I'm jumping on the train a little late, but I had bedbugs for YEARS; they even followed me from one apartment to my new home. Over that period, I tried just about every company and every method professionally available, but a couple of months was the longest it ever was before I woke up with bloody sheets again.

Turns out the bastards were living in the jackets of the thousands of LPs on the shelves that cover two of my bedroom walls, so the heat treatment was out. But it's been almost exactly a year now since (with a friend's help) I tried a natural, nontoxic remedy that's kept me from any further problems.

It's called CedarCide Bed Bug Killer Spray (corny as hell, I know) (http://www.cedarcide.com/). Don't let the amateurish Web site put you off as it almost did me. In my case, what I had to do was remove all the records from all the shelves, then spray the stuff onto all the interior surfaces of them, focusing especially on the junctions of horizontal-to-vertical boards and the front surface of the shelving, as well as where they met the floor. In other words, I thought of every place they'd have to crawl over in order to get from the shelves to me and blasted the crap out of it.

The records went back in and, even in the cases where the shelving was still wet, there was no staining or damage of any kind. For good measure, I also filled little cups with the liquid and put them around the legs of the bed where they sat on the floor.

Predictably, CedarCide's spray has a very strong cedar smell, cedar oil being the active ingredient and all, but I found it more than tolerable, and it wasn't very noticeable anymore after about a week. Best of all, unlike all the other poisonous and environmentally hazardous stuff that had been used before, this posed no potential harm to me or my cat, and neither of us had to evacuate the home at all for any period.

As I said, it's a year later, and nothin'. I swear by this stuff. Four of the spray bottles linked below did the trick. Obviously, you have to know where the bugs are living in order to intercept their path to you, but if you can do that, you're home free. By the way, your finger might get a little tired of pulling the trigger on the spray bottle, but rest, switch it up, and get a friend to help; I can't imagine the infestation so serious that the fogger would be called for, though I imagine that, unfortunately, such places exist.

Here's the link straight to the specific product that worked for me; good luck!

http://www.cedarcidestore.com/catalog/item/3580888/3194699.htm

I want to preface this answer with the fact that I know nothing personally about re-doing a bathtub, but I have friends who have used A-1 Re-glazing and I have heard good things. From their website it looks like it will run you $575 for a complete re-glazing plus $100 for a 10 year warranty if you want it. If the tub is worth $1500 $675 sounds like a good investment. According to their website, they serve King, Snohomish, Skagit, Island & Whatcom counties.

http://a-1reglazingnw.com/index1.html

Hardware stores. Ace or true value in west Seattle has an interesting selection.

Mclenden's is the bomb. They have the most extensive selection of Christmas lights anywhere and I am, right now, going there for replacement bulbs for my outside lights.

cost plus world market! uncommon goods pottery barn?

My parents lived in an apartment complex when they were first married which was infested with roaches; in their case it was the unit of an alcoholic neighbor who never took her trash out that was the breeding ground.

For this reason you should contact building management as even your best housekeeping isn't going to do much if a neighbor's place is attracting and breeding them.

Evidently borax mixed with white table sugar in equal parts is a relatively non-toxic way to bait and kill roaches.

See:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/doityourself/qt/Roach_Killer.htm

There are plenty of ways into your place that are not obvious to you. Space around water pipes and drains, outlet for the dryer vent, and wiring boxes that are not sealed. Much of these spaces are under the sink, behind kitchen appliances and there may even be some open wall spots not visible to you behind kitchen cabinetry. It is not that your place is infested but that there is an active population in your building. You are seeing the few adults you have found have been exploring to find new places to live. The real concern is when you find little tiny ones which will indicate breeding activity and young emerging from egg sacks tucked away somewhere in these hard or impossible to get places.

So what to do? Don't get freaked out, GET ACTIVE. Put out some of those roach motels (the kind with the sticky material that attracts them and traps them). Place them in the obvious places under the cabinet edge, in the cabinet under the kitchen sink (bathrooms, too.). Check them daily and make notes. See where you are catching them and if they are adults or very young. Look for the open spaces mentioned and use foam, sealant, caulking, heavy duty tape, expanding foam, etc. to seal the obvious places, especially if they are near where you trapped one. Talk to the folks at your local hardware or big box hardware place about appropriate materials. Pay attention to the precautions and instructions for use.

