House Numbers on the Curb

 The house numbers that we painted on the curb are showing their age.  So we decided to repaint them.   I scraped the old surface to get off any loose paint.  Then I spray painted the rectangle underneath the numbers to white.  Stencils were used to spray paint the numbers on black.

But the curb curves, and the stencils don't so there was a lot of over/under spray and the numbers looked fuzzy.  I tried to sharpen things up with a little paint brush and paint from the spray cans, but spray can paint is very thin and runny.  When I put paint to the curb with the brush, it tended to run down the curb, thru the numbers.

So I decided we needed actual paint.  In a can.  Oil-based enamel outdoor paint.  Bought one quart can of white, one of black, from Home Depot.  Using another brush I touched up the number I had sprayed.  Took two days -- one to touch up the white, then another to touch up the black, then another to touch up the white that had drips of black, and another to touch up the black that had drips of white.

 To save trouble with the other number on the other side of the driveway, I just went straight to the touching up with the can paint, since I could still see where the number was from the last time.

 And while I was at it, I did the same for the neighbors at 10603.

Sealing the Shower Floor

 We really like the newly remodeled master bathroom. Especially the shower.

However, after about a month of use, Linda noticed small black spots on the shower floor.

We think this is mold.

So two questions: (1) How to get rid of it? and (2) How to prevent it?

To get rid of it, I would normally spray it with a mold/mildew remover, which is basically bleach, but the internet says not to do that because (a) the tile is marble, (b) Marble is calium carbonate -- a form of limestone, (c) limestone is base and bleach is acidic, (d) bleach will eat away at the marble.  Instead I found a recipe for a cleaner for marble composed of:

• 1.5 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon dish soap
• 3 tablespoons Rubbing Alcohol

I mixed that up in a spray bottle, then sprayed it on the tile and scrubbed it with a scrub brush. 

Once that was dry, we decided to seal the stone, to try to keep the mold out of it.  Marble is porous.  We decided to use BulletProof Sealer by StoneTech.

The hope is that this will seal the stone, and not allow the mold to get into it.

In addition, we are looking into using a UVC light to kill any mold.  A UVC light  (254 nm) is supposed to break down any DNA molecules and so kill the mold.  It is also damaging to people, so we will need to be careful.