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I just spent an hour in Scrabulous trying to find the perfect place to put the perfect word in a game that I am already losing by over 100 points.

I think I have a problem.

catbird :: May.28.2008 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

Steve is on a Quest for the Perfect Cup of Coffee. It’s been going on for about 6 years now, and I’m just here for the ride. Believe me, if it was my quest it would be more like the Quest for the Perfect Porter or the Quest for Eight Hours of Uninterrupted Sleep.

But no, it’s Steve’s quest for a home-brewed cuppa joe that’s consistent and hot from first sip to last and from first cup to last, as well as convenient to make and environmentally friendly.

It started when we switched from a regular old Mr. Coffee machine to a Krups machine with a built in carafe in order to keep the coffee hot from first cup to last. This stage also dictated the end of spoons to stir since the metal spoon created a “heat sink” that cooled the coffee to an undrinkable temperature.

After four years, this system was deemed unsatisfactory. Our second (and third) cups were too cold and we were wasting a lot of coffee and water on full pots that got thrown away. (Let it be noted that during this stage we had kids, so I only get one hot sip of coffee followed by room temperature dregs an hour later anyway.)

So now we have a Keurig single cup brewer. This meets most of the criteria — each cup starts off hot and fresh. But the k-cups are anything but environmentally friendly. When we first got the machine I had visions of a growing pile of k-cups in a landfill somewhere resulting from my caffeine addiction. So we used a filter with our own coffee. For each cup of coffee, we had to clean and fill the single use filter. Talk about inconvenient. We could use fair trade coffee and compost the grounds, but making coffee became a tedious chore and if the coffee wasn’t ground just right or filled to the optimal amount, the result was, well, less than consistent in taste from cup to cup.

Steve still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. So now we have this thing called a pod holster (yes, I’m still talking about coffee) in which we can load a coffee pod. Pods are fully compostable. So it would seem we have met all the criteria. Each cup is consistent, hot, convenient, and green.

Except, I said to Steve, we can’t get Fair Trade pods. In fact, it’s hard to even get organic pods.

So what’s next you ask? Why, a Perfect Pod of course! So now we’ll buy our own Fair Trade coffee (from Grounds for Change, by the way), make it into pods, use the pods in our pod holster, and conveniently create the perfect cup of hot coffee every time.

Hopefully.

catbird :: Mar.30.2008 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

So our kitchen waste/yard waste composting is going okay, but not great. We can’t seem to keep a good balance. Plus, squirrels chewed a hole in our composter. (Note to self: don’t compost pumpkins until squirrels are completely finished snacking on them.)

But our dog poop composting is going great. We read about it on this gardening site. We’ve been doing it all winter and have some good soil for growing some plants in the back — non-food, of course. Pet waste composting (along with the gDiapers) has really cut back on our garbage output, too. Our yard is pretty small, though, so our neighbors might appreciate us taking a break from poop composting during the hot summer months. Wow, that could be stinky.

catbird :: Mar.11.2008 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

I’m not ambitious enough to try all seven; two is more my speed. And one came straight from a can.

The menu: baccala, stuffed artichokes, poor man’s pizza, pasta with primavera sauce, meatballs, antipasta with carrots, celery, olives, bread, anchovies, roasted peppers, and cheese. For dessert, fruit bowl and cookie tray. Apparently I can’t cook for four so we have been eating leftovers all week.

The schedule: (I forgot to include “soak the cod” and almost blew the baccala):

11:00 prep and soak artichokes

11:30 make pizza dough

11:45 cook cod (~30 min.)

11:50 stuff artichokes

12:15 cook artichokes (2.5 hours)
[Nate sprinkled his own yogurt for lunch]

12:30 make baccala

12:40 - 2:30 random tasks: cookie tray, fruit bowl, set table, make antipasta
[Nate made the cookie tray]

2:45 artichokes out of oven

2:50 sauce on, pasta water on

3:00 cook pizzas (20 min. each)

3:30 cook pasta

4:00 eat! (Okay, we really ate around 4:30, but I was close.)

[Van loved the pizza] [Nate gave the feast the thumbs up]

catbird :: Dec.26.2007 :: cat rants, house stuff :: Comments Off

Just picked up our new composter today. Although I’ve done some research about how to compost successfully, this will really be a big experiment and a lot of learning by doing. I’ll be interested to see if we have some good soil to use for planting next spring.

