Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: Silestone needs some conditioner for 'mistake'
QUESTION: I had Silestone countertops installed in my new house four years ago and made the big mistake, at great expense, of having them honed because I like a matte effect. Unfortunately, they show every mark and although the marks can be wiped off, the result is uneven and unsatisfactory. I have tried granite cleaner but the surface is still patchy. Is there something I can apply to provide a more overall finish? Outside of removing them I am stuck with countertops which irritate me every time I look at them! Many thanks, Sylvia, Winnipeg
ANSWER: I wouldn't call honed Silestone a mistake, however it is true that matte finish isn't quite as carefree as the polished version. Silestone recommends the use of a conditioner: "The use of a conditioner is purely temporary and will require either repeat applications to maintain a consistent lustre on the surface or thorough cleaning to remove it." Daily cleaner for honed Silestone should be a pH balanced general-purpose household cleaner such as dish soap, and water.
QUESTION: I hope you can help me with the cork floor in my kitchen. We have had the cork flooring for quite some time but lately chips have come off on some places. How can I fix this? I hope you can help me. Sincerely, Ineke (St. Andrews)
ANSWER: Cork comes from the bark of the cork oak (Quercus Suber). The bark is harvested approximately every nine years without causing any harm to the tree. As a result, cork is a truly sustainable flooring product but even the best things in life have their ups and downs. To repair the damaged floor, begin by confirming that your floors are solid cork and not veneer. Veneer cork cannot be repaired or sanded and must be replaced. To replace veneered cork, remove moulding and pry up the damaged plank andreplace with a new cork plank (you may want to call a professional to help with this). Solid cork floors can be sanded using an electric floor sander or a coarse grade sand paper wrapped around a block. Next use fine grade sand paper to smooth the area. Clean the floor as normal. Check manufacturer's finish to determine if the floor has oil or polyurethane finish. Finish by applying two coats of the correct finish (allow first coat to dry thoroughly before applying the second coat).
QUESTION: I have found your solutions so helpful. I would like to know how you can get rid of silver fish in my apartment. Lois (Portage la Prairie)
ANSWER: A mixture of two tablespoons powdered icing sugar and one cup borax spread in a few places along baseboards should do the trick to get rid of silverfish. Take caution around children and pets; borax is poisonous if ingested. It is also important to note that in order to zap silverfish permanently you will want to get rid of all excess moisture in the basement by purchasing a good quality dehumidifier. If infestation continues please contact a fumigation service.
Fabulous Tips and Feedback from readers:
-- To flatten plastic milk jugs pour about a cup of boiling water into it. Put the lid back on tightly. Shake very gently until it is all swollen and hot. Carefully take the lid off, pour out and place on the floor, handle side down. Step carefully in the middle just to push it down enough to make the ends start to collapse then move your feet one at a time to flatten each end. Keep standing, moving around a bit, until it is cool. Voila! Flat as a pancake and it stays that way so that ever-so-many can be packed side by side in a box. Joy, Winnipeg
Reena's note: Take caution; this sounds somewhat dangerous.
-- With regards to light bulbs, I like to put a bit of "Never-seize" on the threads of the base. When these were made of brass, as well as the sockets, it wasn't a problem. Now, being aluminum, and aluminum sockets and heat they tend to seize. Also, if you rotate the pliers clockwise, as you suggested, you will only screw the base in tighter. I find it works best to use a pair of needle-nose pliers and insert between the base and socket. Turn counter-clockwise and it splits the base and collapses it and makes it easier to remove. Keep up the good suggestions. Gerry, Winnipeg
-- I wish I had seen your solution to the fruit fly problem a few weeks ago, as we had an infestation in our house. May I suggest using a vacuum to suck the little buggers up instead of using hairspray? Once the flies are gone, dispose of the vacuum bag. Trish (Lake Winnipeg)
-- A few months ago a reader wrote in regarding mould on her bathroom tiles and her lack of success in removing it. I had the same problem -- I removed it successfully using 'Fantastic with Bleach'. It took two applications. It saved us from ripping out the tiles and replacing them. Anonymous
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming!
Reena Nerbas is the author of the national bestselling Household Solutions series. Her website is www.householdsolutions.org. You can contact her at Box 429, Blumenort, Man., ROA 0C0.
Renovation & Design
GARDENING: How does your garden grow?
Helen Dillon is Ireland's most famous gardener. She has written a couple of best-selling books, taken part in TV and radio shows, and is a popular international lecturer. She has also built a brilliant garden in Dublin.
I visited her recently and the occasion got off to a typical Irish start with a humorous misunderstanding.
When I knocked on the door of her impressive mansion-like house off Sandford Road in the city's Ranelagh neighbourhood, her husband, Val, answered and led me directly into a large, beautifully decorated, high-ceilinged reception room with huge windows overlooking the garden.
