Recycle: It's So Easy, A Three-Year-Old Can Do It

Earth Day is Saturday, April 22nd.  Over the last several years, there has been a movement towards reducing our carbon footprint on the planet.  Recycling is one of the biggest ways we can do our part, and even my three-year-old can do it (still struggling with my 40-year-old husband, but we are making progress😄).  The best news is that you don't need a high dollar recycling bin set up in your home to do it.  Here's what we use, and it only takes up a small space in our garage:

Check out our high-tech recycling operation

Each reusable bag is designated for the specific recyclable item.  One bag holds plastic products, another for cardboard, a third for newspapers/magazines and paper products, a fourth for glass, and a final one for aluminum cans.  We also have a separate bag that holds light bulbs, batteries, and other items that can only be recycled at special recycling events held throughout the year.  Do I label the bags?  No.  My three year old can't read anyway.  He's smart enough to look inside to see what each bag holds.  Plus, if we put them in the same order every week, he knows which items go where.  When the bags are no longer usable, guess what? We recycle them.

Every Saturday morning between 8 a.m. and noon, we load up our four (or so) bags and take them to the Wayne Transfer Station located at 110 Windom Street.  The Transfer Station is also open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  They usually have staff on hand to assist you if you need help unloading your recyclables.  In addition, the containers are clearly labeled so you know where to dump your items. Plus, if your kids help, the staff provides them with a special treat to keep them excited about helping each week!

Recycling isn't hard to do.  In fact, it's so easy, a three-year-old can do it.  Although it takes a little extra time and effort, recycling is one small thing we can do to keep our planet in good shape for future generations who will be calling it home.  We can all make a difference.  Welcome Home! 

Living in a Fish Bowl

My husband and I have been living in a fish bowl.  My mom came home from a church function last week, and proceeded to tell me that several of the church ladies commented on our home and EVERYTHING that has been going on there.  Mom was kind of surprised because she hadn't been given a progress report recently.  I didn't think people were paying that much attention to our dog and pony show.  I guess those gutters we installed last week were as awesome as the salesman said they were going to be!  Then I got to thinking...maybe it's because we are living in a "fish bowl" for everybody to see what we are doing.  After all, I took our curtains down on the main floor the day we moved in, and I have yet to put new ones up.  I'm thinking I might invest in one of those castles, some seaweed plants, a hollow log, and some colorful pebbles to spread on our living room floor so we can truly make it look like home.

Back in January, we (meaning "I") decided to replace many of the window treatments in our home (my husband would be fine with a bath towel hanging over the window).  I had a definite budget in mind, and I wasn't looking to break the bank.  I started researching online, and shopping around for styles and designs that matched our decor.  As many of you know, window treatments are difficult to purchase until you have furnishings, carpet, and all of the other essential items picked out.  And guess what, they don't sell inexpensive curtains to fit on those funky rods with the string on the end that our grandmas put up back in the 60s and 70s.  You know, the ones that hung out about a foot past the edge of the window on either side so as to let the maximum amount of light in and trick visitors into thinking a person could afford windows the size of a side of a barn.  My first thought was to retrofit modern curtains to work on those rods.  I started by spending one whole Sunday afternoon carefully pinning the material and making each pleat 5 1/4 inches apart only to find that the one panel that should have covered half the window would only cover a small fraction of the window when complete.  No wonder custom curtains are so expensive!  It takes a small army to weave all the fabric needed to stitch them all together!  Needless to say, I scratched that idea and dashed my hopes of opening a custom curtain shop on the side.

Now that I wasn't able to use the existing curtain rods, the task of picking out curtain rods loomed before me.  I looked everywhere trying to find something suitable and reasonably priced only to find exactly what I needed on a last minute trip this weekend to none other than Wal-Mart where I was looking to purchase an ice cream maker and ended up with curtain rods instead.  Hallelujah!

With the promise of using power tools, I conned my hubby into helping me hang the curtains in the living room last night.  The poor guy was covered in grease from head to toe (even in his right ear) from a transmission project earlier in the afternoon, so he even had to change clothes to help because I didn't want my new curtains all greasy.  After a couple of small disagreements about the proper way to go about the job, and a few "I really don't care" comments from the male's point of view, the job was complete.  We can now pull the shade on our fish bowl in at least one room.  Only five more to go. Welcome Home!

Progress Report

For the last month and a half I have been wondering when everything was going to come to a head with our new home.  By that, I mean, when would our cupboards come in, when would the plumbing get fixed, and when would I generally need to have my act together?  It appears that it was this week, and it came just as I was getting used to dodging the handle on the toolbox that kept gouging my leg each time I stumbled to the garage door as I was leaving for work.  

