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The Stink in the Sink: The time I found a snake

I love living in rural Southern California. I love the weather, I love the temperature. I love the small town I live in. I love seeing the menagerie of creatures in my yard, even the scary ones. There are rattle snakes, coyotes and mountain lions that have been seen regularly in the area. I have not had an encounter yet with the bigger more threatening creatures but I expect to at some point. For now I get plenty of benign furry and scampery animals on a regular basis.

Every morning I wake up to get the younger kids breakfast. They wake me up bright and early every day. If they sleep past 6 am, we are going to have a good day because everyone got a lot of sleep that night. It’s an ADHD/ASD thing for them. After they eat, I poke around the kitchen cleaning, filling bird feeders, feeding the dog, laundry load, etc. getting ready for the day.

This particular morning I started to notice a slight smell from under the kitchen sink. I had never smelled it before and had no idea what was causing it. I first thought maybe the garbage disposal was growing something funky or maybe there was a spill that was starting to ferment. I cleaned a little better and scrubbed hoping to eliminate the stink. The next day I smelled it a little more, so I cleaned more.

The following day it was still stronger and I started to worry. I kept cleaning and hoped I would find the source. I emptied out the cupboard under the kitchen sink thinking maybe the wood got wet and was decomposing, or maybe a mouse had died under that cabinet. By day 4 it was bad. The whole downstairs was permeated with the smell. I was ready to cut the bottom out from under the kitchen sink cupboard thinking that the dead thing was a reality and will never go away or the wood was rotting because there was evidence of a prior leak and it was painted over and sealed. It was awful. It was incredibly strong under the kitchen sink but also in the cabinet next to it and the ones above it. I opened windows and ran the house fan purging the air. I spent the entire day emptying out cupboards, disinfecting, moving everything away from the back kitchen wall. I cleaned everything, sniffing as I went making sure the source was not the thing I was cleaning. Everything was cleaned, every surface disinfected. It was immaculate. Then I smelled it coming from the outlet on the wall.

I must have made some kind of a cry or groan or some kind of a noise of disgust because at that point my husband and 15 yo son came into the kitchen. It had to have been bad to take them away from their video games. It was in the evening, so it was dusk outside. I had been cleaning all day, the windows were open because the inside smelled horrific. Fortunately it was still cool enough here in the day. My son went outside because he is an excellent problem solver and went to eliminate that from the scenario. He announced that he got a good whiff of it from the backyard. We went to bed still perplexed at the whole situation.

The next morning I started poking around outside more carefully after what my son had said. I was looking for evidence of a leak in that wall, or anything that might explain the noxious fumes in my kitchen. The sink pipes ran along that wall and there was a bathroom right above the kitchen. I was worried about a water leak or a sewer line leak. This sidewalk goes the length of the house in the back. Cement is like a sponge so I started looking for water evidence. I started sweeping the grass clippings and sticks that had collected on that sidewalk away from the house. I pulled on a stick that I thought the kids had stuck under the siding. I pulled on it and immediately realized that it wasn’t a stick. It was a dried, baked snake tail!

I knew that my well watered grass patch is an inviting place for small furry critters to frequent. I see rabbits, ground squirrels, western fence lizards and quail every day. Not to mention the dozen or more types of birds. I was very well aware that there were snakes that lived in the area and fed on the smaller creatures. Finding a snake on my property was inevitable. I was just so surprised that he was so big and right below my kitchen window! He was 4 feet at least. Normally I am not a squeamish person. I have 3 sons and have been though surgeries, broken bones, stitches, one of them put a tooth through a lower lip. There has been plenty of blood, vomit and poo over the years. It was messy, but as a mom we just do it to get through it and it becomes a memory and usually some kind of cool scar with a good story. This snake was a lot different than that. Animal entrails are not something I am used to seeing. I had a lot of trouble with this one. I think it was the maggots that did me in. I was glad that my son and my husband between the two of them removed and disposed of this liquid carcass. We are pretty confident that it was just a garden snake and not a rattle snake based on his color pattern and lack of rattle on the tail.

