My Husband is Mr. Wizard

(credit to my dad on that titling for Dave)

So... this year was a Schwab Thanksgiving and we stayed in Chicago. I was contributing a sweet potato casserole (I needed to bake something in our new oven!) and a cranberry sauce, even though I couldn't find the much-hailed recipe I made a few years ago. Thursday morning I was running an 8K Turkey Trot, so I decided to make my sauce Wednesday night, allowing myself enough time to run, get ready, bake the casserole, and relax before dinner on Thursday. This is where my story takes a turn...

I started by putting water, orange juice and sugar in a saucepan to boil on our beautiful new stove top. Unused, as I was, to the efficiency of a new appliance, I turned away to begin prepping my other ingredients... a task that takes no time at all. Suddenly, there was a searing sound to my right, and I looked over to find my mixture not only boiling, but boiling over, and basically caramelizing onto the stove top. NOOOOOO! Obviously the appropriate response was to scream and sit on the floor crying hysterically. Without knowing it, I did exactly what I was supposed to do to attempt to clean it. This being a ceramic glass stove top, you should not use regular cleaners, or abrasive sponges. I didn't realize that, but I acted correctly anyway. I let it cool, and then put the cleaning solution it came with on the charred surface, and used both a dry paper towel, and the sponge it came with, to try to wipe it away, applying pressure to lift the burned parts. No luck. It. Was. Ruined. (So I repeated my initial reaction and cried on the floor, but also called Dave, out at a bar with friends, and cried hysterically to him about how I'd destroyed our brand new stove top on it's third use, and I'd never again cook for Thanksgiving).

Dave came home and took a look. He assured me that we'd figure it out. No one was hurt, it was under warranty, and if we couldn't fix it ourselves, we'd call the company and it would be resolved. I still felt like crap. I woke up Thursday morning and had an anxiety attack going into the kitchen. I left for my race, and little did I know... while I was running, Dave was researching and coming up with a plan. By the time I got home, he had several potential solutions for solving the problem. We left for Thanksgiving dinner (I did bake my casserole, and even finished my cranberry sauce), and when we got home, Dave got to work with Plan #1. SUCCESS!

I can now report that should you char your ceramic glass stove top with anything disgusting like burnt, boiling sugar and orange juice, all you need to do to fix it is follow these simple steps:

1. do not sob hysterically on the kitchen floor - there is a solution!
2. let the surface cool completely
3. generously pour olive oil over the entire affected area
4. and finally, using a razor blade, carefully, and very slowly, scrape the burned bits off. This will take a while, but it's like magic, so do it!

I swear, it looks like it just came out of the box. You'd never know that anything bad had ever happened, nor would you know that Dave could have his own science home-remedy show on Nickelodeon. But now you know! He's Mr. Wizard!

Tips and Tricks: DIY Cleaning Products

A great post from Design*Sponge has inspired me. Have to file this one away for future reference!

Spic & Span Floor Cleaner
The Goods

• 1 c. white vinegar
• 1/4 c. baking soda
• 6–7 drops essential oil of choice (I like to customize my floor cleaner scents to compliment the seasons, using lavender in spring, something citrusy in summer, cinnamon in autumn and pine scents in winter).

The Deal
1. Fill a bucket or your kitchen sink with hot water.
2. Add vinegar, baking soda and essential oils while filling.
3. Stir with a mop to disperse the baking soda in the water fully.
4. Mop floors per usual.

Make It Shine Furniture Polish
The Goods

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 10 drops lemon essential oil

The Deal
1. Combine olive oil and essential oil in a dark glass bottle.
2. Dab a cloth with the mixture and polish wood furniture per usual.
3. Use within one month, making more as needed.

Odor Out Fabric Freshener
The Goods

• Baking soda

The Deal
1. Simply sprinkle liberally all over area rugs or carpets and onto upholstered furniture.
2. Leave to sit for at least one hour and then vacuum away.

Green Room Mist
The Goods

• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. vodka
• 20 drops essential oil of choice (may be a single oil or a combination of several; for autumn celebrations, I like a blend of cinnamon, clove, ginger and orange, while a blend of balsam pine, juniper and rosemary go well with winter festivities)

The Deal
1. Combine all ingredients together in a refillable spray bottle.
2. Shake for each use and spray as needed.


Read the whole post on Design*Sponge by clicking here. 

Continuing to Catch You Up... First Projects

Our first non-move-in weekend in our first home was a much-welcomed three-day weekend. Happy Labor Day... and Happy Wallpaper Peeling! Actually, the first project was figuring out why we didn't have hot water in the master bathroom sink.

Dave quickly discovered that the hot water was flowing, it just wasn't getting to the faucet. After a little handy work (and multiple trips to various -- maybe five? -- hardware stores), we determined that the old parts in the pipework couldn't even be replaced, so the faucet and it's related parts needed to be replaced. Off to Home Depot. Our first stylistic decision for our home! Dave got to work, and not too terribly long after, our first successful makeover!

(hard at work)

(super handy)

(voila! new faucet!)

A few other quick-fix master bathroom solutions were accomplished as well:

(new shower head)

(new flusher)

(recaulking the toilet)

Next Project: Wallpaper... Because there is so much of it, we knew we needed to be economical. The night after we closed, we came up here just to make sure the keys worked. It all got very real very fast, and the looming tasks were overwhelming. Our approach had to be to figure out what we could do, and what was priority, and then to chip slowly away at the projects, doing as much as we can do ourselves, but remaining honest about what is over our heads, and not letting the totality of the projects freak us out. Easier said than done sometimes, but having spent many hours watching HGTV, I was pretty sure that we could definitely figure out how to do the wallpaper. Even if it takes a long time, we can do it. Pulling at a corner of nearly every different sample, we quickly discovered that in most of the rooms, the paper just came right off in whole sheets. This applies to both bathrooms, and the kitchen. In these cases, though, the lingering issue would be not the wallpaper itself, but the glue residue. In the front hall, the wallpaper was stuck on pretty seriously. This would require a different approach. Thank you, Internet.

(Ace no-rinse option = great!)

I researched for hours over multiple days, and came up with an approach for our two different situations. For the glue residue situation, we needed: a solution called TSP (or a TSP-like solution -- this is a super-cleaner, meant mainly for walls and other such surfaces); hot water; sponges; crazy arm strength. You mix one part solution with four parts hot water, and scrub the wall. It works. My forearms will look like Popeye's when I'm done.

(fabric softener and water = magic)

For the front hall, I found multiple sources that said to skip the scoring you read or have heard about, skip the steamers or the hair dryers. All you need is a simple solution of equal parts liquid fabric softener and warm water; a spray bottle; and time. As long as you can get up even a tiny corner of the top layer of the wallpaper, you don't need to score it. If you have difficulty, a little sandpaper will get you started. Then you simply spray on the mixture, let it settle in for about three seconds, and peel. Thanks to my sister in-law, Lynn, for her volunteered hours of peeling support Saturday night, the whole front hall was done by Sunday.

(industrial-size garbage bag-o-wallpaper scrapings)

This was actually a really cathartic process. Unlike most fix-it projects, which look worse before they start shaping up, this is instant-satisfaction. You are seeing progress immediately, and it automatically looks better (especially in a case like the Museum of Historic Wallpaper Samples). Even though the paint job under the black paisley resembles lime sorbet, it's a huge relief to see this:

(We honestly didn't know that closet was there at first)

Lanie was obviously a huge help all weekend: