New York Renovator

I cannot believe that it is already August!! Where did the summer go? I still have to take the kids out to the beach, as I promised, before we get back into the school routine. We homeschool (more like an umbrella school, where the kids learn lessons at home and attend school once a week to take tests), but we stick to a “typical” school schedule, with summer vacation and breaks for holidays. I have four kids with stuff everywhere! It takes me a good four to five days to collect all the books, supplies, backpacks, and other stuff… and then I have to label it all! I label everything mostly for my sake, because I can never remember who has what backpack or pencil box or calculator. My grandmother labeled things for me when I attended elementary school. She used the old DYMO labeling device– it was a mechanical, manual labeler with a dial for letters. When you pressed the handle, letters were embossed onto a colored plastic strip. Remember them? Such technology was amazing to a young gradeschool kid! And those labels were very handy because I tended to lose track of things… :S

I find myself continuing the tradition. But I don’t use those old plastic strips anymore (they always fell off after a while, anyway). Nowadays DYMO uses modern technology, ink and has some beautiful color labels to choose from. Kids love special things with their names on them– I know I did!I love the new little handheld thing– it’s like a mini-printer and you can put labels anywhere. I think it’s perfect for back to school. These labels are also great for clothes hangers, toolboxes, bins, spice jars– anything! And it’s not like using permanent marker, either– if you are like me then you constantly reuse containers (or change your mind about what’s going in them). I have always had lots of black scribbles over the lids. With DYMO labels, you can just print out a new label and place it over the old one. Nice!

I’ve been round and round the renovation circle, and believe me when I say that your first and most indispensable tool is a solid pair of steel toe boots. I will not allow allow my kids to help me work when they have only their sneakers. They absolutely MUST have boots, and the boots must be constructed well. There are too many rusty nails and too many accidents waiting to happen without being prepared and wearing the proper footwear. Really, even if it’s just a simple painting job, proper footwear is essential. Why spend $300 on a new miter saw and then scrimp when it comes to safety gear and safe footwear? Prices are not terribly high (especially when you consider them as part of your tool set), and they will save you countless moments of frustration and pain! Take my work for it: get the boots!

I have heard that ant problems are bi-annual. I don’t know if that is true, but we did have an ant problem every other year, until three years ago, when ants stopped coming. They must have been storing up for this year, because they are back in FULL force. I can’t seem to keep the little grease-ants out of my kitchen, and we have an invasion of carpenter ants all along the back wall of the house. Sigh.

I’m not into chemicals or pesticides, so I’ve been trying this experiment I had heard of– cornmeal. Ants can’t digest it, so it kills them. Of course, if there are yummier things hanging around (like jelly or sugar crystals), cornmeal is nothing to them. So be sure to clear the area of goodies, and lay a pinch or two of cornmeal in various places for a few weeks.

Does this really work?! I read on an Entrecarders blog, Super Sabra, that Listerine will repel mosquitoes. A guy bought the spray-bottle kind of Listerine and sprayed his deck. Mosquitoes no more! If this really works, I think I will be ecstatic! I hate using the chemical pesticides. I wonder if Listerine would also repel the nasty blackflies that fill our New York summer skies? I am terribly allergic to their bites, and unfortunately the nasty devils ruin my outdoors. Also, would spraying Listerine on my young trees repel deer?? This could be the start of something completely amazing! If any of you have tried this, please leave a comment.

I read a story at Lucky Girl blog today. She discovered a wasp making a nest behind her car’s gas tank door. She didn’t have anything handy besides the gas in the gas nozzle. She did manage to kill the wasp, but she used some (precious) gas. And God forbid the wasp or pieces of the nest should ever spill into the fuel tank! You’d clog up your fuel line! It got me thinking about killing wasps in an emergency like that.

We have a TON of wasps around here. I wrote a post about The Mother of all Wasp Nests a few months ago. The nests can get bigger then a basketball, and there can be millions of wasps buzzing around. Because the back side of our house gets so blazing hot, and because the eaves of our house are so long and pitched, the wasps LOVE it around here. I could estimate that we have about two dozen small (but growing) wasp nests on the house right now. For outdoors, I have to use the toxic spray to kill them. I don’t like killing the wasps, because they are actually very beneficial to the garden. Wasps eat the nasty caterpillars and larvae that chew up the green plants I’m trying to grow. However some people are horribly allergic to stinging insects and have to wear medical id tags in case of being stung! I’m not about to take any chances with the pests around the home. Even though you leave wasps alone, they will leave you alone (for the most part), I do not like them around the house, so we spray the ones outside.

But the wasps also find a way of getting inside the house. Whether through an open door, or through the multitudes of openings my rickety old house has to the outdoors, they get in. We have a few nests INSIDE the house, between the exterior siding and the interior plaster walls (in the studs). They manage to get in the house, especially on chilly days.

What to do when you’ve got wasps inside the house? I have a can of hairspray for such an event. The hairspray hardens their wings and renders them useless. Be sure to use the super-duper kind of hairspray, otherwise the stuff won’t harden fast enough and you’re going to be doing battle with an angry wasp.

I don’t know what it is. I have this thing for vinegar lately. I’ve experimented with it in the laundry (makes clothes soft and removes odors), boiling potatoes with it, and cleaning car windshields with it. Last week I dumped a little in my soapy dishwater (about 1/2 cup; I wash dishes by hand). It really works to cut grease! It also removes baked-on gunk much easier. Try it and see!