New York Renovator

One of our new favorite computers games is called “Hunstville.” It’s like I Spy, but it’s in shockwave format and I like playing it with the kids. My kitten loves to go poking into the cubbies of my huge teacher’s desk. So I thought I’d snap a photo of her. Can you find the kitty? (Ignore my messy desk!!)

P.S. Her antics are real cute until she starts rummaging through my desk, stepping into my coffee cup, and making a general mess of things. :S

I was reading headlines yesterday and saw a few news stories reporting 2.6 million American workers lost their jobs in 2008. This is just stunning, and I even thought the numbers low. I did a quick search on how many New Yorkers lost jobs in 2008, and couldn’t find an exact number (just percentages, which are meaningless, IMO). And those figures represent unemployment, not employees who have suffered reduced hours or wages. New York has been hemorraging jobs AND residents for decades. It’s shocking; and still the government acts like nothing is really wrong, judging by their actions. Even Governor Paterson, who claims that New Yorkers need to tighten the belt, isn’t making any big spending cuts– and especially no cuts for wealthy government employee salaries, jobs, or pensions.

I found this table at the NYS Labor Department website. YIKES!

Do you see what I see? Taxpayer-funded jobs (education, government, services) are growing at a phenomenal rate, compared to the massive losses of private sector jobs (jobs that PAY into taxes– the everyday people’s jobs). There is NO WAY this kind of economy is sustainable, NO WAY. It’s simple, simple arithmetic. What is it with idiot politicians? How can they be missing this?! Things do not bode well for the future, if things continue at this present rate. Unless, of course, things are completely turned around and it is government/education/service jobs that pay taxes to us in the private sector jobs…

I admit, I do snicker a little when I see magazine writers and designers creating “modern” kitchen designs of the future. I have seen “modern” kitchens that were prophesied from the 1950s and 60s; robots that buttered your toast, sensors that watered your herbs, las vegas slot machines that popped out your breakfast cereal, etc. But trends seem to move a lot slower than magazine editors and designers think. And I think that “cozy” and “warm” will always be important to home buyers, no matter what century.

So this is their latest idea. These look rather cold and austere to me, what do you think?

Honestly, I don’t see how any normal family could function with something like this. There are only two stove burners (I often use four and wish I had more), no oven, a tiny sink. Where do you put dirty and washed dishes? Where do you carve the turkey or mix the cake batter? I just love the plants, though. I wish I had enough sunlight in my kitchen to enable me to do it. Maybe someday I’ll get my new kitchen…

This was interesting, too.. but people aren’t robots. Too cold, too drab.

Hat tip Web Urbanist.

My blogging friend, Lady Banana, recently posted of her kitty Mabel’s recent spaying (or is it neutering? I can never remember which is which). My kitty Olivia (Livvy) is about the same age as Mabel, and both Lady Banana got our kitties at about the same time. I like her updates, and reading about one of Livvy’s peers (all the way across the pond, even, where they make those cool english saddles).

Anyway, I realized that 1.) I really really NEED to get Livvy spayed/neutered/whatever very soon, before her hormones go ballistic on me, and 2.) that I have been so busy that I haven’t had a Livvy update in a while! Isn’t she adorable?!

We take photos of her constantly. She is such a spoiled kitty! But she has a good temperament and is very affectionate.

She just loves laundry baskets. She hops into empty ones. The kids pick them up and carry her around the house, and she doesn’t seem to mind.

She also likes to scoot behind my doorway drapes. Any unsuspecting passer-by usually gets a playful swipe.

She just loves wrestling with my son’s coonskin hat. She has this strange affinity for darker-colored coarsely-haired things. One of the boys has this small, furry little stuffed animal (another raccoon critter) and she carries it around like it’s a prized mouse.

I’m hoping she’ll be a good mouser.

She’s a great cat napper, at any rate!

Snow. And rain. Yesterday we had ice and rain. Then about dinnertime, the air was filled with little icy round pellets, very fine but crusty. They made a hissing noise as they plopped from the sky onto the crusty snow on the ground.

