Faking our Foundation

Jason has hated our foundation since we moved into our house. It's never really bothered me but apparently, every time Jason went outside his OCD kicked in and he found himself staring at all of the imperfections.

We never really addressed our curb appeal. So far, nearly all of the work we've done in this little Cape has been interior work, except for the landscaping around our pool, which isn't looking too shabby if I do say so myself.

Anyway, you might remember that the front of our house looks like this

 

 

 

 

 

We have been stuck on what to do about those awful steps.

So we've done nothing.

I'd like a porch -   not really so I could sit out there because we have some very unsightly apartments across the street from us  -- but because:

A.) I think it would look nice

And

B.). I want to decorate a porch for all of the holidays.

 

I've got visions of pumpkins and hay for Halloween,

 

 

Source: google.com via Stephenie on Pinterest

 

 

white lights, a sled, and buckets of pine cones for Christmas

 

Source: blog.styleestate.com via Stephenie on Pinterest

 

 

Source: authentichomeblog.com via Stephenie on Pinterest

 

And rocking chairs for anytime

Source: flickr.com via Stephenie on Pinterest

 

But it's unlikely to happen because

A.) Jason doesn't want anymore building projects anytime soon. He values having the rest of his teeth

And


B.)  We just dropped a bunch of money on improving the unsightly foundation. To build a porch would be to cover Jason's beautiful foundation work.

 

So the steps remain.
 

But the foundation is getting a face lift. At the beginning of the summer we had a quote from some masons on how much it would cost to do stone veneer on our foundation.

 

After getting the quote, Jason decided to do it himself, even though he's never done stone veneer before.

 

So we placed our order at Lowes and a few weeks later, pallets of fake stone were dropped in our driveway.

And they sat there all summer while Jason finished the deck and we enjoyed ourselves doing all kinds of summery things.

 

Now that Fall is here, the pressure is on to get those fake stones up before the cold weather hits.

So Jason is busy at work. I've wanted to help, but having a one and a half year old running around doesn't exactly make helping easy.

 

 

The other added pressure is that Imani completed her summer reading challenge. (I'll explain in another post, but let's just say we have our part of the bargain to uphold).

We were worried it might look cheesy, but I'm loving the new look of the house. I can't wait to show it to you!

 

 

 

 

A Green Awakening

"A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand."

-Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947

 

 

A couple of months ago, I noticed on Goodreads that one of my friends was reading a book called Garbology - Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash by Pulitzer-Prize winning Edward Humes.

I loved the title and after talking to my friend and his wife, they both recommended the book, even though they admitted that some parts could put you to sleep at night because they're so boring.

I got the book from the library a few weeks ago and they were right - some parts do put you to sleep -- but the majority of the book was really quite fascinating, albeit disturbing.

The book examines all aspects of garbage in the US - from how we've

handled trash historically to a landfill owner's perspective to the environmental and economic impact of waste disposal in America. It really is a great book (I'm not quite finished with it, but I cannot stop thinking about it)

 

I was feeling down in the dumps right after I started reading the book (bad pun, I know . . . but I couldn't resist)

 

Here are some disturbing facts taken directly from the book:

 

 

Americans make more trash than anyone else on the planet.

 

 The average American throws out 7.1 pounds of trash per day, 102 tons across a lifetime.

America, which  accounts for 5% of the world's population, accounts for nearly 25% of the world's waste.

Plastic bags are still thrown away and last a thousand years or more.  In fact, by the year 2000, Americans used 100 billion of them a year, which cost retailers $4 billion, who in turn would pass the cost on to consumers.

America has 4 % of the world's children but accounts for 40 % of the world's toys that are bought and later thrown away.

96 billion pounds of food are thrown in the trash by Americans each year. 4 million people could be fed on 5 percent of that wasted food.

$1 of every $11 food dollars is spent on packaging

The United Nations estimates that a minimum of 7 million tons of trash ends up in oceans each year, 5.6 million tons of which (80%) is plastic.

 

 

Humes also tells the story of Bea Johnson, whose family was forced to cut back on "stuff" when they moved into smaller living quarters.  This prompted Bea to realize that she enjoyed living with less clutter and less waste.  Bea and her family have gotten so good that a year's worth of trash for her household fits in a mason jar!!! She has a blog called The Zero Waste Home, which offers lots of tips on how you can reduce your waste and live a greener lifestyle.

 

 

Only a few pages into the book and I found myself examining our trash each day, trying to figure out what exactly was being wrapped in plastic and sent off to a landfill out of site each week.

 

I started noticing everyone's garbage piled along the side of the road on trash day and how we don't stop to think about where its going or what impact it will have on the Earth.

 

 

 

I found myself going to the butcher at the grocery store and asking for our meat to be wrapped in paper, rather than grabbing the more convenient pre-packaged meat in the cooler that has a Styrofoam base.

 

I found myself consciously bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.

