Wallpictures
May 20th, 2007This is exactly what I was looking for, about eighteen years ago.
Filed under: House, images
Air-conditioning on AlterNet
July 5th, 2006So, for the second time today I’ve run accross interesting, if not a-little-too-enthusiastic articles on this site which was previously unknown to me but one with a name that is very interesting (to me): AlterNet. The article is called Air-conditioning: Our Cross to Bear.
I’ll tell you this story while you wait for that page to load:
The first thought I had this morning as I lay drowsing in bed was, “it is so quiet here. The bird’s song is so pretty. I can’t believe that I am inside the beltway, 200 yards from a major street, 400 yards from a Starbucks, and under a mile from the Interstate. What a lovely little quiet neighborhood with big trees and happy birds.” And then, my neighbor’s air conditioner kicked on. Like the rest of the little packed-in row-house units, their air conditioner is about thirty years old and noisy enough to notice but not noisy enough to do anything about, and certainly not noisy enough to replace due to the expense. Expense that mostly stems from the fact that these rowhouses were reengineered to have individual electric-powered heat instead of one big boiler for the whole community the only space for the furnace was in the attic. If you think about the physics of distributing hot air throughout a two-story house you realize that the attic is about the worst possible option for placement of the furnace. So, if you reengineered the house to have a heat pump instead of just an air conditioner you would have a lot of work to do and you would still be left with a noisy electric-powered fan jobby that sits in the back yard and interrupts the reverie of people like me who prefer to open their windows to the natural fresh air and bird songs to air conditioner noises and sealed, recirculated air.
The heavy, muggy, rainy summer air is what makes the bridge of my nose feel slimy after I’ve been outside in the summer. It is also an important element in what gives this place the lush feeling of stuff growing on top of stuff growing on top of stuff in a delicious, deciduious thickness.
Bonus Link! Taken from the AlterNet article linked above is this article in New Scientist that shows the fuel consumption difference in using the A/C versus rolling down the windows in the car:
seen
March 5th, 2006
Untitled 6-Panel Set by SEEN: Future Classic Store, http://www.futureclassic.net/shoppin/
Four Seasons Woodwork
March 3rd, 2006These guys are skilled, fast, and affordable:
Four Seasons Woodwork
e-mail: info@fourseasonswoodwork.com call: (703) 212-7119
The Plumbing Dr.
March 3rd, 2006
Got leak? Call this guy:
The Plumbing Dr.
Falls Church, VA 22046
Ph: 703.525.9280
Today “Dr. Jeoff” fixed my plumbing problem. He was in and out in an hour, and very knowledgeable. He should be. He said he’d been doing nothing but plumbing for 33 years.
Filed under: Househouse update
February 7th, 2006… so far I’ve pulled out the carpet, the toilet and sink in the upstairs bathroom, all of the kitchen appliances and cabinets and everything else that you would normally consider to be “bolted down”. With the exception of the downstairs half bath, there’s really not much but dust and a couple of copper pipes sticking up out of the floor in one room (that is and will be the kitchen, but as now it is just a mess). Oh, and there’s a big shiny fridge in the middle of the living room but it isn’t plugged in or running. It is just sitting there smiling at me wondering when the rest of the appliances are going to show up (saturday). The kitchen walls are primed white and the cabinets sit in boxes waiting for me to assemble them and hang them on the walls, so hopefully by this weekend you’ll be able to see where the kitchen is supposed to be … after that it will still be another few weeks before the kitchen counters arrive.
wow. so far about all i’ve succeeded in really doing is creating a big mess :)
Photos forthcoming I promise. Unfortunately my fancy new camera doesn’t play well with FreeBSD.
Filed under: HouseLearning about switches
February 5th, 2006My brother, when a child, always took his toys apart. Mine occasionally broke, but it never really occurred to me to explore something by taking it apart until one day when I heard my mother complaining to someone about my brother’s disassembly tendency. As for me I’d broken stuff before, and I’d explored the innards of toys, rocks, bugs, and other things in my world by smashing them or disassembling them but not so much with the hope or intent to put it back together. I wasn’t destructive. No, on the other hand I put stuff together. Legos, Lincon Logs, erector sets, chemistry sets, little electrical circuitry boards and toys of assembly were what I remember having lots of fun with.
So today as I’m doing some electrical work in the kitchen of my house, looking at the qualitative and quantative difference between the new hardware and what it is replacing, seeing the wires and insulation that have probably only been examined closely by a handfull of people ever, and I begin to feel like I’m learning the old school ways by examining their work and seing the difference. I realize this little box of copper and brass and dust and fabric-insulated wiring is just a part of my house and I’m learning how it works by taking it apart.
Then it occurs to me that my brother now runs a significant portion of what many businesses and people who smile at you from behind computer terminals all day call “the network”. So, the next time you’re trying to get a refund on your credit card and a young woman with a huge plastic name tag cautiously apologizes to you and tells you that she cannot make your transaction because “the network is down” just think .. it just might be my brother taking it apart to figure it all out.
Filed under: House, Real LifeI need me some Kitchen-Aid
January 30th, 2006
Okay, well, maybe not that brand exactly but as I took all the appliances out of the kitchen to the dump last week I have a need to get some appliances on order pronto. Selecting them has proven to be a frustrating task, but armed with new information from ConsumerReports.org I feel slightly more comfortable with the process.
Filed under: House
