My mom, as a military wife with husband on deployment a lot of the time, taught me when I was young that you always needed to be able to take care of yourself. You needed education or training in a field so you could be self-supporting, you needed to know how to take care of a car, how to mow a lawn, how to do minor electrical fixes. Thanks in part to her advice I have a career in a field I truly enjoy, with the bonus of being able to support myself (and my daughter and grand kids right now), and my hobby is rehabbing. I'm proud that most of the inside work and about half of the outside work on my house has been done by the crew of me, myself, and I.
So where am I heading with this? Well, the garbage disposal died last week, thank goodness it was under warranty, and last night we installed the new one. Now, I still have stitches from the carpal tunnel surgery so Angie was more than game to try it herself, including the wiring connection. It was an interesting feeling passing on these hard won skills as I introduced her to wirenuts and grounding wires. Our work interests are so vastly different that I am no help with those skills but I can pass on these skills. She did a careful, great job, once the power was turned back on the disposer ran first time and didn't leak.. Hope she was as proud of herself as I was.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Going Greener
As you know I have worked hard to rehab this old house of mine, so last night I did some taking stock, to see if all these changes have been worth it financially to me. Not surprising, there is a savings with the changes I have made, what shocked me I guess is how much of a savings the three major changes made.
In the first winter I lived hereI did put in a programmable thermostat, and since I was at work a lot I programmed very low settings for those away times, then I also programmed the house at 67 degrees when the furnace was running. So the numbers for the three coldest heating months (December, January & February) were about $1300, if I had been home all day every day those numbers would have at least doubled. The furnace was old and listed at 60 per cent efficient.
That summer I replaced the furnace with a 98 percent efficient gas forced air furnace. The house had already been ducted so I had little choice but I am comfortable with forced air. That winter's heating bills for this three month period were less than half or about $624. I was very pleased with the savings and learned to put up with the noisier blower until I can work on the basement.
Last summer I did two major changes, I finished replacing all the windows with new for the first one. This was a major change. When I first moved in you could see curtains moving in the wind even though the windows were closed, some of the drafts were amazing. I would love to say I continued the tradition of wood windows but the price was prohibitive but there is still the beautiful woodwork frames around the window. Also last year, as you've seen in last summer's posts I had the house insulated and then sided. So how much did these 3 months cost me this last winter? I kept waiting for what I've always thought of as the big spike, and it never came. This is in spite of the fact that the house was occupied 24/7 in December, and kept several degrees warmer due to small children in the house. So drummmmmrolllll my winter heating costs for the same three month period this last winter were $303.
For those of you who may think it was a warmer winter I checked the heating degree days for the three years and 2009 was the coldest of the three years, with 2008 being just a shade warmer.
So figuring just over $1000 per year per 3 month savings I'll have saved the cost of the changes in about five years. Not too shabby.
This summer I plan to replace the front and side doors and next year the water heater and then I'll be just about as green as I can get.
That summer I replaced the furnace with a 98 percent efficient gas forced air furnace. The house had already been ducted so I had little choice but I am comfortable with forced air. That winter's heating bills for this three month period were less than half or about $624. I was very pleased with the savings and learned to put up with the noisier blower until I can work on the basement.
Last summer I did two major changes, I finished replacing all the windows with new for the first one. This was a major change. When I first moved in you could see curtains moving in the wind even though the windows were closed, some of the drafts were amazing. I would love to say I continued the tradition of wood windows but the price was prohibitive but there is still the beautiful woodwork frames around the window. Also last year, as you've seen in last summer's posts I had the house insulated and then sided. So how much did these 3 months cost me this last winter? I kept waiting for what I've always thought of as the big spike, and it never came. This is in spite of the fact that the house was occupied 24/7 in December, and kept several degrees warmer due to small children in the house. So drummmmmrolllll my winter heating costs for the same three month period this last winter were $303.
