I cooked them in the oven yesterday. No odor at all. I followed the directions to put them on the rack while the oven was cool then turned it on. And after I shut the oven off I cracked open the door and let them cool slowly. They look exactly like they did before. I read that the ivory goes on white then changes to ivory when it is cooked and that is a way to tell the plate is done. These colors seem the same. Even the glass half marble was fine. And it is much more interesting looking with little gold dimensional dots all over it. Now to see how they fare outside for the winter! Kathy

Thank you for further opinions/advice. ashes_of_the_fire those roots are gorgeous! For most part I tend to slightly underwater my orchids, before the ailment that is (I always thought it was fine as they flowered and looked healthy) and the roots would be slightly thinner than yours. I am especially grateful for the step by step instructions. I will definitely need them as this will be my first repotting on my own! (mum refused to help as she says last time she got involved it got them to the current state). I have something by Westland called 'orchid compost'. It says it has organic matter, bark and wood fibre. This is the only thing suitable at the shop nearest to us (and that is 30 minutes away). There is another shop that is about 1 hour away in another zone that requires 2 buses. But I am not sure that one is much better. I think I'll repot the worst first (I will do it tomorrow morning when there is more light and might post photos in case I need advise of whether they are actually alive)... to see how they take to this compost. And order the following online: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elite-Orchid-Compost-Range-for-Phalaenopsis-5-Litres-/261365464855 Does that seem like a good mix? Apparently one of the orchids is not actually a Phalaenopsis that mum owns (since it hasn't had flowers in years I did not know any better). Though she cannot remember its name. meyermike_1micha thank you for the tip ... I have been reading many websites and books about caring for orchids, but none actually go into any sort of detail. Something I read a year ago said that orchids can grow without any medium! in baskets but would require very frequent sprays. Wow! Maybe I need to do that to avoid the bugs. jane__ny thank you for the link! It is very helpful. As I said the books I could get from the library and some websites I came across weren't as helpful. Most of the books had various pictures and species, and talked about reproduction, illness and the fact that orchids depending on the type like various mediums including moss, bark, and something else. No one ever went into basics of how to physically water them (just state that you can spray or pour). Cloths were a strategy to get rid of insects. They have only been covered in them for about 3 months. These bugs are a pain to get rid of ... and one of the solutions is placing a layer of sand on top of the peat ... it cuts air supply to them and cuts their wings when they crawl out. I was a bit apprehensive of doing that (since who knows what the sand will be infected with!) So I saw someone's solution of placing denim to a similar effect ... break the cycle. Each fly lays many many eggs ... and the problem multiplies. Most of these I read were for houseplants ... as no one wrote about infected orchids. But the things is one of the orchids I bought was already infected and it was in bark! So it does happen. Probably not as frequently. I know most of the solutions I was trying were damaging the health of the plants, but as I mentioned these stuff eat roots ... and reproduce fast. So the fact that some of the orchids are still alive is pretty much a miracle. I do not wish this infection on anyone's plants. Oh and I place my stupidity/naivety to the fact that for many years that I have owned orchids they were healthy and I never saw what I have been seeing in the past 3/4 of the year. Thank you so much for your support! I also include the picture of the flies! (this was when the situation was improving too! before then you couldn't see the yellow ... it is a lot a lot better now). Just about 3 or 4 flies per sticker. Another quick question ... do I need to dry out the orchid compost completely before planting? (that is where I went wrong with the peat apparently) Lija P.S. Liquid Oxygen contains Hydrogen Peroxide. It was advised to me as it apparently burns up the larvae which seemed like a pleasant thought.

