keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[miss_thenorth]

Does anyone know how to get dog urine smell out of hardwood floors?

Straight white vinegar. Let sit and then mop up.Don't let it sit long enought o overly saturate the wood, and hopefully it won't wreck the finish, but urine odour are the worst. Anything you buy will be vinegar based. do not use anything ammonia based

I just saw that, now i have to go back and read.

 

[keljonma]

Thanks, MTN! We did try the white vinegar straight. Unfortunately, the floors have no finish on them at all. The floors are the original wood planks from 1880..... never taken care of, usually covered by cheap carpeting. But when the sun shines in the room, the smell is really evident. We think it may go all the way down to the main floor studs.



We had quite a day here yesterday going from 40 and calm sunshine to 40 with 60 mph winds. Our sun room has no windows in it; just the outer storm windows. We don't know where the original inner windows are.

I went to the church yesterday to do my kitchen job. I was gone a couple hours and then spent 30 minutes at the library to do some paperwork for prayer cards for church. Anyway, I was going to stay longer, but a person I rarely see showed up at the library. Whenever I see her, I have 3 to 5 hours tied up in listening. Not a Christian thing to say or do - but I avoided her and left the library for home. Well, it turns out her showing up at the library was a providential thing.

The winds were going 60 mph, and one of the sun room storm windows was actually blown out - the hook/eye pins that were holding it in were torn out by the wind. The storm is a two pane window (one up and one down) to match the double hung windows on the house. Naturally one the window panes broke when the window fell to the ground. I got home to find Titan pacing inside the house and barking. We had put up those plastic window kits and they were blowing in the wind, the curtains were off the rod and on a chair - and if that wasn't bad enough - THEN IT STARTED SNOWING! I got out the duct tape and struggled against the wind to get the plastic back up. It took about 30 minutes. I kept praying for God to stop the wind long enough for me to get the plastic up. Then I went out and picked up the broken glass and tried to find another piece of glass to fit the opening somewhere on the property. Unfortunately, all the other windows seemed to be a smaller size. So I measured the frame to get a piece of replacement glass at the hardware store. I didn't have a lot of time because TR was at work while this happened.... and I had to go pick him up at work. So I quickly measured, jotted down the measurements and after picking him up at work, we stopped at the hardware store. TR *HATES* when I have bad news when I pick him up at work.

We got home from the hardware $12 poorer. It was then that TR found that the frame is not the same size all around, so the glass was cut too long at one corner. He found that out when he tried to fit the glass into the opening and the darn glass cracked. So, TR went around the house looking for another storm window to put up until we could get the original storm window figured out. Luckily, one of the downstairs bedroom windows had a storm window (and an inside window) that was the same size. And after a bit of struggle (learning new words) with the window, we were able to get it out and out to the front of the house. After learning some *more* new words, we were able to get the storm window installed. Do you know the side of the caulking says not for use when below 40? I think they must mean if you don't have a 3 foot by 4 foot whole in the house when it is 20 and winds are blowing snow into the house at 60 mph!!!!!

Today I put up new plastic after finishing the caulking job around the window. I am glad that is done for now. This morning it was 18 and the winds are still VERY brisk! Winter is definitely upon us! Of course, the weather is calling for 40 weather again on Sunday.

This coming Sunday is 2nd Sunday Potluck Luncheon and afterwards, any interested church members go Christmas caroling through the community, stopping at the rehab and geriatric centers plus at homes of some of our eldery members. Pat is still recouping from foot surgery, so I will be in charge of set up and clean up for the potluck luncheon. TR does not have to work this week-end (yeah!), so he has volunteered to help me. So we won't be going caroling.

This coming Tuesday is the Christmas Turkey dinner at Christian Cafe. I volunteered to make the bread stuffing/dressing for 150 people. I have a large bin of onions in my mud room/entry way. There are 2 boxes of assorted breads in my dining room. The celery and 2 pounds of butter will be at church in tomorrow's delivery. I will sure be BUSY on Monday!

TR and I have been stripping wallpaper (a very long story) in the upstairs hallway. The original walls are plaster and lath and we are probably going to have to replace at least one wall with drywall because the p&l is in such terrible condition. The wall has buckled and the plaster pellets are crumbling. Old houses are fun! I did not take any *Before* pictures, but we will take pictures afterwards.

I guess I better get onto some research on plaster and lath walls.......

Stay warm!

 

[sylvie]

Oh, I probably missed you again! REALLY miss you on the boards!
Hope you are staying warm!!!

 

[Farmfresh]

I guess I better get onto some research on plaster and lath walls.......

Stay warm!

What do you want to know? I have practically redone every wall in this old house and am well on my way to a PHD (piled high and deep ) in lathe and plaster!

First of all try to save the lathe if possible. This way you can buy a thin 1/4 inch dry wall and make it all come out all right. If you take off the lathe as well as the plaster then you will need to buy the heavy 5/8 inch to replace it. Other wise the corners won't quite meet right.

