New York Renovator

I don’t know about you, but I hate paying extortion prices for appliance repair. My whole household is disrupted when one of the major appliances breaks down (I work full-time, so a disruption like that is a major headache for the family)– not to mention my budget. JUST to have the appliance repair dude step into my house is $200, and that doesn’t even include the repair yet. :-p

Well, one of the benefits of writing how-to articles online for a home and garden website is that I get to learn about all KINDS of nifty tips, tricks, and online resources, like this appliance repair website. Woo hoo! I no longer have to rely on the repair dudes for stuff like this! We recently got a new GE washer (more on that later, as I plan to write a review on it), and it’s comforting to know I have access to all the GE parts should I need them. Another nice thing about researching appliances and getting parts online is that you can haggle with the repair dude (I do this all the time with the plumber). For example– if your dryer belt tears off and you need a new one, but don’t want to pull apart your dryer to fix it, ask your repair dude if you can get the dryer parts if he will install them. My plumber does this for me, and it’s a win-win situation. It saves him the hassle and time of going to get parts for my appliance, and it saves me money because I do the legwork. And if the parts are online, you can have the mailman do all the legwork!

Anyway, repairing the appliances are expensive enough. I recommend that you do a little research yourself– find out what’s wrong, buy the parts if you need them, and maybe even install them yourself if you can. Believe me, it saves a TON of money.

I have a home business. Somewhere in here, lol. It’s kind of in limbo right now, because of our ongoing renovations… but I DO actually have a home office here at home. I am realizing how very, very important it is to have a quiet, tidy, and organized home office, because mine is always dirty and chaotic right now. If it’s not filling up with plaster dust wafting in from the demolished kitchen, then it’s full of sneakers, dishes, boxes, pet supplies, and more…. wow I sure miss my tidy, organized space! I will have it, soon, once the kitchen and dining room are rebuilt and organized again.

I’m rethinking a lot of the organization here. My house has no storage space– there’s no attic (not for storage, anyway!) and the basement floods. So the only space I have is the attached garage… and the small bedroom closets.. and my office here in the living room. :-p Thank God that Buy.com has a special section for office storage and desk workstations. I’ve been looking into getting a corner desk (those are such great space savers), and other things like bookshelves and carts. This Kathy Ireland Huntington Club Executive Desk is absolutely gorgeous. Wow, this would look SO good in my living room. At $1300 and some change, it had better! It’s not in my budget right now, but it’s definitely what I’m looking for in a desk: warm wood tones, a furniture-like appearance, and lots of drawers.

If you;re inthe market for office supplies, or even school supplies since school is right around the corner, you should definitely check out Buy.com. They have loads and loads of stuff for the office and school: binders, storage boxes, desk organizers, pens and pencils and everything that goes with them, file cabinets, desk chairs, printers, tape, staplers, everything! The prices are very good, and Buy.com’s shipping is SUPERB bar none. When I order stuff from Buy.com, it is always here in a matter of a day or two, even with free shipping. They are just amazing with their customer service. I haven’t found anyone better than Buy.com, and I do a lot of online shopping, believe me.

Anyway, do check them out. Buy.com is renowned for their exceptional electronics sales and deals– they have them every week and weekend– but they are also a great place to get everything else, like household goods, clothing, books, household supplies, and more.

In my recent post about my new textbook, Lin from Duck and Wheel with String asked a question in her usual elegant and poised manner:

Head gonna ’splode. Are you seriously gonna do that yourself??? Wow.

Hee hee!

I thought I’d post my response here (rather then have it buried in the comments), because I realized that a few of you “newer” readers did not go through the excruciatingly crazy time when we gutted our living room, in the summer of 2007. It was SUPPOSED to be a simple tear-down-the-walls-and-slap-news-ones-up-again job.. but my house is 150+ years old. I guess that kind of project never happens with old homes.

When I opened up the walls, I found a few surprises. One, noggin– noggin is brick, installed in the studs. We’ve no idea why the original builder did that; it was rare even back then. We suppose it was to help keep the house cool. And it does… both summer AND winter. :S

I also found mouse-chewed wires, and quite a few bare wires. And a disastrous mess of mangled wires. Oh Lord, it was a disaster. Long ago, the previous owners ripped off the flooring to the second floor, installed wiring, and put the floors back on– basically encapsulating the wiring. And this is what it looked like, 70 years later when I opened it up.

You can read more about the craziness if you click the links. I had no intentions of doing the wiring myself, but I couldn’t find an electrician who would do one room– well, I did finally get one quote, but he wanted $1500 for it. I decided to study at night and do it myself.

Electrician Shock
Why My Electricity Won’t Work
Things Looking Brighter
The worst part was going into The Attic [insert creepy organ music]
It was a very frustrating job at times.
I also installed Cat5 ethernet wiring for the living room.