This morning I looked out my window and saw that the little pellets had changed to this:

That poor, lonely swingset. It won’t see any company for quite a few months yet, at this rate!

Even the birds are hiding. That’s my new birdfeeder set, by the way (I posted about it here). The bluejays love it. :-p But I hate bluejays. lol.

The snow was very wet and heavy. I shouldn’t be carrying my camera out in it– big flakes the size of cornflakes were peppering down on me. My camera didn’t do a good job of photographing the flakes, but I was quickly getting covered as I stood out there. I had to get a photo of my poor, suffering yews. They look very sad, don’t they? Good thing they are so stringy they won’t snap from the weight.

So once again, it’s a day for simmering foods, warm blankets, and fresh bread baking! I intend on making Baked Ziti for dinner this evening, with a select wine of the month beverage, or maybe just milk, lol. The nice thing about winter is the coziness. I do miss the sunshine and green plants and the freedom of going out without 15 layers of clothing… but winter has its beauty, too.

Have a great day!

It’s time to prepare for the orange thumb season! The Project Orange Thumb is underway! What, you ask, Project Orange Thumb? I mentioned it last year- it is a terrific community gardening grant program. This is really great for solidifying a community and making your area a prettier, cleaner place. The Project Orange Thumb grant is sponsored by Fiskars (that company that makes those excellent scissors and other stuff– the only brand I’ll buy). It’s a grant program open to any community group (whether you be part of a gardening club or a youth group or a school) interested in improving the neighborhood with gardening, horticulture, “greening,” or desiring to improve your area with gardens. This is a terrific way to jumpstart a beneficial and beautiful community project! Twenty grant recipients from the United States and Canada will be chosen. Application deadline is February 17, 2009. That’s only a month away! Winners receive $1000 in gardening-related stuff and up to $1,500 in Fiskars gardening tools. Fiskars is an excellent brand, by the way. This is a really phenomenal project.

This is the 6th year of Project Orange Thumb; it’s been very successful, providing more than $300,000 to over 100 community groups throughout the U.S. and Canada! If you have been looking for an excuse to get your neighbors gardening, this is the perfect motivation. Go to the Project Orange Thumb grant website to see how you can apply, and read the rules for the grant. It’s not a contest or sweepstakes, and only groups (not individuals) may apply. But the deadline is February 17, so you won’t want to wait too long.

Talk about scanty security! Holy cow, this video blows my mind. I cannot imagine a wild raccoon waltzing through the pet door into the house. Well, the resident cat and dog give the coon the “what for.” The music is perfect, and the laser eyes of the raccoon add, uh, “interest.” LOL!

Raccoons are carriers of all sorts of ugly stuff– ticks, rabies, etc. YUK! Keep those pet doors well guarded!

Forget all this winter stuff! I used to like winter! :-p  Well, at least I used to like winter into February; I guess I’m tired of it early this year! My eyes are STARVED for something green again!

What really happened was I made the mistake of browsing through my photos of last year’s gardens. Now I am discontent. :S

Anyway… winter can be a nice time to “chill.” haha. Can you believe I got a seed catalog in the mail already? (And can you believe I thoroughly combed through it already?! lol!). This year we are hoping to make a very nice patio outdoors in the backyard. I have to remove some asphalt and lay some concrete paving (with my trusty Quikrete concrete mold). I’m really looking forward to sitting outside on those warm summer evenings, sitting on my… my…. oh yeah, I have nothing to sit on! lol! How about you? Starved for summer gardens and outdoor living again? It’s never too early to plan ahead. I’m going to get some lovely, comfortable patio furniture this year (I’ve been saving up). We have that old Walmart plastic junk but I can’t sit in those chairs, due to my back (strains the herniated disk). I saw these and my jaw dropped ot the floor. Isn’t that set gorgeous?! It looks so cushy and comfy, too. It’s from TodaysSwimandPatio.com, an online store that covers everything we need for anything outdoors. Pool stuff, patio umbrellas, furniture covers, outdoor heating accessories, and a glorious selection of patio furniture, and more.  They even have artificial Christmas trees, if you want to be uber-prepared for next year! Just looking at the photos at the site gives me loads of ideas. Check them out! The company is based in Mesa, Arizona, and have been in the business since 1979. You can email them or call their toll-free number for a quote. Niiiice stuff!