We received the call that our cabinets and countertops had arrived from the factory on Monday, so I anxiously sprung into action to see what our plumber and electrician had in mind for the next couple of weeks.  Our plumber, Chuck, showed up the next day to reevaluate our game plan.  He has pretty much finished with everything he can do until the cabinets are installed.  Our flooring installers were scheduled to start with underlayment next Tuesday.  Due to a cancellation, they showed up yesterday!  Tim and I frantically worked into the night on Wednesday to get the subfloor prepped and get all of the tools out of the way so they could do their job with little obstruction.  This entailed removing the existing floor boards, vent covers, toilets, and other miscellaneous things that were in the way.  Without hesitation, Tim pushed the old dishwasher and disposal line through the existing hole in the kitchen floor because those will now be in a different location.  As soon as he did it, I heard the sound of rushing water, and I saw him put his eye up to the hole in the floor to see what was happening in the basement below.  This was followed by an expletive and a dash down the basement steps.  Neither one of us even considered that the line would contain some of the stagnant water that didn't drain when it was unhooked. There it sat in a black puddle on our orange, black and gold carpet which has lovingly been deemed our "tiger" carpet.  The horrible smelling concoction managed to also splatter into two pairs of my shoes, one of the cushions on our brand new folding chair set and a basket of dirty clothes (thank goodness they weren't washed and folded already!)  Considering it was already late in the evening, it was not the type of mess (or smell) that either one of us wanted to deal with.  I immediately grabbed some paper towels and extra strength carpet spot remover to see if I could mitigate the damage.  After three spot treatments and about an hour's worth of time, you can't even tell it happened!

I thought I might share a few photos to document our progress.  Pay particular attention to the beautiful mosaic of colorful flooring we currently have in our basement.  I am growing more and more attached to it each day because it gives our house its own personality:

Dining Room on closing day.  Water damaged carpet removed and new subfloor already installed.

The pretty in pink bathroom on closing day

Our original "drive-in, back-out" kitchen with new subfloor on closing day.

The office: paneling and burnt orange carpet soon-to-be drywall and new carpet!

Our "tiger" carpet in the basement family room.  Looks as good as the day it was installed in 1968.

Floral design shag in the basement bedroom.  Lots of color combinations for decorating.

Yellow-green shag in basement bathroom.  Warm and comfortable on the feet!

Kitchen with plaster/drywall and cabinetry removed plus new flooring underlayment installed. Imagine the 6' eating bar and new chestnut stained oak cabinets!

Living Room drop zone looking into the dining room/kitchen

 For those of you who have taken on a remodeling project, I salute you.  The value it adds to your home and your personal life is a good investment in today's market.  Tim and I have learned a lot about each other during our short stint so far as husband and wife.  He's particularly impressed that I actually do know a little bit about houses and construction (considering I'm a real estate agent that sells houses rather than builds them), and I'm in love with the fact that he can tackle almost any project and figure out how to get it done on a budget.  Stay tuned for next week's post about the interesting ice sculptures that form when your gutters leak and the water refreezes in the bushes that sit underneath them!  Welcome Home!

Plaster Dust and Shower Heads

I left off last week with things in a bit of disarray at our new home.  Friday night, I opened the basement cupboard door to reach for a plate, and I noticed that we had sprung yet another leak.  This time, it was coming from the 1/2 bath off the main entrance from the garage.  I love this feature because it is near the laundry area and it makes for a great place to wash up after working outside.  However, that loving relationship soon turned to despise as it was Friday night, I was tired, it was late, and we had nowhere to go to get parts to fix the leak.  I was beginning to think that we should have bought a boat to float us down the Elkhorn River on the stream of water that seemed to be coming from every orifice in our house besides the ones it needed to go into or out of.  Nonetheless, Tim was able to loosen the shut off and tighten a nut underneath the sink and stop the leak enough to allow us to get some parts on Saturday. 

My little brother and I worked on taking the remainder of the plaster out of the kitchen on Saturday afternoon.  We can't do anything without a power tool, so we had plenty of dust flying throughout the main floor by the time Tim got home from work.  Of course, he was ready to go to Menards before I had a chance to clean up, so we left for Norfolk in a hurry with me looking like Casper the ghost due to the plaster dust.  Wouldn't you know it, we ran into three other couples we knew while we were shopping.  You can about imagine that every conversation started out, "So, uh, did you have a fight with a flour sack?"  If I would have been dressed to the hilt, we wouldn't have run into anybody we knew.  The Law of Personal Encounters always works that way.

