Fireplace Safety

Here are the top tips you need to stay safe!

What are the best rules for Fireplace Safety?

• Don't burn trash, smoke and ashes can be toxic
• Don't use charcoal lighter of kerosene to light your fires, could flame up
• Use a spark screen while burning, and a grate to lay your wood on
• Be sure the damper is open before lighting your fire.

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What safety precautions should I take with my gas fireplace?

Rosie urges anyone who converts a wood-burning fireplace to gas to take precautions to protect your family and your home from harm and practice good gas fireplace safety.

Whenever you use a gas appliance in your home, you run the risk that excess carbon monoxide will poison your family or that an untended gas flame will cause a fire.

You can prevent those tragedies by studying your manufacturer’s gas fireplace safety instructions and by following Rosie’s tips for enjoying your gas-burning fireplace without incident.

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Can I clean a wood burning fireplace flue myself?
The biggest issue with a wood burning fireplace is that wood never burns completely.  Wood smoke is a combination of unburned gases and a fog of unburned tar-like liquids.  When they come in contact with a cool surface they will condense and form a nasty substance called Creosote.  Creosote is highly combustible and can leave a undesirable odor. When allowed to form a blanket in the interior walls of the fireplace, it could result in a chimney fire.  Other dangers can be:  faulty dampers, obstructions in the flue pipe, deterioration, exposed wood, and no chimney cap/spark arrestor.  This is all part of the chimney inspection and cleaning process. 

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For more information, check out our Fireplace Category Page and for answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement Questions, visit our website at Rosieonthehouse.com

Christmas Traditions at Rosie's

Hey y'all!

You think of Rosie on the House as the most popular home-improvement radio show in Arizona.

For me, Rosie on the House means something much more literal.

For the six kids who grew up in Rosie’s house, Christmas officially
began on the Eve with the reading of a Cajun Night Before Christmas, because you know, chere, dem dere flyin' reindeer what you call dem, dey can't fly low through dem cypress kness and Spanish moss, no! Who better to share that story with y'all than my grandpartners, Baby Kay and Dr. Rosie? Here’s an audio recording.
Just click the following link to play
Cajun Night Before Christmas!
*Originally aired on Rosie on the House Christmas Eve 2005.

Shortly after the reading and our second glass of Southern eggnog is when we’d hear Santa Claus on the roof of our Scottsdale home, stomping around in his big, black, cowboy boots, jingling a string of holiday bells and shouting, in a curiously familiar Cajun accent, “Ho, ho, ho!” into the chimney so we’d be sure to hear him as he unloaded our presents from his sleigh.

We were always already tucked into our beds, eyes wide open, hoping that our parents, Rosie and Jennifer, had been wrong when they warned us that Santa never entered the homes of boys and girls who weren’t asleep.

That stompin’ Santa, of course, had Rosie cheeks and a big Rosie voice. And he really did climb up onto the roof every Christmas Eve yelling, “Ho, ho, ho!” to get us kids to go to sleep.

We didn’t. Once the noise trailed off, we raced to the Christmas tree to see what he left. We were up so early, in fact, that our parents had to make a rule: We couldn’t wake them until 5 a.m. — and we had to have the coffee ready when we did.

Then we unwrapped our toys and gag gifts before chowing down on what we’ve always called a
“Joe” breakfast — a skillet of potatoes, onions, eggs, bacon and cheese, watching whichever movie Santa had left us that year and taking a nap. Then it was off to Mama Kay and Papa Rosie’s house, where we spent the rest of Christmas with aunts, uncles and cousins — sometimes 30 or more of us gathered for the day — and more presents and food and singing with Uncle Pierre playing Linus & Lucy from A Charlie Brown Christmas on the piano complimented by the rest of the great family pianists including Aunt Karen and Baby Kay herself!

Like all family Christmases, ours has changed as we’ve gotten older, welcomed new family members and said a sad goodbye to others. But the memories are so crisp, and our traditions — food, music, family — all remain.

I’d like to share some of our Romero family Christmas traditions with you. Starting first with some of my favorite Christmas songs always heard around the holidays...If you are like my sister Rachael, you stared listening to Christmas music back in August...