 

[keljonma]

Oh, I probably missed you again! REALLY miss you on the boards!
Hope you are staying warm!!!

Thanks, sylvie! I am missing this connection. Hopefully, we will get the internet hooked up by January.

We are doing well and haven't had any more incidents since we replaced the one storm window. The weather has been strange compared to the past few years - snow - up to the 40's and snow melt - rain - snow - repeat.

Our gas bill last month was $29, which was an actual reading. This month it is $148 and it is an estimated reading. I am going to call Dominion East Ohio and find out how they got that high an estimate. We did not change anything - house still at 60 at the highest temp. Hopefully, we can get that adjusted.

 

[keljonma]

I guess I better get onto some research on plaster and lath walls.......

Stay warm!

What do you want to know? I have practically redone every wall in this old house and am well on my way to a PHD (piled high and deep ) in lathe and plaster!

First of all try to save the lathe if possible. This way you can buy a thin 1/4 inch dry wall and make it all come out all right. If you take off the lathe as well as the plaster then you will need to buy the heavy 5/8 inch to replace it. Other wise the corners won't quite meet right.

FF, we have one or two walls that are buckled. There were 4 layers of wallpaper we removed from one wall. The plaster is completely crumbled behind the one wall. We have not touched the lath at all, hoping to save the complete wall if at all possible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[keljonma]

TR was off this week-end, so we went to the Koinonia Ultreya (Christmas potluck and Chinese Auction) on Saturday and to 8:30 worship service at church on Sunday.

We had lots of fun! Today we delivered 4 hotel pans of bread stuffing/dressing for the turkey dinner at Christian Cafe tonight. TR & I are getting ready to leave the library and do something fun, since today is his only day off for the next 10 days.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Farmfresh]

FF, we have one or two walls that are buckled. There were 4 layers of wallpaper we removed from one wall. The plaster is completely crumbled behind the one wall. We have not touched the lath at all, hoping to save the complete wall if at all possible.

Thanks for the help.

Is the basic wall structure still good? In our old house we had a wall in the living room where the roof had leaked down onto the studs and turned them to MUSH! We had to gut that wall and basically rebuild it.

If it is just the plaster coming loose, simply scrape it off of the lath with a scraper or even a shovel. If it is an interior wall you just replace the plaster with 1/4 inch sheet rock. If it is an exterior wall I remove the lath at the top and bottom of the wall so that I can slip in new insulation. Then I cover the lath with 6 mil sheet plastic as a vapor barrier and then reattach the removed lath and sheet rock. (I live in a primarily cool season area - hot season areas, like Florida for example, should place the vapor barrier on the outside of the wall.)

 

[keljonma]

FF thanks for the advice. I have written it down. It appears that the lath is still intact and in good shape. Just the plaster has crumbled. We are going to wait for a while to get this repair done - there are some floor issues that need addressed on the main floor of the house, and the buckled/cracked wall is upstairs (no one sees it but us)

 

[keljonma]

We have been busy - getting some stuff done around the house. TR replaced a portion of a ceiling that was falling down due to a roof leak. The roof has been replaced, and we have had enough rain to determine that it is no longer leaking. So he cut away the bad portion and replaced it with drywall. We just have to tape/mud it and then we can get that room painted and something done with it.

I have been working on projects and doing some Christmas baking. I need to get busy on the denium braided rug, which is still sitting in its bag.

Last Sunday was 2nd Sunday lunch and TR and I were responsible for getting it set up in time. TR took the lasagne out of the oven and dropped it and kicked it across the church kitchen floor (most of it stayed in the pan, thankfully! And no one saw him do it but me ). So now he talks about drop-kick lasagne as his new dinner creation!

One early morning last week, TR woke me about 4 am to say there was a wild dingo in the bedroom. He keeps a small keychain flashlight on the table next to his side of the bed. He was flashing that thing all around the room, but I couldn't see anything.

The night before last, we were sitting in bed reading. I looked up to see a wild dingo come from under the closet door into the bedroom. It looked up and saw me and then ran back inside. A moment later, two wild dingos ran partially into the room, ran about a bit like they couldn't find the closet door, and then ran back to the safety of the hole in the wall in the closet. So I got up and searched the spare bedroom for a piece of hardware cloth. I couldn't find it, so I pushed a mini-blind slat in front of the hole and held the slat up with a pair of my shoes. Yesterday TR put out some wild dingo poison in the closet and around the upstairs and in the basement. These are places Titan doesn't go, so we should be safe using the poison. I don't know where the "wild dingo" name came from in TR's head..... but it sure sounds nicer than a mouse in the house.

We are looking forward to 3 services on Christmas Eve - 6:30pm, 9pm and 11pm. The early service is the children's Christmas pagent, 9pm will be the Cantata choir and 11pm is candlelight service. This will be our third year of attending all 3 services.

TR has to work Christmas Day, but we are hoping he will be able to leave at 11am, so we can get to my sister C's house for Christmas Day dinner.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!