Kathy Zengolewicz

Most times the vinyl will pull off in a clean strip, but thin vinyl will rip, in that case try to pull off as much as possible before it tears. Continue to pull the thin vinyl off until the only thing left on the wall is the backing paper and glue. The backing paper is porous and will soak up the wallpaper stripper for an easy removal.

When you mix the wallpaper stripper, use warm or hot water in a regular compression sprayer. Put the water in first and then the stripper to prevent the mixture from foaming. Cover your floors with a drop cloth to protect them from the spray. Wallpaper stripper has been know to damage certain floors, so take the appropriate steps and be cautious.

Work with small, 3 or 4 foot sections, soaking the paper with the spray from the floor to the sealing. For heavily papered walls you may need to spray a second or third time. When you get all of the paper removed, you’ll need to go over the entire area with a clean rag and warm water to remove the excess paste that will be on the wall.

Once you have your walls cleaned, you can wash the baseboards and floor and you’ll be ready to repaper or paint.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

The first thing you need to do is to stop any leaks or seepage from you basement floor or walls. Seepage can be caused by any cracks in your cement, the house settling may be a cause and any water pressure that may have built up outside and is forcing the water through the walls.

If there are leaks or crack, those have to be repaired before waterproofing. You can fill any hairline cracks with the waterproofing mixture. Any cracks larger than about 1/8” need to repaired first before taking further steps.

There are epoxy and latex cement mixes for repairing small jobs. For any bigger cracks consider using a mortar mix to fill in the holes and cracks. If outside pressure is forcing water through the wall, you may want to consult a professional.

If there are no cracks in the walls or floor then you can start to apply a waterproofing compound directly to the walls. To apply the coating use a stiff brush and circular motions. Take you time and fill every pore in the wall.

Apply the coating to the bottom first, to the top and then back to the bottom applying additional layers. When the coating is dry, soak it thoroughly with water and let it set overnight. Wet it down thoroughly again and apply a second coat of waterproofing mixture while the wall is wet. Use the same techniques for brushing on the second coat that you did for the first.

Always use two coats when waterproofing. One coat will not seal the area adequately enough.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Now, my children all have their own homes and sometimes its hard to get everyone together, at one time, under the same roof. Three of my children have growing families and it is tough for them to set aside time to be with their siblings. All five of my children have always had a close relationship and I didn’t want to see that end. I knew I had to find a solution for this, so I put together a family game night.

I understand that at times money is tight, so we try to keep our get-togethers as inexpensive as possible. We have decided to set one night a month aside to gather, snack and just enjoy each others company. We started this process a couple of months ago and it seems to be working well. Just the fact that they can bring their children to the family game nights helps. They get to go out for the evening and not worry about paying a sitter.

Sometimes keeping your house in tip top shape means keeping it filled with good times and great company. Fill you life with friends and family. Start a tradition of keeping in touch with the ones you love. If you are not a game playing family, that’s okay. You don’t have to play games, you just have to make it a point to see each other regularly and enjoy the company.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

How do you find a reliable babysitter? How do you know if that sitter is the right person to sit with your children? This is a dilemma that most parents face at one time or another, so I’d like to give you a few tips that may be helpful.

You need to find someone who is reliable, responsible, patient and levelheaded. Okay, agreed, but where do you find this person?

The first place to look is, obviously, in your own family. Do you have a niece or nephew that you trust and who needs to make a few dollars? If so, that’s great, problem solved.

But what if that is not the case and you need to depend on a stranger?  Well, the first thing you need to do is assess the situation. How old is the child or children? How much care are they going to need? A younger child is going to be of more concern. Older children can at least let you know if something is wrong. So, you need to find someone that you trust and that can be tough.

Should age or maturity be a factor in choosing your babysitter? I would think that maturity would trump age. I know 12 year olds that are more mature than some 30 year olds.

Finding the right babysitter will take some research.  Going beyond family, check into your network of friends. Some may have teenagers willing to sit for you for a price. Also, check out you local senior citizen center. They may be willing to sit for you if the children will be in bed or at least prepared for bed.

One more place to search would be your neighborhood daycare center. They may have some workers who need to make a little extra money and are willing to sit for kids in the neighborhood.

