The remodelers have concentrated on the exterior work so we still have our stove and sink.

Access is the big issue. Because the back entrance floor will be raised, even though the doorway is framed in, they have the doorway covered with sheathing. Our only access to the house is through the front door. Because of foundation work they have to do, they tore out the front steps so we have been using a ramp for the last week and a half.

Two weeks into the project and lots of changes.

When I went to work last Thursday work had not yet started but workmen were filling the driveway with pickup trucks. I did not get home until very late that evening. My husband had put up an orange snowfence so that I would not fall into the huge hole between the sidewalk and our back door. In the morning I could see the huge pile of dirt in the backyard and see that the forms for the footings were done. It was interesting discover what was left of the old cistern that was made of red bricks and cement.

Well, we’ve done it. We’ve signed a contract with a building remodeler and we have our building permit.

We will be redoing the kitchen, and getting rid of the flat roof above the kitchen by puting a bedroom above. We will also be adding a wraparound porch/entry/sunroom/gardenjunk room with arbors at each end. These will all be 8 ft. wide on the south end of the house with lots of windows but with an overhang to keep out the summer sun.

We have been considering ways to upgrade our old farmhouse. It was built in the 1880s and remodeled 1940-41.

Now that we own our own home (after renting it for a number of years), I feel torn about what I have wished for and what is good for our budget and what is good for our environment. Do we really need to add more square feet? Can we modify what we already have and still get that breakfast nook I long for? ...that separate shower, rather than standing in the tub with our head hitting the ceiling in the upstairs bathroom in our one and a half story house?

As I walk my dog in the dark morning and evening I have been contemplating the qualities of snow.

It was disappointing to learn on a websearch that the idea that the Inuit have dozens or hundreds of words for snow is an myth.

http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_words_for_snow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...

What do you do to keep warm??

It amazes me how many people were going in and out of the gas station and pumping gas with no hat on this morning!
I am out there with my sheepskin hat with earflaps and Sorrel boots and a neck scarf.

I love my hat. We bought it up on the North Shore and it was made at a sheep farm in Ontario, Canada. It it knitted on the top so it can breathe but it is sheepskin on the bottom to keep my ears and face warm. People may give me funny looks but I would rather be warm than stylish in this weather. The wind last night was brutal.

In most ways my husband and I seem to be on the same page as far as trying to reduce the amount of waste we produce but...

...why does he buy individual packets of hot chocolate mix when I always buy the family size cannister???

... and the big bags of throw away razors???

As a biology major in college and a long-time member of Audubon Society I have been concerned about the environment and what I can do to conserve resources.

One of the ways we are using less energy and producing less waste is by using voice mail through our local phone company. The reason we made the switch is because of lightning!