Artist -> Album -> Favorite Song on Album

Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers -> Once Upon a Christmas -> Once Upon a Christmas
Elvis Presley -> Elvis Christmas -> O Come, All Ye Faithful
Amy Grant -> A Christmas Album -> Heirlooms
Vince Guaraldi Trio -> A Charlie Brown Christmas -> Linus & Lucy
Alabama -> Christmas Volume I -> Christmas in Dixie & Volume II -> Little Drummer Boy
Alan Jackson -> Let it Be Christmas -> Let it Be Christmas
The Carpenters -> Christmas Portrait -> Carol of the Bells
The Nutcracker -> St. Louis Symphony Orchestra -> Waltz of the Flowers

And what would a Romero Christmas be without some good pecans? By popular demand, here’s Mama Kay’s recipe for her famous Cajun-spiced, roasted pecans, along with Rosie's Buttermilk Biscuits and the family secrets on deep-fried turkeys! But make sure you read the safety tips for deep-frying your Christmas turkey first!

I hope your holidays will bring back warm memories for you, too, and that you’ll put a little Cajun spice in this year’s celebration!

Sincerely,

Rosie on the House
www.RosieOnTheHouse.com

Tune in your Radio every Saturday morning!
Call in Number (888) Rosie-4-U


~Arizona's Favorite Most Trusted Home Improvement Resource!

~Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Rosie's Holiday Recipes and Music

How does Rosie fry a turkey?

Here is the Romero family recipe for deep fried turkey:

Ingredients:
1 whole turkey

1 can of Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning

Peanut oil (enough to fill a pot)

Preparation:
*Place the turkey in a pot and fill with water to just past the turkey legs
                      
*Remove the turkey and mark where the water level drops to

*Fill the pot to this mark with peanut oil once you’ve emptied the water

*Clean the turkey in the sink, removing all entrails and rinsing with water

*Pour a generous amount of Tony’s all over the turkey; be generous with the seasonings inside of the cavity and get underneath and all around the wings and legs

*Place completely dry and seasoned turkey in deep fry basket until ready to drop in oil

*Heat the oil at 350 degrees

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What does Santa snack on at Rosie’s house?

Forget the milk and cookies. Santa snacks on buttermilk and seasoned, roasted pecans when he visits Rosie’s home on Christmas Eve.

Rosie loves whole buttermilk,which he cannot find anywhere anymore (if you know where to find some, email us here)—and usually leaves it out for Santa to drink.

For snacks, Santa enjoys Cajun-seasoned, roasted pecans, a specialty of Rosie’s mom. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
Pecan halves (2 cups)
Melted butter (1/2 stick or 1/4 cup)
Salt to taste
Garlic powder to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste

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What about Rosie's Favorite Holiday Music?

Here are the links to Rosie's favorite Christmas Music:

-Merry Christmas Cajun

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Bad Odors: Get rid of them!

Odors are generally something we avoid in polite conversation. You’re not likely to walk into your neighbor’s house and ask, “Wow, what is that smell?”
Homeowners aren’t shy though about asking us that question. We have dozens of ideas on our Rosie on the House Web site about how to get rid of this or that odor – every place from the bedroom to the laundry room to the kitchen and more. To tell the truth, we get more homeowners emailing us for advice about bad odors than about any other subject. What follows are some possible solutions for what you’re experiencing.

For sewage smells in your yard or house:
Sometimes that semi-permanent bad smell in your bathroom or kitchen or backyard is really a problem starting on your roof where your plumbing system has a vent. In many cases, the vent isn’t tall enough. When a gust of wind comes along – our southwest wind blowing up from the Gulf of California – it blows those smelly gases across your roof and into your north or east facing yards. The wind can even swirl around and blow methane gas back into your house through a window or back down the vent.
This isn’t just a problem for older homes; in fact, it can happen in new construction. We have actually seen this in multi-million dollar homes in pricy neighborhoods.
But it can be fixed with minimal expense and effort. First, you need an extension on that vent pipe. That should do the trick, but if not, add a charcoal filter to the vent to absorb the gases or an inline powered ventilating fan to blow them away or do both. If you want to know more about this topic, you can check out www.odorhog.com.


For bathroom odors:
A problem with a vent can affect all the drains in your house, but if the smell comes from one sink, then your P-trap (the U-shaped pipe under the sink) may be clogged or lined with years of accumulated stinky gunk. The pipe under that fragrant sink drain could be obstructed with hair, toothpaste, dirt and soap scum that begins to reek. You need to remove the P-trap and clean it out or use a drain cleaner daily until the enzymes can eat away at the trapped organic mess. By the way, we never recommend using highly corrosive liquid drain cleaners or drain cleaning crystals.

Special warning for snowbirds: If you leave your house untended for months and no water runs through the drains, you can have bad odors coming out of any or all of them. So have someone turn on the water once or twice during your trips up north. The water is a seal in the pipe under the drains that prevents sewer or septic gases from entering your home.