ALL MY WORK PASSED Codes Inspection! I was so happy.

Besides the living room, I installed wiring in my daughters’ bedroom above, light switches for two bedrooms upstairs, and separate outlets for the washing machine and sump pump. However, half the house still has no electricity. After seeing the condition of the living room wiring, I was too terrified to turn the rest of the old wiring back on. I disconnected everything I could. It’s been almost three years, and I’m hoping praying I can get electricity into the kitchen, dining room, stairwell, and upper bedrooms very soon. This year, we’re tackling the kitchen. The dining room and bedrooms will have to wait, unless a miracle happens.

This is our living room. ALL MODERN wiring!!!

You can read more about the House History and Our History here and all about Our Story of renovations up to now. After the massive 2007 renovation, which was the largest project we’ve ever accomplished yet here, I got a job blogging, and life just got hectic. I haven’t done anything else besides garden work around here. I’m praying the kitchen will be accomplished this year because it’s almost unlivable now. Please keep us in your prayers! I’m a little older now (40s) and rather out of shape because of my desk jobs for the past three years. I’m a little apprehensive about the physical labor involved. But God willing, it can be done. Thanks for reading.

Summer is over and winter’s chills are beginning to roll in. Need a good reason to start planning your mid-winter vacation early? There’s an incredible travel promotion if you’ve been waiting in the wings for a deal. It’s the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific deal. I’ve spent the morning looking it over and it looks amazing!

Accor Hotels has opened up more than a million hotel rooms around the world– for all needs and budgets– for three days: October 27th, 28th, and 29th, 2009. You can obtain the steep discounts when you order online for stays from December 9, 2009, to April 10, 2010. The Super Sale is occurring at a time of record-low airfares across the Asia Pacific area. It’s a frugal paradise, people. The hotels are simply beautiful: locations available for Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific include: Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, and Bali. Rates are as low as $30 per night (Thailand!) with most rates in the $50-70 range. Accor Hotels, the European leader in hotels around the world, has hotels in over 90 countries with over 4,000 hotels. I’ve browsed the site and the hotels are just exquisite!

Next to the beautiful hotels and outstanding service, the great thing about Accor is that they have built a structure of hotels to accommodate various needs and budgets, all revolving around the “name brands.” For example, the All Seasons Accor hotel brand is perfect for economically-minded travelers, or brief visits. The Mecure and Pullman and other name-brand Accor hotels are more expensive and have more luxurious features (such as regional, gourmet dining experiences and such). So no matter your travel need, be it a backpacking experience in New Zealand, or a business meeting in Japan, or a honeymoon in Hong Kong, you can stay with the reliable Accor brand. Plus, Accor is known throughout the world for it’s outstanding hospitality and beautiful locations.

This is such a great getaway opportunity! I would think that this would make a beautiful gift, too, and just in time for the holidays. See the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific page for more details.

It’s hard to believe that it is JUNE already, people! Father’s Day is just several days away. If you’ve been scrambling for ideas for gifts for the Dad of the family, maybe I can lend some assistance. —> Men love their power tools. Take your pick:

-OR- [...]

I recently blogged about my “I shoulda had a V-8!” moment (buying construction materials at salvage yards), and I just had another idea– buying refurbished or sharply discounted materials! I often go to Buy.com to buy my electronics stuff now (they have the best prices and free shipping), and I recently discovered that Buy.com has home and outdoor stuff, too. And actually, you can get building materials, tools, and household supplies at great prices there, too!

For example, check out this DeWalt replacement battery for my power drill. I’ve been looking for new batteries, but have been balking at the price at my local Home Depot: $100!! Guess how much this is at Buy.com? Go on, GUESS!

$57!!! That’s almost HALF the price!! Very cool.

I can’t believe I used to buy retail prices for all the stuff we need around here. Holy cow, think of all the money I wasted! I love Buy.com– they are the only place I get my electronics from anymore– and they have a great variety on everything (stuff like baby items, jewelry, books, clothing, etc). The home products are at good prices, and they variety is impressive– spray paint, garbage bags, plumbing joints, glass cutters, sandpaper, smoke detectors, power tools, etc etc! Pretty neat! Check out the weekly sale page at Buy.com for good deals, too. I love Buy.com!! Before you buy anything retail, check them out for deals first.

I was reading the blog Back2theLand, in which Bonnie discusses all the great deals she finds for her home on Craigslist online, for her local area. It was a “I shoulda had a V-8!” moment! What a terrific idea!

When we first bought this house, there were a few salvage stores in the area. They have since closed. The nearest one is in Madison, NY– a long haul if we’re getting large stuff like doors, porch posts, etc. It’s not unusual to be driving down rural roads (like I did recently) and see something like this:

There’s a lot that can be found at a salvage barn, I think. And it’s kind of fun sorting through things. It’s like walking back in time. I wonder how old this sink is, and where it was used? It’s still in good shape.