No matter which way you go, you will be apprehensive about the care your children receive until you get more accustomed to their care providers. So, I suggest that you take the time to get to know them.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Most houseplants were originally from warm climates. They have adapted to needing low levels of light and that makes them suitable to conditions found in an average home. However, indoor plants can have an adverse effect on people and pets. Here are a few of the most popular house plants and what risks they may pose.

Kathy Zengolewicz

The Aloe Vera plant is commonly known as the burn plant. When you use the Aloe Vera plant for a burn, make sure to cut away the skin and the inner layer of yellow juice which can act as an irritant. Only use the gel in the plant to soothe burns.

Chrysanthemums, or Mums as they are commonly known can also work as an irritant. There are two types of Mums, a garden variety which is a hearty plant and an exhibition type which needs a lot of care. You want the garden variety for you house. The Mum has seeds from which an insecticide is extracted. But they are more dangerous to fish than mammals or birds.

Poinsettia are a nursery plant that you mainly see at Christmas time. At one time they were considered extremely toxic, but that was based mainly on hearsay. The Poinsettia plant can make you nauseous and sometime cause a rash if you ingest a leaf.

English Ivy is a vine that grows indoors and out. I has been known to cause poisoning in people and pets. If ingested it can cause difficulty with breathing, convulsions, vomiting, paralysis and coma.

Azalea plants are very popular house plants. They provide foliage all year round with beautiful flowers and they also clean the air we breathe. Again, they can be toxic if a piece of the plant is swallowed.

So, be cognizant where small children and pets are concerned and you will have many years to enjoy the beauty that plants will bring to you.

Take care. I’ll talk to you later!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

I love to listen to music and dance, well it’s what I call dancing, while I dust and straighten up. I am sure that you have mismatched socks around the house so put on aside for dusting. Spray the sock with furniture polish, put it on like a mitten and dust your lamp tables, chair and table legs, knick knacks, etc. When dusting always dust from the top down.

Use a bucket of bleach water (but be very careful, you don’t want a spill) and a clean cloth, or Clorox disinfecting wipes for cleaning down you light switch plates, phones, door jambs, etc. In winter months it’s especially necessary to wipe your door knobs to rid them of virus and flu germs.

Save the vacuuming for last. Using a handheld vacuum for the chair and sofa cushions is a lot easier than dragging the larger vacuum around. Handheld vacuums are great for picking up crumbs and dust in between cleanings. Some housekeepers vacuum multiple times during the week, especially if there is a pet in the house, but once or twice a week should be enough in most circumstances.

Keep the clutter to a minimum on the coffee table, keep books and magazines in a neat pile. Fold afghans or sofa throws when you finish with them and give any pillows a quick fluff. Throw out old newspapers and put video equipment away after playing. If you do these things daily, you home will never be in a state of disarray.

Finally, make sure to have a good sturdy door mat for wiping your feet. The mats made of artificial grass do the best jobs of getting debris from shoes so you track less dirt inside.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Hang a quilt on the wall behind your headboard. It’s a simple step that looks great. You don’t have to match the quilt with your bedspread, but do keep the same color scheme.

Mix and match some pillows to brighten up the room. Your décor should express your personality so find a favorite print and use a dollar store picture frame and you have instant art for your bedroom walls.

Not a print kind of person? Take pictures of your children or other loved ones, yes that does include you pets, and frame those photos. Make a collage of those pics. I like that kind of art!

Redecorate or replace your lampshades to correspond with your new décor, or better yet, install wall lamps. That will keep some of the clutter off of your bedside or night table.

Change the position of your bed. Placing your bed on an angle, where the corner of the room is in the middle of your headboard, that gives a unique semblance to the room.

If you’re a snuggler, top your bed with a soft down comforter. If you just want to inject some color into the room do it with a few accessories like a new lampshade or knick knacks.

You can add a homey look to your space by draping your quilt or comforter over the headboard or footboard using your bed as a quilt stand.

So, you see there are many easy and inexpensive ways to change a room using your imagination. Have fun trying some of these suggestions.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

sxc.hu

When you use scouring soap pads like Brillo or SOS, if you’re like me you never seem use the entire pad and it sits on your sink and rusts. From now on when you buy soap pads cut them in half and use half at a time. It keeps your sink cleaner and your soap pads last twice as long.

