New York Renovator

Ha! Poor Noah!

Actually, I am pleased to announce that we have had absolutely no water in our basement all winter long. We haven’t had much snow this winter, but we have had an awful lot of rain. Our property still gets quite saturated with “ponds,” but our basement has remained dry. Thank God for no flooding!

I am a pretty economical shopper when it comes to household goods. I avoid fancy brand-names, fancy chemical cleaners, and fancy household gadgets. If you were to look in my pantry, you’d not see much difference between my goods and that of a 19th century housewife. I do have a vacuum cleaner, but my household cleaning agents are baking soda, vinegar, bleach, and pine cleaner. I don’t use spot removers, “air fresheners” or any of the other fancy (and expensive) items in my grocery store. I like to keep things simple and as natural as possible.

I do have one vice, however: I buy the expensive laundry detergent. Well, it’s not THE most expensive, but it’s the Era brand. I just love the smell (so I am actually SAVING money because I don’t buy expensive fabric softener!). I get the Era in those enormous red jugs– the kind with the efficient spigots that sit in the cabinet so neatly. Love it.

I have noticed, however, that the laundry detergent comes out as slow as molasses in my unheated “laundry room.” (My “laundry room” is just a corner in the kitchen that a previous owner cobbed together with leftover wood and old drywall. I have plans to replace the area with a nice cabinet and new tile flooring). So the liquid detergent takes FOREVER to fill that cup. I got the bright idea of adding a little water to the jug, to make the liquid a little more fluid. It works wonderfully, and flows right out of the spigot, now.

And that got me to thinking. Does adding water to the detergent lessen the effectiveness of the wash? I did a little experiment. I added a half-gallon of water to the jug (I had already used up some of the detergent in the jug, so all I had to do was refill the jug with water). I’ve been washing clothes all week with the diluted detergent, and I have noticed no difference at all. Now, my kids haven’t been rolling in the mud or anything! But if they did, I think that a longer washing load setting would be more effective than additional soap. I think I am saving money by diluting my laundry detergent with water. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of doing so before! I’ve been doing it with shampoo for years (another great money saver).

How about you? Do you dilute your detergent? If so, has it made more of a difference to your laundry or your wallet?

This is a little notification I heard through the grapevine. With the home improvement season advancing, prices for materials is going to go up. I’d heard some estimates that prices will soar 10% by the end of March. Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds to buy all may materials before then, but if you do, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity now. Prices are only going to go higher, due to gasoline costs and the devaluation of the dollar. They sure are making it hard to fix a house, aren’t they???

This happened to me, and from looking at my blog traffic stats, it seems to happen to many others, too. I thought I’d post about it.

Runny paint in the bathroom– what is it? Sometimes I have seen a slightly brown-colored liquid oozing out of the bathroom walls after a shower. I used to think it was perhaps the condensation from the hot shower water as it made beads on the walls and dripped down. I did some digging, and came to realize that the liquid that oozes out comes from the paint itself.

Latex paint, the most common paint used in bathrooms (and in the house itself), produces a small amount of by-product as it cures. The heat and moisture from the bathroom causes the liquid to run out. This is common with new paint jobs. Over time, the latex paint will completely cure and the liquid will no longer run. This does not seem to affect the paint job or the coverage of the paint on the walls. It’s just a minor inconvenience and it will go away eventually.

In the meantime, gently wash your walls of the liquid. If I remember correctly, it was several months until the latex paint stopped running. I no longer have this problem with runny paint.

Hope that helps!

From the rising cost of oil to the rising cost of food to the devaluation of the dollar, times of financial crisis are upon us. I think our country is headed for a recession. As bad as that may initially sound, it can actually be positive to some degree. For one, in a recession, people are more careful, with their money and their lifestyles. That is always a good thing. Two, people tend to spend more time at home with the families during hard financial times. This is good, also. And three, hard times sometimes give us that little push to “make do” or to work smarter.

Part of the financial problems in the United States is the result of botched economic philosophy that says debt equals wealth. This is not so. A little debt, as Alexander Hamilton, might be useful in that it motivates us to increase productivity, but great swaths of national and personal debt is very dangerous.

Also, the housing crisis killed the last dregs of economic respectability we had, I think. Greedy speculators built quickie McMansions for migrating masses. People snapped up these homes without being able to afford them. The overwhelming number of foreclosures pulled the rug out from under the banks. The government is so stupid to be bailing everyone out, but I won’t get into that right now. The real estate markets usually dictate the mood of our economy, and things aren’t looking so good right now.

