I suspect I am not the only spouse to encounter this phenomenon – your DIY-inclined other half just has to have a specific tool. Right. Now. The usefulness is clear, the need is obvious, it is a must for every homeowner. Obviously. So they run out and buy the tool. Which sits in a box for weeks, months, years… Then they finally use it and say “See, we DID need it!”
Continue reading What a Tool!
Stitch Fix Review #1
I decided to jump on the bandwagon and post my Stitch Fix* reviews. Sure, this is a home improvement blog, but self-improvement happens in the home, right?
I needed to get out of my comfort zone style-wise. Friends and family had started trying Stitch Fix and liking (or loving) it. I filled out the lengthy form and added as much commentary as I could to the note to my stylist. I decided to ask for Labor Day BBQ style since I was getting the package in late August. I made sure to mention that it needed to be family safe/appropriate (aka needs to pass the bend over, bend down, etc test!).
Continue reading Stitch Fix Review #1
Paleo Persuasion
So I started this blog to talk about home improvement – but how about life improvements? In March, Aaron and I decided to join the ranks of the Paleo persuasion. We aren’t as strict as the purists, but we’ve still made significant changes to our eating habits. I’m not going to explain the diet for those who don’t know – there are about a billion articles going over the hows and whys that say it better than I could. Continue reading Paleo Persuasion
Neat New Year
What is it about the new year that makes us feel like it is the perfect time to be productive? There is no magical space between 11:59pm and 12:00am that actually wipes the slate clean or begins something truly unusual – it is the same passage of time that happens 364 other days of the year. Yet still, we enter a new year with new hopes, new plans, and new goals. For me, New Year’s Day often includes a fit of cleaning and neatening up – both recovering from the holiday clutter and some of that mystical shiny “clean slate” effect. Aaron felt it too and we spent most of the afternoon puttering around the house getting “things” done.
In with the… Old?
This summer and fall, my grandfather began clearing out his house in Masidon, NH so that he could put it on the market. As the grandchild with the most free time, Aaron and I ended up driving down to visit and have lunch with him a half a dozen times between June and October. Inevitably, we drove home with a truckload (or so) of things he felt compelled to give us. Some were very useful (a ladder and scaffolding to paint the house) or nostalgic (an old photo of my father), while others were a little less compelling (boxes of spiral bound notebooks).
Changing Tones
This week I decided to buckle down and finally paint the master bathroom. The project has been dragging on for 6 months and the only thing keeping us in cramped hall bathroom is paint and effort. To keep things cheap and simple, we’re using paint that was left by the previous owners, called November Rain. When we first saw the house at the showing, we thought the color was white or off-white. Once we’d purchased the house and started putting in our own colors, we realized that it was actually a pale green.
Pros and Con-promises
All home improvement projects have pros and cons. In fact, sometimes I feel like Aaron and I spend more time and effort thinking about projects than actually completing them. We research, weigh the options, and estimate budgets. Information gathering trips to home improvement stores seem to add complexity and confusion more often than they provide clear solutions. This process holds true for all projects, even the small ones. The upside is that most of our project results are well thought out and turn out as we intended (or close).
At Your Disposal
One of the features of our house that is new to both Aaron and me is a garbage disposal. We knew not to put anything large through it and we knew to run the water, but beyond that we were clueless. The first time we ran it, it sounded rather gnarly, so we looked inside. We didn’t see anything amiss, so we assumed that was what a garbage disposal was supposed to sound like.
One Man’s Trash…
Is another (wo)man’s clean up project! Now that spring has finally arrived and I have some time on my hands, I started doing some manual labor in the yard. My main goal was to move the plowed gravel off our lawn and tidy up a bit. But I’ve discovered that my clean up project is more like an archaeological dig.
Continue reading One Man’s Trash…
Dishappointment
When Aaron and I decided to indulge and buy all-new kitchen appliances for the house, we did our usual research and came up with Kenmore as the brand that had each appliance we needed with the best performance at the right price. This wasn’t too surprising since our previous kitchen was all-Kenmore as well. So far, we have been mostly satisfied with our kitchen – except for the dishwasher. When we were doing our research, it didn’t occur to either of us to make sure that our new dishwasher had the same drain set up as our old one. The dishwasher in NY had a blade with a similar function to a garbage disposal so that we only had to scrape off the big chunks before using the dishwasher. I think we assumed that in 5 years, the prevalence and efficiency of that sort of feature would have surely increased. And you know what happens when you ass-u-me…