Candy Coated Holidays

I’ll be taking off the next few days to celebrate, travel, and feast on sugar/carbs/alcohol.  Renovation stories to start back up with the new year, but until then have a very happy holiday! 

Christmas in a new City

The occupants of the Cotterpin House are traveling this holiday season…and in the 24 hours I’ve been away, I’ve already learned many useful factoids. Christmas in Milwaukee:  Usually involves snow…Usually requires bundling up…Occasionally involves wind burn and frostbite Christmas in Nashville: Usually involves a light jacket.  Maybe a short sleeved shirt…Occasionally a pair of shorts (as I saw today) Christmas in Milwaukee: Involves hot apple cider, hot chocolate, and various baked goodies Christmas in Nashville: Has so far involved ice cream and various baked goodies. Christmas in Milwaukee:  Maybe requires shoveling a path to the car as you take presents to loved one’s homes Christmas in Nashville:  Requires you to admire the blooming flowers as you run outside with no coat to get the presents from the car.    Wherever you celebrate the holidays this year- have a safe and happy holiday season, and drink a glass of eggnog for me!   

I’m melting…MELTING…oh, what a world.

After a record amount of snow in the month of December*, by the looks of it, much of it will be gone come Christmas.  Puddles abound.  Heads routinely get dripped on.   The eaves of my house look like the inside of Gollum’s cave**.

 

Which has been leading to multiple reports on the news about ice damming and the havoc it can cause to your roof.  In a nutshell for the Southerners in the audience, when the snow melts on the roof and then refreezes at night, the expanding water forces the ice back up the roof under the shingles.  Which is very, very bad, for numerous reasons.  So, one more thing to worry about in this stress-free season, right?   

Yeah, there are roof shovels and gutter guards and all sorts of other preventative steps to keep this from happening…but either require installation in the autumn months, or are as rare in the stores nowadays as those pesky ice melt pellets.***

So far (fingers crossed) it hasn’t been an issue with us- and the snow is rapidly disappearing.  The roof is also brand spanking new- which I hope helps (please don’t burst my bubble if it doesn’t!), and it’s pretty clear of snow- the charcoal color shingle we have helps with that too…but you never know.

Maybe we’ll come home after the holidays to a caved-in roof…could we stay with you then?

*Milwaukee has gotten more snow than any other metro in the country!  Oh, c’mon…We have to have something to brag about other than beer, cheese and the Packers.

**Shout out to you LOTR fans out there  (cough, cough, Mom, cough, M)

***Seriously…three stores…no pellets…and me with my horrible sense of balance.  You do the math.

Star Light, Necklace Bright

Saw this gift for the lady home renovator at Uncommon Goods during my last minute online shopping- and while I think the concept is clever, I can’t stand the color.

Really, if I wanted to wear flourescent greenish yellow, I’d have become a construction worker, or crossing guard, or firefighter, or punk rocker, or…or…someone equally use to wearing that color.

Could they have made it in dark blue or black or something?  You know, colors the uptight business suits can wear? 

Fiddling with Floor Plans*

M’s brothers were visiting this weekend for his graduation- which went great btw, no tripping on the way to get the diploma- and I seized on the opportunity to pick the brain of one of the brothers- the family renovator.    He’s flipped a few houses- and is in the midst of renovating his own kitchen- and he had a few ideas on what to do with ours…

Our current kitchen has a few issues (see below)- including that our refrigerator is placed in front of our kitchen windows, we have almost no counter/storage space (in blue), and that a large portion of the walls are taken up by multiple doorways (the grey boxes).  The black box is the chimney and pretty much destined to stay there for all of eternity, and the small grey box to the left of the windows is a built-in spice cabinet.

M’s brother suggested blowing out the pantry to open up the room into the kitchen.  We also talked of blocking the doorway to the hall, and moving the fridge in its place.  While I like the idea of moving the fridge, I’m not sure if taking out the pantry will help because of the staircase that currently is in front of the pantry doors.  The space in the pantry isn’t that large, and the space gained would probably be taken up by cabinets.  You’ll see a modified version of this- with the pantry blow-out, and with additional cabinets added to the wall o’windows.

M doesn’t like the idea of blocking off a doorway and creating essentially two long parallel hallways, and I’m not sure I really like where the refrigerator is in this location either.  I’d be would be worried about the swing of the door- but it’s a possibility.  I really like the additional storage under the window though- and the increase in usable counter space.  We could also install window seats (with storage) under the windows instead of a counter…

Finally, I mapped out what it would look like if we moved the fridge to the opposite side, but created an “L” shape with the counter-  I like the look of it, but also realize it’s not the standard triangle workspace shape the experts recommend. 

So, ideas?  Suggestions?  Anything that won’t cost an arm, a leg, and our first born child?

*Definitely not to scale, so please give me a bit of slack on the proportions…

A gift for the hard-core renovator

I’m into renovation, and green products (which this is) but not sure I would want this under the tree…

How did I not know about this?

All those hours I spent crawling under the tree to plug it in! All those branches in the eyes, needles embedded in the palms of my hands, tinsel up my nose…

So glad they (whoever “they” are) invented this- a footswitch extension cord- and finally put my protected feet to work…or that I finally discovered it and caught up with the rest of the world…

Either way, I can think of about 100 other uses this baby will be getting after the New Year.

Donna Quixote- the Lady of Milwaukee.

So, I’ve blogged about green renovation issues before- and am generally on board with doing what you can to save the planet, while saving your pocket change.  This is including M’s idea on installing solar panels for our electric needs.  Generally, when we talk about it, it’s always hazy “in a few years/when we have more room/money/time” ideas on saving on our heating/cooling bills. 

Looks like we’re not alone though in this mindset- and the government is looking to move up that time frame in many consumers’ brains.  The NY Times article attached is about wind power- and the tax credits consumers can receive by installing a windmill in their yards.  In a nutshell, for those in windy areas, it would be a great way to harness sustainable energy- and create energy for others at the same time (one person profiled creates enough energy to power a large school).

Kind of a cool idea- but I’m not sure how much wind I can capture in my little suburb…maybe enough for a toaster or something.  I do have an abundance of canine energy though- does anyone have a way to harness that?

Avalanche of savings

At least from the Home Depot…. Yes, while we are receiving another 5 inches of snow, the Home Depot is sending me coupons for saving money on my spring yard needs.

Um, my yard is under 20 inches of snow.  Could you maybe contact me in another 5 months?  We can talk about pruning shears and grass seed then.

Snow? We got snow!

Decorations are up, and the snow really adds a certain something, don’t you think? It matches the lights so well…