Hopefully composting will become a habit just like g-Diapers did. This page about what can be composted will come in handy.

catbird :: Oct.20.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

Apparently, all food is more fun to eat with chopsticks.

Okay, so I really don’t have a huge problem getting the boys to eat, but occasionally I can use help getting them to eat healthier options than waffles and goldfish. I saw these cool kid chopsticks at For Small Hands and the boys both love eating with them, even if they end up holding the chopsticks in one hand while using the other hand to eat.

catbird :: Oct.15.2007 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

By next spring, I would like to have a rain barrel system set up to collect water for the yard and garden.

Rain Barrel Guide: Why collect rainwater, estimating how much will be collected, how to get started (this site also has a link to compost guide).

Clean Air Gardening: large selection of rain barrels for purchase including a cool 60 gallon one made of a recycled food-grade barrel.

Gardeners.com: More rain barrels.

Composters.com: rain barrels, and also pet waste composters and other composting supplies

catbird :: Aug.23.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

Super-cool and super-environmentally-conscious flooring company Interface now offers Flor Rug in a box at Target. A six-tile box is $59.99 and it’s offered in four styles. What a great way to bring hip and environmentally friendly flooring to the masses.

Although I had heard of Flor, I found out about Interface from the eye-opening film, “The Corporation.” 

catbird :: Mar.16.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

Sure we feel good about all the fluorescent bulbs we’re using, but we didn’t think about how it would affect the paint color on the walls. When we picked paint colors, we were using regular old incandescent bulbs. Now our warm cream color now looks a bit institutional. Something to think about for the next paint job.

Update:

Eric from Real World Green clued me in to buy the CFLs that say “Warm White” on the package. I guess as the kitchen bulbs burn out that’s what we’ll replace them with. Curse the long life of the CFL! Now I’ll spend years in my institutional-colored kitchen! Or I could just move those  8 or so bulbs somewhere else.

catbird :: Mar.16.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

My cousin Cindy recently chastised me for not keeping up with my home improvement posts. I’ll skip over the master bedroom and the nursery - both with the ultra-tedious task of wall paper removal and go right to the two big outside project for this summer.

First we had the house painted. Still white, but with green-ish shutters. We used Rutgers Painting and they did a really nice job. They were neat and fast, as well as courteous and professional. They price was, well, we could have paid less with someone else, but I definitely don’t think we would have gotten as good a job out of it. They we also really sensitive to the lead paint issue. With a new baby, that was a huge selling point.

Just this week, we had our wooden front steps taken out and replaced with masonry steps. They look really wonderful. We used Duran Landscaping and we are hoping to use them for some other projects, too. They are fast, good, and reasonably priced. Can’t beat that!

Today, Nate and I are going out to buy some mums for the new front steps. It looks so great, we may as well draw attention to it!

catbird :: Sep.17.2004 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

We are in the process of finishing our walk-up attic into an office/tv room. We’d been talking about doing it for the 2 1/2 years we’d been in the house when we finally got started. We read some books, made some floor plans and lists, and budgeted about $5K. It will come to a bit more than that, but we’re not crazy over budget.

The biggest snags we have hit (so far): We started off doing some stuff ourselves and, well, we’re both fairly handy but we were too slow and not all that motivated - we lost some time. Then we hired one guy who was wonderful and he went and got a full-time job. He’s been great about not leaving us high and dry - and actually recommended the next guy we brought in - but we lost some more time. Also, when we listed out everything we would have to buy, we left off a bunch of little things like outlet covers and trim. We also underestimated our paint/primer needs, light fixture needs, and carpet costs.

Anyway, the second guy finished up last week. He was great, too, and we’d definitely hire him again. Steve has been busy painting for the past three days so we can get the carpet in. We started in May and it’s now October. Call me crazy but with (only) 4 months to go, I’m a bit anxious to get the boxes and junk out of what will be the nursury.