For those of you who may think it was a warmer winter I checked the heating degree days for the three years and 2009 was the coldest of the three years, with 2008 being just a shade warmer.
So figuring just over $1000 per year per 3 month savings I'll have saved the cost of the changes in about five years. Not too shabby.
This summer I plan to replace the front and side doors and next year the water heater and then I'll be just about as green as I can get.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tempus fugit
Einstein is known for his theory of relativity. His favorite illustration of relativity was to compare a minute spent kissing a beautiful woman to sitting on a hot stove for a minute. Clockwise they are the same amount of time however one passes faster than the other.
We all feel this, in fact I would love to add to his theory-- I believe the speed at which time passes accelerates as we get older. When I was young those summer vacations lasted forever, now what seems like days pass and suddenly I'm ten years older and wondering what happened.
There is nothing, I think, to prove the speed and relativity of time than small children. Three years ago (Yesterday) these twins weighed less than five pounds each and could fit between my elbow and my hand. We used one bassinet for both of them. Now they are big kids, go to day care, talk your ear off.....
We all feel this, in fact I would love to add to his theory-- I believe the speed at which time passes accelerates as we get older. When I was young those summer vacations lasted forever, now what seems like days pass and suddenly I'm ten years older and wondering what happened.
There is nothing, I think, to prove the speed and relativity of time than small children. Three years ago (Yesterday) these twins weighed less than five pounds each and could fit between my elbow and my hand. We used one bassinet for both of them. Now they are big kids, go to day care, talk your ear off.....
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Right Handedness
Sorry for the long quiet time, I guess I needed some thinking time and quiet grieving time.
My birthday has come and gone yeah hooray. I got cards from AARP, the Scooter Store and the Hard of Hearing Clinic. How many ways can we say OLDER than dirt???
Well, I finally got the carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand after months of having to postpone it. I bet they were wondering if I was one of those kind of people. This brought home to me that I am neither ambidextrous nor am I sorta right or left handed. I am a dominant right handed person.
I had to close my eyes in order to brush my teeth with my left hand. I had to have help putting on my sneakers and bra. Those were the normal to be expected type of problems what surprised me was how often I was brought to a standstill by my inability to do something with my left hand. I NEVER pick up my purse with my left hand. Apparently I pick up everything with my right hand. I open doors with my right hand, I even close doors with my right hand. How do I know these things? Well, my hand hurts every time I try to use it.
True cross dominance is apparently rare, however a lot of lefties appear ambidextrous because they had to learn to do some things with their right hand because I guess -- they had to. A lot of people teach themselves to be ambidextrous for sports. Weirdly enough, my side stroke is left hand dominated I wonder if the person who taught me was a leftie.
This has to be a short post. I'm writing it with my left hand and spend most of the time backspacing to clear the incorrect keys. More later.
My birthday has come and gone yeah hooray. I got cards from AARP, the Scooter Store and the Hard of Hearing Clinic. How many ways can we say OLDER than dirt???
Well, I finally got the carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand after months of having to postpone it. I bet they were wondering if I was one of those kind of people. This brought home to me that I am neither ambidextrous nor am I sorta right or left handed. I am a dominant right handed person.
I had to close my eyes in order to brush my teeth with my left hand. I had to have help putting on my sneakers and bra. Those were the normal to be expected type of problems what surprised me was how often I was brought to a standstill by my inability to do something with my left hand. I NEVER pick up my purse with my left hand. Apparently I pick up everything with my right hand. I open doors with my right hand, I even close doors with my right hand. How do I know these things? Well, my hand hurts every time I try to use it.
True cross dominance is apparently rare, however a lot of lefties appear ambidextrous because they had to learn to do some things with their right hand because I guess -- they had to. A lot of people teach themselves to be ambidextrous for sports. Weirdly enough, my side stroke is left hand dominated I wonder if the person who taught me was a leftie.
This has to be a short post. I'm writing it with my left hand and spend most of the time backspacing to clear the incorrect keys. More later.
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