Hello Toni! It's so good to see you back and feeling better. Nice:-) My sister and my friend actually use the ice cube method and they have had more success with their orchids than if they had been watering the old way, treating them like a houseplant, and they are in bloom. Although neither of them water the way I do or try to mimick their environment when it comes to a good rain, their orchids are still better off than just a quick watering in which the water just runs past the roots. How long their plants will flourish this way is yet to be seen, but now they want to fertilize them and asked me how too since the leaves on theirs are not quite up to par. Rose I do both. I submerge many of mine and others I will sit in a pot of warm water covering the top of the pots until I see the roots green or plump up again. My guess would be that an ice cube sitting at room temp that sits on bark, not on the roots would not drop freezing water onto the roots, but maybe room temperature water drops? Not sure. One thing is true of most orchids is that they like a thorough watering followed by quickly dried roots. Most orchids grow from trees and crevices which allows good air flow to the roots after a drenching or misty rain. If it was my orchid, I would dump the holess pot for one that allows plenty of air movement and much needed oxygen between the roots. Do something for me.? Soak that clear plastic pot once the roots have dried in warm water for about 5 minutes and tell me what happens to the roots on the inside. What do they look like? That's why many sell clear pots, so you can see what is going on with them while the roots actually grab sunlight as needed on many orchids. Mike This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Sun, Mar 17, 13 at 13:26

We hired a GC to remodel our kitchen, powder, laundry and two baths. His workers do the plumbing, electrical, drywall and tile work, he doesn't sub it out, so that is a cost savings. We talked about the vanity this morning and he said the tile on the side would go on thinset, not the full-on thick mortar like the floor or the wall (it doesn't have to "float"). My problem is we were originally going to put the 4" backsplash where the vanity and tub meet but now might have to do a full tile piece due to the overall tile design. The granite countertop has been cut already, not installed though, and I'm not convinced the tile could fit in the lip between the granite and side of the vanity. Plus, different stone tile sizes have different thicknesses, I will have to make sure it fits underneath. You're right, there are a lot of little things to think of.

Thanks everyone! I'm glad that it's not just me that thought the molding looked strange. I was beginning to think that maybe my vision is impaired after looking at so much stuff and making so many decisions over the course of this seemingly never-ending project! :) Christine - thanks! The progress is very slow, but I suppose anything is better than nothing! Not sure if you saw the ongoing drama with the floors, but I posted an update with a photo also - the link to the post is below. Mom2reese - thanks so much for those photos. I see what you mean and agree that the cabinet maker could probably have done a better job. We wanted a very simple crown and didn't want it to extend to the ceiling, although I don't even know why now! I initially wanted a much more modern look, but scaled it back a bit due to the age of the house and the style of the other rooms. I'm aiming for something between modern and traditional now, but not sure I'm hitting the mark! Anyway, after looking at the cabinets over and over, I think the cabinet maker may be able to just detach the molding from the piece he has it sitting on and attach it directly to the top edge of the cabinets (for some reason he put another piece on the bottom which raises it up more, but I think the odd gap at the corner will at least be eliminated by doing that (if that makes any sense!). Here is a link that might be useful: Update on floor nightmare

I don't know if anyone is really reading this thread anymore but I am always surprised when there is something questionable on the Building a Home, Remodeling or other threads, and people ask "Did an architect /designer design that?" The answer is "Sure they did". I think it's a big misapprehension that just because someone has a degree that they are particularly talented. For every profession, those who finish the degree managed to meet the criteria for graduation and possibly for licensure. But within that class there were people who were above average, average and below average, and there are just as many people below the 50th percentile than there are above. And the individual who designed the above is going to be the least likely person to say to a client "This is why this will not look right" --because to them it probably looks just fine, they designed it. In this case the OP does not think it looks fine, but most lay people do not know how to look at flat drawings and understand why something like this will not look fine in real life, because most lay people need to see things in three dimensions. And unfortunately, by the time it is three dimensional, it is too late to do anything about it very easily. The architect in this case probably knew exactly what this would look like in three dimensions and does not have a problem with it. Am I that cynical that I think that people really have trouble figuring out what something will look like from a drawing or even a photo? Yes, I think we are losing that ability. I have had two clients not even recognize their own furniture in a photograph when it was not in the context of their own houses. There have been entire books written about how people are losing this ability. And realistically it does push most of the trend buttons. A towering facade, lots of oversized stacked windows, a reference to the Palladian arch--all the things that people seem to want in new construction. This architect is probably good at plugging in all the popular design elements. Unfortunately, in my opinion, s/he is not good at making something that works well with what is already existing. And quite honestly, I think most clients would probably be quite happy to have an addition that was composed of all the most popular design elements no matter what it looked like in relationship with the old part of the house. If most people did want to achieve complete harmony in the design and decor of their houses over time and in the big picture, we would not see this sort of discordant disconnect all the time, and yet we do see it all the time.