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Rain Barrel

Mike B. — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:00:50 +0000

This past Christmas I received a rain barrel. I finally set it up a few weeks ago and just last week it rained. After only one relatively short downpour our 55 gallon rain barrel was full to the brim!

Here are Libby and I gathering water for the plants on our front porch:

We'll probably buy another one for the other side of the house. I doubt they will pay for themselves anytime soon, but it feels so nice to have a giant barrel of "free" water.

New Furniture

Mike B. — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:27:29 +0000

The $5 garage sale television stand that has proudly sat in our family room for almost 3 years has been retired. In it's place is this monstrously beautiful television mansion:

Naturally Libby was compelled to sit inside this new behemoth for about 10 minutes for a closer inspection.

Porch is Complete

Mike B. — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:51:58 +0000

We're still working on the landscaping, but you can see that Shannon has already set out some fall decorations in the corner. I'm going to be laying down some more mulch tomorrow, then Adirondack chairs in a week or so, and eventually a porch swing. Whoop-dee-doo!

Porch Almost Finished

Mike B. — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:25:31 +0000

The porch continues it's march toward completion...

Tuesday - The frame goes up:

Thursday - The roof is (mostly) completed:

Friday - Gutters are added, electrical boxes are positioned in ceiling:

Our Porch Continues to Progress

Mike B. — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:37:30 +0000

It's pretty cool how much has gotten done over the past couple days.

Thursday - bottom layer of concrete and base is laid down:

Friday - framing of porch and fill-in with rock/gravel:

Monday - brand new slab of concrete has been poured and smoothed:

New Porch Has Started!

Mike B. — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:30:28 +0000

We received a call late Tuesday night that our contractor was ready to begin putting in our new front porch, and within 16 hours there was a crew of people jackhammering away! Here are the beginning stages of demolition:

Stargazers in Bloom

Mike B. — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:00:37 +0000

Like all houses, ours has a fairly long list of things we would like to improve. A big item on that list is a new deck on the front of our house, but coming close in second is to re-landscape the sides and back of the yard. For the most part I don't mind the current landscaping, but there are certainly areas that need some love and elbow grease.

One thing that I am very attached to, though, are three stargazer lilies on the side of our house. They are simply gorgeous, and Shannon and I will definitely integrate them into the final design of our yard.

Like most images on this site you can click for a closeup - those colors are real, the picture is unmodified.

I Want a Micro-CHP

Mike B. — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:30:46 +0000

I'm trying to clean out my "outbox" here at the blog, so you may be seeing some older-than-usual posts over the next few days. Most of these started out with such good intentions, but then got lost on the wayside. Sometimes I have the attention span of a small furry kitten, particularly when I am... uh... what's that shiny thing over there?

Anyway, now that winter has it's icy grip on us it's important to talk about Micro-CHP's. You can start with the original news story that peaked my interest, or just jump to the more comprehensive wiki article.

For those of you who don't click: Micro-CHP's are like mini power plants for your house. They burn a fuel to create electricity, then use the heat from that electricity-generating process to heat things like your water and living area. Three birds, one stone.

The result is an extremely efficient use of the fuel (up to three times more efficient), so as a consequence they are a great way to save money over the long term. Of course they are expensive to buy, but over time the investment pays for itself. Now I just need to scrounge up $15k. I guess I'll go search between the couch cushions first...

Long Weekend of Painting

Mike B. — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:58:56 +0000

I apologize for not posting for quite some time - it's been a busy couple days. Over the weekend I painted the entire basement a gleaming bright white. I thought it would only take me 8 hours, but the bright orange faux-finished hallway into the basement disagreed.

Two days and four coats of paint later the basement looks brighter. I'm not sure the final product was worth the work; oh well, it's a sunk cost at this point.