01.01.70
On a warmish New Year's Eve, I planted more lettuce in the Siberian frame on the south side of the house since what I'd put in a few weeks before was thriving.</p><p> Then, of conduct, the next few days turned bitterly cold. Although the lettuce continues to wax - it is a cold frame, after all - my thoughts turned to how people were coping with this and approaching spates of frigid temperatures.</p><p> Consumer Reports tweeted a relation to a Centers for Disease Control list of home-heating refuge tips. I'll give you a few.</p><p> Use fireplaces, wood stoves, or other combustion heaters only if they are becomingly vented to the outside and do not leak flue gas into indoor air space.</p><p> Do not blacken paper in a fireplace.</p><p> Ensure adequate ventilation if you must use a kerosene heater.</p><p> Use only the classification of fuel your heater is designed to use. Do not substitute.</p><p> Do not place a berth heater within three feet of anything that may catch fire, such as drapes, furniture, or bedding, and never obscure your space heater.</p><p> Never place a space heater on top of clobber or near water.</p><p> For the whole list, go to http://bit.ly/wC8yAJ.</p><p> Excel late than never. I received an e-mail while I was away for the holidays from a reader with a conclusion-making deadline of Dec. 22.</p><p> Oops, I say. It seems she has a 1992-harvest dishwasher that seems to wash pots and pans just fine but leaves cloudy marks on the backs of glasses.</p><p> She asked me to commend a model - I cannot do so - or determine whether she needs a replacement.</p><p> My advice: If your dishwasher has a dispenser for it, a rinsing cause might help. You also may be using more dishwashing detergent than you need.</p><p> Examination before you replace.</p><p> Q: My 1929 house was aluminum-sided (covering wood siding) in the 1970s. Everything looks top-grade from the outside, but I keep wondering what deterioration is going on under that skin.</p><p> Excluding of ripping off siding in different spots to check, is there a way to know if the wood is rotting? Or am I worrying about something unfit?</p><p> A: If there were pieces of siding that were crooked or sagging, or there was mold or mildew on the top, I'd say you might have a problem. If everything looks fine, depending on how you define the word, I wouldn't go looking for disorder.</p><p> From my experience, houses were sided with aluminum for three reasons: To refrain from having to paint, to hide rotting wood (salesmen in the 1960s talked intact neighborhoods into believing replacing the rot was more expensive), or to make one rowhouse look unconventional from the next (hence siding over brick).</p><p> From your address, it sounds like your siding was done to avoid painting.</p><p> Q: How can I safely take berry stains off my Hardiplank (fiber-adhesive) siding that birds put there from our holly tree?</p><p> We tried bleach and ditch-water and used a brush that took off some finish. I also used a siding cleaner recommended at the home base center and it didn't do anything.</p><p> A: When I was installing Hardiplank as trim on a 19th-century stall in a churchyard a few years back, I used washing soda (in the laundry flakes aisle at Wegmans and elsewhere) to remove sap from evergreen trees before I painted the game table.</p><p> That or lemon juice might work.</p><p> CORK FLOORS: I wrote about cork flooring a few weeks ago, and a army of you responded with your experiences.</p><p> Here's one: "I have cork flooring in my pantry. My house does not have a basement, and the cork floor is warmer and also softer than a normal floor.</p><p> "I didn't consider it an expensive paradigm of flooring, but it does have one thing to consider. It is prone to scratching. The connection has it as a floating floor. The sections are large pieces, and they are glued together.</p><p> "My cats have put many pygmy nicks in the floor through their racing and stopping in the kitchen.</p><p> "I did put a heedful coating on the floor, using water-based polyurethane, which is the suggested sealing by the producer."</p><p> My neighbors recently had a cork floor installed in their caboose. What I saw looked good, but we'll see about endurance.</p><p> (Questions? E-mail Alan J. Heavens at aheavens@phillynews.com or notation him at The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia PA 19101.
Source: Kansas City Star