs bed and bath was removed. The entrance to the master bedroom was moved next to the backstairs. The family room is not two stories tall. We have a playroom above it. Although this a a very popular floor plan I can't say I have enjoyed living in it. The kitchen noise(running water, dishwasher unloading, cooking) is very annoying when you re in the family room trying to watch TV, read or visit with guests. The living room by the front door, which we use for an office, is underutilized. The kitchen is not well planned out. The master bath is poorly planned, with a huge amount of space around the tub?? Why? The plan has one window on the wall where the master bed is placed. Strange. Add another window to balance that out. I wish we had. Also, the lack of windows on the sides of the house make it surprisingly dim....See MoreOne thing you wish you knew before you got married?
Comments (14)Thanks! Good words of advice. halfdecaf - I love that you repeat your vows on your anniversary. That sounds like a very worthwhile tradition and one I might copy for us. I know the "good cop/bad cop" role is pretty tricky. It's not really how we intended it, but it's how I feel usually. My BF's own father abandoned the family when BF was at a very young age and his mother essentially detached from the family as a result of her husband leaving. As such, BF had no healthy parenting images to look up to so he leans toward parenting out of guilt or giving in too much to his own son. I come from a fairly strict, but caring, family so I've tried to share my own parenting examples with them. The result is that BF's son now has a normal bedtime (when we met he would let his son stay up until midnight! And he was 5!), he cleans up his own plate after dinner, he's not allowed to throw things or act physically in anger, he's not allowed to hit his dad or be disrespectful to us without consequences, etc. So I feel like the "bad cop" because I implement/encourage a lot of the discipline and a lot of the rules about what's acceptable and what's not. The only reason it's working is b/c BF currently backs me up on the decisions and is actually a little grateful that I know a little more than he does about general parenting, while he knows more than I do about his son's specific needs. So I think we make a good team. Of course, if either one of us ever stops supporting the other, I can see how that might cause some mutiny... We are also considering premarital couseling. One of my biggest challenges is learning to bite my tongue and not constantly tell him what to do. I was single for too long and have lots of rules in my own head about the way things "should" be done. On the flip side, he was single too long with a young son - essentially living the bachelor life with a kid tagging along (have you seen the Adam Sandler movie, Big Daddy - something along those lines, but not as extreme). So figuring out when my comments cross over into "nagging" seems to be a fine line. I never want to be the "nagging" wife....See MoreWhat you wish you knew...
Comments (16)We've sold three houses and bought four. Overall, buying and selling can be extremely stressful. Prepare for the unexpected. Buying the fourth house (the one we currently live in) was a pleasure because we had a fantastic realtor (Louisville). We finally closed on the Tucson house (10/30) after 2 failed contracts, and the whole process was really frustrating as our first set of realtors didn't do the job. I learned that if you are unhappy with your representation (as either a buyer or a seller), move on! Make sure in your listing agreement that you have an "out" clause that allows you to get out of the listing if you are unhappy with your realtor. Do your homework! And sometimes even this doesn't always mean success. We thought our first set of realtors would be terrific. They were recommended by neighbors who had used them to sell their homes, they had lots of awards, they had been in the business for more than 20 years and when we first contacted them about listing our house they were very responsive. The minute we signed the 6 month listing agreemnt, they seemed to disappear. It was like pulling teeth to get them to answer our e-mails and phone calls. And in Tucson, the market has never been as bad as it has been over the last year or so. In an up market, realty companies hand out awards like candy so the list of awards doesn't really mean anything. So interview several realtors, get recommendations from people who have used them, make sure to have an "out" clause in your listing agreement with them, ask them their average DOM for their listings, ask how many open houses they plan on having, ask them about their marketing strategy and make sure you get several comps (sold houses not currently listed houses). Roselvr has a good thread on here somewhere about questions to ask your potential realtor. The biggest lesson is patience. And I agree with johnmari on counting your chickens. Even if you have a contract, don't assume anything until it closes and the money is in the bank. If you can, don't buy before you sell. And check these boards. Aside from the rare Grinch, there are some really fantastic people here who can help you! I wish I had found this board before we listed. These folks could've saved me a lot of frustration. As it is, they helped me stay sane for the latter part of our selling odyssey....See More
Lin barkingdogwoods
4 years agoLin barkingdogwoods
4 years agoLin barkingdogwoods
4 years ago
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
4 years ago
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