Craig Thompson’s Habibi is brilliant
30 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in graphic novel Tags: Craig Thompson, Habibi
Two evenings ago, hubby and I stopped by the comic book store to pick up the new #1 issues of DC comics from his newly added “box”. A surprise was waiting for me when I arrived. Craig Thompson’s Habibi is out! I couldn’t believe it. I read his last major release, Blankets many years ago. I’ve gotten some glimpse of Habibi from his blog off and on but I haven’t pay too much attention to it. Once I saw this ginormous novel with a beautiful cover design, I got to have it. $35 for a graphic novel might seem like a lot but this is a piece of art that is worth way more than that. Luckily, I was able to take advantage of a 10% discount through my hubby’s “box”. Woot!
Charting home energy usage
07 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Home improvement, Save money, spreadsheet Tags: Google docs
After finishing the epic 1+ year long kitchen remodel, I lost quite a bit of steam to blog and remodel. But the creative juices continue flowing. I am still reading my beloved This Old House magazines and getting new ideas all the time. The bathroom remodel will be next. The planning is really slow going. Meanwhile, I thought I blog about something I’ve been meaning to share for a long time.
Ever since we bought the house, we’ve done quite a bit of home improvement. Back in my college days, I studied HVAC with some classes on power generation. I am really curious as to whether we have improved the energy usage in our home based on the significant improvements we put into it. The only way to tell is to get my hands on energy usage data and a lot of it. It dawned on me that I can grab the electricity usage data from my utility bills. I logged onto my account at the power company website and started copying the monthly meter readings.
Living without cable
19 Dec 2010 1 Comment
in Home improvement, movies, Save money
We bid farewell to Comcast basic cable a few months ago. We don’t really miss it. This is after I put together a complicated setup to record DTV and stream movies. None of the gear is top of the line and not the latest and greatest either. But it serves us well.
Transition to DTV
Starting with the TV, it is a Toshiba 50″ TheaterView Projection TV. This is one of those giant old TV’s that is almost as tall as my shoulder when I stand next to it. We bought it used from hubby’s younger brother. Before having this “luxury”, we had a 19″ CRT TV which I sold at a garage sale. Our family room is in the basement. This TV is so big and heavy that there is no way it will emerge from below ground again!
The TV does not have a digital tuner. When there was still a chance to apply for a coupon from the govt for a converter box, I did it just for the heck of it. Basic cable worked just fine on our TV after the transition to DTV was completed in my area. We heard about people making their own antenna for DTV so we thought we give it a try. And to our surprise, our homemade antenna worked very well (with a converter box) in the basement. The channels that came in with strong signals were crystal clear. I doubt any of the old tech antenna would have performed as well before DTV for us.
Kitchen renovation, part 8
14 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Home improvement, kitchen Tags: IKEA
Did we really finish the kitchen? I have no idea. I can say the official completion was around mid-September. Since then, I had to tinker a few things here and there that it feels like it’s still ongoing. Before getting into all those finer details, let’s back up to where I left off last on this blog.
Trim – the 3rd time is the charm
The kitchen has two entryways. One is connected to the dining room that has hardwood floor. The new kitchen has marmoleum. After two tries of putting down a trim to cover the transition, I think the third trim is going to do it. What’s wrong with the first two? The first one was too thick for such a high traffic area. I could really feel it under the shoes. I messed up the second one while I was attempting to install it with nails.
The third piece is real oak (not sure what the first two was made out of), matching the hardwood floor. It has pre-drilled holes and came with screws. The holes were not countersink enough to hide the screws with filler so I enlarged the countersink a little. Before putting it down on the floor, I put on a coat of polyurethane on the bottom of the trim and also the newly sanded transition area of the hardwood floor. In case of any major spill, those areas are a little bit protected.
Kitchen renovation, part 7
09 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
The one year mark came and gone but we at least got started cooking in the new kitchen. It took quite a bit of elbow grease to get here.
The good sink
In the last blog post, I mentioned I scratched the sink while I drilled a hole for the Instant Hot. The rescue, Scratch-B-Gone Stainless Steel Scratch Repair Kit arrived quickly from Amazon. The kit is easy to use but for deep gouges, it requires some time and hard work to sand them out. We took quite a bit material off the sink. I can feel a dip in the stainless steel with my finger but it is not visible.
Next up were Instant Hot and faucet. They went in without a hitch. Dropping the sink into the countertop was the scary part. We did a dry run first. Then, instead of pulling the whole thing out, we stacked up the sink from the cabinet underneath, applied Silicone caulk and went for it. I had blue tape around the countertop cutout that helped us center the sink. We made a small adjustment, tightened up the sink clips and that was it. More
