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Further Adventures of a Home Owner
Dec. 15th, 2009 10:33 pmOn vacation this past week (and last week as well), so I thought I'd spend a little time cleaning up here and there. Today, I tackled the front room. This is the immediate entry inside the front door, and is a place that collects detritus, much like the sand bar and eddies collect trash -- er, flotsam. Over the past few months, coats have piled up, papers have gotten to lying around in decorative displays, and the dogs keep practicing canine archeology (i.e., digging for forgotten items of food, or even just items that might be food because they are in plastic bags). It started out easily enough; papers are sortable into "Keep" and "Recycle", and detritus is sortable into "Keep" and "Trash". Thus, two boxes were recycled into paper recycling containers and thereby disposed, along with a bag of garbage. Around noonish, I reached the piano; it is a visible landmark from afar, but had been unobtainable by normal ingress for some time. I worried about hidden tribes setting ambushes, but none were found and the piano appeared to be only dusty, so all was well. However, next to the piano lay the old toy box, a large container which started out its long career as my toy box (back in the dim mists of time), then became my luggage for college dormitory storage of valuable, and then general storage on my travels. It returned to its roots for our son, and during the recent Remodeling/Renovation, it was moved from his room to the front room. I discovered at this time that one hinge had been ripped out completely from its hold, with all three screws out of the wood entirely. Luckily for a certain young person, the hinge was not bent, and the other hinge was still in good working order.
Being the moderately organized person that I am, I knew I could find wood screws in the shop, so I diverted from my cleaning to fix the box. Three #8 screws later, all was well again. I was now in a fixing mode rather than a cleaning mode, so I shifted over a few feet to the doorway, and put in a nail to hang the plastic wreath (greenery and poinsettia leaves, all fake).
Checking email, I saw a reminder that tonight would be a Boy Scout Court of Honor, and that Honey had requested a potato dish for the potluck. She keeps forgetting that I don't eat potatoes anymore, but whatever -- she bought the items, I promised I'd make it. The reminder said the kit could be found in the basement, but it wasn't. Thus was I led to make the fatal error.
I opened the pantry door.
Now, a few nights ago, we'd heard scratching noises from the pantry, as well as from the kitchen cabinets, and beneath the family room floor. I'd surprised two small rat-like creatures off the back porch, and tentatively called them "Those Damned Cotton Rats Again".
Well. The pantry items held clear evidence that someone had, in fact, been scratching around in the pantry, or at least the pantry wall; there were bits of plaster on the near items, all under the close part of the ceiling. There appeared to be some small rodent droppings. I carefully lifted out boxes, bagged items, and jars, inspecting everything for damage. On the top shelf, everything had a little plaster or dry wall detritus. I put my head in, backwards, and looked up. There were no holes in the wall, but the ceiling looked a little curvy. I suspect the attic is the source of the problem, and that the ceiling is just the patch under the insulation in the attic.
Which meant I really should clear out everything in preparation, so I did.
Then I realized we had more than just an attic rodent issue.
We've had problems with weevils*, but after the kitchen remodeling, this essentially disappeared. Or so I thought, until I saw the piles of "dust" next to the boxes of flour, or any wheat-containing food item. All the boxen ended up having a dusting of fine small holes, like freckles, only not as cute.
Everything went into the trash. Two large bags of it. Good-bye, corn muffin mix! So long, wheat cereal and flour! Ta-ta rice noodles! Not to worry; weevils don't like kasha, so we are good for buckwheat. And chocolate.
At least I found my missing paprika, which had been safely (!) stored inside a plastic bag inside a plastic container, which prevented me from recognizing it for these many moons.
Items that can be safely washed of contamination are awaiting final rinses of dilute bleach. Other items were clearly spared the ravages of either rodent or insect, and are waiting new housing. We'll switch all the food out of that closet into the kitchen cabinets, and re-fill (after sanitization and sterilization) with paper goods, canned items like dog food, and cleaning supplies. Enough is enough. No more weevils!
Somewhere along the way, while cleaning off cans in the kitchen sink, I realized that I still hadn't found the potatoes. On the off-chance that Honey forgot exactly where she'd put them, I opened the door of the cabinet right next to the sink, and there they were. Close to 5 o'clock, I boiled the water, melted the butter, mixed the spices and potato slices, and put it all into the oven for 20 minutes. With two minutes left to cook, Honey called to remind me that I was picking up the boy after school. Oops.
In the next ten minutes, I removed the potatoes from the oven, fed the dogs and cats, closed up the appropriate doors, and departed.
We returned home, he worked a little more on his history assignment, dressed for the Scout meeting, and we left again albeit a little late for the dinner portion of the meeting. No matter, a potluck always has lots of stuff, and he even got a salad -- probably because I was right behind him in line, to remind him.
