How to Save Caulk and Glue Tubes Between Projects

Have you ever been in the middle/close to the end of a project, grabbed a tube of caulk or adhesive that you've used in a prior project (maybe just days ago!), only to find out it's all dried up? It's happened to me a number of times. In fact, when I started this blog, it happened to me nearly every time (that is, once I learned that caulk, in fact, needs a caulk gun in order to work). Sometimes a long rod (like the ones that are automatically attached to decent caulk guns) works great for getting the dried caulk out of the tube; sometimes, the tube is just too far gone to be saved. Either way, I get frustrated.

Caulk and adhesive aren't really the most expensive materials on the planet, but after losing half a tube here and a quarter tube there, I got tired of the cumulated cost of constantly replacing them. Not to mention, having to run to the store mid-project, while not at all unusual around this house, was just a recipe for procrastination (and my most common source of project delays… well, procrastination delays the project - lack of coffee delays the post!). So, anything I can do to keep the project train chugging along is a welcome change, which is why I'm glad I picked up this nifty hack (in fact, I'm almost certain I picked it up from going to Haven or whatever, so I'm just going to say thanks to Pretty Handy Girl and Sawdust Girl, who are often my sources for pleasant little tricks like this).

If you know you're going to use the caulk or glue again soon (say, in less than a week), I've found that this is a crazy easy go-to method. And the best part is, it requires literally no other materials than what you're already working with.

How to Keep Caulk and Adhesive From Drying Out

Step 1

With the caulk gun still in your hand, just let a bit ooze out of the end. It usually happens anyway with caulk, but adhesive (like Liquid Nails) can be a little more stubborn and sticky. I try to let it kind of create a fat little lump on the tip of the tube without touching it (because despite having a blog where I regularly get my hands dirty, sticky hands bug me to no end).* But you just have to make sure that the entire end is oozing out enough so that no air can go down into the tube.

*Dear Lord, how many suggestive things can I say in a single paragraph?

Step 2

Once the end is covered, remove it from the caulk gun (or don't, if you're me) and just rest it in a spot where it can begin to air dry (both adhesive or caulk will start setting in a matter of minutes, especially when you live in a warm climate like I do).

Step 3

When you're ready to use it again, just pop off the dried end and continue on. You can see in the shot below that the top part is dry, but the adhesive directly underneath was still fresh!

This method has worked pretty well for me, but I also go through caulk and adhesive outrageously quickly, so I don't have to wait very long between uses. That also means that even though my method has worked well for me and probably would work well for others who use these products on a routine basis, those of you who don't live, sweat, and breathe DIY might need a hardier method. And, just like any DIY other project, there's more than one way to solve this problem!

Other methods for saving caulk and adhesive tubes**:

**that people get into internet arguments about when deciding which method is best

• Stick a nail down the tube (my dad does this, but they rust if you don't use something like galvanized nails, and then your pretty white caulk has a rust streak in it… no good)


• Use a golf tee (I can't help but think if the tube has any existing pressure, the tee would easily slip out… so probably also only a short-term solution)


• Cover the end with a wire nut (I've never gotten a good seal from this, but some people insist it works)


• Use a resealable latex cap (never tried this, but looks interesting)


• Use a resealable plastic cap (used these, liked them, but they are costly and I have way too many open tubes for that kind of expense)


• Duct tape the end (decent, but would probably still let too much air in over time)


• Jab the end of the tube into an inexpensive toilet wax ring


• Invert the end in a bucket of water (fine I guess for silicone caulks, but not likely a good idea with ones that are easy water cleanup)


• Melt the tip down to seal it shut again (usually with thin plastic, such as cut from a milk jug, but be careful not to burn yourself!)


• A combination of the above methods (or, as I'm sure there will be, other methods mentioned in the comments below)

As you can see above, there are lots of different ideas, and each of them have their own merit. Try whichever sounds worthwhile to you and give it a shot!

The post How to Save Caulk and Glue Tubes Between Projects appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Next Week: Living DIY Challenge!

As you guys have seen from time to time in the last year or so, I have been participating in a few group DIY challenges, usually involving a little graphic that looks like this:

(Your eyes arent' playing tricks on you… one of the hosts just picked her own graphic instead because she marches to her own drummer, and that's one of the many reasons I adore that woman.)