Here is where we started to make conjectures on what happened and how on earth a snake got stuck under my house. My oldest son deduced that it had to be a horrible way to die, and I agreed. I thought he probably ate and then heard someone open the door because we let the dog out at night. He was right in between the two back doors so he couldn’t get away. Maybe he hid under the siding to get away but had a full belly so he got stuck. There was a significant part of him that was more liquid than the rest. That’s why I think he had eaten, all that food and stomach juices It’s so hot back there that he just dehydrated and baked in the sun.

So now that I knew what the smell was, there was a little bit of relief that it wasn’t anything IN my kitchen that stank, but I was at a loss as to how to clean this. I have been cleaning since I was a child. I like the end result. I used to clean houses the summer between my senior year and my freshman year at college. It’s hard work but pays pretty well. I will say that scrubbing liquid snake from under the edge of my house is not one of my favorite Saturday activities. Bleach, disinfectant, dish soap, my drinking straw brushes were the only brushes that fit in that half inch space. Now I have to get more straw brushes. I have scrubbed it at least twice and pulled out chunks of liquid snake both times. It’s pretty gross.

The smell is gone in my kitchen, but the squeamish part of me is going to go back and scrub it again. I will probably pull off that piece of siding and make sure once and for all that there is no more liquid snake under there when we paint the exterior in the future. I need that peace-of-mind.

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How to Fix Toilet Seat Wiggle for $5

I’m sure we are all familiar with that unspoken topic of the wiggle that most toilet seats get over time. It’s a big pet peeve of mine. Every house I have ever lived in all my life has had at least one seat that gets extremely lose. My whole family is annoyed by it, but never really talks about it. My youngest has actually fallen in once as a result. The wiggle on that particular seat was excessive. It was hilarious, but he did not think so at the time. Thus began my quest to make sure that the seat never gets lose again. Tightening the plastic nut down occasionally works, but never permanently. It always jiggles lose again a couple days or weeks down the road. Especially with kids and pets constantly fiddling with it. The practical side of me doesn’t want to deal with it over and over.

I found a kit on Amazon that was supposed to be the kind of fix I was looking for. It was cheap (less than $5) and it was simple. The package was a little rough looking but the pieces were intact so I wasn’t worried. It comes with a handle to hold the plastic nut, a screw driver for the bolt top, and 6 rubber bushings. I have three toilets so its just the right number. The screw driver that comes with this is kind of a joke, but before you throw it away make sure that you take the other bushings out from inside of it! You need those! There are other kits for this purpose too. They look like they would work fine, but they are several times more expensive. I discovered this fix for base houses at the time and it worked so well when we bought our house I saw no reason to spend 4 or 5 times as much money when the cheap fix works great.

Any time I take something apart I always use the opportunity to deep clean because, well boys and toilets. Yuck. I disassembled the toilet seat, scrubbed and disinfected both the seat off of the toilet and the base very thoroughly. This is my oldest son’s bathroom downstairs, so all the boys and any guests use it regularly. It gets VERY dirty. This is the cleanest its been in a while.

Once you get the seat off, you can usually reuse the hardware as long as the nut still tightens well. My hardware is aluminum with a plastic nut. I scrubbed and disinfected that as well.

Once everything is clean, before you put it back together, see if the white rubber bushings fit in the hardware holes in the toilet. Mine do fit nicely inside The hole so the seat hinge fits flush against the porcelain. If the rubber bushings don’t fit all the way in the hole, put them on the underneath side of the holes, narrow side in the hole, so that the nut gets tightened on top of it. You want the seat hinge to be flush against the porcelain for functional reasons. Plus it just looks more polished.

Reinstall the seat hardware through the bushings and tighten them down using the nut holder and a screw driver (or a wrench depending on what the bolt head looks like) making sure that the seat is centered on the bowl. It wont have any play in it and it will stay put because of those bushings.

