hey all ... i am going to try to do this in sequence .. if i start skipping all around .... i will miss things ... so culling will not be covered for months ... seeds are all OP .... from all my streakers .. and some neat others.. like deep blue sea, Niagara falls, golden gate ... heat ... i did remember that i got my heat pad.. believe it or not.. at a beer making store.. go figure on that ... as noted.. i will use it to warm soil for germination .... i don't know as of today if i will use it beyond that ... as for ambient heat ... the house at 63 .. zowee ... you are brave .. .lol ... lets step back and think about what the hosta do outside ... 63 sounds about consistent with my late may .. the plants are expanding .... but the issue is soil temp i would think ... think about the effect of the sun on the soil ... though the temp might only be 63 .. i would bet a buck the soil could be a lot warmer on sunny days .... so if you house.. or your basement is this cold .. i think that if you want to do a good job .. you will have to think about getting the temps up ..... especially soil temp .... i doubt the leaves care what the temp is.. its the root temp that matters .... also think about when you might see volunteers in the garden .. you do not see them in early spring.. it appears they will need a higher SOIL temp to germinate.. and grow... also ... soil temperature will be an issue when the lights aren't on .... i usually run the lights all night long when the furnace kicks down to 62 ... and have my off time during the day when the furnace is on ... so the lights moderate the temperature fluctuations .... i cant really solve your problems regarding temperature for each of you .. i only offer suggestions as to what parameters you need to work with ... if it were cold in the house.. i might consider tenting the setup ... but it would be a big tent .... like a mini greenhouse in the basement .... even a plain old 100 watt light bulb inside a tent will add heat ... if you think it all out.. you don't need to spend all that much money on stuff .... but working with water and electricity means you HAVE TO BE SAFE ABOUT IT ALL .... the lights are hung with #16 hardware chain ... as noted .. and are adjustable .. they must ALWAYS be within 2 or 3 inches of the plants ... BUT IF YOU PLAN ON LEAVING FOR A FEW DAYS ... you have to adjust the lights up .. or the hosta will grow into them and scorch ... a dollar store thermometer.. is a good addition to the growing area.. so you can keep track and make adjustments ... i can tell you right now.. on a 37 degree morning.. my cement room is holding at about 65 degrees ... when i finish putting the stand all together ... i will run the lights all night .. and see what the temp is in the area .... guessing just doesn't work ... knowledge is power ... go figure on that ... lol .... and i want to start thinking about these things BEFORE I START THE SEEDS .... link to trays is below ... i built this setup to grow violets a lifetime ago ... the down side to the trays is that i can not put nursery flats across the short way ... but i only use those for sprouting ... as you will see later .... the upside is that spills are contained ... away from electricity .. since they are stacked on top of each other ... culling.. we will cover that in a few months .... the early answer is BE BRUTAL.... it is my position .. that if you focus the bifocals .. even a one inch plant has all the traits it will have in 5 years .... there will be waves.. red... streaks ... plain old greens ... must die .... maybe if it has a lot of red .. or some nice waves.. it will survive the first cull ... if i plant Niagara falls ... and i get a yellow out of it .. with a wave.. now that might be cool ... if i plant golden gate .. and i get a blue out of it .. etc ... i am looking for something unique ... the point of doing your own crosses is to have a goal in mind ... once you establish a goal ... then culling is very easy .. because .. only the ones that further the goal are kept.. the downside to growing OP seeds .... is that you have no goal .. so you think you have to save them all ... that by definition is a nightmare.. been there.. done that .. lol ... a goal ... lets say i want a manhattan that is yellow ... i would take manhattan pollen to a good yellow plant ... and try to get a corragated yellow.. so every seedling that comes from those pods that isnt yellow. .. will die ... culling is easy when you have goals ... too much white ... they are called TERMINAL WHITES .... you may get them to live in a perfect setting in your little Eden ... but they will die ... so why fool with them for months ... this is enough for now... i hope i answered all the questions above this post .... be patient ... we will try to cover everything ... we have nothing else to do all winter.. lol gotta run ... so forgive me if i cant reread the whole thing .... ken Here is a link that might be useful: tray info

We used to have an expobar + grinder which my husband loved and which I liked for steaming milk and getting hot water (I'm not much of a coffee drinker). But in the course of planning our kitchen renovation, we decided we didn't want coffee-grinds all over the kitchen. We considered a built-in, and decided on a countertop superautomatic instead. We bought a high-end capressa jura, after reading positive reviews. But we just weren't happy with it - it's true that we didn't have coffee grounds all over the kitchen, but it took forever to steam a cup of milk or draw out hot water. So we sent it back and got a refund, and bought a pod-specific pasquini livia, which we're now both extremely happy with. Espresso-snobs look down on pods, because the coffee isn't freshly ground, but my husband loves how much less cleanup he has to do, and I love that there isn't mess all over the place (despite his attempts at cleanup), and the thing has enough steam to power a locomotive - I can steam a cup of milk super-fast (or get hot water fast). We're finally both happy with what we have. We chose the countertop super-auto over a builtin because it was smaller, but we ended up really glad that it had the other advantage of being replaceable when we hated it. If we had enough space for a separate coffee bar with its own sink, we might have stuck with the expobar + grinder setup, but we decided we'd rather use the space for a desk, and overall this seems like a really good space-and-mess-saving compromise for us both. The coffee tastes good to us, too. Here is a link that might be useful: pod-specific livia

Well on the spike thing...that candle stand is an antique and rather pricy, so I don't really want to start taking heavy tools to it LOL Gad you girls are aggressive when you want something! The drapes (KD STOP THAT...I WAS DROOLING!!!) are a beautiful silk and linen weave that I purchased in LA (fabric district) several years ago. I have 30 yards of 120" wide in a tone on tone stripe (about 2" wide stripe, but very very subtle). They're pretty much in the amber tone on that first page of KD's evil link. I actually have them in two tones, one has just the tinest hint of green, like old gold would, again on a tone on tone stripe. I was going to make simple headers for the kitchen from that one and then do the dining room with the straight gold so that it would be a nice flow of color and texture. I picked up a little fir of some sort at Fred Meyers last night (about 5' tall) which I'll throw in the hole until the holidays are over. I think it's a good idea to wait until the drapes are done. They'll be lined so they will have some visable and actual weight to them, and will normally be pushed to that side since the door is on the opposite end. Getting a 12' transom rod with no center support has been a big of a challenge so I just haven't started the drapes. (Or that's the excuse I'm using this week LOL)

Oh and if you can’t answer the question then don’t respond, clearly you are not a pro as you don’t even know the measurements. lol