For each, it's a pretty simple concept: the host (which changes every time) picks a theme, those of us who can make time for it all run with it, and then we link up on a future date and show off our work. It becomes a really creative challenge in most cases, since when I participate, it both gets me to cross something off my to-do list in a timely manner (biggest challenge of all) and showcases some pretty awesome talent from others:

from: Pneumatic Addict / House of Wood / Kim Six Fix

In past challenges, I've waffled* between being extremely proud of my work and somewhat underwhelmed by it, but that's kind of the point of these: to get a little ambitious, test my own skills, and actually see if I can ROCK this. Especially since I'm not really a woodworking blogger (I would instead describe my blogging niche as “complete do-it-yourself sh*tshow”), making mistakes and succeeding alike have both increased my general knowledge and confidence. And, I'll admit, they always make me want more tools. Check out some of my past challenges here:

Anyway - why am I bringing this up? Because next week on Wednesday, June 15th, I'm actually the one hosting this time. Which means either one of two things will happen: either it will be exactly as awesome as all of the other challenges have been so far, or I will be a complete disaster and everyone will school me. Either way, it should make for a pretty entertaining post for all of you. First challenge: what theme do I pick?

I'm no stranger to picking up a challenge, like I did with the Pinterest one I co-hosted ages ago or the two Dueling DIY challenges that I did for both my staircase and my kitchen (speaking of, I need to do another one of those soon… I miss the smack talk!). But this time, the concept is more about picking a single theme for everyone to aspire to (rather than a room in a house or whatever). So since I've been getting my hands dirty with so many outdoor projects lately and have plants on the brain, the one I picked falls right in line: LIVING DIY!

The topic is broad enough that it can include a lot of different project ideas: hanging air plants, succulent terrariums, planters, bird houses, pet feeders (like the one I've been wanting to build for Charlie), etc. As long as it's a DIY project involving something living that also isn't a person (I say that because technically, anything someone does in their home, like building a coffee table, is usually a benefit for a person, so that would broaden it a little too much). But please - no goldfish toilets, okay?

#LIVINGDIYCHALLENGE

You'll see a blog hop from some awesome blogging and building friends who are planning to participate, and then there will be a linkup for you if you want to add your project too (use the graphic above and link back to my post if you're planning to participate so people know what's going on). My post and blog hop will be going live next Wednesday, June 15th, so be sure to stop by and ready to click. In the meantime, I'm going to be outside this afternoon and finishing up a project or two (I haven't talked about what I'm doing for this challenge yet on the blog, so it will be something different from what you already know I'm working on). I'll be dropping hints or showing sneak peeks on Facebook Live if I can ever manage to get some coffee in my system and makeup on my face (I have been using Periscope, but I haven't tried FL yet, so I think I'll do both and see which I like better). More DIY coming tomorrow!

*Mmmm… waffles.

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5-Minute Fix: Unsticking The Sliding Glass Door

You know those home repairs that you meant to do the last time they bothered you, but then you completely ignored it because you feel like you don't have time, and you're still dealing with the problem? Yeah, that was basically what was happening with my sliding glass door.

Every time I'd let Charlie out into the yard, the door would stick. Every day. I could easily blame the previous owner for letting it rust, but over the years it became gummed up with dirt, sludge, dog hair, and even the occasional spider web. And rather than scrub it out, I made the assumption that the door was simply always going to be a pain or would require replacement - and I wanted to put that expensive thought in the back of my mind for as long as possible. So, I did what any reasonable homeowner who doesn't want to deal with the problem rightthisminute would do: I yanked harder on the door to get it to open, let Charlie out, then yanked really hard on the door again when it came time to let her back in. Usually, this would result in one of two things: either the door would cooperate and slide smoother on the next pull (yay! but rare), or the door would stick a little bit more (or come off the track), and would be even more difficult to deal with the next time around. This went on for way too long. Because I'm apparently a glutton for this sort of crap.

I know that I should have dealt with it sooner. In fact, I should have been doing this “repair” all along as regular maintenance (so, I guess, learn from my mistake?). But, this is also one of those things that simply can't be ignored forever - the door will just keep sticking until it won't budge. Had I known it would have taken me all of five minutes (if that), I probably would have done this ages ago!

As it just so happens, the makers behind WD-40 reached out to me recently and asked if we could work together on a couple of projects as a sponsor, and I knew right away that I could use their products (I mean, is there a DIYer out there who hasn't used WD-40 at least once?). In the box they sent, they included this:

Dissolves gum and sludge? Prevents rust? Waterproof? Yes, please.