Now, the only time that the seat will get lose is when you loosen it. I love that this fix is inexpensive and it stays put. I haven’t had a seat fix fail me after 3 years of daily heavy use. I have not lived anywhere longer than 4 years, but I imagine it will stay put as long as the bushing has integrity. If I stay on top of the cleaning, I don’t have to loosen it to get it really clean, but you might want to take it apart every so often for a deep clean behind the nut.

If you were feeling ambitious, you could measure the hole in your toilet, then measure the bolt width and look for plastic bushings that fit the bolt in the hole without being deeper than the porcelain, but you would have to measure it exactly and have no play in it. Rubber doesn’t slide well on the porcelain like plastic would. Also, I can’t account for how much plastic bushings would be. I imagine not very expensive, but good hardware at a store can get pricy sometimes. This kit is much simpler. Besides, can you really put a price on the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that if your 7 year old does fall into the toilet again, it would not be because the seat was too lose?

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Let’s Talk Leather………..Couches

Years ago when my husband and I first got married we had just moved to Belgium. We were being paid an extraordinary amount of housing allowance and we didn’t have much furniture between us, so we started shopping. We found this Italian company that was making and selling furniture in the area so we bought a couch set. It was beautiful. It consisted of a triple seat couch, a double seat couch and a single seat chair. Fast forward 12 years later. They have been moved at least 4 times and I would consider them still nice, but after 3 boys have done just about everything imaginable to this couch set They are starting to show age. I do wipe them down pretty often so there is minimal visible dirt but my biggest hurdle with these couches is to keep them smelling nice. By nice, I mean actually smell pleasant. Usually I settle for “I can’t smell them across the room“ level of clean. Recently I have been able to smell them upstairs which is just bad. The final straw was when my sweet youngest boy “couldn’t make it” to the bathroom again so there was this impressive poo odor on my big couch that did not want to come out. Then the next day the single seat chair was the victim of the same circumstance. Holy wow, they just didn’t smell good at all. This the chair.

I was not interested in having them professionally cleaned because there wasn’t a visible stain that needed to be removed. I figured to get the smell out of these something had to exist that was effective. So I started searching for a something to clean leather.

I found this leather cleaner and conditioner by the Chemical Guys. It had a lot of really good reviews on Amazon and I am the person who sits down and reads dozens of them. There were a lot of great reviews so i went for it. It came, I cleaned, and let me tell you I was blown away! This stuff got poo smell out of my beautiful leather couches and it smelled really good! It’s like a refreshing breeze kind of smell. Not fruity at all but like ocean or park.

Here is a pic of the three seat. I know, they look the same but they smell so good! We live on these couches. They get used every single day. I would consider them to be older leather now and it just needed something more than what I was doing and this stuff did it! I am impressed AND I don’t smell poo. What a day!

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The Earring Frame

I love some good earrings with character. I make most of my own because I rarely find what I’m looking for in stores. As a result, I have a good number of earrings in my collection and it is constantly fluctuating. I remake pairs that I don’t wear and I add pairs when I find beads that just speak to me. Yes, I spend way too much money on beading accessories, but the point of this post is to show you, how I have found is, my favorite way to store them.

Old 8 in by 10 in picture frame

I have seen different versions of this type of earring holder. This is my version. Now, I have no clue where this frame came from. It is so old that I honestly cant remember. I do know that it was in a box of stuff when we lived in Belgium and after we moved back to the states I remember I kept moving it around in the house until it found its purpose. I have tried making this out of 5 by 7 frames and it does not work as well because it only gives you 2 rows for dangly earrings. That’s not enough space for me. Out came my tools to make something simple but very useful. Here is what I used.

Needle nose pliers and a #2 screw driver

Measure the number of rows you want compared to the height of your earrings and how much space you have to work with. Ear wire earrings are the best type to use on this, btw. My top wire is about a half inch from the top and each wire is approximately 2.5 inches apart because my earrings are all between 2 and 3 inches long. It’s ok for the earrings to be longer than the wire gap because when it leans at an angle against the wall, the earrings will hang down behind the lower wire.

