Try one of those magic eraser cleaning sponges.
They are actually made of melamine foam, having very small bubbles in them where the cut edge of the bubble acts like a small blade planing the surface of the material you are cleaning up. The effect would be to shave off the pen ink on the surface and even into the paint removing material that may be stained with the ink (depending how much elbow grease you use).
The material removed is very small and shouldn't eat through the paint unless you used a lot of rubbing and pressure. Try it on a place where you won't see it all the time to see how much it dulls the paint surface (if at all).

Repairing the dulled surface could be effected with a small amount of acrylic plastic cleaner (polish) like that made by Meguiar's. You might find that this would be an effective line of products to use to effect the ink removal in the first place also.

M.G. Andrea,

Please forgive the extended answer but I feel some extra setup is beneficial here to give the non-bird owner reader some extra background information. Although most folks nowadays are much more conscious of indoor air pollution and have a desire to live a more green and chemical-free lifestyle they do not necessarily know the extra care, skepticism and worry of people who have companion parrots and birds as pets. What may seem like normal everyday harmless conveniences have to be used very carefully or eliminated from our homes.

People typically toss out all of their cookware that have non-stick coatings based on PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene or teflon) as one overheated pan in a moment of inattention could kill every bird in a house in a matter of minutes. Birds are evacuated to safe locations or an isolated part of the house if a self cleaning oven is to be actuated as this poisonous deadly output is copious at such times.

Aerosols (deodorants, hairspray, cleaners, air fresheners) are either not used or replaced with solid or liquid soap products that do not laden the air with fine particles of modern chemicals. We don't burn incense and most people don't use candles (or use more bird safe soy based candles with non-metal containing wicks). Odor eliminator products like Febreeze are one of the most hotly discussed topics in online parrot forums as to whether they are safe or not. Lest you think that birds are a rare pet and these are rare concerns, manufacturers are starting to take notice.

I was interested to note that the third question on the FAQs page for the new Reynolds Wrap Non-Stick Foil addresses safety for birds in the home. Those of us with birds in our homes who have made all kinds of changes in our lifestyles (initially for them) find that we ourselves now live in much healthier indoor environment.

So now to the issue of carpet cleaning.

My initial thought was you have two routes - Do It Yourself or Commercial Cleaner. I know you were asking about commercial companies but first lets look at the the DIY route. Renting a carpet cleaner at your local big box hardware store or supermarket is a relatively less expensive route and you can be exactly sure of what you are using for cleaners as you add it yourself. My father used to clean his area carpets this way and often just used plain warm/hot water satisfactorily or extremely little common carpet detergent. The reasoning being that the carpet is initially treated to resist getting dirty (one of the problems of new carpet in our homes outgassing) and just rinsing the fibers can release most of the dirt. When using a detergent it is very difficult to get all traces of it off the fibers and so as a result the carpet becomes a very effective cleaning cloth at scrubbing dirt off of shoes that walk across it even after it is dry. The effect is that you start to see the dark track of where everyone typically walks much quicker after you have used soap to clean the rug and then you are back in the cycle of having to clean it again.

Many parrot owners use OxiClean solutions for safe bird cleaning tasks and I believe you could use a dilute solution of this on your carpet through such a machine. You could contact the manufacturer of the stuff they sell for use in the machines and ask about content and bird safety. If I was to use a rental unit I would run quite a bit of water through the machine out on the driveway to make sure you have purged the internal workings of soap and chemical residues before using it in the house.

As always, you should try whatever solution you use on your carpets in a small test area to determine the affect before commiting to a large area.

As to working with a commercial company there seems to be many in this area. With the current economy I think it is safe to say the consumer is in the driver's seat and most businesses are very interested in working for you. You should get good complete responses to your questions and concerns or just move on to someone else.