How to Fix a Sliding Glass Door

What you need:

• inexpensive scrub brush (I picked mine up from IKEA for a dollar or two)


• shop vac (I have a compact one that's great for small pickups like this)


• 3-in-ONE pneumatic tool oil

Normally, this oil is used for lubricating tools (like a pneumatic nail gun), but just like it says on the label, it's meant for resisting rust and preventing corrosion and gumming up, which are the same properties that make it a win for this project (FYI, they also have a “multi-purpose” oil too, but this still did the trick!).

First, all you need to do is simply give the sliding door track a good scrubbing. Be sure to brush down both sides of the track as well as help scrub out the dirt that exists in the middle (move the door along the track to expose the front, scrub, move the door back to the closed position, scrub, and so on).

Do this as many times as needed to get the dirt loose along the whole track.

As you scrub, use a shop vac to vacuum up the loose dirt (or in my case, spider webs, pine straw, dog hair, and dirt). This will help you see if you really got it all… or if you just think you did.

The door should already be functioning far better by this point, but if you really want it to last, you'll need a little lubricant.

Finally, add the 3-in-1 oil along the track. Move the door back and forth like you did in step 1 to help the door glide over the oiled areas; this will actually help to move around the lubricant into the harder-to-reach middle area where the door is constantly sliding and experiencing the friction that makes it stick.

This little fix took all of five minutes, but it made a night and day difference to my everyday routine to let Charlie in and out of the house (which she wants to do all the time). If only combating her nonstop shedding (or tracking in more dirt) were this easy!

Don't forget, since this project takes so little time, you can also take a few minutes to oil up all of your tools while you're at it. This is another thing I do too infrequently, but since I plan to use my pneumatic nail gun all summer long with upcoming projects, I know that I need to make more of an effort for proper tool care. Oiling your tools (and chainsaw blades, too) help to extend the overall life of the tool, so it's never a bad idea to keep a bottle like this on hand. Plus, a little goes a long way, so as long as you don't misplace it in your messy garage (ahem), you can use the same bottle for hundreds of projects.

Not bad for a quick fix, eh?

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by 3-in-ONE Oil, but all opinions are 100% my own!

The post 5-Minute Fix: Unsticking The Sliding Glass Door appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Landscaping Around the A/C Unit (almost done!)

Hey folks! I know it's - well, Friday - but I want to update you guys on last weekend. Specifically, this:

Long story short: I got the majority of the side of the house done! Doesn't it look so much better than where I started? I'm about as excited about this transformation as I was after I installed the kitchen backsplash.

where it all began

You guys might recall from my last update that I still needed a few more bags of gravel and then to fill in the middle spot between. Which looked like this:

And over the weekend, that's exactly what I did. Right down to the very last bag of gravel, mulch, and plant I had available. I'm super pleased it turned out so well… one of the few times that something just worked the way I wanted it to right away!

I also figured out that if I'm going to bother putting gravel around these spots, I might as well do the whole area that's tucked away on this side of the chimney (thus why I even ran out of the gravel in the first place). The pic below is to the right of the A/C condensing unit, so I filled in this area too. More scalloped edging will divide this whole section between the gravel and the holly planted out in front of the house (it's not my favorite, but we've talked about this).

I need to scrub that green gunk off the house, but it's already looking so much cleaner and low-maintenance-y. WIN. I considered going on in more detail about each part, but since people like to skim sometimes, I broke it down a little further below.

Choosing landscaping around the air conditioning unit:

Spacing

I first came up with the idea for adding gravel mainly because I read that while shade around an A/C condensing unit (the outdoor part of your A/C) is good for energy savings, you also don't want to plant anything too close. Plants can grow into the unit and decrease its efficiency, and anything that sheds flowers and leaves, or “defoliates”, during off-peak seasons is generally a bad idea (restricting air flow around something that's purposefully trying to remove heat is kind of the opposite of what you want). A good rule of thumb is one to three horizontal feet (so says this site and others). You also don't want to cover over the top of the condensing unit by a good four to six feet, but that's not really a problem here (just more info for ya).

I wouldn't say that the pine straw and low plants in the “before” picture were really much of an issue in terms of horizontal crowding, but honestly, thems a whole lotta ugly, and I didn't want to run the risk of making things pretty only to have done it with less efficiency than I started with!

One more thing I was careful to measure off was adding some distance around the back of the little garden bed I created, too. This is mainly because the house has cedar siding, and to prevent termites, you also want some good spacing between the bottom of your siding and any mulch (I've read about 15 inches or so; fewer could result in voiding a termite warranty if you need one for your home). I've used rubber mulch for this purpose before when I need to blend it with regular mulch, but since I was using egg rock around the A/C already, I didn't need to do any fancy mulching combinations. The spacing up against the fence was just for visual balance with the rest of the area.

