Home Ownership – Page 3 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

As winter ends…

gardening season begins. We’ve hit 60 degrees already – though it’s about to drop again – and you’d better believe that I’ve been outside tending to my garden. I started with the new solar path lanterns that I picked up at Costco with my annual rebate, a perk that comes with having a Costco-branded credit card. They were actually a filler, my big rebate purchase was an outside storage cabinet that still needs to be assembled. I think the box doesn’t do the lights justice; they are way cooler when lit than I expected.

Solar lights with a sun pattern — Check out the cool sun pattern.

Then I set up the long overdue rain barrel in my back yard. I could have placed it by a gutter and installed a rain diverter, but realistically, I need it by my back garden beds, which are the furthest from the hose. It would collect more water attached to a gutter, but it wouldn’t be as useful. I started it off with a bit of water from the hose to weigh it down, to prevent it from blowing into the neighbor’s yard before it rains again. Conveniently enough, it rained on and off for the rest of the day, so it has some additional water supplementing what I started with.

As long as I was out there, I found myself pulling a few weeds and some plant remnants from last year’s garden. Soon, I’ll be out there regularly, trimming off the old dry mint to let the new growth peek through, and getting seeds into the ground. Spring is just around the corner, and not too long after the start of gardening season, we get grilling season.

New year, old me.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. The concept, at least as presented in our culture, tends to be too abstract – take a look at Wikipedia’s list of popular resolutions. They also list the results of a small (3,000 people) study: 88% of the people who study participants who set New Year’s resolutions failed to accomplish their resolutions.

Instead, I set goals, both for the year and on a weekly basis. These are both achievable and measurable; I can definitively say when I’ve completed each one. Of the eleven goals I set for myself last year (I didn’t post all of them here), I completed nine. Of the two I didn’t complete, one carried over for this year and the other has been removed from the list. Starting this year, I’ve added categories to the goals – those include personal, professional, fitness, house, and garden, among others – which I include on both the weekly and annual goals. I have a Google Doc listing the annual goals with a spot for a completion date, and a separate one for the weekly goals.

Here are some of my 2019 goals:

Test for my hapkido black belt – this is my carryover from last year.
Develop a garden plan for the year – the plan is different each year, as I look at what seeds I have (leftovers or harvested from last year’s vegetables) and determine how the crops should rotate.
Add a new garden bed – this is already a work in progress; I have mulch and leaves down in the appropriate area and will add dirt as we get closer to spring. I suspect there will be strawberries planted there.
Complete my next project management course – also already in progress.
Organizing around the house – I actually have three different goals around organizing at home.

Do you approach the new year with goals or resolutions?

Home improvement: windows

I knew when I bought the house that it would need new windows. The existing windows appeared to be from when the house was built, and windows have come a long way since then, both in the glass itself and the way they’re set in the house. New windows – I’m fairly sure they’re all double-paned now – would provide better insulation against the cold and allow less heat in through the glass. In fact, part of the sales demonstration was plugging in a heat lamp in front of a normal window sample and then a new window sample. (The next part was removing a cat from the sample bag so the samples could go back in.) There was also evidence of moisture settling into some of the window frames, which is never good.

All of the bedrooms had casement windows, which were a bit of a pain. In order to open the window, I had to open the screen on the inside, then unlatch and push the window open, and finish by clicking the screen shut again. The window by the kitchen sink was similar, but inexplicably, had no screen or anywhere to attach one, so that one never got opened. (I don’t want to let insects in or cats out.) The living room and large kitchen windows were floor to ceiling, with a casement window at the top of each. While planning the new windows, one of the company’s representatives noted that the kitchen sink and the guest bedroom windows were actually the same casement windows, just turned on their side. Apparently somebody had spare windows in that particular style when the house was built. Old living room windows - floor to ceiling, with casement windows opening at the top

The biggest decision when replacing windows seems to be whether to do it room-by-room or all at once. Since my reason for wanting new windows was for better temperature control (among other things, I don’t have A/C), it made sense to do them all at once and finance the change, knowing that the company I chose could almost certainly complete the change in a single day. That meant spending only one of my elusive vacation days, rather than needing to spread it out over several. As with any big purchase, I had estimates from multiple companies. The deciding factor was really that this company, Power Home Remodeling, could replace my three living room windows with one huge bay window.

New bay window in the living room My timing was just about perfect – the installation was on what had been the hottest day so far this year, the Friday before Memorial Day. Last weekend beat that day with temperatures in the mid- to high-90s all weekend, and I was delighted to have the new windows filtering out some of that heat.

Setting goals for 2018

We are taught at karate that goals we set are goals we get, and are encouraged to set goals for the year. These are some of the goals I have set for myself this year:

Test for my Tang Soo Do black belt – this is a no-brainer, it’s what I expected to do in October. The tests are held at our regional tournaments, which happen twice a year, so I expect to test in April.
Renew my Project Management Professional (PMP) certfication – actually, I completed this since I wrote it down. Yay! One down! Time to start on the next cycle. It’s a continuous learning opportunity, requiring 60 credits of training every 3 years, so as soon as I finish, I start towards the next cycle.
Add a new garden bed – this has slightly changed since I wrote it down. I entered a sweepstakes and won a discount towards a Garden Tower, so I’m adding that instead of a more traditional raised bed. It will be my first foray into vermicomposting, which involves worms.
The garage door lets in a little bit of light… and leaves… and air.

