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Last year, we got seven cubic yards of bark. This year, we ordered 10 cubic yards of mulch. Either we were ripped off last year or we got a lot more than we paid for this year, because the ratio was waaaaaaay off. Happily, though, we're done. If you're curious what ten cubic yards of […]

Carey and I received a notice for a $161 street lighting assessment. I've never heard of such a thing. Sure, I like having street lights, but how is that not included in property taxes? Houses tend to sit on streets. It's not like we're out in the township somewhere. We've got sidewalks and everything. 😛 […]

I filled in some of the holes in our lawn today with dirt and seed - the trenches left over from the truck that delivered wood for the pool room several months ago. Now I'm waiting for the rain to come to soak the dirt and ensure that the seeds grow. I still need another […]

I have two lights in my upstairs hallway. They're controlled by a switch downstairs, a switch outside the master bedroom, and a switch outside a second bedroom. The switch outside the second bedroom (office) got "stuck" lately, so we bought a four-way switch to replace it. The old one says "4-way switch" on it, so […]

This entry is mostly for my wife to make a decision (today). She's at a conference, so this is how I can reach her…

Some renovation pictures (http://iacas.org/asm/room/01.jpg through 04) are up. They're building a girder truss today and will pick up on Monday and work, as I understand it, most of the next two weeks to finish things out. Then, our flooring goes down, and then we paint and trim out the room. The table is delivered end […]

Carey and I have visited two places (A, B for the purpose of this post) in Erie now to get flooring quotes for the game room. The best offer we've gotten thus far is $2750. The idea is to use Shaw laminate flooring to cover between 396 and 437 square feet of space minus a […]

The Lennox guy came today to look at our furnace/A/C needs. Our furnace, he said, is just fine. Our air conditioner needs replacing, but we knew that. He said he would not warrant or guarantee a furnace or air conditioner in a zoned setup. The game room would always be calling for a lot of […]

Pergo flooring at Lowe's and Home Depot seem to run about $3.79/square foot. That's around $1750 for just the flooring itself (though I realize we can install it ourselves, yes). I'm wondering if our contractor can't get Pergo flooring (or something as good) for less and then install it rather cheaply… We'd put an area […]

Carey and I are likely buying a new air conditioner and furnace in the next, oh, week or so. We've been working with a Trane guy (Schneider) here in Erie, PA and we have an offer on a Trane XR-12 A/C unit (3.5 ton, 12 SEER, 4TTR2042A10000A) and a Trane XR-90 two-stage furnace (TUX100C948), installed, […]

Seriously, builders suck. Contractors, builders… whatever they're called. The guy who built the house I live in has a phone that doesn't even have an answering machine anymore. It just rings and rings and rings. He promised a quote/bid last week, and when I talked to him last week, he said this week. It's Friday. […]

Carey and I painted our bedroom a pale blue color recently and with a vaulted ceiling, we had a lot of solid, pale blue over the headboard. To save some money (six-foot-wide pictures run, oh, $400 and up) and to make something that we were sure would look good, we purchased three 18 x 24" […]

Last night Carey and I watched an international edition of "House Hunters." It featured some guy living with his girlfriend while looking for a small flat or home in the UK somewhere near her. The show explained that there are two options for home ownership in the UK: "free hold" where you own the house […]

Carey and I did a little "remodeling" in the master bathroom this past weekend. After several (several) weeks of delays, and after using another bedroom as a bit of a dry run (we painted it green about a month ago), we finally got around to redoing our master bathroom in a "honey wheat" color. The […]

They say that getting married and buying a house are some of the most stressful things you can do. Carey and I eliminated the stress in getting married by doing it on the cheap and easy, but we knew that the whole "find a house, buy a house, move in, take care of a house" […]