2012: Home improvement/purchases, etc.
Jan. 9th, 2013 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cassidyroseA re-cap of our 2012 home improvement endeavors, along with some larger purchases which have improved living in our home:
We moved into our house in late 2011. We had done a lot of work on it, but not all the work that needed to be was done. After a break, we finally started dealing with it. We replaced the fence in the backyard which has already improved the look of the yard by 100%. SO MUCH BETTER! And so much better to not be looking at fallen down boards. After the fence was done we tackled the electrical. The most exciting part of this was getting overhead lights installed in the family room...I could not believe the difference it made. No more cave living in there! We also had fans installed in the bathroom (our roofer had made it so this would be an easy install, and it was), as well as outdoor lights over the garage, on both sides of the house in the back, and in the large part of the backyard. Again, so much better. And, as we had no electrical outlets outside (though eight of them in the master bath, for unknown reasons) we had them installed on the front and back patios/porches. We also installed a non-=switched outlet where the garage fridge and chest freezer live so we no longer have to string extension cords across the yard to get to an outlet that is not on the same switch as the light. All great improvements.
We also finally started getting some new furniture. We got one of those big cube-like bookcases from IKEA for the front living room. It looks wonderful and we were able to get rid of our other not-so-great looking bookshelves and consolidate most of our book into this unit, with some room for displaying photos, plants, etc. In the process I organized all my fiction and I am thrilled to be able to find my books now. What this also meant was that I could move all my cookbooks to another larger bookshelf in the living room and I was pleased to have them all in one place, rather than split over two bookshelves. We also got a storage bench for the living room where we keep our shoes and it looks way nicer that anything we configured for shoes before (because they are hidden, mostly). Also, it is a surface to sit on which we lack much of in that room. Lastly, we got a small bookcase for S. for under his bed (he has a tall bed with a reading area underneath), and that helped contain his book-overflow from his other shelves.
In the spring of 2011 my old PC got a terrible virus which rendered it useless. The machine kind of really sucked too. So, for the first time since 1995, I spent actual money on a new system. Yes, really. I had last bought a Win 95 machine back in 1995 and after that died I had just used hand-me-downs and cobbled together crap. I was done with that. I got an iMac with a nice big screen and it has made photo editing (and anything else I do on the computer) so much better.
Over the summer I accidentally fried my old iPod by leaving in the glove box of the car in 110+ degree heat. At least that is what I think happened to it. For my combination birthday-Xmas gift I got an iPod touch. I am very happy with it, and wow, that technology has come a ways since 2004. I really did want a device with a camera, particularly so I could capture video not on my phone. And since we have had no real stereo equipment in our house (largely due to the kids), I wanted a speaker to play music from my computer and iPod. I discovered the world of wireless speakers and nothing will ever me the same. I am the proud owner of a Bose SoundLink Air and it is AMAZING. The sound quality is remarkable, it is plain and unappealing to the kids (no visible buttons), it is small, and it works over our wi-fi (and auxiliary cable if desired. With extreme ease I can play my music on that speaker from iTunes from either my computer or ipod, as well as from Pandora (currently only from my iPod as I haven't been able to access the speaker using Pandora on my computer). Anyhow, these things have made me very, very musically happy.
Peter got a new radio (portable HAM) that he is enjoying, as well as a raspberry pi. All the cool kids have them, I guess.
So that rounds out our home improvement for 2012.
We moved into our house in late 2011. We had done a lot of work on it, but not all the work that needed to be was done. After a break, we finally started dealing with it. We replaced the fence in the backyard which has already improved the look of the yard by 100%. SO MUCH BETTER! And so much better to not be looking at fallen down boards. After the fence was done we tackled the electrical. The most exciting part of this was getting overhead lights installed in the family room...I could not believe the difference it made. No more cave living in there! We also had fans installed in the bathroom (our roofer had made it so this would be an easy install, and it was), as well as outdoor lights over the garage, on both sides of the house in the back, and in the large part of the backyard. Again, so much better. And, as we had no electrical outlets outside (though eight of them in the master bath, for unknown reasons) we had them installed on the front and back patios/porches. We also installed a non-=switched outlet where the garage fridge and chest freezer live so we no longer have to string extension cords across the yard to get to an outlet that is not on the same switch as the light. All great improvements.
We also finally started getting some new furniture. We got one of those big cube-like bookcases from IKEA for the front living room. It looks wonderful and we were able to get rid of our other not-so-great looking bookshelves and consolidate most of our book into this unit, with some room for displaying photos, plants, etc. In the process I organized all my fiction and I am thrilled to be able to find my books now. What this also meant was that I could move all my cookbooks to another larger bookshelf in the living room and I was pleased to have them all in one place, rather than split over two bookshelves. We also got a storage bench for the living room where we keep our shoes and it looks way nicer that anything we configured for shoes before (because they are hidden, mostly). Also, it is a surface to sit on which we lack much of in that room. Lastly, we got a small bookcase for S. for under his bed (he has a tall bed with a reading area underneath), and that helped contain his book-overflow from his other shelves.
In the spring of 2011 my old PC got a terrible virus which rendered it useless. The machine kind of really sucked too. So, for the first time since 1995, I spent actual money on a new system. Yes, really. I had last bought a Win 95 machine back in 1995 and after that died I had just used hand-me-downs and cobbled together crap. I was done with that. I got an iMac with a nice big screen and it has made photo editing (and anything else I do on the computer) so much better.
Over the summer I accidentally fried my old iPod by leaving in the glove box of the car in 110+ degree heat. At least that is what I think happened to it. For my combination birthday-Xmas gift I got an iPod touch. I am very happy with it, and wow, that technology has come a ways since 2004. I really did want a device with a camera, particularly so I could capture video not on my phone. And since we have had no real stereo equipment in our house (largely due to the kids), I wanted a speaker to play music from my computer and iPod. I discovered the world of wireless speakers and nothing will ever me the same. I am the proud owner of a Bose SoundLink Air and it is AMAZING. The sound quality is remarkable, it is plain and unappealing to the kids (no visible buttons), it is small, and it works over our wi-fi (and auxiliary cable if desired. With extreme ease I can play my music on that speaker from iTunes from either my computer or ipod, as well as from Pandora (currently only from my iPod as I haven't been able to access the speaker using Pandora on my computer). Anyhow, these things have made me very, very musically happy.
Peter got a new radio (portable HAM) that he is enjoying, as well as a raspberry pi. All the cool kids have them, I guess.
So that rounds out our home improvement for 2012.