So what are homeowners to do? We homeowners need to be very saavy. In my case, I have a brokem, busted-down old home. I could easily sell the property for the land value (I’ve had offers for the property as it is in a good location). But I would lose some of my investment, because the buyers are not interested in the house itself. It is more lucrative for me to continue living here. It is not a seller’s market right now, believe me! People just aren’t buying. That can be good, though. Like I said, in such a case, we can sink our teeth into what we’ve got and make it better. I don’t have the liquid funds to afford all the renovations that need to be done here, so I have to look closely at various mortgage companies that will offer me competitive rates on home equity loans. But I think we are doing the right thing– we are “recycling” this old house– making it more livable; and once it is done, the value of the property will double or even triple. And in a few years, the housing market will bounce back and we will have made ourselves a tidy sum.

So sometimes econimic crises can work in your favor, if you are willing to work with it. Sure, it’s easy to dump the old house and go run out and buy a new one. But new does not necessarily mean better, and in an unsteady economy with rising inflation and decreasing wages, how can we be sure that we would be able to afford a new house? It’s best to stay put and make do.

I’m no financial expert, but I’ve been trying to follow the news as it relates to the housing market and trends. These things are going to weigh heavily on home ownership. Here are some interesting news articles I found today:

U.S. Wants Tougher Mortgage Rules

US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said any changes were aimed at making the market more efficient and stable.

The plans were unveiled by the President’s financial advisory group.

“The objective here is to get the balance right,” said Mr Paulson, who leads President George W Bush’s advisory group.

“Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it.”

Hmmmm. And then there’s How To Sell Your Home in a Gloomy Housing Market. I don’t recommend it, personally. But it’s an interesting article, and it’s from the UK. I enjoy knowing how other countries are faring, too.

And here’s one I loved! Housing Market Needs Dose of More Reality, Not More Government. Written by Star Parker– no wonder it’s so good!

We’re, of course, hearing rhetoric about so-called predatory lending, and low-income borrowers being peddled loans that they could neither understand nor afford. But if this was really about predators, they had to be predators with a death wish because the hunters have gone to slaughter along with the hunted.

As the Cato Institute’s Alan Reynolds points out, foreclosures have not been limited to low-income families with sub-prime adjustable-rate mortgages. Reynolds, citing the Mortgage Bankers Association, notes that “prime mortgages (mostly fixed-rate) accounted for 45 percent of all foreclosures in the third quarter of last year, while sub-prime ARMs accounted for 43 percent.”

…A return to reality means bolstering the integrity of law and contracts and the restoration of a sense of personal responsibility on the part of all market participants. A healthy housing market depends on this. But so does our whole free society.

Proposals such as allowing bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage terms contributes to chaotic fundamentals as opposed to remedying this.

Similarly, massive government intervention, whether it be through moratoriums on foreclosures and interest-rate freezes, like Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, or government takeovers and refinancing of loans, closer to what we’re hearing from her rival for the nomination, Barack Obama, creates new distortions and free-lunch illusions.

It may sound nice for the government to hold up prices and fend off foreclosures. But where is the justice for those who sat this out?

Here, here!

I spent a lot of my youth with much older folks, so I have a few “old-fashioned” phrases in my vocabulary that seem quite dated to some. One of them is “hunker down.” I’ve always taken it to mean to get back to basics, or to cut off unnecessaries and become more efficient. Recent headlines and changes in American society are making me think that we as a society will soon find it necessary to “hunker down.”

Gas prices are at an all-time (and utterly criminal) high. Here in Central New York, where we pay some of the most (if not THE most of all) expensive gas prices, the lowest price I’ve seen for gas is $3.29 a gallon. Taxes are rising out of the atmosphere; here in Oneida County we’ve seen property taxes double in five years. Food prices (thanks to the crock-science that is ethanol fuel) have risen 50% of what they were before Christmas. And today’s headline in the news was “Gold at $1,000 on Weak Dollar, High Oil.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Gold futures hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time Thursday, pushed past the benchmark by the sinking dollar and record crude oil prices.

The dollar fell below 100 yen during Asian trading Thursday, its weakest level against the Japanese currency in 12 years. The dollar also dropped to all-time lows against the euro.

That is very bad news for the American economy. Strangely, I’ve heard nothing about it on the radio news, and nothing about it at any of the money blogs I visit via Entrecards. I heartily agree with presidential candidate Ron Paul: we’d better get back to the gold standard and fast, or our entire economy is going to shatter. The Keynes-based philosophy of “debt=wealth” has destroyed our economy. It might have been fun in the beginning, when there were no consequences, but the “chickens have come home to roost” as another antique saying goes.