Follow your normal very clean manners in dealing with food and food debris, garbage (food waste) and waste storage. Get a waste can that you can close shut securely. We recycle food waste with our yard waste (and in the winter it is often just the garbage that gets put out on yard waste day. We keep a container in the freezer (big heavy duty zip lock pancake mix bag) and in to it place the onion and potato peels, melon rinds, cut ends of vegetables, etc. after each meal prep. - no smell, mess, odor, all is frozen leftover fresh frozen veggies and meat waste (we can recycle all that where we are).

Next vacuum regularly. This is a key component to roach control - it picks up the food debris and stuff you can't really see and if you suck up some young bugs, so be it. Make sure your vacuum seals off the bag or container contents or empty it daily if you think you have active bugs in it. Back in the day when people weren't so freaked about chemicals my mother always ended the days vacuuming with a short spritz of roach killer in the intake of the vacuum when it was running (not recommended now).

Lastly you may consider the toxic chemical route, but this is inherently fraught with the problems of applying such compounds so that they do the job without harming you or your pets. That is when a professional pest control person is the preferable solution.

Understand you will find the roaches when you least want to, when you enter the room at night and turn on the lights. I remember a number of years ago, a joke t-shirt with dancing roaches with top hats and canes in a chorus line with the marquee statement saying "Appearing Nightly". They prefer low light and come out when there is no activity occurring. Lights go on and they scurry, go to hit them and they seemingly run before you can get to them. Turns out they have sense organs that that detect the movement of air of the oncoming slap that get their legs running before the information even gets to the brain, which makes it harder to get them.

You can do this. Look for the entry points, keep clean, use non-toxic traps, use chemical control judiciously or get professional services. Don't freak out about the occasion scout that found its way into your home, it happens.

Oh man, they're the worst for that. And a brief glance at google shows that this is a VERY common problem/frustration.

There seem to be two common "solutions," and both seem to need to be done BEFORE the lights are up (darn it!). Using a hair dryer (but this is touchy, you've got to be careful not to give too much heat) or the labor-intensive fishing line and weights. EEK!

More details can be found here http://www.ehow.com/how_5273000_straighten-icicle-lights.html

Personally, as they're already up, I'd just leave them, and you have interesting light bunches around your house...still festive, just a more non-traditional shape. And then you can try warming them up and straightening them out for next year.

Probably would have been best to get them straight before hanging them up. Unfortunately, this time of year they won't warm up outside and they shouldn't be warm because of the current draw, that is for sure.

Best to use a heat source to warm the wires like a heat gun or a hair dryer. Think of how flexible they would be if it was 90° out and they were on the warm driveway concrete. Be careful in applying the heat and massage them straight. I am not sure how you can accomplish this on a ladder without more than two hands involved.

The answer is simply - because so many apartments here come with facilities.

But none but West Seattle? No-

Madrona laundromat on 34th?
Lather Daddy on 12th?
The Laundry Mat at Union and 23rd in the CD?
U district has a bunch, like Lost Sock Co on Roosevelt.

There's a trailer park - 'university park'- on Lake City Way, actually IN the city. Likely to have RV parking. Otherwise, he could maybe get a mobile home?

I'd recommend the liveaboard lifestyle instead -- if he can pay for a good boat, he can rent a slip and otherwise be rentfree while enjoying the great waterways here.

Barring use of nasty chemicals to protect the health of your and your cat (not a guaranteed method anyway), it is unlikely that you will completely eliminate any hitchhikers in moving from your old place to your new place, no matter what you do. But the best solution is to try to pack as clean as you can, move into a clean place, and control access to food (to eliminate new generations occurring) as well as to use appropriate health friendly (yours and cat's) methods to catch the few interlopers that made it over there. If it hasn't been done you might consider having the new place professionally treated ahead of time (before moving in) - be sure to let them know about your cat.

Here is a good overview of healthier practices in eliminating them from your place of residence.

