Just a tip. One year I spent several hundred hours making salt dough bowls and plates decorated with raised elephants, lions, etc. I painted them with craft paints and they were really beautiful. However, salt dough will not last unless you seal the finish. It will absorb moisture from the air and become soft, and even mold. I brushed polyurethane on several items, and was shocked when it completely ruined the painted finish. Spraying items with fast drying clear acrylic, sold along with the craft paints works great every time and the more coats the better (5 is best). Another tip is to paint the baked salt dough with gesso before painting with the craft paints - for a much nicer finish. ... View related article.
Ours froze a couple of times. Don't know how to prevent, but we quickly unfreeze with a hair dryer. I think it happens when we use less ice and water sits in the line. ... View related article.
I lived in a 135 year old house for 18 years. The humane way to get rid of mice and rats (if killing is ever humane) is to use the RatZapper. They have a website full of testimonials. I can assure you the RatZapper is easy to use, inexpensive, works, and is more humane than a snap trap, poison, or glue pad. There is never just one little mouse. Once you start zapping them you will most likely get 7 or 8 a night. In one evening I zapped 8 hampster sized RATS one after another until the batteries gave out. It kills them instantly, then you just shake them out without ever touching them and rebate. ... View related article.
Randa, best wishes for your son's safe return. My son left Monday to return to his 3rd tour of Iraq. He has been there from the very beginning. During his first 1-yr tour we worried all the time and went weeks without hearing from him. During his 2nd 1-yr tour we discovered internet and webcam. I leave Yahoo Messenger running and he just pops on to chat. We can instantly upload pictures. I show him home improvements, he shows me his gorgeous new muscles (he's working out) and pictures of him out and about. With the webcam it's almost like being together again. The most wonderful part of my day is when he pops onto my computer. Once we chatted for 6 hours. When I said "I bet you're tired of chatting with me," he said "No way, it's the hi-light of my day."
I really am happy that you love your Chevy Chase Bank "Chase" Card. You have not been their "victim" yet. I have. Here is a court victory against Chase. There are many, many sites you could go to find out about not just Chase but almost all the big bank Cards.
I had a Bank One credit card for years and paid 2% above prime interest. It was so low, I used it to remodel my house ($15,000).
It was December 2005, and I believe we were watching a 60-Minutes report on Chase customers and how having a Chase card had thrown their lives into absolute turmoil. I didn't even know that I would be a Chase victim. I told my husband, I am so glad we don't have a Chase card. Those poor people.
I opened up my mail and there was a Chase Card with my name on it. BankOne had sold my account to Chase. Within two months Chase raised the interest rate on my existing balance (these were charges made under the original terms of my BankOne Card) to over 30% with absolutely no explanation. My payment went from $300 to almost $1200 a month. I had no late payments ever on my Credit Report or with BankOne. Perfect Credit.
Ralph Nadar jumped onboard, and class action lawsuits were filed. Chase bought credit cards where people had great credit and never ever made late payments. Then they jacked up the interest rate, assuming that these wonderful people that adored their stellar credit ratings would anti up rather than lose their ability to have credit. Well they put many people right into bankruptcy, ruined their credit rating, showered them with incredulous fees, and laughed all the way back to their shareholders. Ironically the banking industry lobbied Congress and passed legislation exempting credit card debt from most bankruptcies.
Even though they lost the court case, have to repay money, and erase bad credit ratings from their victim's credit reports, it does not undo the damage that victims suffered for years, trying to make the outrageous payments, trying to hold onto their homes, unable to use their phone because of unrelenting credit collection calls. My cell phone lay idle for months, because Chase dominated it 24 hours a day. With all the fees no amount of money mailed into Chase lowered the total amount due more than a few dollars.
I'm glad you were not one of their victims. But thousands and thousands of us were not so lucky. Thanks to Chase, I may never have good credit again, because even though they have been court ordered to clear negative reporting from our credit reports, it doesn't help to clear the other bad ratings that occurred when we couldn't pay our other bills on time because we were struggling so hard to line Chase's pockets with gold.
Not everyone is going to get a credit card and have the option or discipline to pay it off in full every month. These will be Chase's and other credit card companies who play under the "new rules" future victims. Please be careful. ... View related article.
