Shelves

Tonight, after dinner at what might be our new local, we trekked out to Home Depot to buy some shelves.  We were looking for raw wood shelving, no particle board.  We wanted to get some 1×10 or 1×12 that we could stain and put up with brackets.  All in all we were successful even though we pretty much closed the place.  We had to get our pieces cut, and we almost missed out because the regular  cutting guy was gone.  But we were rescued by Kaz(well) who made our cuts for us.  Everyone at HD was really nice, but you kind of have to go out of your way to actually get help from anyone, and I don’t know if it was the late hour or what, but there was an overall air of disorder and leaderlessness about the place.  We were lucky to get what we needed.

Flower Run

We went to local farm today and bought flowers for one of the two raised beds we inherited and for a flower bed on the side of the house–the one area that seems to get “full sun” as the flower people call it. We bought–let’s see if I can remember it–baptisia, two verbenum, some sunflowers (music box), two foxglove, a magic fountain, a hen and chicks. We also got some seedlings–arugula and chard–for the late harvest, and some flower seeds that we’ll experiment with–hoping to get a late bloom before the end of the growing season.

The expedition started amid a downpour and we were choosing our flowers under an umbrella. By the time we got our haul home it seemed the rain was over, but a last blast had us running for cover and we didn’t get anything into the ground. Maybe tomorrow?

Garden Timeline – August Week 1

The past two weeks it has rained nearly every day and been unseasonably cool.  This has been great for the plants in the yard, both weeds and intentionals.  We have four things in bloom at the front of the house now.  Hydrangeas (which have been going since we walked in), a tall yellow thing that looks almost like a chrysanthemum (for about 2 weeks now), a tall hibiscus-looking thing (1.5 weeks?), and a pink thing (1 week so far).  There is also a viny crawling weed showing a pretty blue flower with yellow in the center.  I’ll have to do some research to actually name these plants.  Maybe post some pics as well.

Garden Timeline – Mid July

When we closed on the house, late in the first half of July, the raspberries (we have a patch behind the garage) were going full bore.  On the first day we picked a celebratory 2 pints as it got dark, and could have kept up a pint-a-day pace for at least a week.  We didn’t do as good a harvesting job as I would have liked but it was a busy week.  We got some heavy rains in the second week which probably curtailed the harvest by knocking the ripe berries off the canes.

Other garden things during this period:

• drought – some of the plants in the front yard got seriously parched before the rains of an unusually wet July came.  The arrival of rain coincided nicely with our purchase of hoses.  I think we used them once.  Maybe we could stop the rain by buying a rain barrel.
• hydrangeas – the hydrangeas were blooming when we first walked into the house as owners.  Now its August 10–nearly a month later. One is still going strong, while the other is fading.

Energy

One of the themes here will be how we “green” this house and our practices.  I’m hoping to get an energy audit so that we can understand our baseline energy use and know how much progress we are making.  I suppose it may give us some idea of our major opportunities for energy savings as well, though as a fairly committed greenie, I think I already have a good sense of what those are.  I hope to develop a list of projects and assign cost estimates to each.  Here are a few energy-related ones I can think of off the top of my head:

• Lighting.  The previous owners left a lot of incandescent bulbs around, so we can install CFLs,or we could skip CFLs and head directly for LEDs.  Like a lot of decisions we’ll make, finances will be a major consideration.
• The Boiler.  We have an old boiler–from the 1950’s.  The house inspector took a look at it and felt it was in good shape for its age, and noted that we should expect it to last for quite some time longer.  But with gas prices set to increase, I want to know how much we could do better on efficiency and how long it would take for any savings to pay for the cost of a new boiler.
• Ceiling Fans.  We are planning to have more electrical outlets installed and when we do, we’ll get a ceiling fan installed in wifey’s office too.  This should help make the most of winter heating and maybe head off the need for another AC unit in summer.
• Attic Insulation.  Dad suggested we get the attic insulation re-installed.  There are some obvious gaps near the eaves, and the installation looks like it left many more seams than are necessary, running short bits across the spaces between rafters, rather than running rolls parallel in those spaces.
• Thermostat.  Finally we have a programmable thermostat! I’m excited about making use of this.

Leaky Toilet

Last week we noticed the upstairs toilet was leaking, slowly, around the base, soaking the corner of our bathmat.  We debated calling the plumber, but that seemed like a big step for such a small amount of water.  I had never called a plumber before.  Besides, our first thought was that it might just be sweating in the summer humidity, so professional attention might be unnecessary.

When the leak kept up on a cool day, the sweating theory fell into doubt.  I turned off the water supply to the toilet while we deliberated.

I devised a clever way to diagnose whether it was truly a leak.  I bought some food coloring and put a few blue drops in the bowl, figuring that if the leak was from the bowl, the leakage would be blue too.  A couple of side notes:

1. we weren’t sure if food coloring would stain porcelain (or our tile once it leaked out) so we used blue, under the assumption that blue stain would be the least problematic.  It turns out that it did not stain.
2. there is aesthetic/entertainment value in dripping a few drops of food coloring into a container of still, cold water.  The pattern the drops make as then enter the water then spread, is beautiful, even if it is in a toilet.