Someone had made dumplings -- the Chinese kind -- that were excellent. Another offering was essentially a taco pie, which was almost spicy enough. I wished I could have tried the shepherd's pie; it looked good. Meatballs were tasty, and the salad that I had was excellent as well. Our potato dish ended up about halfway eaten, which is not bad for a late arrival.
Sonny got his merit badge (Crime Prevention), and several boys got the one I'd been teaching (Animal Science). All in all, we were there just about an hour, which is perfect.
Home again, but by this time my back was calling it quits. The rest of the pantry will have to wait for tomorrow, especially since I will be trapped at home all day -- Honey needs to leave her car for a tune up, and borrow mine.
*Yes, these are the lesser of two weevils**
**Infestations, that is.
Being the moderately organized person that I am, I knew I could find wood screws in the shop, so I diverted from my cleaning to fix the box. Three #8 screws later, all was well again. I was now in a fixing mode rather than a cleaning mode, so I shifted over a few feet to the doorway, and put in a nail to hang the plastic wreath (greenery and poinsettia leaves, all fake).
Checking email, I saw a reminder that tonight would be a Boy Scout Court of Honor, and that Honey had requested a potato dish for the potluck. She keeps forgetting that I don't eat potatoes anymore, but whatever -- she bought the items, I promised I'd make it. The reminder said the kit could be found in the basement, but it wasn't. Thus was I led to make the fatal error.
I opened the pantry door.
Now, a few nights ago, we'd heard scratching noises from the pantry, as well as from the kitchen cabinets, and beneath the family room floor. I'd surprised two small rat-like creatures off the back porch, and tentatively called them "Those Damned Cotton Rats Again".
Well. The pantry items held clear evidence that someone had, in fact, been scratching around in the pantry, or at least the pantry wall; there were bits of plaster on the near items, all under the close part of the ceiling. There appeared to be some small rodent droppings. I carefully lifted out boxes, bagged items, and jars, inspecting everything for damage. On the top shelf, everything had a little plaster or dry wall detritus. I put my head in, backwards, and looked up. There were no holes in the wall, but the ceiling looked a little curvy. I suspect the attic is the source of the problem, and that the ceiling is just the patch under the insulation in the attic.
Which meant I really should clear out everything in preparation, so I did.
Then I realized we had more than just an attic rodent issue.
We've had problems with weevils*, but after the kitchen remodeling, this essentially disappeared. Or so I thought, until I saw the piles of "dust" next to the boxes of flour, or any wheat-containing food item. All the boxen ended up having a dusting of fine small holes, like freckles, only not as cute.
Everything went into the trash. Two large bags of it. Good-bye, corn muffin mix! So long, wheat cereal and flour! Ta-ta rice noodles! Not to worry; weevils don't like kasha, so we are good for buckwheat. And chocolate.
At least I found my missing paprika, which had been safely (!) stored inside a plastic bag inside a plastic container, which prevented me from recognizing it for these many moons.
Items that can be safely washed of contamination are awaiting final rinses of dilute bleach. Other items were clearly spared the ravages of either rodent or insect, and are waiting new housing. We'll switch all the food out of that closet into the kitchen cabinets, and re-fill (after sanitization and sterilization) with paper goods, canned items like dog food, and cleaning supplies. Enough is enough. No more weevils!
Somewhere along the way, while cleaning off cans in the kitchen sink, I realized that I still hadn't found the potatoes. On the off-chance that Honey forgot exactly where she'd put them, I opened the door of the cabinet right next to the sink, and there they were. Close to 5 o'clock, I boiled the water, melted the butter, mixed the spices and potato slices, and put it all into the oven for 20 minutes. With two minutes left to cook, Honey called to remind me that I was picking up the boy after school. Oops.
In the next ten minutes, I removed the potatoes from the oven, fed the dogs and cats, closed up the appropriate doors, and departed.
We returned home, he worked a little more on his history assignment, dressed for the Scout meeting, and we left again albeit a little late for the dinner portion of the meeting. No matter, a potluck always has lots of stuff, and he even got a salad -- probably because I was right behind him in line, to remind him.
Someone had made dumplings -- the Chinese kind -- that were excellent. Another offering was essentially a taco pie, which was almost spicy enough. I wished I could have tried the shepherd's pie; it looked good. Meatballs were tasty, and the salad that I had was excellent as well. Our potato dish ended up about halfway eaten, which is not bad for a late arrival.
Sonny got his merit badge (Crime Prevention), and several boys got the one I'd been teaching (Animal Science). All in all, we were there just about an hour, which is perfect.
Home again, but by this time my back was calling it quits. The rest of the pantry will have to wait for tomorrow, especially since I will be trapped at home all day -- Honey needs to leave her car for a tune up, and borrow mine.
*Yes, these are the lesser of two weevils**
**Infestations, that is.