Well anyway, because the salvage areas nearest us had closed, I pretty much gave up on finding anything recycled for our house. But after reading Bonnie’s post, it was like “Oh yeah!!” There’s a LOT to be found online, at Craigslist or with online auctions. So I’ll put that bug in your ear, too– if you’re looking for cheap materials and don’t mind cleaning it up or hauling it home, check out the many places online to find salvage materials. Oftentimes, the salvage stuff is in excellent shape for a tiny fraction of the cost of new stuff. It can really help the budget!

So thanks, Bonnie! I’ve never tried out online auctions or anything– I think I will, now!

I got a little comparison cleaning kit a few weeks ago. The kids and I finally decided to try it out. I love these kinds of comparison reviews! I feel just like those ladies on TV with the taste tests!

OK, so we got a box of the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They have “powerful foaming cleanser” and come with the Febreze Meadows & Rain fresh scent. I actually didn’t realize why the sponges smelled so good until I re-read the box and saw the Febreze label. The smell is very nice. I hate the stench of bleach, so I have to say I was immediately turned off by the “leading brand” stuff. (It’s a Clorox tub & tile cleaner, if you really want to know). I have a fiberglass bathtub (a very old one) and it is a PAIN to clean. The soap scum really builds up. I have tried a lot of various tub cleaners, but none ever really worked. We relegated ourselves to scratching off the soap scum with a plastic spatula. YES, believe it or not, that’s how we cleaned it. Back breaking! *sigh* My daughter got the bright idea to use Cascade dishwashing detergent, and that worked better than any tub cleaner, but she still had to scrub the surface somewhat. So we have been eager for something that cleans our tub and doesn’t send us to the hospital.

So this kit came with two pre-dirtied tiles. lol. You can see my little fingernail scratches on the tiles. My son, Sniffy, assisted me with our experiment.

A checklist had some recommendations for us.

The first thing we did was squirt the “Leading Brand” (gosh, I feel so professional when I say it that way) on a dirty tile and scrub it off with a paper towel.

Hm. Nope. Not very good. Kinda reminds me of those painful tub-scratching days. We tried the Mr. Clean foamy erasers.

Wow! I was surprised at how quickly it scrubbed off. And my young son was unusually exuberant about it, too. Hm, I think I may have another poor, unsuspecting slave handy helper to wash the tub!

The next thing we tried was crayon markings and marker scribbles. THANK GOD my kids are too old for scribbling on walls with crayons (I think so, anyway). Both cleaning products performed the same. They wiped off the crayon and the marker very easily.

The next thing on the list was to make chili and use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean up the baked disaster. I didn’t do that part (didn’t feel like cooking, lol), but I probably would just stick to tub cleaning for the Magic Erasers. I was very impressed with the tile scum removal.

My daughter decided to test out the eraser in the scummy tub. Not too bad! She said the foaming stuff inside the sponge was very effective; and scrubbing was “like washing a blackboard with an eraser, just a little bit harder.” So I think we’ve finally found our tub cleaner! This means we can finally throw out all those old plastic spatulas! Hurray! I didn’t have to worry about her breathing in chlorine fumes, either!

For your information, the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers come in packs of two. I saw them at Walgreens for $3.99. The sponges can really be used only once for a big job, maybe twice for smaller jobs. The Clorox cleaner is also at Walgreens for $3.99, but it doesn’t smell as nice as the Mr. Clean, and the liquid tub cleaner is just not effective on my tub. You can read more about Mr. Clean products here. I hope this little review helps to eliminate evil scum from all the recesses of the world!

P.S. This is not a paid post! Consider it my service to mankind and the quest for the perfect tub cleanser.

Just in time for the holidays, I decided to do my own little experiment with paper towels. Now as a frugal lady, I don’t use paper towels a great deal– I use washcloths and then I launder the washcloths. But I need to keep paper towels around the house for things like cleaning out the cat litter box, wiping the car’s oil dipstick, cleaning up hairballs, etc. These are things I consider unsanitary and do not want to have circulating through my laundry.

Also, I have paper products during the holiday season when I am more inclined to have lots of company over, making lots of little messes. So I purchase paper towels, paper napkins, etc. These days I am in “paper products” mode. I’ve been checking out the many brands (btw, MUST stores have so many brands?!) and their prices. I have been wondering for a while which paper towel is more economical and effective– a “fancy” name brand, or the generic, store brand? Here’s what I found out!

