Summer rocks because: My gut wants to know why we don’t live where it is summer all the time, since it is so enjoyable. But looking at my list, many of the joys come from the evolution of the seasons. Summer is incredible because of all that leads up to it (spring), the aftermath of summers exuberance (early fall) and… Read More »Summer Love
Most of the planning and deciding done (see Part 1 and 2), it’s time to do the project. Got the plumber to take up the fixtures, a necessity for replacing the floor and a delight for painting and replacing the trim. I’ve accepted that three coats of paint are necessary, one primer and two top coats. Ditto on the trim… Read More »Powder Room Reno. Part 3: Putting it all together.
As I continue to redo the powder room in my Arts&Craft era house, I’m correcting a few DI-Don’ts: 1. Aside from picture rail being more of a thing for the era of the house (Part 1), there was crown molding installed in this room in an unusual way. Granted, this was a challenging room for trim, as within the small… Read More »Powder Room Reno. Part 2: Crown molding and Weird Angles.
To redo the main floor powder room, I’m working towards a sympathetic style to the era (1920’s Arts & Craft, with a bit of borrowing from Art Deco, because it’s so cool). The changes are mostly decorative but the project includes improving the quality of the finishes. Since the house didn’t originally have a main floor powder room, I got… Read More »Powder Room Reno. Part 1: Adding Picture rails.
Friends have done it. Targeted ads suggest it. Financial advisors all but salivate at the mere mention. There’s a government website, with a calculator. Retirement. Or maybe colonoscopy, if you leave out most financial advisors. Being of a certain age, the topic comes up. Actually, it’s been looming over my head since I had a stable income (or so a… Read More »How Does this Retirement Thing Work?
Inspiration to get through the no longer chilling sub-zero temperatures, drudgery of wearing at least twice as many garments1 than in July, and brief, blinding glimpses of the sun as it slides below the horizon at 6:00 pm.: planning the garden, once the ground is no longer frozen and/or covered in snow/ice. Is it cheering to think of all the things… Read More »Seeds of Future Garden’s Past
ChatGPT is all the rage right now. An artificial intelligence that combines the functions of Google/Siri/anything that searches the net for information and a contract writer, such as one you might hire on Fiverr to create a poem/essay/ode to the sugary drink you are currently addicted to. The likes of chatGPT may soon answer our emails, write documents and create… Read More »If an AI Wrote my Christmas Letter…
Previously, I posted about why I DIY, full of ideological and good ethical reasons to preserve and restore the existing versus throwing it into the landfill and building something new out of inferior materials. Now, I want to say why I really enjoy DIY, at a visceral, riding a rollercoaster, kinda level. The conceptual stuff is motivating, but hard to… Read More »Why I Really DIY
As the summer days get shorter and cooler, and the plants start to whither, stop flowering and quit producing fruit, I’m very sad. I hide indoors, preserving and freezing the harvest so there’s goodness to enjoy later. I wonder if I’m giving up too soon, whether there are crops that could be raised into the fall. There are still a… Read More »Fall Gardening, Bah-Humbug
Many of us know a person, a needy, kinda demanding person, who is always looking for a ride to wherever you are going or might not be going but they need to get to. The opposite of that person is the one who joyfully chooses to take public transit. An interesting thing I’ve experienced: I take the bus to meet… Read More »Public transit – a complex relationship.