A while ago, I posted about the function of cold air return vents for a forced-air furnace. I have written quite a number of posts about this issue, actually– I became interested in this topic when I decided to re-do some of my old furnace ducting myself, last year. You can read about that here and here.

Well, I got a question from a guy named Barry who lives in Vermont (a climate just like New York State).

In my old Vermont house, with an oil furnace, I’ve got two vents clearly, forcefully, blowing cold air out into the house. Because of this, it seems impossible that they are cold air *return* vents. How can I confirm that they aren’t? Second question: can the furnace itself have the only cold air return vent?

I wanted to post his question and my answer in a separate post, because I think it may do others some good, searching for more information about cold air return vents. Here’s my response:

Hi Barry. Well, I’m not a furnace expert, but what I’d do if it was me is this:

1.) Make sure your ducting system is set up right. If you look at your furnace (you’ll see all sorts of ducts leading everywhere), you’ll see an “in” large duct and an “out” large duct, with many smaller ducts branching off of those. That’s for most forced-air furnaces, anyway. Check and make sure you know where the ducting system branches off into, and become familiar with your furnace system.

2.) My hot air return vents ALWAYS blow out cold air for the final three or four minutes right before the furnace stops. This is because the furnace fan keeps spinning for a little while after the gas heating flames go out– this is natural, to ensure that all the hot air has fully pushed through into the room. It’s the normal part of the cycle.

3.) Maybe your hot air vents blow out cold air because they are either too far from the furnace (like a third floor) or you don’t have enough cold air return vents and the furnace is just blowing whatever air it can find (and in an old home in a Vermont winter, that would be cold air).

I hope those tips help.

When I first paid attention to my furnace system, I was baffled that cold air blew out of my heater vents. After asking my Furnace Guy, he informed me about the natural cycle of a furnace air system. I suspect this may be Barry’s thought, too. Some furnaces will blow and blow cold air for quite a few minutes before shutting off and completing the cycle.

So I hope this helps anyone who is searching for furnace answers.

I love going back through the past year and seeing all the stuff we accomplished. It’s easy to forget all the little changes that have been made. Reminding myself of them makes me feel much better!

January: We started off 2008 with a stomach bug. I discovered the wonderful wonders of ginger beer, but got sticker-shock at the store prices. I found a recipe for making it myself! I also found out the hard way what to do if a washcloth is flushed down the toilet. And here’s another little tip about clogged drains. I also did a little research into managing excess (or any) rain for recycling: here’s my rain barrel idea, and here’s how we rigged up our sump pump pipes to irrigate our garden. (Not too many photos with these, sorry– this was before I got camera-fever!). Here’s some thoughts on whole-house surge protection. We had a spectacular, record-breaking January thaw of 70 degrees! That was great. Don’t want to wallpaper but like stripes? Paint them on! It takes a little time, but it’s much more enjoyable than hanging wallpaper.

February: I blogged about my concern over the flooding and water run-off problems plaging New York State, and my own property. NYS has been very negligent with maintaining its infrastructure, and allowing bloated over-development. And the State doesn’t seem to be doing much about the mysterious bat deaths. It was a great month for dwelling on creepy critters– I blogged about the Mother of All Wasp Nests that formed in our maple tree, and reminisced about having to remove a huge bee colony from our bedroom wall (inside the studs). Oh, and if you haven’t bookmarked my post about a formula for removing skunk smell, be sure and do that. You never know when you may need it.

March: March is a soggy month– here are some tips for coping with a wet basement. Here’s our wet basement in action. I was reading headlines that foretold of a coming financial crisis in the banking industry. Here are some posts where I made some calls for thriftier, more resourceful living: with kitchen appliances; avoiding the home improvement magazine temptations; diluting your laundry and dishsoap detergent (and I also dilute my liquid soap in my bathrooms); changing one’s lifestyle; new does not always mean better. My thoughts on curb appeal as we gear up for spring. And is sometimes the case, we got a winter storm warning– for March 28!