The back

Here is the back. I used 50 lb picture hanging wire and just some random screws from my mystery hardware box. Make sure that the screws you use are not longer than your frame is thick. You don’t want screw points coming out the front. You need screws with a dome or round head because the bottom of the head needs to be flat. Otherwise if the head is angled it wont hold the wire down. Even the few ounces of weight from earrings plus the weight of the wire will pull the wire lose.

Close up of the back

Measure and mark holes your holes, screw one screw between the wire strands, twist the outside end of the wire with the needle nose. When tightening the second ends, use the pliers to pull the wire taut while tightening the screws. A tighter wire keeps the earrings from sliding to the center. It only needs to hold a few ounces but the tighter, the better.

From the side

This is how the earrings hang on this frame. I usually have a small floating shelf up that is just big enough for the frame, but I am restraining myself from hanging anything to make less work when its time to prep walls for paint.

Here is the finished product. In my experience, a smaller frame than 8 by 10 is hard to work with, but a larger frame could definitely work. I might actually experiment with that in the future. For now, this keeps my collection neat and organized, but keep in mind that it is not kid friendly. One bump from a kid or if it gets knocked flat and you will be picking earrings from all over the place. I recommend keeping it high away from tiny hands. That’s why I like the floating shelf. I can place it as high as I want.

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Sometimes it’s Simple fixes: Spray paint old outdoor furniture

I am a believer in practicality. When old outdoor furniture was left on my front porch by the seller, I didn’t just want to get rid of it without seeing what I could do with it. The paint was faded lime green. I am not a green person so I looked at it every time I walked past it for over a month trying to decide what to do with it.

The original green

I knew I didn’t like this green. I wasn’t sure which direction to go with the new color, so I raided my spray paint cabinet. We tend to collect things from past projects because I can’t bare to just throw something away if i think I can use it later on and save myself a few dollars. Hence spray paint collection. I did light prep on the chairs with 80 grit to smooth down the bubbles and drops that were in the old green paint. It was chalky and smoothed out pretty easily. Then I grabbed a can of silver spray paint and went to work.

I started spraying with silver and I could tell pretty quickly that I would hate it. It was like Barbie puked all over this chair. Now I love a good sparkle, but this was too much for me. Plus all that glitter showed every little flaw in the chair. So I let it dry and went back to consulting my spray paint cabinet. I found a deep purple gloss that my middle son had insisted I get for a space project at school. He called it galaxy purple. It was the next fullest can that I had, and I figured it couldn’t be worse than Barbie silver so I gave it a shot.

Notice the silver chair drying in the background.

I sprayed up the second chair and I have to admit it was a little bright for me at first, but the gloss was much more the effect that I was looking for over the metallic sparkle paint. Next, I got to work taping up the table. It is a unique piece and its the reason I started tinkering with this project in the first place. The center is tile and configured in a petal shape. I have never seen anything like it and I wanted to play with it and see what I could do. That table in green just didn’t do it justice.

I used painters tape to cover the tile because i wanted to try and preserve as much of the white grout as I could. It had been spotted when the table was painted green years ago. A scrubbing sponge got a lot of it off. This tile top with the new purple color, i thought, looked really attractive. Wow!

I love how deep the purple turned after it dried. It even impressed my husband, who is not easily impressed by my whim projects. I knew I could go buy any color of spray paint I wanted, but purple is my favorite color so I wanted to give it a try. To give you an idea of how I use color, I use mostly neutral tones with pops of color. I add throw pillows or frame a fun water color my kids did at school. This purple furniture is not my norm but my son was my inspiration and told me from the beginning I needed to paint it purple. Let me tell you, it is absolutely worth going outside your comfort zone because the result was worth it.