Garage door projects – this is actually two projects in one. The door from the kitchen to the garage is an interior door; it allows a bit of light and air in. It’s not terrible, but combined with the need to replace or improve the garage door seal, I’m paying more for heat than I should be.
Duolingo recently added Korean as a language option. Since we learn snippets of Korean at karate, I thought I’d try picking up a bit more. I don’t have time for daily lessons at the moment, my current goal is at least once a week.

I’ll come back to these later in the year with updates.

And rain will make the flowers grow.

I took photos of the garden last week, thinking I’d be writing about it after Razor Girl, and it wouldn’t hurt to get ahead. We then had a warm, wet week… everything with full sun grew at least at least six inches in that time… including the weeds. (OK, I may be exaggerating… but not by much.)

Star bed, early July 2017, growing mint, sunflowers, chives, cilantro, basil, and hopefully dill — Growing mint, sunflowers, chives, cilantro, basil, and hopefully dill

Star bed, late July 2017, showing mint, catnip, sunflowers, and chives — 12 days later, from the other side… chives, mint, catnip, and the open sunflowers.

When we moved in last year, before moving any furniture in, we set up raised garden beds in the back for some vegetables. About a month later, we added a bed to the front, specifically selected a decorative pattern (a star) rather than a plain rectangle… curb appeal and all that. The star (and grass around it) was overrun last year by two tromboncino squash plants, with chives and mint somehow peeking through. (Most herbs are actually weeds, so this isn’t hard to believe.) This year, the star is a full-fledged flower and herb garden, with a different herb planted in each of the five points, and sunflowers sprouting tall above the other plants in the center.

Keyhole bed, early July 2017, growing cauliflower, eggplant, tomatoes and peas — Growing cauliflower, eggplant, tomatoes and peas

The back garden did nicely last year, particularly my okra plants, but I felt I needed more planting space. And less grass to mow. I assembled a keyhole raised bed from Costco in the back, significantly closer to the house. This set is a first for me on several counts: assembled on my own, tall (almost two feet), and with a built-in composter. I’m enjoying the ease of reaching my plants, though it’s disconcerting to have to weed the open composter as well as the growing area. I planned my layout with the taller vegetables – corn and okra – in the low beds, saving this bed for somewhat shorter plants. At the rate they’re growing, I may end up with tomatoes towering over me!

Low beds, early July 2017, growing corn, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, honeydew, peas, and salad greens — Growing corn, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, honeydew, peas, and salad greens

The low beds are growing slower, being partially shaded by the back neighbor’s white mulberry tree. It still has berries on it, so I can’t trim any branches yet. I can assist with the harvesting though.

Like the keyhole bed, the star has no shade at all, which is perfect for growing sunflowers. Most other flowers in there are random seeds, hoping to attract more pollinators, with a few bulbs like hyacinths for the spring. I expect to add some tulip and daffodil bulbs in the fall. Beyond that, I’m not likely to do much, as my focus is more on the plants I can eat.

I have a long term goal of reducing the amount of grass in the yard. There will always be some – I like walking barefoot in it – but it shouldn’t be the main feature of my yard. I’m three garden beds into that goal already.

Reality Doses

The trip of a lifetime was surrounded by heavy doses of reality.

Eighteen months ago, my mother called me on my birthday and asked if Cassandra and I wanted to cruise the Galápagos with her. It was such a tough sell, we probably deliberated for all of five minutes.

Planning ensued… should we go with the known company, that Mom had cruised with before, or look into others? Book through her travel agency or directly through the cruise line? We opted out of any pre- or post- extensions due to my limited vacation time.

There were hiccups. We booked over a year ahead, which meant we couldn’t buy plane tickets at the same time. My mother wanted to arrive a day earlier than us, which meant booking an extra hotel night. The travel agent retired, leaving someone else at the agency scrambling to find us airfare as the trip approached. My mother, who’s fairly close to technologically illiterate, would leave me a voicemail with another question for the travel agent, then drop off the grid for a few days or a month on another trip. Then suddenly the school year was almost over and I was rushing to buy whatever Cassandra had outgrown from the packing list, and checking to see what I was missing.

The day before our trip arrived and we were just about packed and ready to go. I woke up and prepared for work like normal, then took a few minutes to water the vegetable garden. As I walked back in, I pulled a few weeds out (it’s a compulsive habit), so I stopped to wash my hands at the kitchen sink before preparing breakfast.

Nothing came out.

I stepped into the garage and could hear some water running, presumably the last trickles the pump had pulled from my well before the corroded pipe (many feet down) had burst. By the end of the day, I had new pipes and a new pump going to my well. Reality doses - corroded pipe and dirty, leaking tubing

The trip of a lifetime deserves its own post; that will follow soon. Having returned from an outstanding ten-day trip, I returned to work the next day and Cassandra wandered off to her Dad’s for a week of relaxation.

Friday morning, I stepped into the garage – which is rapidly becoming a sign of bad news – and noticed water dripping from a tube into a drain. It was small, but I was sure it hadn’t been dripping like that before.

As it turns out, fixing my well resulted in increased water pressure; the corroded pipe must have been leaking for some time, but not so much that the pressure had seemed low when I bought the house. Increased water pressure caused a minuscule hole to expand. By Saturday afternoon, it became apparent that plumbing Band-Aids were not going to cut it; the tubing was split right at the joint. I alternated between full pressure with the drain filling up, and turning the pump off while I used up the wall tank of water for the duration of the weekend. I was positively ecstatic on Monday when the plumber announced it was an easy fix.

And that’s how reality reared its ugly head on both sides of my vacation.