"Homemade" Grease Stain Remover

I have a green New York and Company shirt made primarily of polyester. It's the type of shirt that shows every water spot and everything else. I thought I had done it in the other day as I got a grease stain right down the front. Go figure!

I washed it and it didn't come out so I figured I'd do a search online for a stain remover and if it didn't work, consider that the shirt had a good run. My online stain remover worked! I will file that one away for future use. Here's the trick:

A mixture of liquid dish detergent (Dawn) and baking soda. Use enough soap to make a paste and then put it on you garment (I don't know if it works for non-polyester garments), scrub it in with your nail. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Wash like normal.

Stain magically gone!

Installing a Screen Door

So I can't take much credit on this one because I didn't do much but help carry and open the box and lift the door into the frame.

My wonderful husband installed this screen door today and now we can have natural light and a breeze through the foyer.

If you are at least a little handy with powertools this isn't a bad project. The directions that came with the door were clear with a lot of pictures. (Larson is the manufacturer).
It may have helped that our front door and frame are pretty new so everything was nice and square.

We had most tools on hand. (electric drill, drill bits, pencil, tape). We only had to get a larger drill bit to help with the door handle installation. One great thing about this door is that you can install the hinges and door handles on whichever side you need.

This project can probably be completed in about half a day and you can enjoy more light and fresh air right away.

DIY Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Lesson: Don't be stingy with your resources unless you want to re-do your project!

You can see what my beautiful tiled floor looked like in the last post. This is what it looks like today:

About 5 months ago I posted about our DIY Tile laying adventures in "Go Ahead and Tile, Even if You're an Amateur." Well, I'm sure like most DIYer's you learn lessons the hard way. I'd like to share my lessons so you may not have to learn them yourself.

The tile job held up really well for several months. Then the dreaded humidity and heat hit. The grout started cracking and you could hear some of the tiles shift when you stepped on them. I tried to determine if there would be an easy fix such as re-grouting, but alas, the verdict was to try and pull the tile up and re-set it. The foyer has a bit of a dip in the flooring so we thought maybe the tile wasn't level.

I was able to break through the grout with a hammer and flat head screwdriver. Once I got one tile pulled up the other one's came up relatively easily. This has led me to believe that it isn't really about a dip in the floor but more about us being stingy and not using enough mortar. The tiles pulled up way too easy and several only showed mortar spots on half of the tile. Yep, not enough mortar. I only cracked one tile while trying to pull it up and luckily we had a few leftover tiles. Unfortunately, it's one that had to be cut for a corner, so I guess the water saw is coming back out.

Once we get the tile up we will be applying a lot of mortar and re-setting the tiles. I guess we will get more experience in grouting and sealing. Hopefully it looks as good or better the second time around!