KISS

Keep it simple stupid.

Repairs for the exterior of the house have proceeded from the top down, which meant a few weeks ago I needed to paint the back dormer. I took out the windows to perform maintenance on them, mostly just painting and a bit of puttying. In the process I succeeded in breaking a pane. In the past I had gone to the local hardware store for my glass, but this time I opted to visit a glazier who was a few extra miles down the road.

The store was set up with displays of mirrors and glass doors for shower enclosures. There was one small corner dedicated to modern windows that he was reselling. I found myself wondering what kind of sales he has seeing now that traditional windows with single pane glass were not the norm. I suppose if he was able to sell new windows, rather than repair old, he probably did quite well in the housing bubble of the last few years. But now that the housing bubble had burst...who knows?

The point of going to the glazier was to ask about all my options for fixing the window - single pane, double pane, inserts, low emissivity glass, tinted glass, etc. He threw in a few other options that I wasn't considering too, like replacing the entire window or putting on a new storm. We talked for about 15 minutes on all the options.

In the end, I bought a double strength pane of glass. Standard, single pane glass is about 1/16th of an inch thick. As you might guess, DS glass is 1/8th of an inch thick, so less likely to break, although twice as heavy. When I asked him how much for the 8" by 12" piece of glass, it came to $2.65. I'd say it wasn't even worth the time it took him to tell me about my options. On the upside though, I'll be going to him in the future, as I can't get DS glass from my hardware store.

Mouse LI

September? What September? Where did it go? I find myself reeling at the month that never was. Suddenly we're in the middle of fall with Halloween looming and I'm not sure if I traveled forward in time or if I've suddenly awoken from a fugue.

Stepping back and looking at the House of 42 Doors, there are plenty of things going on, but in the interest of having something to write about in October, I'll limit each of my postings, rather than do one catch up post.

Fall means colder weather, a plethora of food and a search for shelter by our wee friends, the mice. I've set the traps in the attic again, and in the space of a week, we've caught two more, equaling a grand total of 51 mice since we bought the house two years ago. I knew we had at least one in the house. In the evenings, I could hear her sliding down the interior walls of the bathroom.

I had hoped that when we had the house tuckpointed, it would have solved our mouse problem. I guess that they are still finding a way in. We continue to fill in cracks where we see them. I know for a fact that plugging a hole in the kitchen has kept them out of our living space. Now they live solely in the walls and in the attic, which is an improvement.

The family has been pushing to get a cat for the last few months and I am hesitant for a variety of reasons that are not the topic of this post. I am wondering though if having a cat in the house would actually help with the mice. Not so much from catching the mice, but more from any scent that the cat would emit. Does anyone know of any evidence that cat phermones drive away mice?

Old and Green?

So. Umm. Hi.

How are you? Good? Fine.

Well. Errr. Ah.

I guess this is bit awkward. I've been gone awhile. I don't really know what to say.

You didn't notice? Really? You've been busy too? Oh good.

Last night I attended a presentation put on by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a non-profit, non-government funded agency that "provides leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our communities."

It was about how green it is to reuse existing buildings rather than demolish them and build them new. The presentation was not what I was hoping for. I was hoping for a discussion on how to make old buildings more green. I'm already convinced that reusing old buildings is more green than building new, provided that they are kept up and improvements incorporated where appropriate. It's the "improvements incorporated where appropriate" that is the tricky bit and the part that I want help with.

Still, it was interesting to go to. I learned that one of the nearby cities has it's own historic preservation council. They organized the presentation by the Trust. Our village is entirely too small to have such a thing, so engaging with that council could be interesting, providing it isn't a bunch of little old ladies who are more concerned with what kind curtains people are hanging in their windows, or if the paint used on the house is an exact match to the color that was used in 1898.

I also came across this link about LED light bulbs in Japan. Would you spend $40 on a light bulb if it paid for itself in a year or two and lasted for 19 years?

I would.

The Time of Plenty

We're approaching fall and there is produce everywhere. There are pumpkins on the vine. The squash are turning. The tomatoes are breaking their vines with the weight of their fruit. The beets are sweet and large. The carrots are long and crisp. Our CSA boxes are backachingly full of tomatoes, melons, onions and corn.

Last night our neighbor dropped off a brown grocery bag full of pears, apples and a peach. Today one my employees bribed me with a dozen ears of sweet corn.

I love fall.

Bricks

Brick pavers are heavy.

This is an obvious fact. But if I asked you exactly how heavy, would you have any idea?

On Monday I saw a listing on CraigsList for 1000 brick pavers for sale. I contacted the seller and was thrilled to hear that they were still available at a very good price.

They were an hour away, and I opted to drive down to see them. I wanted to be sure they were real brick and of a color that would match the rest of the brick around the house. The directions to the place sounded familiar, but it wasn't until I was well on my way that I realized the house I was going to was on the way to our CSA, which we've visited three times over the last two years.

The bricks turned out to be perfect. They are 8" x 3.5", and I figured that as long as I was down there, I might as well load up the Ford Taurus and take some back with me. I figured if I could get a third of the bricks in the Taurus, then I could come back another time with my wife and our two cars and get the balance.

As it turns out, estimating weight is not one of my many skills. I loaded up the Taurus trunk, back seat and passenger foot well with as many bricks as I thought I could safely take - about 275. Other than bottoming out the Taurus once, the trip was uneventful, but I was nervous the entire way that something was going to happen.

Once I was home, I weighed a brick to see how close my estimate of two pounds each was. It turns out each brick is closer to five pounds and that I overloaded the Taurus by a few hundred pounds.

We were able to arrange for the sellers to deliver another quarter of the bricks last night (for a fee of course) and I think I'm going down tonight to load up another quarter. They'll be following me with the last 250.

I had no idea when I bought these that it would be such a hassle to get them here. The ironic bit is that the guy selling them pulled them out of a sidewalk for a lady who happens to live within 15 minutes of us, and then transported them back to his house an hour away.

If only we had known.

Not Strictly OSHA Approved

The time off was fabulous, if perhaps too short. I have yet to find someone who will pay me for working on the projects I want to work on, but I suppose it's the same problem we all have.

The goals for the holiday were several.

1) Finish repairing, scraping, priming and painting the soffit.
2) Kill some of the weeds in the lawn with weed killer.
3) Scrape, prime and paint the integrated gutter on the back porch.
4) Take a day trip or two to see some fun things in the area.

As expected, not everything was accomplished. The only item on the list that was completed was number 2. We lost one entire day to Ms. Huis having the flu and one entire day to rain.

The soffit is mostly done with just the final coat of paint to put on two sides. I did not rent a lift or a scaffold and there's no doubt it would have gone faster, but the hassle of setting up and moving a scaffold, as well as the added cost just didn't seem worth it. Besides who needs a scaffold, when I can build this?



I didn't walk on this, only used it to hold my paint tray so I wouldn't have to go all the way down to the ground to dip the roller or the brush. The other sides of the house weren't bad as I was able to reach the soffit by standing on the first floor roofs. Once the soffits are painted, it'll be time to start working on winterizing the house.

Its hard to imagine, but old man winter will be here before I know it.

Giddy

I've got all of next week off and nothing planned.

Well, that's not strictly true. I have a lot of things bouncing around in my head that I could do. Enough really for me to retire for a few years, but still nothing is concrete.

I'll let you know how it goes, but for now, it's a case of finish up the work stuff and fly out the door.