a barrel of this: house

Birthday fountain!

Matthew — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:37:00 -0700

My lovely wife gave me a solar powered fountain for my birthday a few weeks back:

Our new solar-powered fountain (filled with reclaimed rainwater) because we are hippies.

It is excellent and completes my end of the duo pact that my pal Dan and I agreed to. We were inspired by our neighbor to each have both a Japanese maple tree and a fountain. Dan had a fountain that he put together himself (very impressive) and I have a rather meek looking Charlie Brown Japanese maple (it will make a come back in the Spring). Now I have an excellent fountain. I’ll probably upgrade the rocks to black river rocks (Dan ordered a box for this fountain) but, otherwise it is excellent. The solar pump charges for up to 8 hours of sun-free operation.

This past weekend I added a bench. Now all that is left is to deal with the mosquitos or hope the season actually changes to Fall and we can sit outside without being devoured alive.

New front plant bed

Matthew — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:30:00 -0700

We got around to fixing up the front yard a bit. Here’s the new plant bed:

Featuring: the somethingorother switch grass. And more of the lovely mulch.

This involved a trip to Behnke’s, which is always a treat, and pulling out the shrub that sat between our house and our pals at 733, which was less of a treat and more like recess at the gulag. A week later I still have large cuts on my forearms from dragging that thing out of the ground. It has now been replaced by some switch grass (on the left). We also put in some Japanese grass. I’m going for a grass motif down the left hand side of the property. We may end up putting mulch through out the front yard as the grass isn’t doing so well. At least we managed to get something into the hard-as-concrete clay soil.

1 year anniversary

Matthew — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:36:00 -0700

As of tomorrow I’ll have lived back in DC for one year. K. has me beat by a few days as she flew out ahead with the cat while I drove our car across the U.S. of A. A fair number of people on both coasts have asked me about the neighborhood, the house, living back on the East coast, working remotely, etc. Do I like it? Do I hate it? I usually give the usual wishy-washy “Yeah, it’s great” answer because the honest answer would take longer than the amount of time those asking really want to spend delving into the specifics. Not that “great” is inaccurate or misleading but, it is a complicated situation and I tend to waffle a bit. So here is the long answer which I put here mainly to get myself clear on how I feel and so I can look back in a year and see if my opinions changed.

The house
We still only have one room painted and the basement isn’t finished. The windows are not replaced and the dubious extension on the back of the house is still there. There’s a long list of eco-related improvements I’d like to make and once we start looking for a general contractor again (we might go with Jorge again, we might not) we’ll probably make some progress. All of that aside, the house is mostly a source of joy. If feels wonderful to not be paying rent. We were paying more than our current mortgage in San Francisco for one floor of a house. Now we get to have an entire house. We got a lot done in the first year and I enjoy being in the house. Possibly too much. Some weeks, because we both work at home, we barely leave.

Working at home
Pros: We always get our packages. We can have contractors and workers come by at any time of the day so work keeps progressing on the house. I can get up and work, break for some exercise, do some more work, make lunch, work, etc. The flexibility is a huge perk. Some of that is my relaxed job situation more than being a remote worker.
Cons: I start working the minute I get up and there is no place to retreat to. My job is frustrating. I yell at the computer. This bums K. out. I wish the basement (my future office and recording studio) were finished, sound proofed, and ready for my quality time. I don’t like to fly and I go back to CA 4 times a year. But, that’s also a perk.

The neighborhood
This aspect is the most complex. We are in a unique situation in that we live right next door to our best friends and that’s why we picked the neighborhood and house. It is a great situation but, we just moved from a great neighborhood in San Francisco that was a few years ahead of Petworth in terms of development of shops and services that are useful to us. Thus I have perhaps unrealistic expectations for Petworth.

That said, change is happening. A lot of young couples and new families are moving into the neighborhood (an assortment of different races and ethnic backgrounds; mostly white but, not entirely based on the folks I know who have moved in over the last year). Petworth is as diverse as the whole of DC and I suspect it will soon better reflect the diversity of tastes and needs that the people living here are looking for.

When we lived in DC before moving to the SF Bay Area we lived in Mount Pleasant. Each time we came back to DC we’d notice how Mt. P had changed. I don’t feel as though that neighborhood has lost character or charm. However, it does appear to have lost affordable housing.

There is a lot more to comment on but, this will have to suffice for now.

