Pardon our Dust
Yesterday was drywall sanding day on the upstairs project, a dusty job to be sure. Thankfully our contractor is pretty good and we didn’t have to sand too much.
It still makes a HUGE mess and I’ll be dusting and vacuuming daily for a week or two to get rid of it all. Thankfully, we both have these fantastic 3M Professional Half-Mask Organic Vapor, N95 Respirator to wear. They’re amazing and work not only for dust but for odor as well, worth every penny. We wear them all the time!
We also managed to get everything primed and the ceiling three of the rooms painted. Needless to say, we’re super excited about getting this project checked off the list.
What creates the most dirt/dust in your house: pets, kids, spouse, gardening?
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The Mad Dash
Last Thursday our contractor finally arrived. He was scheduled to come a month ago, but you know how those things go. We’ve been pacing the floors waiting for him because we couldn’t do much until he did a few things. He took tons of measurements, installed a few boards to let us know where the walls would be, gave us a supply list and he was off.
Friday evening we got started on the mad dash to get the house ready to put on the market. We worked late into the night and until noon the next day installing the hardwood flooring. It’s the same kind we have throughout the main floor of the house.
On Saturday afternoon and evening we worked on a few other odd jobs that needed finished, like putting in the roof vents. Then we ran to the home improvement store to get supplies.
Sunday, Mr Chiots spend most of the day working on the electrical installation, while my friend and I painted trim and the doors.
Of course the foreman was always paying attention to make sure we were getting our work finished.
Mr Chiots and I are so happy that this final leg of the race has begun. We’ll be spending nearly every hour of every day on this project so the FOR SALE sign can be put in the yard this coming weekend. By finishing the upstairs our little house will no longer the two bedroom we’ve lived in for 10 years. It will be up for sale as a four bedroom, two and a half bath home. Hopefully whoever buys this lovely home will love it as much as we have.
Have you ever done any major remodeling projects?
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It’s a LIME
I have 2 citrus trees that lead a very pampered life. If you remember, I purchased them on my trip to Monticello in 2010. The prime window acreage in the living room is all theirs during our cold NE Ohio winters. They’re even lovingly carried out to the front porch to enjoy any unseasonably nice weather we have in late winter. These two plants truly are my favorite houseplants, mostly because I want them to produce fruit.
This spring, the key lime tree produced 3 or 4 blooms, sadly none of them were pollinated. That gave me hope that it was finally old enough to fruit. I’ve been watching it like a hawk all summer waiting for blooms. Sure enough, two weeks ago I noticed buds. Last week it started blooming profusely. I moved it to the front porch right by the catnip plant, which is blooming at attracting tons of pollinators thus hopefully increasing the odds of pollinating the lime blossoms.
Sure enough, earlier this week I noticed that at least a few of the blooms had been pollinated and were sporting tiny lime fruit. Will they mature into fruit? You really never know when it’s the first time a plant blooms. Sometimes it takes them a cycle or two to figure out what’s going on. I certainly hope all these little blooms turn into limes, if so, our glasses will be filled with limeade in a few months!
When we get to Maine I hope to add to my citrus collection. I’ll have a bigger house and more windows to house them. Kumquats, Meyer Lemon and a few other varities are on my “must-buy” list.
Do you have any favorite houseplants? Do you grow any edible houseplants?
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Non-Toxic Drain Cleaning
Back when I first started the non-toxic cleaning series, someone requested a drain cleaning post. A great topic since drain cleaners are among the most toxic of household chemicals, you definitely DO NOT want to keep them around. Not only are they very dangerous and caustic, they’re not good for your plumbing. The people we purchased this house from used drain cleaner instead of cleaning out the drains and it actually ate through the metal in the shower drain and caused leaks in the pipes.
Most of the time drain clogs are caused by hair and soap scum buildup. It’s easy enough to clean them out by removing the stopper and using a wire hook to pull out hair. Not a pleasant job to be sure, but not as yucky as all those caustic chemicals. We use a piece of a wire coat hanger that we cut and bent into a hook. It resides in our bathroom cabinet for drain cleaning.
If drains are still running slowly follow this process:
- clean hair and other debris from drain
- pour a stock pot full of very hot water down drain
- let sit a few minutes
- put a half cup of baking soda down drain
- pour a cup of apple cider vinegar down drain
- after a half hour, put another stock pot of hot water down drain
- check drain to see if there is any visible debris
- if you see debris, remove it
- check drain flow, if still slow, repeat steps 1-8
Following these steps will clear most drain clogs. I’ve had great luck using this system, it works great. Mr Chiots has been very impressed with how great it works!
If you have a problem with clogged drains, consider adding a product that contains beneficial bacteria regularly. Just like regular consumption of yogurt and probiotics helps our digestive system, the same can help with your drains. Here at Chiot’s Run I use FLOW from Gardens Alive once a month in our drains. It keeps the them flowing freely and thus we no longer have issues with clogged drains. Once our kitchen sink was horribly backed up with a clog was somewhere in the long run of pipe between the sink and the big sewer line in the house. We tried everything, including a pipe snake to no avail. At our wits end, we tried this stuff and it worked. Ever since then we’ve been using it as drain maintenance.
To keep your drains clean and running smoothly, clean hair, soap and other things out of the drains regularly to keep them flowing well. Pouring hot water down the drain every so often to keep things running smoothly and will help you avoid future clogs. You can also use the process above every few months to keep drains clean. If you do experience a backed up drain, don’t reach for the drain cleaner. Try the baking soda/vinegar method above.
Do you ever get clogged drains? Any tips/tricks for non-toxic ways to clear them out?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Non-Toxic Bathroom Cleaning
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
Homemade Whitening Scrub
more to come…
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New Laundry Room and an Update
Many of you have been asking about the lady that just had to come look at the house. We never heard back from her, so I’m guessing the house was a little out of her price range. We’re moving forward with a few other jobs, namely the laundry room, the office and the upstairs.
The laundry room was one of the first rooms that was painted back when we first bought this house over 10 years ago. The paint was starting to show it’s age, it was faded, dirty and just looked a little drab. I had painted red halfway up the wall and the door was painted red as well. We repainted all of the exterior doors black a while ago when we painted the shutters.
The flooring was also old vinyl that was really showing the age both in wear and style. Since we had leftover hardwood in the garage from doing the rest of the house, we decided to install it here as well. We didn’t put this flooring down in the laundry room originally because Mr Chiots didn’t think it would hold up to all the traffic, since this is the main door we use. We’ve been really impressed with this flooring and the way it holds up, so we went ahead and put it in.
I used extra paint leftover from the living room and leftover black paint from the shutters to paint the cabinets. Now the walls are a happy green which help balance out the black door and cabinets. A rug from the attic was thrown on the floor and the job was complete.
The results are really quite impressive. It took us one day to finish the job and was a day well spent. The best part is that it only cost us about $5 for the glue for the floor. Not a bad room makeover for a day of work and $5 spent! Unfortunately yesterday was dark and cloudy so the photos don’t really do it justice.
I’m always amazed at how a small things can make such a big difference, not just in how nice the room looks but in the size. This room looks so much bigger than it did before, I don’t know why but I like it! The room is much brighter and happier than it was before, which is really nice since this is the entrance we use 100% of the time.
Do you use you front door, side door, back door or other door for your main entrance?
