Been a long time since I updated! There hasn't been a ton of stuff happening; work's moving along well, Lu's progressing in school and almost 100% daytime potty trained (she's usually even dry through naps!), Chuck has filed his last bit of paperwork to get his NJ massage license. We've been busily tending to garden and outdoor improvements since ( Read more... )

Home improvement websites and magazines are chock-full of inspiring ideas and beautiful remodel pictures. However, I’m bothered by some of the trends I see.

Subway tile - not that I have anything against it; it’s a basic bricklike shape and in solid neutral shades it’s a classic backsplash/wall covering. But it’s frickin’ EVERYWHERE in bath and ( Read more... )

We have a mystery floor. In what would probably be called a dining room (which we are now using as a sewing room), the floor is a dark-stained wood with almost no sheen. It is scuffed from when we moved in, making lighter-colored marks (almost like sidewalk chalk marks, though not as heavy) here and there ( Read more... )

So, another thing to add to the list of things to do in the house: add some stair lighting. Our only bathroom is downstairs, and while I usually don't have to traverse the dark passage from the upstairs landing down the dark stairs to take care of nighttime business, Chuck does. Often the landing has just enough ambient light from outside to see by ( Read more... )

We're in New Jersey! The house is still in quite a state of upheaval, but slowly we're putting it together. The biggest hurdle is a lack of storage in our bedroom, but there's a fair opportunity to remedy that by making use of knee-wall space (though it will require some consulting before tackling anything). However most of that will have to wait, ( Read more... )

We’re drawing ever nearer to actually closing on the house we like in Manville. Just 3 days ago we had the inspection done (the timing worked out fabulously, as I had taken 2 days off work to go to the Muse concert and then to just recuperate and hang out with Jenn - so I didn’t have to take any additional time off for Chuck to go accompany the ( Read more... )

We made an offer on the house we liked - $190K from an asking price of 194.5K. They accepted! Now of course we need to slog through attourney review and then inspections to make sure things are up to snuff, but we're on the road to somewhere ( Read more... )

I've been seeking new housing with alacrity. The real estate agent that the company connected me with had a few good hits, but many of them fall higher on the price scale, so I am cruising Craigslist for promising entries. When I inquired about whether a particular property included a washer and dryer, I received this somewhat amusing response:

( Read more... )

House is in the house, y’all! I celebrated the season premiere with a mixed drink, focaccia bread with garlic-parm-olive oil and chips with spinach-artichoke dip, and a port-soaked fig clafouti.

My, that was a lot of hyphenation.

After that I tooled around on YouTube and watched Muse music videos. I also found a clip of them playing, presumably live ( Read more... )

Savings really is a problem for my age group. Dang. I always thought of myself as a pretty good saver - of course, then I entered the real world of paychecks and rent and bills and student debt and my saving ability went right down the toilet.

If I hadn’t dumped a lot of our savings into buying the Prius way back when, we’d probably have enough for ( Read more... )