What we planted

Matthew — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:14:00 -0700

Here is a list (compiled by K.) of what we planted in the raised beds in our backyard:

Tomato "Supersweet 100" 
Tomato "Cherokee Purple" 
Pepper "Tequila Sunrise" 
Pepper "Pimento de Padron" 
Persicaria odorata (Vietnamese Coriander)
Origanum vulgare "Hot and Spicy" 
Artemisia dranunculus (French Tarragon)
Thymus pulegoides (Archer's Gold Thyme) 
Thymus vulgaris (Common Thyme)
Nepeta cataria (Catnip)
Allium schoenoprasum (Chives)
Lavandula augustifolia "Hidcote" (Hidcote lavender)
Ocimum basilicum minimum (Spicy Globe Basil)
Dianthus x allwoodii "Old Spice" 
Rosemarinus officinalis "Romero" 
Rosemarinus officinalis "Arp" 
Sedum reflexum (Stonecrop)
Sisyrinchium bermudianum "Devon Skies" (Blue-eyed Grass)
Erica carnea "Springwood White" (White Heather) 
Lonicera sempervirens (Trumpet Honeysuckle)
Monarda didyma "Jacob Cline" (Bee Balm)
Salvia nemorosa "Viola Klose" (Meadow Sage)
Fetusca cinerea "Elijah Blue" (Blue Fescue)
Buddleia davidii "Purple Emperor" (Butterfly Bush)

Pictures of the growth are coming soon. I can tell you that the tomato plants are growing like mad and we are likely to have tomatoes before summer is out. The yard itself is still a mess but, the raised bed plants are going like gang busters.

New stove

Matthew — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:33:00 -0700

Our new GE Profile convection oven right next to our new Krups toaster. Both of which are excellent.

Part of K’s parents wedding gift to us is this new happening GE Profile stove. It is a convection oven which is what K, the chef in this house, wanted. It also has an extra powerful burner for boiling water quickly which is about all I am qualified to do. Even though we are vegetarians we still use the oven a bit and we missed having one. The previous stove contained “The Oven That Cannot be Cleaned” and so we didn’t use it. I tried to clean it and ended up taking off some of the coating on our IKEA cabinets and drawers with the deadliest of products:”Easy-Off”. Yup, that cabinetry came off easily alright. At any rate, we are quite happy with our new stove.

To the right of the stove in the picture above is another wedding present, the Krups toaster (model #s forthcoming). The toaster accommodates bagels with a bagel button that only toasts the open side of the bagel. The levers on it feel quite sturdy. It also features a warming plate.

This last bit of gear nearly completes the kitchen. We want to add a shelf underneath the stove hood and glass block window. We also want to replace the original kitchen window with one we can open. But, beyond that the kitchen, nearly one year later, is finally complete.

Spring renovations

Matthew — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 07:48:00 -0700

Our wedding gift from Rob and Jennifer.

Like any good home owner with the coming of Spring we’ve started taking on all of the projects that sat dormant over the winter (though as I write this the little tree pictured above has been dusted by snow). I dug the ditch a bit deeper than necessary but, otherwise we had the cherry tree installed in no time. Hopefully the tree will make it through this cold snap.

Yesterday, I continued the front yard transformation by pulling out the small dying shrub in the corner next to the walkway. The roots ran under some bulbs so I unfortunately did some damage to those little guys but, they’re replanted and the shrub is gone.

The porch is the beneficiary of all the pretty flower baskets my Mom obtained for our wedding reception. In fact the entire house is teeming with plants and flowers. We really did have a warm and pleasant few days before the unexpected return of Winter.

K. also painted the front door. The first coat went well but the cold weather has delayed application of additional coats. Pictures when it is all done.

Finally we ordered a new stove, a wedding present from K’s parents, and some lumber for raised beds we plan to build in the back yard. All in all an eventful week.

Going tank-less

Matthew — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:36:00 -0800

My previous boss hails from the UK and one of the first things he told me about after we bought the house was tank-less water heaters. Apparently these appliances are big everywhere but here in the US. An article in the latest ReadyMade magazine confirms it. Therefore I started looking into the Rinnai tank-less water heater. Here are the specs for future reference:

Model: R53 Btu input: 15-180 EF NG: 0.82 EF LP: 0.87 Flow rate (gpm): 0.8-5.3 (EF = energy factor) List price: $990

Maybe when it is not 0 degrees outside and we have more than $0 dollars in our bank account we’ll have a gander at this unit.

New fridge

Matthew — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:36:00 -0800

The new fridge in all its glory. It is a 30" GE.

All praise the new fridge! It is a wonderful GE fridge that fits our space and has a lot of interior room. The old fridge was desperate. The seals no longer sealed and the racks sagged. Now we enjoy opening up the fridge.

Let there be light

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:02:00 -0800

There’s nothing like having a party to finally motivate you to do something like hang the lamps that you have had around for the last three months but have been afraid to put up because electricity is scary.

But yeah, it finally happened. And I didn’t die even though it was a pain. I did learn something about electricity, though.

