Content related to Home Repairs, Projects, and Crafts
Over 100 million Americans made New Year’s resolutions for 2022, and fewer than 10 million actually succeeded in keeping them. I rarely succeed, in spite of (or because of) the fact that I tend to make so many. This year, I hope that examining the “why” behind my resolutions, rather than following my annual pattern from years before, will meet with more success.
Although many families share videos of cats attacking Christmas trees, we have never seen any such behavior from our two. Most of the cat-on-tree action I’ve seen in my life has involved artificial trees, and there are multiple sources that point to why cats may prefer plastic to the real thing. In this Christmas Day post, expect some gratuitous cat photos along with researched content.
Having fun – by definition – means being playful and limiting self-judgment, but self-judgment has dictated my relationship with music for more than half of my life. I am currently working through one of the most complicated relationships I’ve ever experienced. In doing so, I have at least identified what feels healthy and what I want more of, but I also know it’s going to be a long process.
In trying to carve out time for doing things that I love, I tend to turn activities that should be fun into obligations, at which point they are no longer fun. Music has been an incredibly important part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I’m trying very hard to figure out how to make it fun again.
Once we removed my tree, Christian was able to rebuild the retaining wall in our driveway. I learned a lot about the process, which will be useful as more of our walls need assistance. I’m also trying to figure out what to put in the hole left by my tree, but there are a lot of factors to consider for wall and plant health.
As Pittsburghers, we have a lot of retaining walls on our property, and we knew it was only a matter of time before we would have to repair one. Last year our driveway wall was compromised by a tree I loved very much. In order to replace the wall and ultimately protect the foundation of the house, I had to make a hard decision.
We deal with fast fashion on a regular basis in our lives, but nowhere do we see it more than at Halloween, when pop-up shops sell cheap costumes to be used a few times and thrown away. There are more sustainable alternatives that include making, thrifting, renting, or reusing costume components. Some of these options can be better for the environment, your pocketbook, or both.
What I thought was a stress-induced grooming habit for my kitty Siegfried actually turned out to be the result of fleas (though we couldn’t find any on him). It turns out that indoor cats can, in fact, get fleas, despite a common belief that they can’t. Fortunately fleas are pretty straightforward to deal with, as long as you follow instructions to the letter.
Once you’ve paid for weatherization work at your house, you may be curious how effective it is in saving you energy (and money). By employing data points called “degree days,” we can get a reasonably accurate view into how much energy gets used before and after weatherization work while keeping an eye on how much heating and cooling demand existed during the period in question.
About a year ago, we finally weatherized our attic. Many people know that weatherization includes air sealing and insulation; many people do not know that those things have to be done in a very specific way in order to work… and the previous owner of our house was not one of those people. Doing the job wrong is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.