Be sure to remember that your cat's food (if left out) is a great source of food for the pests also. You can get your cat used to having the food dish placed in a larger plate with some water in it to provide a moat to keep the unwanted from reaching it, while you are working on getting the population to zero.

there are folks living in campers on our street every day. most folks are considerate, but there's plenty of campers who fill up the curbside with used toilet paper and food trash. my least favorite part is the super-loud generators. there's a weird assortment of vehicles that seem to be mobile storage units that show up overnight, with no one living in them or nearby.

we've found over the years that the only option is to call the abandoned vehicle hotline (206) 684-8763 after three days. the website takes a bit longer for the SPD to process.

however, if your street is in a residential zone and not an industrial zone like mine weirdly is, no one is permitted to park their RV on the street overnight. you can call 206-625-5011 to report bad parkers.

Are you near Sandel Park?

There's a place over in Bellevue near Eastgate on the S side of I-90. My wife's uncle stayed there when he came through with his RV a year ago. We did stop by, but I don't recall how "nice" it was.

I've had rving family come through town and the closest I could find was on 99 in Lynnwood and it was a dump. If you get some sort of permit from the city you can live in your rv and park in some of the industrial type areas of Ballard.

In addition to Crystal Clean Laundry there are:

Queen Anne Laundry Room
8 West Boston,
Seattle, WA 98119

12th Ave Maytag Laundry
1807 12th Ave
Seattle, WA98122

You could also use A-1 Laundry, Inc
http://www.a1laundry.com/price.html

Pretty reasonable prices for blankets.

Try Crystal Clean Laundry, right next to City Market on Capitol Hill: 1718 Bellevue Ave. You can take the #14 or #43 bus there.

To visit? To show at? To rent? Maybe some more info would help Us provide you with an appropriate answer

I am assuming that his plans are to obtain whatever licenses and contractor credentials are appropriate to follow the law and protect himself and the consumers he works for.

That aside I think he needs to get a couple of jobs done so that he has some positive references for his work and the functionality of the designs.

A good local reference to start out with would be to go and talk to the folks at Ecohaus. They are a major center for finding those environmentally friendly technologies and materials for home renovation and building.

EcoHaus website

Ecohaus Seattle Flagship store

I think it depends on how far out he wants to go to find customers. I have relatives who live more out in the boonies (Kitsap County) who have wood stoves in their homes as either their primary heat or as a backup when their electricity goes out every time we have a windstorm. They'd probably be up for something like this, but it would involve a lot of driving and ferry riding time for your husband.

They tend to do whatever installation is required all in that one fee. If there's an existing outlet and the technician just hands you the box, it's the same fee as if they have to drill holes in the wall and put in a new outlet. So that should all be included.

Later, if there are issues with the service and they send a technician, it's free if it turns out the issues are on their end. But if it is determined to be an issue with your stuff, they charge $90 or more. Although there's a warranty thing of about $2/month you can pay so they'll come out to fix stuff without charging you ever.

It's a real crapshoot on whether you'll have a technician who knows what they are doing or not. 2 years ago we had trouble with our signal. Had THREE different techs come out over 3 different appointments (SUCH a pain in the ass). The last guy said he found the problem easily...he just had to get out his ladder and climb the pole to check up there...none of the others had done this. Argh! It can be so frustrating. They did end up giving me Starz free for a year because they messed up so bad. *shrug*

I'm guessing that the $35 fee assumes that you already have a cable line installed and it covers a technician turning on the service outside your home.

Legally, it's your responsibility to pay for an installation in your own home, but I've personally never had to pay for it before, usually the technician waives the fee at the time of service. I wouldn't count on it though.

They did that at my house a few years ago and I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure I didn't have to pay for it. But...

Watch them carefully because the guy did a bit of hack job. Rather than doing it right he just did what was easiest.

If it's not included, then they would almost certainly do it for no extra charge if you told them it caused you to change your mind about signing up for their service.

I think your best bet is to call them to negotiate this beforehand, as opposed to with the technician during the visit. You also wouldn't need to worry about your "poker face" so much over the phone if the part about reconsidering their service isn't exactly truthful.

You should probably call Comcast.

High gloss paint! It's easier to clean and dirt doesn't cling to it. You can wipe it down with a sponge instead of scrubbing at an eggshell or matte paint