So, it’s been five full months with the solar array, and four since I last updated (solar panel system description here). The electrical portion of my bill since the beginning of February has totaled $40.

Yeah. Forty whole dollars. Take a look at the data for the last four years:

2010

2011

2012

2013

Feb
$76.65

Feb
$67.70*

Feb
$52.69

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One thing I’ve been working on at home is making it cheaper to live. We’re in the last part of a refinance (the mortgage will be going down $300/month!!), and the weather is cooling drastically - which means tracking down drafts. Winter (or, non-Summer, really) also means spending quality time in the attic, finishing the radiant barrier install and ( Read more... )

One thing I’ve been working on at home is making it cheaper to live. We’re in the last part of a refinance (the mortgage will be going down $300/month!!), and the weather is cooling drastically - which means tracking down drafts. Winter (or, non-Summer, really) also means spending quality time in the attic, finishing the radiant barrier install and ( Read more... )

Right about this time 2 years ago, I did a very smart thing.


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Depending on your roof, proper gutters in Southern Louisiana can be pretty key. When we bought the house, it only really had gutters on the front - the second story gutters. For just about the entire first floor, which is quite long, there were none. And the 2nd floor gutters just drain to the walkways on both sides on the house.

Not a huge deal, ( Read more... )

So, we’re in the middle of the “horror” episodes in mid-second season of Dr. Who. What can I say? I really like the show.

Anyways, I want to build a scaled-down Tardis for tool storage in the backyard. Maybe even run electrical to it. Here’s how it might look:


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When it was announced about a year ago that the Marigny would be getting added to the streetcar line, I had to change my pants. Then, the skepticism kicked in and I said I’d wait to be excited until I saw work.

Well, they’ve been diggin’ up Loyola from about Girod to Poydras, and I’ll be damned if what they’re putting in doesn’t look like streetcar ( Read more... )

Having a one full-time job, a second almost full-time job, two dogs, and a wife with a full-time job and rollerderby (which, believe-you-me, takes up a LOT of time), it’s easy to let our ~2,800 sq. ft. house get into disarray. Really easy.

Luckily, I have guys over every other Tuesday for D&D, so it forces at least a first-floor tidy-up. And for a ( Read more... )

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Dog vomit. I’m not kidding. Almost every time I’ve cleaned up dog puke, the dog has done it twice, and usually inside a span of a minute or two.

Indy just threw up, and it was entirely bile. Every last ounce was bile, except for an almost-new Heartgard tablet:


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