Oh good. Sometimes taking up all that vinyl is an absolute nightmare.

Man I'm tired.


A week and a half later and I'm almost through. The thought dawned on me tonight that after I get through exhausting myself with the renovating, I'm going to have to move all of my heavy junk.


BTW, the tile went down nicely. Thanks to the pointers I got from Phil and some of you others, I was actually able to impress a guy in our church that lays carpet with an occational tile job thrown in. Even the outfit the former owner hired to lay the carpet to replace the stuff she caught on fire with a cig were quite impressed when they found out it was my first time to do tile.

The different tone border with all of the center tiles at 45 degrees to the border made for lots of cuts but I only ruined 1 tile with all the cutting. I did the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom bath, and a hearth in front of the fireplace. Since I allowed extra for breakage, I will have plenty to use in the main bath and entryway when I decide to tackle those projects (After we are in).

One observation though. Nicotine is GROSS!!! The buildup on the walls, blinds, ceilings, etc is sickening. Castrol SuperClean does a great job removing it but still - YUCK. I could have taken a piece of printer paper and stuck it to the wall of the master bath just using the gunk on the walls. People who smoke - that stuff is in your lungs! It's no wonder you cough all the time.

I bought an office building that I am remodeling and all the doors and trim are a very dark stain. I don't want to replace everything so I need to be able to match the stain, but I can't see anything to get that dark.

I bought pine door trim and even after 3 coats, it still does not even come close. I am also using the darkest stain I can find.

What am I doing wrong? Or is there something that I should put down before I stain on the wood?

If you're staining pine (or any other soft wood) you can use a wood conditioner. I use one made by minwax and you buy it anywhere you can buy stain.

To stain that dark you really have to lay it on thick and let it sit for a while (before wiping it off and evening it out), even longer than the directions say.

Bat termination.

This guy I know, who is far, far away and unrelated, has discovered that there are unwanted mamals squating in his attic. A winter warming period has awakened them from their slumber and they are scratching around and can be heard working their way down the walls....from what he says.

Is there anything that can help "silence" these creatures....and help them hybernate for a really, really long time?

Moth balls? Anything that will kill them?

I'll be sure to pass on any tips to this guy.

I may sound like a freaking hippy here, but bats can be a good thing. What we've done in the past with bats is to actually build bat houses, set them up nearby, figure out where the bats are getting in, scare the bats out, seal up the point of entry, then let the bats build a home nearby. Of course, mosquitos are worse down here, so we like to keep any skeeter killing creatures we can alive and nearby.

This guy is aware of the benefits these creatures provide, however he is also aware that these creatures carry a high rate of Rabies infection, and if one is found inside the home, say after a night and you're not sure, one should get the rabbies shots, which aren't what they used to be, but aren't pleasant. This guy also has a small child whom his wife is concerned about.
While the creatures haven't actually gotten into the living space, its a possibility and this guy would just assume they reside somewhere else.

This guy has 2 scars on the palm of his right hand where he was bitten in the night by one of these particular creatures. He was "too macho" and didn't get the rabbies shots but was lucky, because a month later, a 20 year old in a nearby town died from the same thing.

Yeah, that's not too cool, especially with children. I'd probably be up for the extermination as well. Anyway, I'm not sure what type of poison to use. Hopefully he finds something.

Uh - put out a bowl of antifreeze.

I'm sure rat poison will kill them. Getting that attic sealed up is probably a good idea.

Don't they leave the "caves" at dusk in search of food? Couldn't you seal it up an hour after sunset and they'd be stuck on the outside?

Yeah. That's pretty much what you're supposed to do. They also make one-way door things where once they fly out, they can't come back in. The problem, of course, is finding the place where they're getting in and out. You're supposed to do that by going out at dusk and watching for them to leave en masse. Unfortunately, if they're there right now, they're probably holed up for the winter and not really leaving at night. They may not leave at night until summertime. I think they do a hibernation type thing in the winter. In that case, it's probably going to kill them if they're evicted during the winter anyway. Might actually be more humane to just poison them.


Oh, one thing. He may want to keep it hush hush. Evidently it's illegal to poison bats in most states.

Ah. I didn't know they hibernate. I thought hibernation was a deep sleep. Shouldn't they be quiet then? Heh.

I'm not really sure about their hibernation. I'm just assuming they do because a lot of our caves around here get closed for the wintertime in an effort to save the bat populations. They don't want people going in and disturbing them in the winter.

I don't think they would leave their home in the winter, as there aren't any bugs to be had outside.