For those of you that have been following my Perpetual Remodeling Syndrome as I pursue my home improvement adventure, I’ve just posted an update.
This installment is how I beefed up the fluorescent light fixture in our kitchen. It was an easy project but increased the light output by about 40% with no increase in utility bills. The total cost for materials was about $20. Oy vey, such a deal!
I’ve still got a lot of work to do around here; it seems like every time I finish one thing, another one crops up. For example, on Saturday last, we had a real gully-washer of a rain storm and some of my landscaping timbers floated off!
Normally, I enjoy running in the rain, but this storm was so nasty, I cut out my planned hillwork workout on the Kemah Bridge since visibility was ZERO.
I’ll need to replace them, but I’m still deciding what to use. There’s a thin line between style and stupidity when it comes to landscaping materials.
OK, now I know that only sounds like fun to 50.3% of you. The rest of you are going to pay a professional lawn service company to do the grunt work, right?
Either way, it’s kind of cheerful to see things sprouting. Judging from the news, a lot of you are still in the grips of Jack Frost, but I’ve had my raised bed vegetable garden in for about a month now and even had to run the air conditioner for a few minutes yesterday.
I even broke out my Brill push reel lawnmower and gave it a go. These are great as long as you don’t mind mowing your lawn on a regular basis. Otherwise, you need the horsepower of a motorized one.
One thing I did have to do this spring is buy a new weedeater. I went with the Ryobi mostly because I trust the brand name. But it does have one cool thing - installing the cutting line. You don’t have to disassemble the whole head assembly.
Just feed the line through the head to the halfway point and twist the bump feed knob to reel the line in onto the spool. How cool is that, I ask you?
I may think of other projects as time goes on (or the wife will for me), but for now I need to go concentrate on something more immediate; I have to remove a tree stump thanks to Hurricane Ike.
The answer to this question can boil down to a simple yes or no, but what might motivate you to go one way or the other? I do everything myself, partly because I enjoy it but here’s a few more reasons:
I have the time to do it. As a self-employed freelance writer, I can pretty much make my own schedule.
I don’t want to contribute to the illegal alien problem. No politicians will address the issue, not the Bush administration, and certainly not Obama or any of his cronies. The whole extended Houston area is a “sanctuary city” and very few lawn care service employees speak English.
I’m cheap; uh, I mean thrifty. That’s still a virtue, right?
But if hiring a landscaping or lawn care company is for you, I recommend Angie’s List: Ratings, reviews and sometimes revenge. See what local homeowners say about the service companies they hire. Join now.
Last summer when my lawnmower finally gave up the ghost, I bought myself a Brill Razorcut reel lawnmower. You know, the kind with no motor? It works just as well and drinks no gasoline. And it’s quiet.
Recently I put in an organic raised bed garden and I can’t wait to get some homegrown tomatoes. I’m also going to put in more basil than I did last year. I just didn’t harvest enough to make as much pesto as I wanted. I wonder why fresh basil is so expensive in the store? it’s easy to grow.
In fact, I started some from seed a few weeks ago and I need to get them in the ground today. The 10 day forecast tells me that the temperature isn’t going to colder at night than 55 degrees F.
Since the weather has warmed up, I planted the tulips I gave my wife for out 15th anniversary. They’re just starting to bloom today. Purple ones.
And now that I think of it, I think I’ll wander outside and see if any more asparagus has come up…
