Urine: Search and Destroy!

Perhaps you have a dog that isn't quite housebroken or a potty training toddler.  Or maybe, like my mother, you have a 15 year old cat who decided to urinate on your brand new $2500 rug!  What ever the case may be, one thing is sure, urine stinks!  And particularly cat urine... it's a special punch-you-in-the-nose kind of stink.

So how the heck do you get the smell out?  And how the heck do you find the urine spot when you weren't even there to witness the infraction?  The answer: black light.  Turn off all the lights, close the blinds, pull the drapes and turn on a black light.  Unless you have a professional light, you will probably have to get on your hands and knees and shine the light close to the floor, but it will be obvious when you find the spot!  And perhaps (like me) you will find several spots that you were blissfully unaware of.  Resist the urge to punch your pet in the snout. 

Now that you have found the urine spots, you will have to work on eliminating the oder.  I am a firm believer in using more natural remedies rather than buying weird chemical cleaners with ingredients I can't pronounce from a store.  This is what I do:
Saturate the spot in white vinegar (I have a spray bottle filled with vinegar for easy application)
Let the vinegar soak in for a minute or two
Blot (do not rub) the vinegar with a towel (stand on top of the towel)
Cover the spot with baking soda and rub it into the slightly damp spot until it balls up and get crumby
Sprinkle a little more baking soda over the spot to cover it completely and let it dry
Vacuum up the baking soda and wallah!

If after this process you still have an oder, try mixing 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide (color test first) with 1tsp of liquid dish soap.  Work this solution into the carpet with a scrub brush.  Blot up and use a little water to dilute the cleanser and blot again until you feel you have gotten the soap out of the carpet.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

Toilets and Floors and DIY, oh my!

It was a very productive weekend for the Burkholder crew!  We decided to get busy on a few DIY projects around the house.

We replaced our 30 year old, low efficiency toilets yesterday with these two lovely ladies.

Here's a little before and after for you:

We picked out some new flooring, which I'm so excited about!  We decided to go with a handscraped engineered hardwood (love).  I feel like we got a good price (lower than the price on the website).  All 25 boxes are in stock and ready to be picked up.  Now we just need some friends who are willing to help us install.  I really wish my extremely talented contractor brother lived closer!

Sorry for the poor photo quality, my Nikon battery was dead and had to use the old cell phone.  (And yes, I know there is sticker on the front of the toilet. )

And the most exciting DIY project from over the weekend:

Warren made his first pee pee in the potty!

Sorry for he embarrassing shot buddy; you're just so darn cute, I can't help myself!

Next up on the DIY project list: paint kitchen cabinets.  That's a big fat time consuming project, so I've been putting it off.  I need to get on it... would like to have it done before new floors go down.

Boot Basket Update

Look what I came home to the other day....

Mike put his boots IN the basket, not next to the basket.  A small victory.  I will take it!

Boot Basket

Our front door opens directly into our living room.  There is no entry way and no closet.  So what is a neat freak to do with items that accumulate in this area such as shoes, purses and coats?  Well, I have a coat tree that I love for jackets and purses, but no solution for the shoes that tend to pile up in front of the door.  Since I was getting tired of staring at Mike's big work boots every night (clutter in my environment makes me uncomfortable), I found a cute basket for storing boots and shoes to place next to the door.  The problem?  Mike refuses to put his boots in the "stupid" basket.  Every night when he gets home from work he takes his boots off and places them next to the basket.  Not in the basket, but right next to the basket.  Every.  Single.  Night.  At this point he does it just because he knows it annoys me... and it does!

   

Bedroom Lamp Revamp

I was getting tired of my bedroom lamps.  The shades were a bit too prissy for me (although I loved them at one time) and I wasn't crazy about the color.  So I bought a couple of drum shades from Target, a can of spray paint and went to work.

Before

Before

After... and a peek at my new artwork... LOVE

After

After

Interactive Wall Art

Warren received a very cute animal puzzle for his birthday (thanks Grandma & Grandpa B!).  The pieces are always all over the place, and the puzzle doesn't store easily in our toy cubby.   Enter Rachel's brilliant solution:  turn it into wall art!

 First, develop a system of keeping the pieces in place while hanging vertically.  Hello velcro!

Next, hang in a manner in which the little one can easily take it down and play.  For this I placed two hook & loop command strips on the back of the puzzle and placed at Warren height on the wall.
Done, and cute!

Warren's Closet Reorg

I've been moving right along on my household organization projects.  I recently overhauled Warren's closet:

left side before: not a very good use of space

left side after: dual hanging bars, better shoe storage and room for toy parking

top shelf before: not so top shelf

top shelf after: organized diaper storage

much better

right side before: a terrible mess

right side after: better

Hooray for Clean Day

My favorite product purchase this week?

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day!

I was looking to replace my old kitchen hand soap & lotion combo.  We've been using the same system for 3 years and I'm over it.  I really wanted some William Sonoma products, but didn't feel good about spending $40 on soap & lotion.  While shopping at Fred Meyer, I was drawn to the Mrs. Meyer's products, because of the packaging, so I decided to give them a sniff test.  I loved the basil scent the most, and the label just happens to be the perfect color for our kitchen.  Score!  Hard to go wrong with a price tag of $3.99.  Mrs. Meyer's does not have a lotion option (nobody ever used the lotion in our house anyway), so instead we have a bottle of hand soap and a bottle of counter top spray (which has really come in handy) sitting in our soap/lotion tray; it's actually kind of cute.

Linen Closet Reorg

I am on an organizing spree.  Here is the result of my linen closet redo.  I decided to start small... bigger projects to come!



The Before: Mommy's little helper






Before

 

After






After: hung some artwork that wasn't being used

  




After

  

Master Bathroom Vanity Revamp

After 2 years of intending to get around to it, I finally painted our master bathroom vanity.  It looks so much better!  Don't you think?

 Before: 1980's builder grade golden oak... ugh!

After: Behr Paint + Primer in "Popped Corn" and lovely new hardware

Now I can't wait to replace the counter top and wall mirrors.  Let's do this!

Living Room Refresh

I was getting a little bored with our living room decor, so I decided to freshen it up.  I replaced the artwork, sofa pillows and the valances.  The new artwork features bicycles... how fitting for the happy bicycle loving family! 

Before

After