Stones

I got a great discount on egg rock, but you can find out all about how to score this stuff on the cheap here. To separate the stones from the new garden bed and help me (hopefully) keep things tidy in the future. Since rocks and landscaping pebbles are known to spread around when you're not looking, I also added some of the scalloped edging that exists elsewhere on my property. I gave myself a break while I went to go grab more cardboard to help kill off the grass, and in the meantime, a bird seemed to have assessed my progress:

Does that mean they hate it… or like it?

The scalloped edging may not be the prettiest IMO, but I have a ton of it after removing a bunch from the backyard mound where I had a bunch of trees cut down, and doing anything further with it would just mean more time or cost (even turning it over to the flat side would just emphasize the other places that haven't been changed, and I'd rather have it all consistent instead of doing the labor to all of the other spots).

Plant picks

Like I said above, good plants to put near the A/C condensing unit are ones that don't shed flowers or leaves regularly, so my typical shade-loving favorite, hydrangeas, was out. I'm not crazy about hostas in general, but when I went to my local gardening center to choose something that would work well in the shade without flowers, I decided that a good variation of colorful leaves was the right answer. And let's face it - hostas are really easy to keep.

For each plant, I measured spacing on the higher end (so when the tag said 18 – 24 inches wide, I went with 21-24) so that it has room to mature and fill in over time. I used the tip of my gardening trowel to mark the center spot for each plant, and my mattock came in handy for digging deep holes with minimal effort.

After everything was in and covered with mulch, we get a nice little bed that I hope I have to maintain exactly zero times for the rest of the year.

The red plants are an annual (coleus, and thanks to Vanessa and others for making that suggestion in the last post!), and my intentions are just to have it fill in the negative space while the hostas grown in a little more. The shrub in the back is called Andromeda (I think – I actually bought it over a year ago and it stayed in a pot while I decided to plant… which makes this the lowest-maintenance plant I've ever bought at a nursery and actually survived! I considered just leaving it as a potted plant since it seemed content to stay that way, but the pot size would have kept it tiny). It flowers, but only teeny tiny white buds, and it's a slow grower. Putting it at the back and with space to grow near the fence will give the bed some height, but not risk crudding up the condenser.

• Get one or two more bags of gravel (I had allllmost enough and took advantage of a good sale on the landscaping rocks, but I wound up covering more square feet than I originally planned)


• Patch & paint that band along the siding (I want it to be the same white/cream color that I painted the trim)


• Build a weather-resistant screen that will hide the A/C unit visibly from the street (already started!)

I know, that last one sounds like I'm immediately going to violate the whole “keep things away from the unit” rule above - but I'm actually still planning on giving it the proper distance, just giving me something more pleasant to look at in the process (and it might help keep any stray vine roots that exist under the soil from growing into the unit, too).

In truth, I completed this on Saturday morning, which meant I had all of the rest of the holiday weekend to run that first errand, but I still need to pick up those extra bags. I pretty much spent the rest of it visiting the zoo (Atlanta's “Brew at the Zoo”) and getting poked in the head by a well-meaning bearded guy…

Kept making “the sunlight hurts my eyes” face and instead, I get sunglasses snarled in my ponytail BlogThis!

Little Ducklings

Okay, nobody panic: the title of this post is not some cutesy way of announcing a pregnancy or something. All I wanted to do was show you a new collection I've unintentionally started in my office:

(This post contains affiliate links.)

I picked up this brass duck paperweight from this Etsy shop a few months ago. I wasn't really looking for it, but it's almost like Etsy knew that I liked ducks or something.

When I created this site more than six years ago, the blog name merely came about from the children's tale, of course, sort of winking at the idea that someday, my house might not look like hot garbage (that link is to the very first post, complete with listing photos). But over time, I've grown to like the symbol and tend to get a big grin whenever I see ducks (ducklings, in particular) around. This past Christmas, my mom even gave me a small gold duckling charm for a bracelet… and I guess the idea has been sitting in the back of my mind to add a duck or duckling (or two) as decor ever since.

Not long after the first one shipped, I spotted another antique duckling paperweight in yet another Etsy shop and basically purchased it before I even realized what I was doing (let's just be honest, there was totally alcohol involved). I don't regret buying it though; in fact, I like it even more than the first one. So cute!