April: GARDENING! FINALLY! I spent a lot of time choosing seeds and starting my seeds indoors and prepping my large vegetable garden. I also planted a grape vine, my first! My electrical wiring that I had done last autumn was approved and I got a certificate from the electrical inspector! I was feeling discouraged about my renovations (lack thereof), and reminded myself of my buried treasure. I did a lot of thinking about our society and economy– does money make you happy? And what will happen to our food supply and food costs in this country? And I wondered if I would ever “go Amish”? (I would love to). I also posted a few quick and frugal tips, for keeping your laptop cool, and gardening uses for coffee grounds.

April and May: I slowed down blogging a little, as we were preoccupied with a caterpillar invasion; planting my little seedlings in my flower and vegetable beds (such lovely green!); thinking that American citizens really need to resurrect community living again; watching my gardens grow.

June: Seeing an infomercial got me seething mad about how easy it is to create a serfdom in this country. In the garden, I blogged about treating chlorosis in your young trees. I also blogged about fixing up your paint cans for less messier painting. And I did a post about Our Renovator Story, with links to all the things we have done around here so far. We had an Energy Audit done, no big surprises there– our house is a money pit! Speaking of money pits, I wrote this. And suggested that everyone make one of these. On the light side, my kids made cool Lego models of Jim and Elisabeth Eliot’s mission to the Auca tribe in Ecuador.

In July, my lilies bloomed. Ooooo.

Everything was growing like crazy! My Adirondack Red Potatoes grew! Yum! And I just love the color! We worked on our Secret Garden. I also wrote about the plight of the natural gas mines here in the Northeast. We got our Weatherization Grant job done– wow what a great job!

August: We got some outdoor work done– a beautiful concrete walkway for our Secret Garden. We used a Quikrete mold and it came out very well. I blogged more about thrift and our society, posting about the Planned Obsolescence that corporations afflict us with. I challenged a CNN article about “recession-proof” jobs– uhhh, I don’t think so! If anything, I think all these “crises” have been planned, for governments to gobble up our land and resources. One of my posts about such a thing got posted on the fron page of Alex Jones’ Info Wars website. Who really owns your land?

We installed a French Drain outside to help with the water problems, because we have too much water around here. We walked in our steamy, soggy yard early one morning to find a tiny snake.

September: With the onset of school, I was so thankful I’d installed Cat5 in the walls when I gutted the living room!!! I posted some tips about how to save $$ over the winter (take it from a pro). Now that the days are shorter, make indoors more fun for the kids– glow in the dark paint! We love ours. My back went out again and I got an exercise ball– when I could extract it from the boys!

October was busy, but I did some blogging. I discovered a very cool touch-lamp gadget– I love this! I also did a review of the Temperpedic Mattress– we got one for my bad back. Yours truly was interviewed by a real estate expert, this was fun! I won a video contest with a $500 prize! Snow fell. We had fun with our new kitty, Olivia. Gosh, she’s ADORABLE! I did a post on the secret Underground Chicken Movement, sweeping the country and throwing governments into tizzies!

November: I did a post on winter preparation. I did a paper towel comparison review, in time for the holidays. Results were surprising. My review of a GE upright vacuum gave a thumbs down.

A laminate flooring update (it’s holding up well). DO NOT cover your cold air return vents! I mourned the death of the Yugo… BYE BYE! FINALLY a can opener that works for me! I interviewed the delightful Martha Webb on home staging– read this post before your next open house!! More government tyranny. We’ll see if these kitchen trends come to pass this year *shudder*. I was bored. What’s inside a computer keyboard? The cat discovers the delights of toilet paper, terrific. But she’s so ADORABLE!! VERY cool virtual skylights, I want some!

December: Can’t afford a real tin ceiling? Try this. It works for us! Another cool touch-light gadget, love these things! We got our first bird feeder and made a video for the momentous occasion. And I thought my beagle was bad.
Lake effect snow, in pictures before and after. Times are changing– literally. We got a ton of snow to see the old year out and the new year in.

Whew! I guess I blogged a lot! Here’s to a terrific new year!