Yard Renovation
around the house
Collateral Damage
One advantage for our neighbors: all this wind has blown down the excessive Halloween decorations of one of our friendly neighbors.
Before the Storm
Evening Walk
We've overseeded our front yard and seeded our backyard. Not "overseeded" because after we started having our yard sprayed for weeks regularly, everything in the backyard died. Because it was all weeds.
This means, though, that our dear Clover is an inside dog for the next month or so as everything takes root and grows. So we take her on a lot more walks, which means we get to see lovely fall scenes like this.
Sunday at Home
Jam and Fan
Three Lawns
Emil and I mowed three lawns today (ours and two neighbors' yards), and then I dethatched our front yard.
Everything hurts.
Of course, we've done this before...
Perspective
It's 9:36 in the evening, and our current indoor temperature is 82°. We've done the best we could to keep the temperature from rising in our air-conditioner-less house, but though the temperature is falling outside (the real kicker is that it's currently 77° outside), it's not falling in our house.
During my evening walk, I developed a theory about this: I think it's because the temperature in the attic is still undoubtedly very high. Warm air rises. And if it's got a column of warm air above it, despite the insulation between the two, it's just going to sit there. Yeah, I know -- it doesn't make sense, but neither does an 82° house at half-past nine in the evening.
Yet thinking about it, one realizes it's truly a first-world problem. Most of the people living in the hottest regions of the world have never had air-conditioning in their homes, and their homes are materially vastly inferior to ours.
Puts things in perspective. But we're still tired of being sweaty...
Saturday, Late August
It's late August -- the time of year when cooler autumnal temperatures approach, but sometimes not quite fast enough. Daytime temperatures can still get up into the mid-90s, and summer's humidity still lingers, making it feel even warmer.
That's all fine and good if your HVAC system is working well. Sure, it might work a bit more than you would hope. The heavy heat of July is a thing of the past, and although it can be hot, late August usually brings a bit of a break for one's HVAC system and one's power bill compared to mid-July. Not much -- just a bit.
Still, we have a relatively high-efficiency system, and the difference I guess is no big savings. Five or ten bucks perhaps.
But then the system starts stalling, starts leaking coolant, and the indoor temperature climbs despite the temperature outside. Specialists arrive, investigate, diagnose, and give a $2,200 quote for fixing the system or $800 for a temporary bandaid.
"How long will it last?"
"A few months to a few years."
Cheap is expensive; lack of information leads to poor decisions. It lasts less than 24 hours. $800 for 20 hours of cooling.
More specialists arrive. They'll do the fix for about 75% of the other company's quote. We go for it. The system works for a couple of weeks, still showing some strain and problems but keeping the house comfortable.
And then the whole thing shuts down. Completely. When temperatures return to the mid-90s. And the company we've been working with doesn't work on the weekend, so we're stuck until Monday. And so you start researching things like this.
Our Games
The Boy's first games with his new soccer team took place today. It was a tough start to the season: 0-4 and 0-5 losses. I was expecting him to be terribly disappointed about it, but he was surprisingly stoic: "We have some things we need to fix, but we could be good."
The Girl's high school varsity team, for which L plays middle, won their first tournament today.
A day of contrasts.
