Don't let those grease and oil stains on your cement or concrete floor just sit there. It's easy to remove them, according to the folks at the Michigan State University Extension. The extension offers this advice: Steps for Removing Grease Stains Step 1: Sop up any wet areas Apply cornmeal or sawdust (this is especially important immediately after a spill) Leave it on the stain for three hours and sweep up. Then, use one of these methods to remove the stain: Step 2: Sprinkle dry dishwasher detergent on wet concrete Let it stand a few minutes and then pour boiling…

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In the last few months, all of us at Remodelista have been playing board games, cards, checkers, chess—anything  to distract us in the long evenings at home. Here are some editors’ recent favorites: Above: Fan has fallen for the Four Seasons Exotic Playing Cards from Okuno Karuta Ten; $26 from Jinen. The card set is a reproduced edition of Sumio Kawakami’s woodblock print “Torampu-e” from the 1960s. Each suit emphasizes a theme: clubs feature spring, spades feature winter, hearts feature fall, and diamonds feature summer. Above: We’re admiring this Bookshelf Trio of Board Games, linen-bound editions of classic board games.…

Above: A quiet corner from Creative Flow: A Novelist’s Elegant Pied-a-Terre by Colombe Studio. Photograph by Kasia Gatkowska, courtesy of Colombe Studio. A few things we’re noting this winter weekend: “At a time when we’re all starved for adventure, this long global list, divided into categories (such as stationery, interiors), makes for great armchair browsing,” says Margot. Spotted on Dezeen: The Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko the 2020 Annie Spink Award for architectural education. Rikumo is giving away give themed “mystery bags,” each filled with products “specifically curated to maximize your creature comforts,” for the…

Not long ago, electrical contractor Allen Gallant was about halfway through the job of completely rewiring a 3,200-square-foot house in Acton, Massachusetts, when the owners decided to save some money and not install whole house surge protection against surges from lightning or downed power lines. Sure enough, soon after the house was finished, Gallant got a phone call from the distressed owners: Lightning had struck a utility pole near their house, sending a tidal wave of voltage through the wires, past the main breaker panel, and into the house. “It burned out the motherboard in the Sub-Zero refrigerator, fried the…

Project details Skill 1 out of 5 Easy Drilling lath holes and smoothing plaster takes special care Cost About $50 Estimated Time 3 hours the 1st day, 1 hour the 2nd day, 20 minutes the 3rd day You just gotta love plaster. That rock-hard substance, which was applied to the walls and ceilings of nearly every house in this country until the 1950s, gives us surfaces that are seamless, mold resistant, fire resistant, and noise deadening. But what to do when plaster cracks, buckles, and pops loose? It's a perplexing question for many of our readers, including Tim Thorp, whose…