The trouble with trying to put cacti or succulents in a totally enclosed space is that they require sun to flourish, and that will build up too much heat. If you leave the terrarium open, you really are just using it as a glass pot, and none of the closed terrarium rules apply. Mr. Breeze: At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden they had quite an extensive collection of lithops growing on waist-high benches covered with what looked like small marble or limestone chunks. The benches were enclosed in wire fencing because people kept stealing the lithops. They had to make the screens finer and finer because people would even steal them thru the screen. In any event, the succulent books I have say to grow them in full sun (or slightly shaded if under glass) in a wide pan or large pot (with other succulents if desired). They do not do well in a small pot. In spring they need a very fine overhead misting daily, with slightly less in summer. Cool and dry in winter. Diana

Thank you again to everyone who has chimed in! (And it is just so darn cool to hear from many of you illustrious GW-ers whose posts and kitchen we have read about and inspired by while we are in the process of designing and renovating our kitchen!) OK, so here's the skinny on our last ditch effort last night. We spent 2 hours, or maybe more, lowering down the legs and leveling the DW. We managed, we thought, to lower the unit by at least 3/16" to 1/4". We put shellac on the exposed bare wood and plywood parts above the unit. We also taped up a foil tape covering the exposed plywood subcountertop, the maple crosspiece, and most of the bottom part of the marble edge. We discovered: (1) When we drill the unit back up to the maple crosspiece, all that 3/16" - 1/4"minute space we gained was barely there at all! We wonder whether by tightening the unit to the wood under the countertop we have raised the unit back up. We un-attached the unit, which by this time is out of level again (huh?), releveled the unit, confirmed that we indeed have more spacing than before by sticking our index finger in the space and it felt looser. Attached the unit, and what do you know, tight again. (2) Putting the foil tape didn't stop the condensation. But, it probably protect the wood and plywood. So, we are going to return the GE monogram DW. Other than the condensation issue, this unit has pretty much everything I have listed on my DW wishlist (and we got it with $1000 rebate, ending up to be $399. A really great deal!) In any case, I hope that the replacement DW will solve this issue. We think we'll go with the Miele G5505SCSS unit although the controls on the front don't go as well with our kitchen vision as the Bosch 800 Plus, KA KUDE70or Jennair JDB8700 units would be. A part of me is also angling for the Jenn Air JDB8700 because I like the look of it best. It also has everything in my DW wishlist, except for the Miele reputation. Thanks everyone for sharing your information! You have been so helpful!

@ claybabe -- we have heavy bath sheets from Restoration Hardware and the Bosch dryer handled those and king sheet sets just fine. If the washer is efficient and extracts enough water then the condenser dryer seems to work in a reasonable time. If the towels have toploader moisture, or the extraction isn't excellent, I suppose the will take a very long time. So I wouldn't overlook the spin in the washer. I replaced a small toploader and illegal, unvented dryer in a closet with the Axxis pair. They handled all our weekly laundry which we previously we did on apartment house Speed Queens in the basement. The downside of the Bosch is that the washer doesn't have a profile wash and the water doesn't get as hot as either the Asko or the Miele. But I believe the drum is slightly larger than the Miele and certainly larger than Asko. @larsi - No idea. But I now dry the flat sheet and 4 cases in one load and the fitted sheet in another load in the Miele. Should not need to do that. The Miele dryer is not bad though it's not the equal of the washer. The adjustability is excellent for exercise clothes and the ability to dry for hand ironing or the rotary iron is terrific. But the towels come out in a tangle and sheets do as well. When I replaced the Asko pair in the house I went with Miele over Bosch for the profile wash and adjustability. At the time, they also had a vented dryer which was the set up I had. But in the future I wouldn't hesitate to go with condenser. I had a good experience.

Don't do anything "in theory". Load calculations have to be submitted to get a permit in California. The result is easily fudged by the HVAC guy. They often decide in advance what answer they want, and fiddle with the inputs to get that result. You really want a legit load calc done. The variables are size of the home, orientation, quality, location and amount of insulation, size location and nature of windows (double paned or not, well sealed, non-drafty or not), tightness of the home, and other factors. etc. Before load calcs became a standard practice of conscientious contractors and then required by law because of the hacks in the business, the rule of thumb sizing was always rounded up and always resulted in too large equipment. It's unlikely your house ever needed a 120K btu (which I assume is gross input, not output) furnace but if so, money is well spent now sealing up the house. Oversized furnaces tend to run frequent, short cycles. Like trying to scramble an egg using a large too hot blow torch when instead a lower gentle heat is needed for longer time. You do need a real load calc. Given that much of the heating season where you are is for cool rather than cold weather, perhaps there will be times when the heat pump's output will be enough. When it's not, have a gas furnace inline and connected to switch to - the right thermostat will handle that task when you want it to. Maybe one with 80K Btu output (at whatever efficiency you need to get there) or a bit smaller would be enough. The 120K even at 80 % is giving you about 100 BTU of output, probably way more than is needed. Longer cycles are more comfortable and provide more even heating. You can be sure that 60K coming from a heat pump will be running long cycles because the supply air from a heat pump isn't as warm as that coming from a furnace. The 5 tons is WAY oversized for AC use but you've said that's only a few days per year. No prblem. Good luck, find the right contractor and you will be in good hands.