There are two lamps and once I went out and got an electrical tester and wire nuts (and borrowed a ladder), I shut off the power and dug the wires out of the ceiling. I had cut the ends off the lamps I was using (they had plugs on them) and figured out which of the two wires was the hot and which was the neutral wire (on lamp cord, the neutral wire has a couple of ridges running down it, whereas the hot wire is smooth). I split the wires on each lamp and stripped the last 3/4 inch or so.

I put up the crossbraces on the boxes and then unhooked some of the lamp chain and hung the lamps by the hook I’d made. I connected the ground wires to the crossbars with a screw, and connected the black hot wires in the boxes to the hot wire on the lamps. The neutral wires got connected to the white wires in the boxes. The lamp in front of the door had an extra black wire, and at first I connected the wrong one, something I found out when I went to check the wiring by turning the power on and neither light came on. I eventually determined that BOTH black wires needed to connect to the hot lamp wire, since one of the black wires ran to second hall lamp (at first I wasn’t sure if it had been wired with an extra wire for a ceiling fan, which didn’t make sense but wouldn’t have surprised me). This was after a lot of trips up and down the stairs turning the power on and off and getting the first light to come on and then finding that there was no power going to the second light, then wiring it all together to get things sorted. So I rewired the main light about twice before everything was happy, and realized that the circuit is chained from light to light.

I also had to remove the crossbars (once on the back lamp, about four times on the front lamp) while the lights were wired, which was a pain since Matt had to hold the lamps up while I messed with screws that wouldn’t fit and all kinds of things. The instructions weren’t super clear or I misunderstood them and I put some screws in incorrectly and failed to put in some others that were not attachable without removing the crossbar. Anyway, I had to remove and reattach the first crossbar several times before it worked because:

1. I had not put some screws in that needed to be screwed in top down, and had to remove the bar for that.

2. I put the screws in the wrong holes (there are many, and what you need depends on how things work out and what kind of setup you are dealing with) on the crossbar.

3. Once the screws got in, we realized that the box was set too high in the ceiling and we needed longer screws to reach the nuts to hold the ceiling plates on.

4. Once longer screws were found and inserted, they were too long (meaning the ceiling plate wouldn’t be flush) and they had to be shortened by unscrewing them a few times. Luckily, the first try at this was successful.

I also tried to fix the living room lamp that is broken, but it seems that the actual fixture is broken, so I have to get a new one to rewire and that is for round two of electrical stuff.

I also recently found the stools I have been dreaming of (I saw them in a magazine but didn’t know who made them, and then chanced across them on Craigslist for cheap), we put up some art, covered up the ugly window in the kitchen, and got a Christmas tree. Anyway, not-so-great pics of the lamps and the stools are over here.

Done with heating

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:13:00 -0800

So belatedly (I had to go to CA to eat a thousand good burritos and wish they had them here and then the Thanksgiving holiday derailed me), I am here to say that we did get a new boiler installed. We talked to a few people but in the end went with John Fulcher of Trans-Potomac Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc (202-258-6158), who is great. He’s been in the business for over 40 years and is a DC local and knows these old houses very well. I wish I had known about him when we got the heat pump installed, but oh well, hindsight is 20-20.

Anyway, he came out and removed the old unit in about half a day, and then came back a couple of days later and put in the new one. We still hadn’t managed to get the radiators installed but that happened the day after he did his part. And everything went smoothly, just like he said… we just had to fill the system and bleed everything out and we were good to go. There has been some drippiness from some of the connections, as I was warned could happen (it’s normal as the pipes/connections warm up and cool down), but I got a big pair of groove joint pliers (they were fun to lug around in my bag all night since I was out at a show at the Black Cat) and have been taking care of the ones that stayed drippy (mostly the kitchen and bathroom).

It isn’t pretty, really, but pictures are here. And it was very educational in that I learned a lot about the system and how it works, and also learned that the weird switch in the basement ceiling (I had noticed it in all the excitement down there but couldn’t figure out what it was for) controls the whole system. Well, the boiler.

Last weekend was Round 4 with the medicine cabinet, in which I almost got the outside cleaned up enough to paint—I have to work on the top and bottom detail and sand a little more. Oh, and figure out what color to paint it. I also scraped/cleaned/sanded the inside and painted it silver because silver paint is funny. It isn’t perfect but at this point I just wanted to be able to use it.

We also gave up and hung up some art which makes the primer white walls less awful. Note that those Walldogs screws that claim to work in plaster don’t, and will leave you a nice chunky hole to repair later. Just use masking tape and a nice sharp nail.

Next up: figuring out where the hell we are going to cram a Christmas tree, fixing the light in the living room that I somehow broke when I was changing the bulb, and getting the two hall lights hung. It will either be time to finally Get To Know How To Work With Scary Electricity or Find Someone To Come Do It. Also, finally get real blinds for at least the bedroom and maybe the living room, too.