Glennsfc, you are correct about doing all the research before buying a floor. I had read all the reviews and I knew I was taking a chance on this flooring. I was hoping I would be one of the lucky ones who wouldn't have any problems. And I am happy with it for the reasons I stated. I just wish it had been more durable. And Duraceramic is more expensive than most tile, but costs less to install. Overall, it costs about the same as tile. And doug_gb, yes, tile and wood are ABSOLUTELY better products. But no matter how much poly you apply to wood, it will warp if you have enough standing water. It's not exactly the best product to use in a kitchen, although many people do and probably don't have any issues with it. And tile is hard. If I stand on it for too long, for even an hour or so, my back and legs ache. I can stand on my duraceramic floor while cooking and doing dishes and not have a problem. And tile IS cold. I have tile on my floor around my fireplace. It's right next to the duraceramic. The tile is cold to the touch while the duraceramic feels the same temperature as the room. I wish I had a way to test the actual temperature difference, but the tile IS definitely colder. (And I have tile that is farther away from the fireplace that is still cold, while the duraceramic next to the fireplace still feels like room temp. So, it doesn't have anything to do with distance to the fireplace. It is the tile.) But we are planning on redoing our master bathroom soon, and we'll probably have to replace the vinyl floor with tile, just for resale value. And odds are I will put in tile when we have to replace the duraceramic. And then I'll be over in the tile forums complaining about how much colder my house is and how my back and legs always hurt... I just don't think you can find perfection in a flooring product. You've just got to look for what's most important to you. So, I wanted to let people know that there are good things about duraceramic, but that the tradeoff (durability) just might not be worth it to them.

Location is the most important thing for a warming drawer. Someone who is used to having one and can't imagine living without it can make do if it's at the bottom of an oven stack. For anyone else, that is a ridiculously inconvenient position. That doesn't sound like what you're talking about, but proper positioning is important even so. Wall ovens are usually placed outside of the work flow, because they don't take much attention. Warming drawers are the opposite--they should be smack dab front and center as much as possible without pushing aside something even more important--top level is most convenient, but you'll often see them under a utensil drawer because utensils are even more important to have where you can lay your hand on them. The best location depends on your needs and layout. The most favored possibilities are directly under or next to the cooktop, so it's easy to accumulate pancakes, or shift a pot of stew, or nearest to the eating area, so it's easy to serve and refill plates, or someplace on the path between the two to be less than perfect for both functions but not bad at either. As high as possible up to table height, to make it easy to get things in and out of. If you go for two, put them next to each other, or as close as you can, unless they're in completely different rooms for different functions. One by the stove and one by the eating area means running between the two as they fill up. It sounds much better in theory than most people will find in practice. One more thing to keep in mind is that 6" more width doesn't sound like a lot on the 30" vs. 24", but in practice, because of the way you can arrange things, it's likely to feel like it holds half again as much, rather than just a quarter. I agree with most of what Lascatx said, but it can make up for some lack of cooking space if you expect to cook in shifts and move things to the warming drawer. I've done that for feasts, and it can work for holidays. If by "big family dinners" you meant regularly, even once a week, it could be tedious, especially if larger ovens meant you could time it so everything came out at once. I rarely need to put bread dough in the warming drawer. If you have a cold kitchen, however, it works well. My ovens also have settings for rising bread. The point about the steam from slow cooking is good--you can slow cook in any warming drawer, even without the setting, but should you? Only you know the answer to that. Re models, I much prefer the really simple ones. They're foolproof, especially if there's an "on" light. They just do off and on and have a dial that changes the amount of power to control the approximate temperature. A $5 thermometer can check the exact temperature you're getting if you need to know--for slow cooking it is imperative that you get the heat of the middle of the food above the safety level by taking the temperature of the food, but if you're translating slow cooker recipes, you'll want to match up the approximate temperatures (non-digital slow cookers also adjust the power rather than having a specific temperature). Digitally controlled warming drawers work more like ovens where you can select a specific goal temperature (there's probably still a 25° variation from the set point). They also have features like automatic shut off after four hours (which you have to keep in mind if you think it's holding your food all day above the safety floor temp.) and "Sabbath Mode" lockouts that prevent the shut off but my also only do preset temperatures chosen by ritual custom. A useful gizmo is a steam vent. It's just a lever that opens and closes some slits that let steam out. Keep steam in to keep your meat from drying out. Let steam out so the crust on the bread you're heating will stay crunchy.