The results were negative–no blue water on the floor.  Maybe, I thought, we are back to square one.  Meanwhile we were keeping lights on at night to ease the late night trips to the downstairs, non-leaky, loo.

At the same time it kept gnawing at me–admonitions from wise elders that water is your worst enemy, water is responsible for XYZ damage, etc.  I relented and called a well-respected local firm on Tuesday.  Over the phone they suggested the problem might be a cracked wax seal–that’s the seal between the bowl and the “out” pipe.  They were not interested in my food-coloring diagnostic technique.

Before the plumber came today, I was cleaning up and realized the leak might be from the tank.  A feel around the back, a few drops of food coloring in the tank that turned the floor blue, and finally the plumber, all confirmed this.  The plumber installed a new new tank-to-bowl kit–nuts, bolts, washers, and seals, and we are out $113 and have a working toilet again.

Problem: Gutter Cleaning

Our house has high gutters. To clean them, I’ll either need to get a good-sized ladder, or hire someone to muck them out.

Another problem is that on the north side, the house is so close to the neighbor’s yard that the ladder would need to sit in their yard as I (or anyone else) was working on the gutters. Yet another reason to make nice with this neighbor.

Looking at ladders, it seems that one of those multi-position ladders that can be an extension ladder and then fold over and become a step-ladder would be ideal, but they seem expensive.  A tall step-ladder would allow me to orient the ladder parallel to the side of the house rather than lean it against.  This would allow me to get up to the gutters keeping the base of the ladder in the yard, but I’d need to be 20 or so feet up there, which means a pretty tall step-ladder.

Little Giant, Louisville, and Gorilla are some of the brands I looked at online.  Little Giant’s website carries the “As Seen on TV” logo, which immediately scares me.  Their biggest model (#26) goes to 11′ as a step-ladder and runs $439 with free shipping.  Free shipping is nice, but that’s still a lot and I don’t think the step-ladder arrangement would be tall enough.  Maybe if they threw in a free Flo-Bie…  Louisville’s largest multi is quite a bit less expensive at about $200 but also a bit smaller at 19′ for the extension and 7′ for the step.  Gorilla’s largest is a little under 19′ for the extension and a little under 11′ as a step.  They do not provide pricing and provide a link to Home Depot which lists only 1, dinky ladder under the Gorilla name.  Home Depot seems to love Little Giant though.

So the only people who have the ladder for this job are either rich enough that they don’t need to clean gutters themselves, or they are pros.  Or they are moonlighting as gutter cleaners because they sprang for a pricey ladder and need the extra income to pay it off.

Back to square one.  Talk to neighbor, then simpler ladder or hire someone.

Problem: Poison Ivy

There’s a tendril of poison ivy coming through our fence from a neighbor’s yard. The main body of the plant is on the other side of the fence. I have not yet met the neighbor. I suppose this is a good opportunity for doing so. He would probably not mind if I volunteered to do the plant in myself in return for access to his yard to do so.

I want to put a quick end to this plant before it spreads further, and I’d prefer to do so without using store-bought herbicides like glyphosphate. Ideally though I’d like a cheap, chemical-free way of eradicating it.

Uprooting it by hand is not appealing, though I have been considering taking one for the team and risking getting the rash just to get rid of the vine this one time.

Goats, suggested here, are alas not an option.

Here’s a concoction of household ingredients–vinegar, salt, and detergent. I feel as though green alternatives to common household products always use vinegar. I love vinegar’s versatility, but this seems almost too easy. Is it truly a substitute for everything? Though I am suspicious, I’ll probably try this, especially since I have a rough confirmation fromelsewhere.

Here’s is a similar concoction using orange oil. Orange oil is yet another miracle green household alternative. Hmm, we’ll see.

EDIT: I found this too on Garden Web–more evidence for vinegar, albeit high concentration vinegar, as weed-killer.  This requires me to find the roots, which will definitely require a foray into neighbor’s yard.

Another technique I love the idea of, but have never used–with probably the least impact on the environment aside from physical pulling–is to pour boiling water on the offender.

Update: I have a plan to eradicate my Poison Ivy.

Premise

So we bought a house.  Moved in two weekends ago.  My current beleif is that this blog will be about homeownership–what goes on when you get your first house–what you learn, what you have to do, how much it costs, and the oft-mentioned joys.

Today my Dad came over.  He’s the first of my relatives to visit.  He’s also a contractor.  So I was excited for him to see the place for a few reasons.

I’ve been under the impression that the house is in pretty good condition for being a little over 100 years old.  There is a garage however that is in rather poor condition.  Dad was pleased with the house.  He felt it had been well kept up and he did not find much that we had not seen in the inspection except that we should plan to add some venting in the unfinished attic and should consider putting in new insulation at the same time.

The garage held no surprises either.  There are leaks visible holds in the roof, and the sills are pretty far gone.  I had been formulating a plan to get it shored up and eventually to put a finished workshop or a studio in there.  Dad was more pessimistic in his assessment and thought it might be more realistic to just take it down.

We’re having a thunderstorm now.  Dad has left, wifey is also out, so I’m home alone.  I keep thinking about the rain pouring through the garage roof.

Hello World

Everybody does that, right?