Adventures in Remuddling

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission has a cool feature on their website; it graphs out our daily water usage. For fun, we took a look at April’s water usage under the previous owner.

Now compare to after we closed on our house:

Continue reading “Our water usage” »

Last week, the waste management company came and took our dumpster away. Let’s take a peek at the contents…

Continue reading “Ode to Dumpster Part 2″ »

We got our electric bill the other day. $63!!!!

To put things into perspective, we have never paid more than $30/month for electricity.

Continue reading “Shocking Electric Bill” »

One of the best features of our house is the back porch. Tig and I try to eat breakfast and dinner as much as we can outside. Today, I washed down our vinyl siding on the back porch with water - it was pretty grimy, with occasional little black dots of mildew that needed to be scrubbed out. The vinyl looks brand new now. Only on our back porch, though.
Tig strung up some globe lights that we had bought two years ago. I cooked up a meal of pasta and poured a glass of wine. Dining al fresco is the best treat between work sessions.

Continue reading “Outdoor living” »

That’s what Julio, our Boston Home Center instructor, said during Painting class.

Julio’s house was clad in vinyl when he bought it. I was interested to hear what he had to say about vinyl siding maintenance. Each year, he fills a bucket of water with a drop of detergent and some tsp (tri-sodium-phosphate) and wipes down the grim from his siding. I noticed our back porch was looking quite grimy.

Continue reading ““Vinyl is final”” »

Back in late April, Tig was shocked (yes, shocked) to discover that our street did not have DSL. Verizon did not put a line in our neighborhood. With copper prices through the roof, it doesn’t look like they will anytime soon. That night, I watched Tig go through the seven stages of DSL grief.

(1) Shock or Disbelief : Every half hour, he would say to me “I can’t believe they don’t have DSL.” For hours.

Continue reading “The Seven Stages of DSL Grief” »

Do you remember a time when utility bills were: heat (also for cooking), electricity, hot water and phone?

Now it has expanded to: heat, cooking, electricity, hot water, land line, cell phone (one for each family member), DSL or cable for internet, cable for TV (if you don’t have internet cable), Tivo, Sirius radio and anything else that Tig and I have not yet caught onto. The number of bills to pay have mushroomed. Although the inconvenience is offset by the ease of internet banking, it still doesn’t help with cash flow.

We decided cut the land line in our home phone. We’ll see how it goes.

Serena’s dad helped build the majority of the IKEA kitchen cabinets this weekend. It only took him 2 days to finish the boxes. There were many rest breaks.

(cabinets in the background)

I don’t get many rest days, so I should enjoy them when I can.

Actually I did work a little this morning. But we had 2 guests stay at our place tonight. So I only spent a couple hours on the house. And Serena & Jona helped me put up the ceiling in the unit 1 kitchen entry way. Woohoo!
In the afternoon, we were at the Boston Common cheering on our friend Alix who was competing in the world’s greatest backyard athlete contest. It was part of the watermelon festival sponsored by Life Is Goo. The obstacle course was very cool.

And then at night, we just hung out on the porch.

I have not gotten a hair cut in over 2 months. I’m definitely pretty shaggy right now. After the first month, it was fine, but the last few weeks, it’s gotten to me. Especially with the summer heat coming on.

So why not cut my hair? That would be the easy solution.

Actually, Serena & I made an agreement, that I would not get my hair cut until I finish with the majority of the home renovations (2 baths & kitchen). As I’ve only finished 1 bathroom, I better start getting used to long shaggy hair. (It’s the hair over my ears that bug me).

Sorry no picture until right before I get my hair chopped.