I did some reading about local companies (as anyone can) and am not in the position to speak from actual experience. However, I was impressed by the writeup and information presented by a local company, Alpine Specialty Cleaning. Be sure to read their FAQs page. They hit some of my main points and assure that there is no chemical residue left over after the job is done. They appear to have great ratings via the consumer indexes posted on their site also. I did find that the company has a couple of sites so be sure to use the link I included so you are specifically looking at the carpet pages.

For safety's sake I would always recommend getting your Umbie to a second location or to an isolated part of the house until you are convinced the carpeting is dry and the air is clear.

By the way, Bravo for being such a good parrot owner. I hope you share your success story in this venture with the rest of the community (and especially the bird owners) here. I would also like to be able to inform NWEBS members as to good companies that keep the needs of our feathered charges in mind.

Every house is required by law to pay for garbage collection, so neither the landlord nor the tenant can just stop paying. The city has the power to declare the house "unlivable" because of garbage, which ought to get their attention pretty quick.

Since the garbage is overflowing into parking spaces, which is public property; this has become illegal dumping. You should call the SPU at (206) 684-7587 or fill out the online form here:

http://www2.seattle.gov/util/forms/illegalDumping/illegalDumpForm.asp

Goo Gone, WD-40, and those big old-school erasers have each worked well for me in the past. You could try sticking duct tape on top of the label leavings, rubbing the duct tape in to the residue, and then ripping it away like a Band Aid.

You also might try some kitchen oils (olive, vegetable, mineral) if you don't want to use weird cleaners on a food prep surface. Just let the oils sit on the residue for a while before scraping.

It varies drastically by what type of washer you have. An old school top-loading washer can use up to 40 gallons of water. A front-loading washer is about half that. The biggest cost, by far, is heating the water. This will vary by season, as warmer inlet water is cheaper to heat than colder inlet water, for obvious reasons. Water costs vary by usage and season too. Here is a laundry cost calculator. I have no idea how accurate it is, but it seems about right.

Another thing to keep in mind is dirty cloth diapers take 2-3 washes to get clean. There are a million or so websites dealing with this topic.

For the sake of argument, let's just call it $1/wash, and $0.50/dry . For 3 washes/load, that's $3.50/load. Let's say you've got two loads per week, so $7/week, or around $28/month. Call it $30 to pay for detergent.

We use a diaper service. It's about $80/month and comparable to the cost of disposables. So, an extra $50/month buys convenience and not having to deal with poopy diapers. Worth it!

If hauling the tree to a transfer station is not easy, talk to your building manager. Asking never hurts. I manage an apartment building on Queen Anne and after Xmas each year I handle the extra trees by cutting them into smaller sections that will then fit into the yard waste bin (spreading out the greens over a few weeks, if necessary). Maybe your manager can assist with this; at the least, they'll just appreciate you asking and being concerned about the issue.

Today at the Whole Foods (Roosevelt) I saw a sign that said they're collecting old burn-out Christmas Tree lights for recycling. Just bring them to the customer service desk, and they send them to a recycling plant. Apparently the copper wire is stripped from the middle and the money from the sale of the copper is donated to the Moyer Foundation.

No offense, but O my captain is, um, not entirely correct.

First of all, ladybugs will not do ANYTHING bad to your house unless you squish them, in which case they will stink. If you try to remove them, they'll probably stink then too. They ooze stinky goo to deter predators when they're touched. Plus, if you manage to remove them alive and put them outside, unless you seal your house, they'll probably just come back. On the other hand, if you only have the few shown in the picture, they will not stink just by dying -- in fact, if they die on their own, they'll probably just dry up.

They're in your house to hibernate, basically (I think serious bug scientists will tell you they're "entering diapause" and don't technically hibernate, but whatevs). They don't eat while they do this whether they're inside or out. When they do eat in spring, they eat mostly aphids and maybe pollen; nothing in your house.

They are about the most benign insects you can possibly have in your house, and unless they're pissing you off by getting in your way, leave 'em.

You can read more about these critters on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_axyridis.

I'd be way more worried by what looks like mold or rot on the wood under them. That's inside your house? Ecch.