Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romero’s radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.
QUESTION: We had a leak in a pipe in our kitchen that may have gone on for nine months. In the end, it warped one of the cabinets, and now we need some repairs. We’re going to have the repair work done by a restoration company and our insurance company is covering some of the damage. We really love the countertop and want to save it. Can’t we just cut out the damaged cabinet and some of the drywall beneath the counter? The house is 30 years old, but the cabinets and counter are only 5 years old. Is that kind of job possible to do?
ANSWER: If the leak went on that long, you may have had serious damage. You may need to do a serious renovation. Saving the countertop may not be possible in order to fix the wall and cabinets properly. One problem is that the plywood sub-top under the quartz is screwed down into the cabinets. That would make it very difficult to get the cabinet out in one piece. It might make sense to get a second opinion about what to do.
Q: We rebuilt 65 feet of decking on the outside of our house and want to put up a new railing that won’t block the mountain views around the house. I was thinking of using cable railings, but I can’t find anyone that sells them except on the internet. I’d like to go to a showroom where we could see what the railing would look like. Do you know where we could go?
A: I’ve looked for that type of railing arrangement in the past, but can’t find anyone that sells those railings locally. But our listeners have suggested that you can try Industrial Metal Supply Co., which has outlets in Tucson and in Phoenix.
Q: I have a backyard concrete patio that sits on top of rock-hard caliche. Over the years, it’s developed problems and now when it rains, a pond builds up on the concrete. I’m afraid the pond might eventually reach the foundations of my stucco home. Usually when it rains, I put a sump pump out there to get water away from the house. But how can I protect the house when I’m away for the summer and I can’t do that?
A: It sounds as if you’re going to need to do surface grading on your lot or you’ll have to install a French drain system. You don’t want a pond to build up in the area of the foundation of your house or you could have many serious problems.
Q: My daughter is getting married in November, and she wants to use bougainvillea blossoms in her bouquet. She just loves the color of bougainvillea flowers. Can we do that? How do we store the bougainvilleas for a day so we can use them in the ceremony? And what other flower could we use if bougainvilleas are impossible? Is there something that looks like a bougainvillea?
A: You can probably store bougainvilleas for a day, but they’re very papery and fragile, so you have to be careful not to knock off all the blossoms. You should probably keep them in containers with room temperature water. What might work would be spray roses that grow in clusters. On the other hand, there are lots of photos online of weddings featuring bouquets and floral arrangements that look like bougainvilleas. A local florist also called to tell us that “Torch Glow” is a variety of the bougainvillea that can be used in flower arrangements.