Here’s a great tip for removing blood from fabric. Take a little bit of milk in a saucer and an old toothbrush. Pour a little milk on the stain and brush with the toothbrush. Rinse in cold water and launder as usual. All of the blood will be gone.

Do you have a lot of artificial plants at home that get very dusty? Try this: spray the leaves of the plant with hair spray. That will keep the dust from accumulating.

Here is a tip to save you time, especially if you have a two or three story home. When emptying waste baskets in your bathroom, bedroom or family room, before putting the clean bag in the basket, put in a few extra bags and a fabric softener sheet. That will save you time and keep your baskets fresh. If you don’t like using fabric softener sheets then take a man’s old white handkerchief and put a little bit of lemon, almond or vanilla extract on it and place that in your basket to keep it fresh smelling.

Have a coffee bean grinder? A great way to clean that is to grind some rice in it. The rice will make it fresh and clean.

When you store left over spaghetti sauce in a plastic bowl it is hard to get that stain out. Try making a paste of cream of tartar and water. It takes a little bit of elbow grease, but it will remove the stain.

I’ll have more household tips for you in the coming weeks.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

sxc.hu

There are plenty of commercial product on the market to extinguish offensive smells, but I would rather use ordinary everyday solutions.

If you have an offensive smell in your house you will need to first find out where it is coming from before you can dispel it. Lots of times that is easy to do, especially when the odors come from cooking. The worst cooking smells come from broccoli, cabbage and fish. If you set a small bowl of regular vinegar on your kitchen counter it will absorb those odors. I have a cooktop range so I place the bowl of vinegar close to the range top.

Make sure that your garbage is emptied daily. Rotting garbage is one of the worse smells. Clean your trash can regularly with a strong detergent and rinse. After drying place a sprinkling of baking soda in the bottom, before putting in a bag, to keep it stench free.

To keep your kitchen cabinet smelling fresh, place a couple of vanilla extract soaked cotton balls in a sachet bag and place in the back of the cabinet. I also place a sachet bag in my freezer. Don’t like the smell of the vanilla, then use lemon, orange or peppermint extract. It will keep your cupboard fresh for weeks.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

I remember the year we purchased our first home.  I decided that I should host Christmas dinner.  We had my parents and my husband’s parents over.  I didn’t realize all the work that would go into hosting the meal, opening presents, and family time. 

I learned a lot that day and now I certainly don’t take it for granted when I visit someone else’s house.  When I go to someone else’s house for a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, I try to offer to make something such as sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, or whatever they request.

If you are hosting this year’s dinner, here are some tips to help you not to stress.  Plan ahead so that you can enjoy being with your family.

Two weeks prior to Thanksgiving:

• Plan your menu. 
• Decide if anything can be made ahead and frozen.
• Get a final count of who’s coming.
• Assign menu items to those who want to help.  Never turn down help from anyone who offers.  If you don’t know right then what they can do then say, “I would love for you to help.  I don’t know right now exactly what I need help with.  Can I call you back in a couple of days and left you know?”
• Make your shopping list.
• Make your to-do list.  Prioritize your list, schedule, and delegate.

One week prior to Thanksgiving:

• Gather any recipes that you need.
• Go over your shopping list again and compare it with your recipes to insure that you don’t forget anything.
• Shop early for groceries and avoid the rush.
• Get your children to help with decorations.  They can even make place mats with turkeys or turkeys from pinecones.  You can insert place cards in the pine cones.
• Cook and freeze any menu items that you can.
• Clean bathrooms, living and dining rooms.  Clean house of clutter.

A few days before Thanksgiving:

• Put your turkey in the refrigerator to thaw.  Most birds usually take a few days to thaw.  Make sure you put a dish under it to catch any drippings.
• Buy any last minute perishables you might need.

Day before Thanksgiving:

• If possible, set the table.
• Make whatever dishes you can.  I like to make my sweet potato casserole the day before and refrigerate it.  The day of the dinner I heat up the casserole and add the marshmallows during the last 10 minutes of cooking. 
• Straighten up the house.

Thanksgiving Day:

• Finish any last minute cooking:  turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc.
• Enjoy yourself.
• Be thankful!

Do you have any tips to add to this list?

image sxc.hu

Post from: Keeping the Castle