Usually I am a planner so whim projects are harder for me to successfully complete. I feel like I got lucky in this case. The lesson I learned from this project was to take a risk. You never know how it could turn out and you could end up with a really nice focal piece. My favorite thing about this project is that, walking up to my house, this is the first thing you see. That just makes me smile. Good luck!

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What I learned about Soapstone Countertops

After buying our most recent house, I can say that this experience has thrown a handful of firsts into my path. One of them being the care and maintenance of soapstone counter tops. I remembered my dad explaining to me as a child about soapstone. He had a Kodiak bear statue made of soapstone that he got before I was born, when he was stationed in Alaska. I remembering him sitting watching tv with us, and he would hold it like a fidget toy. We are a family of fidgeters. When our brains are going we need to move even if it’s a subtle thing. Toes, hands, whatever. Drove the cat nuts. Anyway, he explained to me that he wanted to make the beautiful grains show nicely on this statue. I could see that with the ridges and valleys on this statue were getting more defined and the speckled pattern and the swirls were showing through the smoothed stone. He Explained how the stone changed when it was exposed to the oils from his hands and it brought out the beautiful colors and textures in the stone. Looking at my soapstone counters it took me a couple weeks to work out how I was going to care for them. Honestly, it took me that time to FIND my counters because moving is a lot of work. I obviously wasn’t going to rub them with my hands since I have easily 18 feet or more of black soapstone in my kitchen. Keep in mind that my counter tops are unsealed. There is no polish or sealant and my counters have that natural uneven look.

Here is one end of my counters before i applied food grade mineral oil.
Notice the splotches and the chalky look of the untreated soapstone.
This is the bar counter. It’s the first thing you see when walking into my kitchen. Before oiling it is chalky and blotchy.

I knew I needed a food grade oil that wouldn’t go rancid. I remembered that I had bought care products for some wood cutting boards a while back and already I had food grade mineral oil in my stash.

This is what I used on my counters. That oil spot was the amount i had used after i oiled easily 10 to 12 feet of countertop.

I love it when a story comes together! My black counters were chalky in places and really looked like they needed something. So I spent an afternoon cleaning and clearing and oiling my counters and let me tell you what a difference that made!

I applied a few drops of food grade mineral oil on this section of countertop.
I am impressed at how quickly the oil absorbed. I expected it to be greasy and leave oil marks on my clothes if I earned against it. It didn’t. It took about 10 minutes to absorb and it was touchable, but it needs to fully absorb for a day to stay nice looking.
After oiling the texture is a lot more even. The stone still has grains but the oil completely changes the look.

I learned that a little oil goes a long way. I used a drop or two for about every foot of counter. Don’t set anything on the oiled counters for a day after the application. Use a cotton rag. I tried paper towel it worked ok, but I liked how the cloth seemed to last a lot longer because it could hold more and spread it better if that makes any sense. I felt like I had to wipe a lot more with the paper towel. The next day the oil was pretty much absorbed and my counters were rich and shiny and beautiful. So much so that I have decided that my cabinets need to be repainted. But that is a post for another day. Fast forward a couple weeks and my counters still look amazing, However, I am going to apply another coat of oil here soon because a lot of it is absorbed and I am starting to see spots that are a little dulled out.

This is two weeks after I applied the mineral oil. You can see where something got set before the oil absorbed. The rest of the counter has had things on it too but not until after the oil was absorbed.

My counters get used constantly. Biggest lesson after oiling countertops is make sure that nothing that can pick up oil gets set on it for a day afterwords. Rubber feet on appliances is fine but paper, cloth, or wood will take the oil off before it can absorb into the stone. Once it is absorbed Into the counter (About a day or at least overnight) it stays lookin nice even after things get set on it.

To sum up, I learned two things. Unsealed soapstone needs oil. It looks better and fluids bead so it cleans well. DO NOT set anything absorbent on it for a day afterwards! You want the oil to absorb evenly. The more even it absorbs the less often you have to apply. Making less work for ourselves is something I strive to accomplish.

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