Category: home and garden

Though we’ve been living in our place for a month and a half now, we’ve been in widely varying stages of “home”. As projects come and go, carpets get replaced, furniture shows up, leaks get fixed, and walls get painted, we’ve probably migrated our belongings around the house several times. The process is quite labor intensive, and some day may be finished.

The landlord stopped by last night. Liked what we’ve been doing, and will pay us for the paint and repairs we can do. We’re going to try an binge-paint the living room this weekend. It may not go so smoothly since the last renters painted over wall-paper (see: “mortal sin”). Anyway, new carpet is due Monday. Seeing is believing.

I’ve finally found my camera cord and downloaded the pictures of us moving in. There are some holes; I guess I was distracted. Hopefully someone else took some.

To understand some of the pictures, pretend its the first half of a before/after type gallery. We couldn’t take any more pictures because the camera was full.

Michelle and I got up and cleaned out the shed this morning. It was full of boxes from the last two renters, old 1950’s Mercedez parts, and walnut shells that some squirrel/rat had been eating. Its quite a bit more roomy and useful now. But we’ve both got dirty boogers for the time being.

Still waiting on the carpet. The landlord is going to replace the office and living room carpet. These are the two worst smelling rooms. We should get a call today from the carpet place to set up an installation time. And a contracter will be stopping by to look at replacing the deck.

Michelle and I planted more perrenials in the front, and did more trimming and cleanup. There are moles that keep leaving mounds in the yard, but my greater foe at this point is Bind Weed. You may know it as wild morning glory or creeping jane. There are roots underground (some following the mole tunnels) as big around as my pinky. I’m trying to stop its spread, but its quite a task.

Originally posted June 23rd, 2003

Rooftop is still being served by a friend due Cat Piss issues. The previous renter’s cat pissed everwhere in the house, but with the greatest tenacity in the soon to be office. Needless to say, it reaks. Hopefully the smell doesn’t get in our things. Hopefully Tigger doesn’t break his non-marking streak and decide to mark his territory. We’re waiting for the landlord to replace it, and then hopefully we can move all the way in. Then updates will follow.

Otherwise, the place looks great. We planted, weeded, trimmed, cleaned all week and weekend. Things are coming together.

Originally posted June 9th, 2003

If you’re reading this, you’re reading it on Mellroth.com’s server. Updates may be sparse.

I bought tickets to the 2003 String Summit. Should be cool with pickers like Jerry Douglass and Old and in the Grey.

I’m moving over the weekend, and it’s going to take a week or so until I get cable hooked up at the new place. In the meantime, this site may or may not be available. I’m using Fugu to put a copy of my site on my friend’s server. Its definately going to be a stripped down version of the site for a few days.

The process of moving has brought a couple things to my attention:

1. Moving out sucks, Moving in is fun
2. I keep some weird stuff
3. Some people stand to benefit from moving. ahem, non-refundable pet despot…I mean deposit
4. Gathering boxes is a cutthroat endevor. Some people are serious about them.
5. Spackle works much better than mint toothpaste for filling holes, Kelman

Comcast wants to charge me $26 to move cable internet and $27-43 to move cable TV from our current location to our new place. Stupid Monopoly.

Options:

• Shut up an pay you stupid subscriber.
• Change to DSL, use MSN (shudder), get reduced rates for first 6 months plus no activation.
• Change to DSL, use local ISP(DSLNW, S1, get first month free, pay for 3 months and avoid startup fees.
• Get 56k and pay for per month web hosting – loose some freedom, gain some advantages.
• Call White House, FTC and ask how de-regulation has improved our lives.

Any tips?

Tonight Michelle and I met Tom, our new landlord. We signed the lease with a tenative move in date for June 1st, though some details need to be cleared up (cleaning before we move in, etc.) We’re thrilled.

We’ve got a Flicker in the neighborhood who has been rattling away on light posts for a couple weeks. Its quite an alarming sound. This morning while I was on the can, he landed on our roof at the bathroom fan vent, gave a quick announcement of his arrival, and went to work on the vent hood. It sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun on our roof. It was so cool, and it really amplified coming down the vent. I told him to be quiet because Michelle was sleeping, but he didn’t listen.

When it rains a lot, like it has here lately, the yard turns into a puddle. Well, its like a puddle, but muddier. Mix mud and dog poo and you’ve got a dangerous trip to the laundry room. How long did you say it was until Spring?