In general, bathroom ceiling fans can help remove odors. But these fans don’t last forever; if they sound as if they’re rattling, they’re probably not doing their job and need to be replaced before burning out.

You can easily remove a fan after turning off power to the room at your electrical panel. After taking off the cover on the old fan, unplug the electrical cord; then find the screws securing the fan unit to the ceiling. Use a flat-head screwdriver to remove the screws, pull out the fan, and take it to the store to help you choose a replacement that fits.

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For answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com

Four DIY Plumbing Jobs

It’s 4 p.m. Saturday and you’re cooking dinner for a big crowd, and suddenly the kitchen sink backs up. Who do you call? Or can you fix it yourself before guests arrive?  Believe it or not, before you call a plumber, you can attempt this job yourself and probably succeed.

In fact there are several plumbing jobs around the house that you can take on, if you’re patient and careful and have the right equipment. Of course, many of our readers may find the following jobs pretty basic. But if you’re a new homeowner, you might want to read further:

1 – Unclog a Drain in a Kitchen Sink, Toilet, or Bathtub –

Unclogging that sink is really the most important repair of all because you don’t want to wash dinner dishes in the bathtub. With a double sink, start by putting a stopper in one of the drain holes, probably the one where there is no standing water; then go down through the water to put a bathroom plunger on top of the other drain hole and pump up and down. This back-and-forth pressure will eventually build up enough force to dislodge the clog. With a single basin sink (this will work in a bathtub or lavatory sink), plug the overflow holes with wet cloths, put a little water into the sink and do the same pumping action with a plunger. Plumbers tell us that sometimes the pipes under the sink can become disconnected when you do this, so keep an eye on them while you’re working to free the clog.

When you’re using a plunger in a clogged toilet, try to create suction by sealing the bell-shaped rubber end around the opening at the bottom of the bowl. If you need a new plunger, buy one with an extension flange on the rubber end.

Preventive advice: In the kitchen don’t put grease, onion skins or potato peelings down the garbage disposal and especially not all three at the same time. And always run water through the garbage disposal while it’s grinding away to flush debris down the drain.

Don’t throw anything in the toilet that doesn’t belong there. You might want to buy a toilet auger, a long snakelike device to use in case a plunger isn’t enough.


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For answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com

Urban Farming Resource Guide

Sweet Jennifer's Guide to Urban Farming

‘The real voyage of discovery consists of not seeking new landscapes  but, in having new eyes!' - Marcel Proust

Rosie on the House Companies:

• Harper's Nurseries
• Think Green Irrigation and Landscaping
• Marvel Masonry
• CYC Landscaping
• Vicente Landscaping 
• The Pond Gnome
• French Accent Landscaping

Education and Resources:

• The Urban Farm
• University of Arizona: Maricopa County Extension Cooperative Program-Horticulture
• Valley Permaculture Alliance
• Edible Communities.com
• Arizona Farm Bureau: Fill Your Plate

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For answer to all YOUR Landscape, Gardening and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com

Home Electrical: DIY or Professional?

Most homeowners approach electrical jobs in their home themselves with some anxiety. After all, if you mess up a plumbing job, it’s just a puddle of water on the floor; but when doing the wrong thing with electrical wires, the results can be more serious.

Of course, I’m not allowed to do electrical work at my house any more. My wife, Jennifer, threatens that if she ever sees me take electrical tools out again, she’ll take all the kids and pets off to the ER to wait for me there. In the past, I’ve had sparks fly across the room, and I’ve felt that eerie voltage sting creep through my body.

“Some homeowners get worried about doing electrical jobs, and they should be,” said Joel Wheeler of Wheeler Electric in Glendale. “If you make a mistake with electrical wires, even if nothing goes wrong at first, eventually something could catch fire.”

Still, plenty of homeowners are confident about their knowledge of electricity and successfully change outlets and install new lighting fixtures. “They can do that if they have a little know-how and common sense,” said Michael Bensel of the Mighty Electricians in Phoenix. “But sometimes they go down to the hardware store, and ask someone what to do and he tells them the wrong thing.”

We’re not going to give details on any difficult jobs, but we do have suggestions about handling some basics involving electricity at your house that can be important to you in future:

To start with, get familiar with your electrical service panel and relabel the circuit breakers – Usually, the panel is outside the house on a wall or inside a garage. In most older homes, a few marks or labels have been scratched on the panel to indicate what areas breakers serve, but that doesn’t provide the detail on all outlets served by individual breakers. Often the labels are nearly unreadable.

The easiest way to fix this is to have two people – one inside the house and one outside -- both on cellphones and talking back and forth.

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For answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com