Demise of the ancient Edison Water Heater

It had to happen sooner or later. Our hot water heater started leaking. I suppose it could have been worse, exploding all at once instead of developing a relatively minor leak, but is there ever a good time to deal with a breaking down water heater?

I raced off to the three chain stores to compare prices. It does seem like most water heaters are gas, not electric. Ours was electric, and we didn't want to incur even more costs by switching to gas. We ended up buying a Whirlpool 50-gallon heater, with a 9-year warranty. It's not the best one they make, but the best one they make that was in stock. It has some fancy-schmancy "Energy Smart" feature which supposedly should save some electric operating costs. However, I'd be more convinced by having a thicker layer of insulation around the heater.

Anyway, the store arranged for a local installer to put it in the following day. Since our old one was just leaking, that was fine. We didn't have to go without hot water (not more than usual anyway). It was installed without a hitch, but the guy had to return with help to remove the old heater since it was so extremely heavy. Turns out, the old heater had a considerable quantity of silt inside, probably from the decades of running off the well I assume.

I didn't have to lift a finger, except for draining the old heater just to save the installer time.

Garden Plans, Part I

I've got big plans for the garden.

Vegetables: there's enough space for a relatively huge vegetable garden on the south side. I hope to plant two kinds of tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), onions, garlic, chives, pumpkins, lettuce, and some herbs. Mostly it'll save a little money at the grocery store, and hopefully allow us to make salsa whenever we feel like it. As long as the vegetables show up.

In another area, I want to plant asparagus. And in another, raspberries (they are pricey at the store, but the plants are cheap).

The front of the house has to be redone -- there's almost nothing growing in front of it. I was thinking azaleas or rhododendrons, and maybe a magnolia tree somewhere.

The big backyard is fairly empty, but planning is complicated by the presence of several very large trees that create quite a bit of shade. In one corner I thought about the raspberries, and in the other, a prairie-type planted area to attract butterflies and moths. We've always wanted to see a Luna Moth in person, so maybe our prairie area would attract some if they still exist in our area. We already have a persimmon tree nearby, so that's a start.

I'll be starting most of the plants from seed in order to save some money. Never had much luck with seedlings, but maybe this time will be different.

Electrical Progress. And curtains (again).

After a grueling weekend, more electrical rewiring work has been accomplished! The living room outlets are finished, and the ceiling lights are on their way. We won't be seeing the electrician for 3 more weeks, so that gives me time track down cloth-covered lamp wire to rewire the two chandeliers before they go back up. We also have to find an outside porch light (leaning towards a hanging light, which seems a bit harder to find).

We also have to track down some brown modular cable/phone/ethernet jacks (going to put 4 jacks in each single-gang spot). I figure we may as well wire up the house since we're already having so much fun.

We'd like to get another floorlamp to match the old one we already have, which also needs rewiring (go figure!).

It's nice to see the progress; after the living room lights are done, there only remains the bedroom and bathroom!

I tried re-using the old cover plates, but the stuck out from the wall a bit, leaving a gap between the plate and the wall. So I got some antique bronze metal plates from the hardware store. Normally I wouldn't spend money on such a thing, but they do really look nice compared to shiny platic plain brown (our old plates had a ridged pattern but we didn't have enough since we installed so many new outlets).

Yesterday I went to Hancock Fabrics to get some fabric for a footstool (ratty secondhand store find that we're going to make match the new huge Mama's chair). I couldn't help but get some fabric for curtains, and a new curtain rod, and clips. I didn't think the wife would go for it, but she really loved it. The red wasn't working in our space. I could even leave the wall color alone at this point, too. I also picked up a 24x48" canvas using one of those Michael's 50% off coupons, so it only cost $10. That's going to go in the living room, in the huge expanse of blank over the TV. I also have to get cracking on starting what will end up being 4 18"-square paintings for the baby's room.

Close-up of the pattern. Groovy art nouveau!

Garden Planning

I suppose it's time to start planning our first real garden. At least thinking about it helps ward off the winter blahs.

For the vegetable garden, we're planning on: tomatoes, red/green peppers, hot peppers, onions, pumpkin, garlic, and maybe some herbs. Possibly some asparagus too. I think we'll end up using a space of about 20 x 10 or 15 feet maximum. Searching on the internet has led me to some unusual vegetable varieties that I've never seen in stores, so maybe we'll try a few of those for kicks.

At the edge of the back yard, I'd like to plant a few raspberry bushes.

As for the rest of the yard, we have to cut down a diseased pine before it infects another larger pine close by. There's also a not-too-big persimmon tree threatening our incoming power line that we should probably take care of while we're cutting. Deciding on trees to plant has been difficult. I do know we want an apple tree, but I keep reading that to get apples, two trees are required. I'd like a weeping willow, and a ginkgo, for some variety.

Last fall I hacked away some invasive mulberry bushes (growing inside other bushes). I've got a feeling they'll be coming back from the stumps, so I suppose I should dig them out before they start growing again.

We haven't thought about flowers at all since it's not a priority right now. Although I'd like a lilac bush or two. One side of the house is lines with white hydrangeas, and my neighbor says they've been there for at least 40 years. Maybe white lilacs on the other side would be a nice complement to those. But they probably wouldn't bloom at the same time of year.

Under the huge maple in the backyard, there isn't much grass. OK, no grass. We were thinking about planting some ivy as ground cover for that bare patch.

That's enough for my escape from winter. I have to drill some holes and do some more prep work for the electrician today. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, the living room and dining room will be rewired to completion! More than 2 outlets in the living room sure will be nice.

Fun Water Projects

In the last week we've had a huge snowfall followed by a couple inches of rain. Some of the surrounding towns were flooded.
We didn't get much water in the basement though; just the tiniest bit of seepage from a corner that already had some cracks. So, project one will be to seal the cracks, and apply some waterstop paint to the concrete walls in the basement to reduce the humidity down there.

Project two was a joy -- cleaning out the gutters. I don't know the last time they were cleaned. We meant to do this in the fall, but got carried away in other things instead. Anyway. A spaghetti spoon did the trick to scoop out the muck. And the "gutter slop" smelled exactly like the small from our basement floor drains when we didn't have them covered up. So I'm assuming they're all going to the same place, wherever that might be.

Project three is tuckpointing brick. While I was cleaning the gutters I noticed some of the brick foundation was missing mortar, almost completely in some spots. Sounds like more fun to me.

No exciting pictures to post.

Other than that, the rewiring is still in progress. We have a brighter floodlight at the back entrance now. We're thinking about how the bathroom's going to be redone sometime. At the moment we're planning on a tin ceiling. The only issue will be whether it will be silver/chrome/nickel in color or white. I'd go for silver, but it seems new bathroom ventilation fans only come in white, and a white fan sticking out of a silver ceiling might look strange. We're planning to keep the silver schoolhouse light fixture in the ceiling. We'll see!