Some tips I’d give to anyone considering a similar project:
1. Hire someone you trust. We got recommendations from friends and also checked out local town message boards.
2. If you have any knowledgeable friends/family, pick their brains to make sure you know what need and don’t need.
3. If you plan to do any of the work yourself, be motivated and stick to a schedule. That West Wing episode will be on over the summer - now get going with the insulation!
4. Budget more than you think you’ll need - there will inevitably be some little extras you forgot about. If not, you’ll be thrilled to have finished under budget!

catbird :: Oct.21.2003 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

I hate to admit it. I consider myself a fairly handy chick. But the drywall, deceptively heavy and impossible to hold on the angled roof walls, beat me down. My knuckles were scraped and white, powdery dust coated my clothing. But I could have dealt with that - if just one piece of our drywall looked like the pictures in the Black and Decker attic remodeling book.

Instead, the drywall was scraped up every time we moved it, the drywall screws went right through the board at least three times, one piece was backwards, and the dog ate a piece of fiberglass insulation.

So I was defeated. And Steve will have to find a new drywall partner.

Maybe I will be better at taping….

catbird :: Jun.04.2003 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

catbird :: Aug.17.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

The Sequel:

My Dad was nice enough to snag a chair for us that matches one of our existing chairs. Now we have two pairs of (almost) matching chairs in the dining room. It’s definitely a nicer look. As with the others, I painted the chair magnolia white (which, by the way, you can buy right off the shelf - no waiting for service, a definite plus when purchasing paint). I did prime this one first and it made all the difference. I only needed one coat of paint after the primer as opposed to the 2 or 3 coats without the primer.

catbird :: Jul.26.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

Well, I am almost done the walls and ceiling. The walls are Restoration Hardware’s Creamware and the ceiling is Martha Stewart’s Ursa Minor.

The Walls:
The walls required two coats of paint (next time I will have Home Depot match the color using Behr or Glidden). That is even with having primed the walls first (see, I am learning from my experiences!) The priming did make a difference for the ease of application.

I am brush painting the entire room since I was unhappy with the roller results in the living room. Although I think I have a permanent hand cramp, I am very happy with the results so far. With painting priming, patching, caulking, and sanding, the walls took about twelve hours spread over four days.

The Ceiling:
For the ceiling I didn’t use the Martha Stewart paint, just the color. If you’ve ever waited at a Kmart to get service at the paint department, you know one reason why. The second reason is that I had no interest in repeating my experience with the walls. My neck definitely couldn’t take two coats on the ceiling! I also brush painted the ceiling. Before you laugh and call me crazy, I have to say that the brush covered much better than any roller I have used, plus I didn’t get any splatters anywhere - not on the hardwood floor, not on the furniture, and not on my face. Unfortunately, though, I ran out of paint with about three square feet left to paint. I only bought a quart and I am now wishing that I had listened to my instincts telling me to buy two quarts. Now I have to go back and get it mixed at a different time which may result is a slightly different color. One more lesson learned!

What I would do different:
- Not use Restoration Hardware paint, instead have the color mixed using a better paint

- Make sure I buy enough paint so that 1) there is no chance of a color mismatch and 2) I don’t have to make yet another trip to Home Depot.

Previous learned lessons that I used here:
- Prime!
- Use good brushes - wow it makes all the difference
- Caulk - again, what a difference
- Brush paint the walls - more a personal taste thing, but I prefer not to have that roller texture, spotty coverage, and little splatters on my face (I did use the roller to prime, although I smoothed over the texture with a brush.)

catbird :: Jul.14.2001 :: house stuff :: 2 Comments »

This was the easiest part. The paper was good quality, and although the original papering job wasn’t perfect, the glue was applied properly. The paper came right down in big sheets with minimal effort. The room is now a mottled golden glue yellow and it smells like, well, wall paper glue.

Next step: remove all the glue.

Well, this isn’t tough, but it is tedious and time-consuming. I am using a hot water and vinegar mixture applied with a sponge. Then I use the scraper and the sponge to get the glue off. I work for about 2-2.5 hours each session and I finish about a 6 foot high by 9 ft area during that time.

Removing the glue is revealing some cracks that will have to be patched. Another skill to learn!

catbird :: Jun.12.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

This project took me a total of 2.5 days from start to finish. It started as a simple hammer and paint job, and ended up a complete chair set facelift. Now we have four chairs that not only match, but that are updated and will match the finished dining room.

Although I am fairly happy with the finished product, as usual, I learned a few things.

