Welcome Mark! Welcome to garden web. From what you have said it seems you really care for your plants. That being said Norfolks do not always show their love for their owners as fast as we would like. You are in zone 3a I see so your plant will grow very very slowly. What you are doing so far is great except for moving it! Once you pick an ideal location (free from drafts, good lighting, etc) NEVER move the plant as that is the fastest way of killing it. NIPs (Norfolk Island Pine) grow slow and you will not see any improvement for weeks, months, maybe even a year. Pick one location and stick with it. If it's a warm bright spot, stay on top of watering. If it's a cool bright spot, you can let the soil dry a bit.

I had a beautiful one I bought after Christmas December 2010. I put it outside every summer under the shade of large maple trees and a cedar hedge. In 2012 it was getting late in the season and in late September I didn't want to bring it inside yet and stuck it in my Dad's greenhouse for the night. The next day was unseasonably warm and sunny and I was at work and didn't get to it in time and by 4 o'clock the damage had been done at one side turned brown. It's still recovering from that to this day but slowly is getting better.

Tip: they like to be showered with COLD water. I put mine in the bath tube once a week and turn the water all the way to cold and use the shower head and spray it.

Hi Mark,
Oh my.. I don't give even a third of the care to my NIP as you give to yours. :) I never repotted it and mist it maybe twice a week. :)
How many stalks does it have? They are usually packed for Christmas 5-8 stalks in one pot, and then stalks start gradually dying until one strongest survives ( I still have two major stalks now). So if this is the case just cut the dying stalks at root level so the others have more room. BTW on my tree the stalks that died were the widest ones.
And yes - like somebody already mentioned - they LOVE showers! I shower mine once in 2-3 weeks.
Then my other thought is - could you be possible overfeeding? And is the soil 'sour' enough? NIPs like acidic soil as far as I know. I read some people even recommended to squeeze a bit of lemon juice to a watering can once in a while (I never did that).
Then check the location for cold and hot drafts. One of my friends had a gorgeous NIP for years, and it it froze to death just being too close to the window in winter. So they are pretty sensitive creatures. :)
Good luck!
Oh, and I forgot one very important thing - they HATE being touched! So make sure that your NIP is in a off-traffic location where people don't touch it while they walk by.

Thanks for the detailed replies. I will start doing the cold shower regimen regularly. And I will leave the plant in the one spot rather than trying different locations. They seem to have a delayed response to stress. I wonder if the stress signs am seeing now are not a response to the current conditions but rather a delayed response to something problematic from a while back, like maybe getting too cold near a window or before I bought the humidifiers. Last week I gave the branches a mild soap wash, then did a cold shower and then did a soil flush (2% citric acid). Now he is sitting back in his regular spot. I was concerned that the calcium dust from the ultrasonic humidifiers may have been accumulating on the foliage. I have ordered a reverse osmosis system to supply the humidifiers to alleviate that. Here are a few pictures of what has been happening the last few months.

Another photo

Photo 3

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Photo 5

Hello mark, just wondering did your Nip survived? As the last post here was 2014.. Currently here in UK I am looking after one and I was doing what you did, moving it anywhere I can get proper light or even sunlight. And the problem I’d encountered was clusters of foliage falling off the branches especially the bottom ones but they weren’t dry or dying.. I still couldn’t figure out why coz I really devote my time pampering it..I cannot seem to find answers via internet about green foliage falling off...I do share your sentiment on this....

As noted, this post was from a few years back. I made a few changes that turned the plant’s health around. One was moving to a south-facing window where there was a few more hours direct sunlight. At my latitude the extra direct light was needed. I kept 2 shallow trays of water on the floor and a deflector over the register, and several other plants in the same area. That extra light warmth and constant humidity was a big help. For the pot, initially I had a self-watering style which some plants like and some don’t. For the Norfolk, I found the excess would retain in the bottom and it wasn’t good for the roots to have that direct stagnant...