After getting home from Norfolk, the first plan of attack was to install a new shower head to replace the one that sprayed an enormous amount of water pressure on everything except the person showering.  Tim grumbled a little bit because it was late, but it was a 2-minute project that made his wife very happy.  No more sopping wet bathroom floor, no more moving the head all around to rinse the shampoo out of my hair, and no skin indentations from where the three or four working water spouts hit me.  It's like a totally new shower!

On Sunday, we made a second trip to Menards to get everything that we forgot on Saturday night.  We had purchased several doorknobs the week of closing only to realize that apparently door knob sizes have changed a bit since 1968.  The one doorknob we bought on Saturday was the right size, and we found that it fit perfectly in the basement walk-out door.  Thinking we had scored a victory, we decided that we should purchase more knobs to put on the main floor doors so we at least had more than one working lock to get into the house.  We started installing the new doorknobs only to find that the main floor doors were fitted slightly different than the basement.  Who would have guessed that 1/16 of an inch could make so much difference?  And, again, the hubby was grumbling.  We got all five knobs changed with a little help from a reciprocating saw and a few less-than-desirable words being said.  At least nobody lost a finger to the saw and a door knob covered one little "whoopsie" we had.

All in all, we accomplished everything we set out to do this weekend, and my socks didn't even get soggy walking into the bathroom this morning.  Life is good.  Welcome Home!

Taking Things for Granted

As my husband and I are settling into the basement of our new home, I've noticed many things that I have taken for granted.  You see, the first home I purchased in back in 2005 was a spec home which was nice and new and didn't need a bit of work besides seeding a lawn, installing window treatments, and moving in furniture.  It has been a great home, and I'm glad that my brother and his soon-to-be wife will be purchasing it.  From a sentimental perspective, many great memories come from a person's "first" home, and I hope they have those same memories to share with their new family.  From an ownership perspective, I know that they will take great care of it, and I won't have to worry about driving by someday to see that the yard is overgrown or it is in a state of disrepair.  No homeowner wants to see their first home go that route.

And so, onto our home in Wisner, and the many things that I have taken for granted during the past six years. I've compiled a list of items that I didn't realize I relied on so heavily until they were gone:

1. A toilet paper holder and towel bar in the bathroom.  I've heard many people complain time and again about their kids or spouse leaving their wet towels on the floor.  What's even more annoying is when you have no other option and you have to use a vacant door knob or the back of a chair in the living room to hang up the towels.  Nothing says, "Come on in and have a seat" like a damp bath towel soaking through your shirt.

2. A microwave.  An electric skillet (a big shout out to the person who gave us that for a wedding present) will have to do until we have one installed.  I learned how to warm up some leftover mashed potatoes along side some Hamburger Helper last night.  The trick is to make a sturdy dam out of hamburger to keep the items separated in the pan.

3. A dishwasher.  Right now, a one-basin metal sink with a broken strainer is keeping the paper plate companies in business.  My new motto is, "Wash fast or don't wash at all!" 

4. A washer and dryer.  Has anybody ever wondered why a place that is designed for cleaning clothes can be so dirty?  Nothing like trucking all of your personal items to a laundromat where you pick the only washing machine that doesn't spin out and the dryer that doesn't heat.  Plus, everything came out smelling like a smoky bar.  Again, hanging all of the Tim's jeans and t-shirts around the lower level of our home has created a welcoming atmosphere for guests.

5. Garage door remotes.  An attached garage is wonderful, but if you have to get out of the car to make the door open and close, it really defeats the purpose (especially when the door doesn't go up all the way, so you have to stand on your tippy toes to give it that little extra nudge so you don't give the top of your truck a close shave.)  The seller told us the remotes were in the house "somewhere," and we're still holding out hope that we will find them.  We still have a couple of walls on the main floor that we haven't pulled the plaster off of.  I'm sure that's where they left them.

6. Keys.  At least the one we have came with a big smiley face key ring holder that politely says, "Have a Nice Day!"

It might sound like I'm complaining, but I'm really just trying to share the humorous side of home ownership.  If somedays it feels like you have taken a step back in time, you probably have.  Don't worry, the "honey-do" list will eventually get completed.  This weekend will be filled with the excitement of installing towel rods, toilet paper holders, and door knobs!  Just remember to appreciate the little things in life.  Welcome Home!

