My house wasn't grounded- no ground for the breaker box, meter, cable or phone.

This weekend I drove me an 8' ground round and grounded the breaker box and cable. My phone access box is so old I'm not exactly sure how to even ground it, but at least I can feel more comfortable around these summer thunderstorms! imported-42

I got ahold of copies of the two previous deeds for our house. It was built in 1916, a few years before we had thought.

I just installed my first replacement window upstairs.

It's even level, but slightly more inside on the left than the right... oh well.

I took the outside trim off on the right, and you can see the old wood siding that was behind it still. The previous owners installed vinyl siding on the house.

It's not exactly the style of window I wanted - but I didn't want to have to special order any windows, so we decided to go with basic double-hung double-pane vinyl replacement windows.

Total project cost: about $160 including window, new trim, paint, caulk, etc. Given the poor state of the previous window, it's likely to save me $30 / year in energy costs. And as Tessa pointed out 'It won't rattle and scare me at night like the windows do'

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Today I picked up a copy of Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer software. It's really really really cool. I thought since I suck at landscaping this would help. Within a few hours I'd put in almost my entire house as it is now, and I've started tweaking things the way I want them to be.
ch_query = 'better homes and gardens';

While working on removing the trim, I tried to salvage it for reuse, but it was nailed in with some HUGE nails instead of finishing nails. This caused it to break into several pieces. While pulling it out though, much of the old paint just sort of popped off the stained wood - here you can see the original stain beneath the white paint. imported-37

Well, Today I did some work in the upstairs bedroom. I removed the trim so I can install drywall. Well, one piece was so long I couldn't get it down the stairs so I took it out the window onto the porch roof. While there, I took a picture for you. You can tell we live in the mountains... that view is about the same whichever way you look, only most directions don't have houses.

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Before any more renovations, you have to have what's important.

It was raining, so I assembled it and Carla grilled our catfish on the covered porch.

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You know, it's interesting the way things work. A friend of mine (Vermyndax) posted on his blog how another person's blog got him thinking about something. Now I'm thinking about it - 3 blogs away.
The thought is, how much time do we waste being 'connected'? I.E. Computers + Internet. How much LIFE does it cost us?

I could never 'unplug', but certainly I don't need to check my email so many times a day, or read the news. Or game.

Later I may make an upstairs floorplan as well, but here's the downstairs plan for our home: imported-33

Well, I spent Saturday doing a needed but un-fun renovation.
ch_query = 'bathroom';

The commode in the downstairs bathroom was starting to run all the time. I knew that it had been years since that was installed, and likely was the original parts, so I decided to rebuild all the workings, including installing a new wax ring.