 

And when it came time to buy Imani a new lunch box for school, she said, "I think we might be able to just clean up my old one mom.  Isn't that what the book you're reading is all about?"

 

This, coming from my child who always wants everything new?!   I was shocked.  It just reaffirmed that she's watching me and taking notice all the time.

 

And it made me grateful we live in Ithaca, where being "green" is cool and is encouraged;  where our schools teach kids to compost in Kindergarten.

 

 

 

 

 

I know I can be better about what I'm buying and bringing into our home.  I would like to start shopping at second hand stores more.  We're good when it comes to buying second hand for decorating but we could be better when it comes to our clothes/personal belongings.  What's funny is that I used to shop at the Salvation Army for most of my clothes when I was a single mom.  When I got a more lucrative job and was married, I began shopping at more popular, more expensive clothing stores. 

 

The funny part is that my friend Lori said to me recently, "When I first met you, you had such a unique sense of style.  You always looked so cute and fashionable."

 

When I questioned her further, she said "I mean, now you look nice too but you just look like everybody else."

 

I don't want to look like everybody else! And I don't want to keep buying and encouraging the cycle of waste. 

 

So here are some of my plans:

 

 

I will continue to look at our trash to see how we can be better at refusing, reducing, reusing and recycling.

 

I will buy less and I will try to buy used more often.

 

I will bring reusable grocery bags to the store and if I forget, I will buy a reusable bag (or go without).

 

I will try to give "greener" gifts.

 

I will not buy plastic bottles of water.

 

I will continue to compost and learn how we can be better at it.

 

I will not use plastic utensils at barbecues/cookouts at my house.

 

 

That's a good start, right?  What about you? What are you doing to stop the cycle of waste?

 

 

"Here's the main lesson of Garbology: People forget, they cover, they kid themselves, they lie. But their trash tells the truth." - William Rathje

 

 

I challenge you to read the book, check out Bea's blog, and examine your own trash. 

What's it telling you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Expensive Deck Ever

In the Spring I posted about Jason's freak accident with the deck. If you missed it, you can read about it here.

Believe it or not, his tooth could not be saved. That's right, the dentist had to extract Jason's front tooth because the nail shattered the tooth all the way up under Jason's gum line. Since the accident, J has had to wear what is called a 'flipper.' It's a temporary front tooth that pops in and out (kind of like dentures but with just one tooth on it.)

He is in the process of getting a dental implant, but it takes a long time because you have to wait for the bone to heal before the oral surgeon can drill into the gum line. It will be almost a year before the implant is complete.

Yup, it sucks but what can we do? I have a beautiful deck and a beautiful husband minus one front tooth.

For those of you who have ever had a dental implant, you know how costly they can be. . . So our DIY deck ended up costing us the same as it would have if we hired out for labor. . . And Jason would still have his front tooth!

Anyway, the old deck was small and we didn't like that the railing ran horizontally and wasn't very child-proof.  In an attempt to make the deck safer in case Noah ever got out of the house into the pool area, we wanted to install vertical rails. We also wanted more space on the deck since we like to entertain.

 

Here is the deck just before Jason was about to start working on it.
 

 

 

 

 

Here it is from another angle . . . equally ugly and unimpressive.

 

 

 

 

 

Jason never built a deck before and everyone told us it was really easy. Jason says it was as easy as everyone reports, but the freak accident(s) made it one of his least favorite projects. Not only did he lose his tooth to the deck, but he also had a drill bit break and he drilled through his finger.

 

I was starting to think the deck was cursed. 

Yeah, I'm glad the deck project is over. To be honest, it was over at the beginning of the summer but my home computer is ancient and is running extremely slowly. Now that I figured out some iPad and iPhone apps, blogging just got easier!

Anyway, our go-to guy Kelby explained everything to Jason to get the deck built.

 

To make life easier, Jason used the existing framework of our old deck for what would become half of the new deck.  First, he removed all of the old deck boards, which were in pretty rough shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After J removed all the old deck boards, he dug post holes 42 inches deep for the new deck addition. The town building inspector had to come out to check every step before Jason could go on to the next step. After approval from the building inspector, the post holes were filled with concrete.

 

 

 

 

Kelby and Jason framed up the new 12x12 section and the new deck boards were run over the entire 24x24 frame.

 

Once the deck boards were on, Jason installed the vinyl railing.   

 

 

 

 

And here is the final deck (you can see our building permit still hanging on our sliding glass door because we have yet to have the building inspector come out and give us the final approval).

 

 

 

We still have to stain it, but you're supposed to wait a year before applying the stain to the deck boards.  I'm already stressed about the color! 

 

 

And we need to buy a larger table so that we can enjoy having meals on the deck.  Currently, we only have a small bistro table.  I enjoy having my breakfast out there each morning but if we want to entertain or have dinner out there as a family, we will need a bigger table.

 

If you can suggest where we might be able to find a nice table online at a reasonable price, do share!