March 2008

Paper or Plastic?

March 28, 2008

I have a confession to make, and I’m not proud of it. In fact I’m downright ashamed that I didn’t check my facts long ago, because I love doing research. I thought I was doing a good thing by reusing paper grocery bags as trash bags. I thought, ‘Why buy plastic trash bags, which are [...]

Read the full article →

Framed

March 27, 2008
Thumbnail image for Framed

In the previous house I had a collage of old black-and-white family photos on the wall, but in this house my wall space is more limited, mainly because of the windows. However we do have the stairway wall leading to the attic, which for me is a perfect spot for these types of photos. Several [...]

Read the full article →

Lights Out

March 26, 2008

Chicago is the designated flagship city for the U.S. and one of many cities around the world participating in the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 29. For one hour, you are encouraged to turn off all non-essential lights in your house. According to the web site: Earth Hour’s not just [...]

Read the full article →

No Kermit, it IS easy being Green

March 26, 2008

There is so much talk nowadays about being green, reducing your carbon footprint, the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and restore, etc. I think it’s great that it has finally become more commonplace, and I hope it increases. While we’re by no means perfect, since at least the early ’90s both Pete and I having [...]

Read the full article →

Our Oven has a Mind of its Own

March 22, 2008
Thumbnail image for Our Oven has a Mind of its Own

For at least the second or third time now, our oven has just switched on by itself. I was standing next to it this morning, I heard the “whoosh” of the oven starting up, and then I could smell the gas. I looked at the knob, and it was turned to off, and then I [...]

Read the full article →

TV Dinners

March 22, 2008
Thumbnail image for TV Dinners

I know, I know. You’re not supposed to eat meals in front of the TV. But we do, and that’s that. I doubt we’re ever going to change that until it gets nice enough to eat outside. What I’ve always hated about eating in front of the TV are the tray tables: they’re ugly and [...]

Read the full article →

Drink, Anyone?

March 20, 2008
Thumbnail image for Drink, Anyone?

I finally tackled the bar area in the basement, which had been piled with crap. Everything is put away, the bar is stocked, and the record albums are hung on the wall around the pool table. Just a few things left to do down there. We’ll probably have to patch the former cat pee areas [...]

Read the full article →

Hallway: Illuminated

March 19, 2008
Thumbnail image for Hallway: Illuminated

The hallway light was, like everything else in this house, covered with off-white paint. A few weeks ago I let it simmer on the stove along with the foyer light. Turns out the knot-like part of this fixture is made out of steel, and I’m not sure what type of finish it would have had [...]

Read the full article →

Splitting Up

March 13, 2008

Last spring, just before we closed on this house our neighbor (who was also our neighbor in the previous house — we basically leap-frogged them) bought half of the empty lot between the two houses which the PO owned. They had approached him long ago and asked if he would consider selling part of the [...]

Read the full article →

Neighbors and Fences

March 12, 2008

If the saying goes, “Good fences make good neighbors”, is there one about ugly fences? With spring arriving one of these days (and let me just point out that we haven’t even been “teased” by warm weather yet, which is really unusual for Chicago), we’re starting to plan our yard and garden. One of the [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries