Latest Blog Entries

feel a lot like Christmas because it has been so hot and humid around here. And I also succumbed to the nagging of little ones and dug out the Christmas decorations. I let the boys decorate the tree. There are a lot of decorations on the s [Read More]

What. A. Week. Seriously.Work has been like a cyclone. (Not a complaint, just an observation. I prefer it this way.) It’s left me neither time nor energy to do anything on the homefront all week. And now, I’ve got a couple other things to add to [Read More]

So, I had my surgery last week. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know already that I was stuck at home up until yesterday, recovering and being very bored. I'm now back to driving, though still no heavy lifting and various other restr [Read More]

So I've blogged & blogged about out home improvements & renovations, I thought I'd introduce the "us" who live in the home a little bit more...So there's me. Sarah, age 24 (25 in February), mother of 2, I work as a Program Assistant for the M [Read More]

We thought putting hockey pucks under the claw feet of our heavy bathrub was a great way to protect the new tile floor, and celebrate our Canadian heritage. We were all ready to have our first bath with a cold one to celebrate the return to bathing a [Read More]

I ♥ Shan Dong. That’s really the long and the short of it. The last few months have been extraordinarily busy on all fronts, and last weekend, I just did not want to cook (or clean, or paint, or weed, or do any of the other things I was suppo [Read More]

It took about 5 hours to replace 3 valves. Take off the old valve, unscrew the pipe going into the radiator using the large allen key, screw in the new pipe fitting to the radiator, attach the new valve, reconnect the water pipe. Seems simple enoughâ [Read More]

Alena’s living room is ready for a major makeover. Here’s her letter: This is the perfect 25th birthday present to myself! We recently painted our open living room, dining room and entryway Benjamin Moore’s Hawthorne Yellow. I&#8217 [Read More]

So, here are my two dressers in the back bedroom. Please excuse the mess. Actually, since this may be my next big project, maybe you'd just better get used to seeing this mess!What do you think? Could I make it work with yesterday's idea?I also gave [Read More]

One common problem with doors is loose hinge screws…Screws that have over time torn up the wood that originally held them in place. If your door snags on the latch side it is common to find several loose screws on the hinge side. If you have [Read More]

Dear people out there,Do you also live in a house that has plaster walls and no insulation? Our house is at least 5 degrees cooler inside than the temperature outside. Since most rooms have new/newer windows, the house isn't drafty. Is this a design [Read More]

After a three-months absence, my return to work has been a tremendous success. I haven't turned into a blubbering mess nor do I badger The Grandparents (who are babysitting) more than twice a day. At least in my mind I don't.My co-workers were amazin [Read More]

Getting the sprinkler pipe under the driveway turned out to be the most difficult task of the whole project. I came up with the idea to use a water jet nozzle on the end of a long length of pvc pipe to blast a tunnel under the driveway. I’d [Read More]

The pipes for the sprinkler system must be buried of course, and therefore trenches need to be dug to run them in. I could have rented a trench digger, but it wouldn’t fit in my BMW, and besides I only had a few hundred feet to do. So I boug [Read More]

You can actually just bury the sprinkler control valves in the dirt, but that makes repair difficult, so its common practice to stick them in a box like this. I hooked up my four valves with some solid PVC pipe, and ran all the piping from the spri [Read More]

The DWR Annexe sale in Secaucus last weekend had plenty of bargains - there were lots of King-sized beds on sale, including the Matera that I loved, and all these tables that I've previously considered to replace our cafe kitchen table were substanti [Read More]

Tis the season… for dead florals.  I mean, just because the plants are no longer green doesn’t mean I can’t display them.  Right? A few weeks ago, I was looking for a few pretty things to make the house feel a little more fall-y. [Read More]

She said she likes it!!! Oh, I'm so glad, Livvy :)Check out those duds Olivia, er, Punkin is sporting. The sheen on those dark gray tights is my favorite part. Often overlooked perks of homeschooling - getting to practice writing your letters on a do [Read More]

To prep the soil for the new grass I rented a rototiller and went to town. The rototiller was a big rear-tine job that was about $50 for a half day to rent. I was figuring it would chew up the lawn down to about 8″ and break up all the old d [Read More]

Every year the town comes and hauls away all our fallen tree leaves. Well now after they’ve been sitting for a year, they’ve brought them all back! This is what 8 cu Yards of compost looks like, which is nicely delivered from McNaughto [Read More]