The garden, I later learned, was designed with the idea of being viewed from these windows. Val knocked on the glass to alert Helen, who was working in the greenhouse.
"Who is it?" I saw her mouth to Val. He mouthed back, "It's Steve Whysall from Vancouver."
"Who?" she mouthed with an agitated frown, not knowing I was tucked away at Val's side and could see everything.
Val eventually led me outside. Helen remembered our appointment and immediately launched into an unnecessary explanation of her confusion.
"You see, Val is always bringing taxi drivers into the house to see the garden. Total strangers. I thought you were another one. It's so irritating when he does that."
The last time I saw Helen was in 1993 when she came to Victoria to give a talk. She was a delight then, full of energy and witty observations, spoken in short, snappy sentences, delivered with an almost breathless enthusiasm.
She is older now, 70, which shocked me because I always thought of her being much younger, such was the intensity of her energy the last time we met.
But she has lost nothing of her quick wit, genuine spontaneity and natural friendliness to strangers, even taxi drivers.
The garden occupies almost an acre. My view from the window indoors gave me a lot of information. Where there was once a long strip of lawn, acting as a calming device between two bustling borders, there is now a formal water canal set in limestone. It runs down the centre of the garden and has a Moorish look like the famous water course at the Alhambra in Spain.
At one end, there is a shallow circular pond set against a backdrop of ivy and clematis-covered arches.
At the other end, boxwood topiaries (a cone atop a square block) flank steps leading down to a lower channel guarded by two facing terra cotta-coloured sphinxes.
Trees and tall shrubs have been pushed to the perimeters of the walled garden to preserve as much natural light as possible for the two densely planted borders, one of which is devoted mainly to reds, the other to blues.
Helen says she is still pushing for perfection. She stands every day at the window in the reception room, snapping photos to see if the garden is right yet.
"It never is, of course," she says. "But that's the whole point of a garden; it should always be changing and be in a constant state of renewal. A garden is not something you look after mindlessly, wiping its bottom year after year. I never want my garden to become stale and static."
On the day I was there, borders were full of purple flowers: giant clumps of purple alliums and tall bunches of dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis), which is considered a bit of an invasive weed in Ireland, as well as here in Canada.
Helen fell in love with it after seeing how beautifully it was used at Monet's Garden in Giverny to add colour and contrast to tulips in late spring.
Elsewhere, there are sweeps of red astrantia and yellow doronicum and tastefully placed clumps of oriental poppies. Yellow and orange Welsh poppies were popping up everywhere.
"I am trying to collect the doubles (ones with twice as many petals) because they last so much longer and they don't set seed," Helen tells me. "When I see a really good double, I move it to an area where I hope it will survive."
This icon of Irish gardening still struggles with the tension between her passion for plants and her love for strong design and functional structure.
"I always say I don't want to be a curator, I want to be a creator.
But there has always been this great pull for me between design and plants.
It's not that I don't like plants, but I have discovered I can't grow every plant under the sun here. It's really all about the overall picture versus the pleasure of having special plants. Nowadays, my mind is more and more on quality design and the garden's overall look."
Tucked away behind the ivy arches is a gravel garden area where Helen has used aralia trees to create dappled shade. It is here where she has also allowed yellow doronicum to get a hold. "I put off yellows, but I know Christopher Lloyd loved strong yellow flowers. Now I find yellow can really light up the garden. I think I have spent too many years with the pastel shades."
To get light into the garden, Helen has not hesitated to limb-up trees. She has even gone to town on a handsome paperbark maple (Acer griseum), turning it into a specimen with unusually high, slender trunks.
"I learned about pruning up while in Canada. It is something you do a lot there. They don't do it much at all here, but I need to do it. When you grow this much stuff, you need a hell of a lot of light. We're like Newfoundland here: the light levels are very low."
The predominantly deciduous garden has other interesting trees: a large variegated dogwood; an olive tree, which amazingly gets through even the coldest Irish winter, probably because of the garden's protective walls; and a windmill palm, although this is pushed out to the side along with tall shrubs like ceanothus.
She loves echeveria and aeonium and puts out canna lilies for summer colour, but she lost her cordylines over winter.
The garden is full of special plants, such as the lovely blue Chatham Island forgot-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia). But some plants simply won't grow in the garden.
Helen says her soil is too sour for big-flowered clematis to thrive, so these are absent from walls and arches. She has much better luck with hardy al-pines and macropetals.
In a courtyard at the front of the house, Helen has shown her humorous side by planting a row of Tasmanian tree ferns in three perfectly spaced aluminum dustbins.
Nearby, clumps of silvery-leafed astellia add an extra touch of metallic-like sheen.
The debate over whether a garden is a work or art or a science project is not one Helen has been able to settle in her own mind, but she does say that "the garden is the only thing to calm me down. It has a tranquillizing effect."
-- Canwest News Service
