G speaks's Profile

It must have been quite the sale for the person who sold the rock surfacing to your area as I notice your neighbour to your left has it as well. I would choose a time during the year when it is dry and warm. I would wire brush the surface to remove any stone particles and then I would paint it with a good exterior paint. I don't imagine there will be any problem with paint adherence but it will be a laborious process as you will need to get into all the cracks and crevices. There are brushes and rollers available at paint stores that will do this. I have used them on textured ceilings and they perform well.
Best of luck with this project.

Life is full of choices isn't it?
In all fairness many who locate their televisions over fireplaces often have no other place to locate this piece of technology, not to mention the fact that in many homes what is being televised seems to be of central importance to those that reside there.
Add the tv over the fireplace to the list of things I do not care to see in homes along with dead things like animal hides on floors in lieu of rugs or on walls for decoration and skeletons of animal heads and antlers for the same purpose. There is so much beautiful art in the world why the above is highlighted over and over again is quite beyond me.

Bathmats with rubbery backing. Poor investment that peel after a few washings.

Low flush toilets....great that we are saving water world wide. In the meantime most have to flush two or three times and the new bathroom decoration - the toilet plunger.

I cannot afford CLR all the time and vinegar and baking soda are only minimally effective. Manufacturers have to create a product that rids hard water deposits from bathroom surfaces. It seems everyone everywhere has this problem.

Some trivia for those interested in the origin of Ferris' ferris wheel:

Ferris introduced his first wheel at the Chicago's World Fair in 1893. Burnham, the fair's overall organizer resisted Ferris' initial proposals and it took over a year of various presentations on Ferris' part to convince Burnham that a verticle wheel would in fact turn and actually carry passengers aloft. For those interested in learning more about the inception and realization of this fair as well as having a fascinating mystery interwoven throughout I would recommend Eric Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY.

I like this type of shower/toilet combination - used it first in Greece years ago.
In terms of reducing a slippery floor surface:
I notice you have ceramic tile already in place. If you are not intending to replace the flooring have a tradesman come in and put a finishing skim coat of cement over the tile and have him mix in more sand than usual. If you put the skim coat on yourself wear rubber gloves as once cement is prepared it can burn the skin on your hands.
When we painted our basement stairs we put sand in the paint and this addition has helped prevent slipping on the stairs.

If the pictured fixtures are brass (and not just painted to resemble brass) you can clean them beautifully with a combination of table salt, flour and white vinegar. Put the salt and flour in a bowl and add enough vinegar to create a paste. Don't make the paste too thick or it will dry too quickly. Rub this paste onto the brass surfaces and leave it in place for a few hours, then wash off. This cleaning method is super easy, inexpensive, effective and less toxic and grimey than using commercial brass cleaners. (I have used commercial brass cleaners and many smell like kerosene and make everything around the article you are cleaning - black !)
The salt acts as a slight scouring agent and the flour is the holding agent for the vinegar which is the actual tarnish remover.

I agree with other posters regarding doing the first part - the paint removal - in an outside space. The problem you will experience if you do this in the parking garage or at the back of your building will be the possible absence of an electrical outlet as I will assume you would not like to do the whole job by hand - this would take forever. You can use a chemical paint stripper which you could do on your balcony; these work very well however those products are noxious and many don't use them because of that. One other suggestion comes to mind and that is to contact the local highschool "shop" department and see if they would let you utilize the shop area after school is finished for the day. You should be able to sand the whole dresser in three one hour sessions in that shop area.

Do not attempt to utilize the fireplace as it is - you will burn the whole building down. Go to a store that sells "fireplace inserts" and arrange for personnel to visit your home. I would suggest you raise the floor, open up the wall where the chimney would be, have the chimney inspected and if safe install the insert. Inserts are lovely, come with glass doors and are safe. After insertion you can have a proper hearth installed. You can have slate or ceramic. Hearths also are ready made in a variety of different designs. Going with the ready made hearths is much less costly and these are constructed to code.

I add this decorating "touch" to my list of non preferred ideas.Included in this list are animal hides used as scatter mats on living room and bedroom floors and antelope and deer skeleton heads on walls.

If you honestly want to garden, or raise chickens and/or even cows, goats or sheep for that matter, as well as own some land with an actual house on the land (and not rent) then move out of the busy, smoggy, noisy downtown cities to a rural area. Even water is something that folks that live in cities can no longer heatthfully consume...most purchase bottled water. Why do all of this? It is your one and only life....move to the country either in Canada or the USA. There are reasonably priced small farms for sale with their own wells or springs. Employment....it may not be as lucrative as your employment in the city but the compensations are most certainly present; the cost of living in the city quickly removes most disposable income. I have resided in three large cities and now live in a rural setting. I only wish I had moved here in my twenties but I realize so many have to get the "city slicker stuff" done with before they realize other alternatives.