NO SOLICITING

Our front door has been posted NO SOLICITING as long as I can remember. Since we have had the baby, I have a rather large sign that also says, 'please do not ring the doorbell'. I think it really speaks to the literacy rate of New Mexico that on average, we get about 2 solicitors a week, and the postman consistently rings the doorbell. I am usually polite and courteous...until last Monday.

Background:
Wyatt is getting all 4 of his first molars, so he's a cranky, fussy all out PITA right now.

On Monday, we were napping on the couch (preceded by 2 hours of crying). We were both clearly exhausted. I woke up when I heard someone walking up our front path. Our front door was open, but our screen door was locked. Not expecting anyone, I transferred Wyatt to the other chair, just in time to catch a young man walk up to our door, throw a flyer on the ground, ring the doorbell and walk away.

SERIOUSLY?!

I about flew out of the door and gave this him a piece of my mind. I was FUMING mad. Of course, the doorbell caused Wyatt to wake up (crying), so this young man was spared, for now.

I immediately got on the phone to the company listed on the flyer. Conveniently, no one answered. I am quite persistent though, and reached someone today. I was polite, but firm, and expressed my concerns. She graciously said thank you for the feedback, and she would look into it.

SO, that got me thinking. I wanted a new sign. I also wanted to post our property NO TRESPASSING. After doing some research, I found that the State of New Mexico is quite particular in its signage requirements for it to be legally binding. I made a larger version of this that conforms to the State of New Mexico standards that includes NO TRESPASSING verbiage.

In case anyone makes it past the NO TRESPASSING signs, this little beauty is now our front door decoration.

I am happy to share this with anyone if they would like a copy. I took it to FedEx Office and had it laminated for around $4.

Cheers.

J

Moldy Caulk

For years, moldy caulk around our main bathrooms' tub has plagued me. I have scrubbed...and scrubbed, and scrubbed some more. I finally gave up hope. For the last few months, I have just ignored it. We were driving back from a short weekend trip last weekend, and I made up my mind, I was going to get it clean.

(insert cheesy Western music)

Pinterest to the rescue.

You can find my original re-pin here: Moldy Caulk Solution

Sounded simple enough. I went to Sally's and picked up a small box of beauty coil. I went with the reinforced one, mostly because it sounded beefier. 

Here is an overall picture of the gross-ness. (I swear my bathroom is clean).

Supply picture. Bleach (usually not allowed in our house, that's why it's dust covered), a small dish, gloves and beauty coil. Simple enough, right? Total investment $3.19. 

After putting on those sexy yellow gloves, I poured the bleach into the shallow bowl, soaked a long piece of beauty coil in the bleach, and pushed it firmly into place. 

(cue anxious waiting music)

Ok, so not the magically white result I was expecting after an overnight soak, but certainly better. Time for round 2 and 3.

I ended up soaking the whole thing another 24 hours. I figured it wasn't going to hurt anything, and I had already made progress. 

Ok, so its not perfect, but it's better. After scrubbing with an old toothbrush and some bleach in those hard to get spots. I am happy with the result.

I am going to call this project a success. It is certainly better than it was before, with really minimal effort. I am sure if I put a little more elbow grease behind it, I might get it pristine again, but for now, I am at least not embarrassed to have people take a shower in there. 

You also might notice the hard water stains that are now absent from the original pictures. That's another post and another miracle tool for another day.

I would also like to point out, I got this little project done with minimal fuss from my son. I put him in the jumper, and he jumped away while I did all of this. I think there should be bonus points involved for that small feat.

Cheers.