At any rate, there ARE things we Americans can do to ease the pain of the coming recession. And believe me, a recession is coming, because the government STILL has no idea what they are doing and are exacerbating the problem. We can buy smaller vehicles (think about it– do families of three or four REALLY need those super-sized SUVs?), get rid of the electronic gadgets we do not need (I’m talking tough, I know), unplugging or replacing those “vampire” electronics that burn energy even when they are not being used, recycling everything you can and making good use of what you’ve got. Simple things like not running the water at full blast when you brush your teeth have greater benefits than you realize.

I was raised in a very thrifty home, so I have the benefit of having these habits already. We fueled our home with a wood furnace– wood that we chopped ourselves; planted gardens; kept the old vehicles maintained rather then buying new ones every other year; ate wild game and learned to eat edible plants in the forest. It was an interesting life, and the lessons have come in handy.

It’s time to “hunker down” in this country. Our excessive, profligate lifestyles are ruining our future. And living economically and wisely gives a person a great sense of accomplishment, which is another thing greatly lacking in our society today (no, “getting over on someone” is not a great accomplishment).

That’s my two cents. I’m trying to do what I can by renovating my existing home, use my land for food production instead of lawn-competitions, and be wise with my energy use. If enough of us will do this as a lifestyle, we not only will do well through some tough economic times, we will be building better families and communities at the same time.

I’ve been mulling over renovating the house. We are gearing up for another renovating season. I’ve been thinking a lot about selling the place and getting something newer (or, at least, more modern than 1855). I’ve paid attention to overall trends and have been watching various stories that crop up from time to time about the quality of newly-made homes. I love browsing the forums at Bob Vila and other such websites. I have gotten a good glimpse into the main woes of new home building.

Not only is is prohibitively expensive for most people to build new, building new does not mean quality building, either. I have been surprised at what I have found, because I always assumed that newer buildings, for all their new materials and new methods, were better quality and more reliably built. This is not so.

I’ve seen an overwhelming amount of complaints from new home buyers. Most of the complaints concern shoddy roof construction, shoddy wall construction, faulty foundation concrete mixings, and plumbing woes. Some of the issues are serious issues. New home materials may be new, but builders seem to be cutting corners with both material quality and workmanship.

I suppose the only truly “perfect” home is built by the homeowner himself. He has a vested interest in building that home to last a thousand years (not unlike the superiority of homeschooling to public schooling). It is just natural that the owner would build for himself a better product.

But who can set aside all that time to build one’s own home? Not many.

Older homes have the benefit of having stood the test of time. Most older homes, especially homes built pre-World War II, were “over” built, which means they were built to last a long, long time and built well. It is usually the “remuddling” of next-generation owners who saw a structural support here or wire something into two circuits there. And many of the old houses were not built by speculators, but built by the people who would live in them, care for them, and raise their own children in them. Older homes were built to last and stand the test of time.

I think Americans should begin giving more thought to renovating and recycling the homes that exist. Of course, some homes cannot be renovated for various reasons. But most old homes can. The recent housing crisis and the current economic instability should be warning us to be wiser and smarter with our lifestyle choices.

As for me, as much as I would love a brand-new log home with cathedral ceiling, updated electric, and plumbing that works, I like my old home. some days I look around me and am ready to run out the door screaming. But I have one of the nicest properties in my area, and my house is a big old beauty. Here’s hoping I can do it justice. Without killing myself.

I’ve joined the Entrecard brigade! Check out my little Entrecard widget in my sidebar. I am liking Entrecard. I’ve found a lot of nice blogs. Here’s hoping I can contribute. My EC is in the “Home and Garden” category. If you have a Home or Garden blog, consider signing up to Entrecards. It’s free, you get traffic, and it will add to the category! I’d like to see more home improvement blogs in the mix.

This is probably old news. I don’t know why I did it, I don’t recall reading it anywhere. I just saw the jug and dumped some in. It worked!

When I boil potatoes (the plain white potatoes), they usually come out mushy. I hate that. I thought it was the potato I was buying, but it happens to all my potatoes. Today, after I added water to the pot, I dumped in a little white vinegar (I am estimating I put in about 1/2 cup to the 1 gallon of water in my pot). I boiled it as I usually do, and the potatoes came out wonderfully!

Like I said, this is probably common knowledge to all you experienced chefs out there, I don’t know. I don’t read cookbooks very often, so for all I know it could be the most basic of potato culinary skills, or I could have invented a brand-new thing. All I know is that I was pleased with the results! Try boiling a little white vinegar with your potatoes, and let me know how it turns out.