*AAAAAAND in this corner! It’s the Bounty one-sheet working wonder! In the other corner, it’s the cheapo Decorator Towels Walmart brand!*

*ding ding*

(please ignore my horrid orange laminate countertops. I DID NOT install them. And yes, we do need a new kitchen! )

OK, on with the show. Here are the prices of the paper towels at my local grocery store:

Bounty: 138 sheets per roll (63.2 square feet) $2.19/roll
price per sheet: 1.590 cents

Store Brand: 90 sheets per roll (75.6 square feet) $1.79/roll
price per sheet: 1.990 cents

First off, you can see that Bounty is less expensive when you are going per sheet. Yet the Store Brand has fewer sheets and more square feet per roll. How can this be? Well, the Bounty roll has smaller sheets. As a matter of fact, the Bounty sheets are half the size of the Store Brand sheets. And even though there is more square footage with the Store Brand roll, the Bounty roll is bulkier and thicker. The Store Brand sheets are thinner and resemble the paper napkins you get at McDonald’s– kind of rough and stiff; the Bounty sheets are much thicker and have a cloth-like feel to them. You’ll also notice that the Store Brand sheets have pretty butterflies. Not to be influenced by pretty pink and blue butterflies, I purged that from my mind and concentrated solely on the important matter at hand: which was a better deal?

Judging thus the consistency and thickness of the sheets, I predict that the Bounty roll will absorb more liquid into a denser area, whereas the Store Brand will cause the liquid to expand out into the sheet more. Now for the experiment!

I decided to set globs of soy sauce on my counter to test each sheet. I’ll have you know that I wasted .047711 cents of soy sauce right there. Consider it my sacrifice for science.

And why do scientists use the same ol’ boring circles of liquid mess? I decided to make my liquid messes in the shape of Mickey Mouse for added human interest to our rather sterile and impartial scientific experiment. (Here’s hoping Disney doesn’t sue me for copyright infringement).

Ah, so here you see the sheets at work. They performed much as I hypothesized they would. Bounty picks up the liquid in a denser area; the Store Brand splays out the liquid. That line you see in the Store Brand sheet is the “glue” line that holds the sheet to the roll. It is always on the first 3 or 4 sheets of a new roll. Bounty doesn’t have that line, btw. I lifted up the sheets to see which sheet was more absorbent.

Below you will see how the Store Brand sheet performed. It didn’t absorb as much of the liquid. When I lifted the sheet, the liquid dripped off the sheet and back onto the counter.

The Bounty sheet absorbed much more of the liquid. You can also see that more of the sheet is saturated with soy sauce.

To be honest, I was surprised that the Bounty sheet picked up so much and the Store Brand picked up so little. I ended my experiment by sopping up every bit of the liquid that I could and comparing the sheets.

Hmmm. So my conclusion is that Bounty paper towels are actually a better deal. The roll itself is more expensive than the Store Brand, but there are more Bounty sheets per roll. Despite that there is less square footage than the Store Brand, the Bounty sheet performed better than the Store Brand. So, my final conclusions in table form:

Bounty:
More expensive per roll, at $2.19/roll
Less expensive per sheet, at 1.590 cents
More sheets per roll, at 138 sheets
Fewer square footage per sheet and per roll, at 63.2 square feet per roll
Performs better than Store Brand

Store Brand:
Less expensive per roll, at $1.79/roll
More expensive per sheet, at 1.990 cents
Fewer sheets per roll, at 90 sheets
More square footage per sheet and per roll, at 75.6 square feet
Not as good a deal as the Bounty roll

Thus concludes my great experiment. I hope you have found this information profitable in some way. You probably won’t get rich saving all that money on Bounty paper towels, but you may be able to buy an extra jar of soy sauce after a few months.

In an emergency, what do we need? An emergency radio and coffee, of course!

Here are some freebies I found today that may come in useful for you frugal hacks.

Free Emergency Radio from ProtectingAmerica.org (while supplies last)

Free Gourmet Coffee Samples

Free Folger’s Gourmet Selections Coffee (free after you do a survey). I love Folger’s and the gourmet is rather over-priced at my local store, so I’m taking the time to do the survey– Folger’s is my caffeine drug treatment of choice, ha! Note: I also see that in order to get the Folger’s, you have to sign up to receive and/or purchase something else (like makeup or vitamins). So if you don’t like having to do that, then this sample is probably not for you.

Also, I found a few other freebies:

Get a free Handyman Club of America magazine and small toolkit set here. Be aware that this is an “opt-in” offer. After you get the first magazine, you will be sent a bill. If you do not want to continue receiving the magazines, you have to remember to send the bill back with “cancel” on it.

A free Earthbound Farm recipe brochure for organically-grown foods, here. They also offer free e-zines. It mostly relates to farming out in California, so I opted out of that.

Be sure to use your alternative email when signing up for these things. I use my “spammy” hotmail email address for stuff like this. And a lot of times I don’t give complete information– I may skip the email and phone number to see if the offer goes through. Many times, it does. Why give out more information than necessary? Who knows who may get your information. That last thing I want is to be spammed or phoned by a telemarketer or a drug rehab or something.

Hat tip to MoneySavingPro for the freebies heads up. You’re swell!