What I would do different next time:
- Prime before painting. Will I ever learn?
- Sand better the caning that holds the seat in place on the fourth chair
- Sand and paint the caning earlier on so that it’s completely dry when I hammer it in place
- I’m not sure if I would do the seat of the fourth chair the same again. The original flat-cushion method was simpler and would have matched two of the other chairs.

catbird :: May.17.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

With my new plan in mind, I made my shopping list:

- Off-white paint (I ended up with Martha Stewart Magnolia White)
- Fabric for the seats (an linen-colored calico with a subtle white print)
- Fabric for cushions (a white calico with a very subtle white paisley print)
- Ribbon for the cushion ties (a sheer 1.25″ white ribbon)
- Pillow stuffing

Once armed, I cleaned each chair and removed the padded seats from two of them. Then I painted. Each chair took two coats of paint (I should have primed….) The green one and black one took three coats in some spots. Each chair took about a half hour to paint each coat, totalling four hours of painting.

While the paint was drying, I removed the old fabric from the two seats. This padding was fine to keep. When I bought these chairs about 5 years ago, my Dad re-padded and re-covered the seats.  These seats were very easy to re-cover:

What I did to re-cover the seats:
- Cut the fabric to be about an inch larger than the seat
- Ironed the creases out of the fabric
- Covered the padding and seat and flipped the seat over
- Stapled the fabric to the back of the wood base with a staple gun
- Screwed the seats back into the chairs once the paint was dry

So, here I was, back with the original chair. I needed to secure the wood piece under the seat, cut and glue fabric in place, stuff the seat with batting, and glue the piece of caning into the groove to hold it all together.

What I did to put a new padded seat on was:
- Laid the fabric over the seat area and cut it about a half an inch larger than the hole
- Used a glue gun to secure three sides of the fabric into the groove around the seat
- With three sides secure, stuffed the seat area with batting
- Secured the last side with the glue gun
- Sanded and painted the caning (bright glossy white)
- Applied wood glue to the bottom and sides of the caning
- With a clean, soft, thick cloth over the caning and chair, hammered the caning into the groove

It wasn’t easy, and I could do it better next time, but over all it came out very well. Check out part 4 for evaluation of the final project and what I would do different next time.

catbird :: May.17.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

So, I removed the ugly green fabric. The padding underneath was disgusting. There was no way I was putting it back on the chair. I planned to wash the green fabric and put in new padding. I saved the upholstery tacks as I pulled them off. Some were bent, but most were usable.

Then I pulled out all the old caning. It was fairly easy since it was so old and dried up. I used wire cutters to snip the big pieces off, then used pliers to pull the pieces off. It was dusty, diirty, and disgusting. I scraped out as much of the old glue as I could and re-wahsed the chair.

Looking at the chair with no seat, I reformulated my plan. I decided to take the flat wood piece that previously held the fabric and padding on to the top of the seat and screw it in underneath the chair. Then fill the seat with new padding and cover the top with the fabric. I figured this would be a more classic look and provide a more comfortable seat.

Finally, I cracked open the living room paint and painted the chair. It only needed one coat of the lighter, warmer, flat gray to cover the bluer, glossy gray. The flat gray actually looked nice on the chair - different.

Here’s where this project snowballed in size: I got to thinking…. If I painted all the chairs the same color, that would really pull the set of four together. Not only that, but if I painted them a color that would coordinate with the walls, I’d be one step closer to a finished dining room. So I decided to paint all four chairs off-white and also get some new fabric to replace teh dark green on this chair. In fact, I figured that I would need to recover the seats on two of the other chairs that have fabric seats. To top it off, for some reason I decided that I wanted to make seat cushions that tie onto the chairs.

Am I nuts? Maybe, but you’ll have to read on to part 3 to find out…

catbird :: May.17.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

We have four dining room chairs that don’t match. They are good chairs, charming chairs, but one is black, one wood, one green, and one gray. The gray one is the new one. I recently picked it up for $22 at an antique shop. I made the mistake of not sitting in it before I bought it so I didn’t realize that there was old, broken caning underneath the newer cushion. It was quickly discovered that if you sat on the chair it made loud cracking noises as the old caning popped and the loose wood shifted. Yikes! I don’t have much experience fixing furniture, but I decided to give it a shot. Worst case, I’m out $22 for the chair and I learn some valuable lessons.

The Plan:
- Paint the chair (maybe the same gray as the living room?)
- Remove the fabric cushion and wash it
- Remove the old caning
- Nail in the wood piece more securely

That plan quickly became obsolete in part 2….

catbird :: May.14.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off