New Year...New Home!

Many things have changed since my post last week.  My husband, Tim, and I are the proud new owners of a home in Wisner, Nebraska as of December 30, 2011.  We finally have a place to call "ours" rather than "yours" or "mine."  It even came with a tower which rivals the tallest building in town next to the leg on the grain elevator.  Our magnificent tower holds what I'm claiming to be the tallest TV antenna in town. We soon learned that there was a reason behind it because of the absolute lack of any sort of reception or contact with the outside world while standing inside the house.  With a little ingenuity, Tim was able to rig up the antenna to our 13-inch TV so the guys could at least watch the Nebraska bowl game while working yesterday.  Owning a home together is a wonderful feeling, albeit rather scary for us as we are undertaking our first home improvement projects as husband and wife.  We did agree to close despite the water damage on the condition that the sellers would have to keep some money in escrow until the insurance had settled.  At least we are sharing the risk of loss with everything that needs to be done.

This past weekend was designated in my mind as "moving weekend."  Essentially, we would get everything prepared to move into our basement.  I have been dodging packed boxes at my home in Wayne for nearly a month and a half, so I was ready to get things loaded up and moved out!  Friday, part of Saturday and most of Sunday were spent scrubbing, cleaning, and removing damaged ceiling tiles.  We also met with a few contractors to discuss some needs with the electrical, plumbing, etc.  The water damage that the sellers experienced prior to closing quickly began adding up into some additional projects that are somewhat related, but not entirely.  We figured so long as the main floor was in disarray, we might as well take on a couple of other needed improvements.  So, we are considering new windows to replace those that are leaking air and water as well as a kitchen remodel.  I'm not sure if this is what we signed up for as newlyweds, but we are going to test the marriage vows out right away!

I mentioned earlier that this weekend was my proclaimed "moving weekend."  Not everybody else was on the same page.  It was actually "moving-tear-out-a-kitchen-deal-with-leaky-pipes-remove-hideous-wall-paneling-knock-out-damaged-drywall-troubleshoot-internet-problems-scrub-the-basement-from-top-to-bottom weekend."  We even squeezed in a New Year and helped my family sort and ship hogs in between.  Needless to say, we were both ready to go back to work this morning to regroup and reenergize.  We certainly made progress, and at least we got a bed moved to sleep in last night because we were exhausted!

On to this week and the many new things that lie before us.  So far this morning, I have spoken to the cable/internet company, an electrician, a new cell phone provider, the appliance store, the window contractor, and the post office.  Moving is tough!  I can empathize with all of you who have been through this before.  It is all worth it in the long run, though.  Just waking up next to my husband this morning in "OUR" home was all I needed to remember the good things about my life and my work.  Welcome home!

A Fall Maintenance Project the Size of a Barn!

Over the weekend, I was informed that my family was going to start on the task of painting all of our wooden barns, hog houses, and sheds at the farm.  This is a project that has not been completed in over ten years.  Weather permitting, it will probably take between one and two weeks to complete, and we hope to be done by the time harvest is in full swing. This project is similar to the ones that stare most of us square in the eye this time of year.  You know, those little things that we have to get done before the weather turns cold and the winter snow sets in.  I found a helpful checklist for fall maintenance projects by following this link:

http://www.servicemagic.com/article.show.Checklist-Fall-Preventative-Home-Maintenance.11701.html

This link covers items regarding the interior and exterior of your house. However, one shouldn't forget about the importance of protecting the garage, patio, and landscaping from winter deterioration.  Some fall maintenance advice regarding these areas of your property includes:

• Protect and cover lawn equipment and garden tools
• Drain lawnmower of gasoline and oil
• Examine and repair the weatherstripping at the bottom of the garage door
• Cover and protect your patio furniture
• Trim tree limbs that could break under the weight of snow and ice
• Fill birdfeeders in time for migrating species, and keep them filled throughout the winter for resident species
• Add a protective layer of mulch to your perennials, shrubs, and trees
• Clean flower beds of spent summer blossoms and plants
• Turn the compost
• Remove the garden hose and place inside for the winter

These projects sound like a hassle on days like today when the weather is so nice, but you can turn them into a day well spent with your family.  When I was younger, I used to dread projects like this for the simple reason that "I had better things to do."  Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to helping paint and improve the integrity of those old barns at home.  My family has a lot of history and memories in those great spaces.  I love reliving those moments with my brothers, and sharing stories with our significant others.  Remember to take pride in your fall projects and the work it takes to complete them.  Welcome Home!