I don't even know how I stumbled on this post about a stained mobile home bathtub but very glad I did. Our plastic-like bathtub was seriously stained red when our well started pulling rust. We had to drill a new well, but nothing would even budge the red stains, as they seemed to have become one with the plastic. Then I read the post about using Castrol Super Clean in the Purple gallon jug at Walmart. The bottle didn't say "Castrol" but it was purple and called "Super Clean" so I bought it. The tub is clean for the first time in 9 years. I had used every cleanser, harsh chemical, and abrasive (including Magic Eraser and pumice stone) and nothing even so much as lightened the stains. I even filled the tub with straight bleach and used Iron Out (provided by our water company) with no visible results. I can't even imagine what else Super Clean can tackle, but it's made a believer out of me. ... View related article.
A plate under a bowl of soup or oatmeal catches boil overs and it's easier to remove a hot bowl from the microwave by grabbing the much cooler plate underneath it. Also a paper coffee filter inverted on top of the bowl (like a hat) stops splatters better that a paper towel that tends to droop down into the liquid and get soggy and they are probably cheaper, too. ... View related article.
I've read a lot or remedies, but only a few posts discuss causes and preventions.
No one in my family can take vitamin C supplements, and we are all very sensitive to citrus, tomatoes, pickles, margaritas, peppermint candy. My problems with mouth ulcers stopped once I realized that I broke out only after eating oranges, mangoes, grapefruit, pineapple, etc. Tomatoes which are also used in chili and pasta dishes make my mouth sore and gums puffy. My tongue and mouth will actually start burning while I'm eating these foods, especially citrus. Another major problem is flavored toothpastes, especially spearmint flavors and the Scope type of pastes. I switched to plain unflavored crest and my gums immediately stopped bleeding. I eat acidic food in extreme moderation. For example, if I eat an orange, I definitely avoid tomatoes on my sandwich. I ate chili for dinner last night and again for lunch today, and now my mouth is sore. The tomatoes and that darned margarita got me again! ... View related article.
My first post actually is below this one, but I wanted to post a second picture of the stove area.
I bought a 12" wide base cabinet and inserted in between the stove and the wall. The stove had always floated in the space and food and spills would run down the sides of the stove and onto the floor. The stove then wasn't centered under the overhead cabinets, so I asked my son to make a spice rack. Because I had run out of the countertop tile, I used a thick piece of pine from an IKEA table for the countertop over the new base cabinet.
I splurged and bought about $10 worth of slate mosaic tile for the backsplash behind the stove. We cut it into strips for an accent border, because I didn't have enough of the countertop tile, and I had bought every tile Lowe's had in stock.
When my son came home from work, he actually thought we had used real beadboard on the door and drawer fronts. He had to touch them before he would believe it was "just" wallpaper. My daughter-in-law is really happy with the results, and it only took a couple days to paint, paper, tile and grout. ... View related article.
I am posting two feedbacks so I can post two pictures. The kitchen in my son's house was the worst I'd seen in a long time. The cabinets doors were old, chipped and outdated and had missing doors. The counter tops were scarred and sections of the turquoise laminate had come loose and fallen off, probably back in the 70's. After a couple years, I asked my daughter-in-law if I could update her kitchen.
I went to Lowes (the only home improvement store in my small lake resort town in Texas) to get supplies. I found ceramic mosaic tile, and because random pieces were broken, I bought 12"x12" tile for the counter tops for $1 each. Then we cut out all chipped tiles and replaced them with unbroken pieces from "donor" tiles. I tiled right over the old laminate countertop. First, I clean with TSP, score and scratch the laminate to give the adhesive more tooth. I have tiled numerous countertops using this method and have never had a single tile come loose.
For the cabinets, we painted the frames and doors. Then I bought two rolls of thick, prepasted wallpaper that looked like bead board and we pasted it onto the door and drawer fronts and even pasted it onto the interiors of the cabinets so they would also look clean and fresh. I used a clear wallpaper paste for good adhesion and very sharp razor blades for clean cuts. This wallpaper is thick and highly scrubbable. I even tested it by using scouring powder on the surface and it wasn't damaged.
I used inexpensive white vinyl floor tiles to make the shelves of the upper cabinets look clean and new. Upper cabinets are 12" deep, so very little cutting was necessary. You just peel off the paper and stick them down onto the old wood surface.
I then found door and drawer pulls on closeout for 43 cents each. For the backsplash I bought inexpensive tile to mix with the mosaic because I didn't have enough of the countertop tiles to do the entire project. ... View related article.