Both of these little paperweights are displayed on my office shelves for now, but they might find a new home by year's end as I'm thinking of adding some built-ins to the living room (more on that in a future post). I suppose having only two doesn't even make it a “collection” yet, but I also don't think I'm going to really try to add more (I'm not much of the collector type). You never know!

How about you? Do you have a collection of anything in your home? Where do you display it?

(sources of other items in photos: buffalo skull print / teal vase / vintage ruler)

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Good, Old-Fashioned Exhaustion

Guys - what the hell is happening to May? Is June really only next week? I could really use a massage. And a nap. Well, really just a week of naps would probably do the trick. And a few more bags of gravel.

Still, almost everything I've been working on lately has been a good thing, so the exhaustion I feel is at least giving me a sense of accomplishment. I took a blog-related trip to New York last week, which now makes it the third time I've visited Manhattan, and the noneth time I've done it with 24 hours of consecutive free time (I have been making strong hints to a new cute guy in my life that we need to change that pronto, though). That's not to say that there isn't at least some fun involved in blog-related trips (even when it's “work”); if you were following on Twitter, you might have noticed that I met this guy while I was there:

He really is that tall.

More details on that next month (or you can get the gist from my Twitter feed), but in short: it got weird (his words) and funny and awkward, just as you might expect it to be.

Once I got back home, it was right back to yanking out long vines from the side of the house and fighting off mosquitoes - such is the glamorous world of DIY!

I'm happy with the progress I made despite several days of rain, but I still have a little more to fill in before the landscaping really starts to pop. And, speaking of pop…

Thank you to those of you who gave suggestions last week about which plants will do well back near the air conditioning unit. I'll have a new update for this area soon, as well as more gardening updates and some plans for what's coming up this summer. What are your goals for the week?

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How to Get Blue Hydrangeas

The beginning of summer is one of my favorite times of year. The days stretch, my spring allergies finally start to subside, and I get really excited to tackle more of my to do list (yet somehow, still make it longer). But, I think my favorite thing of all is when the hydrangeas start growing in.

I may not like how spindly they look during the winter months (because they turn into depressing bundles of sticks), but when their beautiful mophead blooms return, I'm always reminded that they're worth their winter ugliness.

(By the way, this post includes affiliate links* - I only recommend products I love, but linking to affiliates provides me the essential things I require to write this blog… like beer money.)

The hydrangeas are all growing in taller and healthier than ever. When spring rolls around, they form new leaves and buds that shoot off from their existing stalks, so I resist the urge all winter long to not trim down the sickly-looking branches in order to reap the rewards when things start to bloom again. This year, my patience really paid off, and the ones in the back yard against the house have seen the biggest benefit (they were petite back in 2013 when I planted them, but this is how they looked just a few weeks ago!).

Since I have three healthy plants of the same type which bloom and rebloom all summer long - I think this will be the first year that I try to propogate new ones from the existing plants. I've just bought some root hormone, so I'll create a tutorial on that for you in a month or so if I manage to actually make them grow (I may have enough dead or dying plants in my gardening history to be Tim Burton's botanist, but I'm getting better each year!).

The one in the front yard flowers in shades of blue, but the ones in the back of the house tend to grow in pink and purple. They are all the same variety, but the color of the flowers are determined by the acidity in the soil.

You can enrich either color with soil fertilizers (such as this one for blue and this one for pink), or you can try some home remedies (I sprinkled the soil in the back with coffee grounds over the winter to help increase acidity, but it may take a few seasons to see a true color change). The pine straw that I've had naturally falling around the plants also increase acidity.

Other plants have also been growing like crazy around the front and back yards, but that will be for a future time, another post. For now, I've got to get back to work on updating the area around the A/C unit; I'll have new pictures up in just a day or two!

How about you? What's blooming in your yard this month?

*A quick word on “affiliate links” and my reference to them: you will see me often disclosing that I'm using “affiliate links” in posts when recommending products; all this means is that if you click and buy that product as a referral from my site, I am compensated - usually just cent or two at a time - for having linked to the thing I'm talking about. Basically, it's just a means of earning an income for something I'm already doing (i.e. completing projects and explaining what I use to accomplish them), but this doesn't impact or increase the cost of the items purchased. If you read blogs regularly, these disclosures may get a little repetitive at times; laws in the U.S. & around the world now require the use of both specific language and specific placement within content. These things are always changing, too, kind of like the adulting version of Simon Says. I'll try my best to make it entertaining enough for you guys that it stays fresh. So this time, “thanks for the beer money” - it keeps me writing and far more enjoyable around my friends and family (which means they thank you, too). x0x0

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