August 20th, 2010
That’s how I’ve been feeling about pretty much everything around the house. It’s been a chore just to keep up with the mail.
I think I get this way a lot around this time of year. I get fed up with summer. It just seems to zap my energy. I can’t wait for fall — the [...]
August 14th, 2010
We haven’t really been working on any bungalow projects lately, mainly due to heat and humidity, so I’ll just offer you a bunch of random but somewhat related news.
I had a tough time searching through many bug and insect identification sites to determine what this large black wasp-like insect was, only to finally find out [...]
July 30th, 2010
From the amount of time I sometimes hold onto things, you might think I’m a hoarder but that isn’t the case at all. We frequently purge “stuff”, but it seems like we rarely need to throw something in the trash.
If it’s clothing or small household items, we’ll donate them to Amvets, Salvation Army, or [...]
July 23rd, 2010
It’s hot and humid, and while we thankfully have central air conditioning, we certainly don’t want to work on any projects outside. So recently we’ve been turning our efforts to the basement, which had become rather disorganized ever since our attic remodel last summer (it’s been a year since the contractor finished up with us—that [...]
July 22nd, 2010
One minute our robin fledgling was standing on the edge of the nest, and the next s/he was gone! All that’s left is the well-constructed nest and a little poop.
On Tuesday, sometime soon after I posted about it we noticed the nest was empty and we haven’t seen the robin family since. I heard a [...]
July 20th, 2010
Not only do we have our garden growing like gangbusters, thanks or no thanks to all the rain we’ve had this summer, but we also have a baby robin who looks ready to leave the nest very soon.
We’re not sure what happened to the other two eggs, but there always seemed to only be one [...]
July 6th, 2010
I think it was the weekend before the holiday weekend, or about 12 days ago, when Pete and I noticed that a robin was busily building a nest in our sumac next to the patio. She was picking up dried grass from the neighbor’s freshly mowed lawn and also bringing some “muck” from the gutter. [...]
June 29th, 2010
I’ve never been very interested in growing vegetables beyond tomatoes, and with our community-supported agriculture (CSA) share, I get a much greater variety of vegetables than I would by growing my own. It has also introduced me to a few vegetables I probably wouldn’t have tried on my own, like fennel (not a big licorice [...]
June 25th, 2010
Three years ago today we became the proud owners of this fine bungalow and haven’t regretted it for one minute.
The blog began about a month earlier, and it has been great to “chronicle” all that we’ve done and see how much the house has changed. Since I recently compiled the renovation highlights in the 2nd [...]
June 24th, 2010
Luckily we avoided the worst part of last night’s storm. I hope those of you reading this in Chicagoland weathered the storm as well.
There were some really cool cloud formations as the storm passed through, and there was a golden glow everywhere:
Although all the rain we’ve been having has been great for our newly-planted additions [...]
June 23rd, 2010
There’s a house across the street, built in the early 1960s, that has been unoccupied for at least five years now. An elderly couple owned the house, they didn’t have any children, and they were the first and only owners of the house. I never met them.
The husband passed away probably 15 years ago. Pete [...]
June 16th, 2010
We were out for dinner last night with some friends who recently put their Evanston condo on the market. Their realtor wanted to know what their property taxes were for last year and also wanted to make sure they had their Homeowners Exemption, which is a reduction in the assessed valuation of your home and [...]
June 14th, 2010
Yesterday, Pete and I went to the local Menards to purchase supplies for our raised garden bed. After two years we were finally going to remove the blue tarp that covered the dirt near the compost (which hopefully killed off all the weeds). More on that later.
While we were in the garden section, we noticed [...]
May 25th, 2010
Ugh, where does the time go? I haven’t been super busy, yet I haven’t managed to find time to post. Time to remedy that!
Lots of little things, and one somewhat big thing, are happening around the house.
In no particular order, here’s the latest:
I’ve been getting quotes to replace the gutters, soffit and fascia, but I [...]
May 7th, 2010
I’m pleased to join the Bungalow Blog Tour that StuccoHouse organized this year — be sure to check out all the bungalows on the tour by following the links at the bottom of each post.
Welcome to our near-north suburban Chicago home! Here in the Windy City we do many things Chicago-style, from politics to [...]
May 6th, 2010
Get your shopping list together Chicagoland: it’s time for the annual Native Plant Sale this weekend, May 8-9 at Lake County Forest Preserve’s Independence Grove in Libertyville!
About a 30- to 40-minute drive from Chicago, Independence Grove is located about 2-1/2 miles west of I-94 on Buckley Road (Route 137). Sale hours are 9 am to [...]
May 5th, 2010
So far, so good.
I brought Günter home from the vet a week ago last Friday, and he has been much, much better. He has been playing, eating and acting normal.
I decided against surgery, so the only course of treatment is prednisone, which hopefully will keep his appetite strong for a while. How long it [...]
April 23rd, 2010
This week not only marked the one-year anniversary of my dear cat Axel’s death, but it also brought his littermate Günter to the vet, ultimately for more bad news.
Earlier in the week I noticed he wasn’t feeling well, and I thought I felt a lump in his abdomen. Along with his other symptoms I was [...]
April 16th, 2010
UPDATE: As of around 12:30 p.m. half the rebate funds are gone. Do NOT wait until tonight to buy!
Illinois residents: if you’ve been thinking about taking advantage of the 15% Energy Star appliance tax rebate that starts today and ends on the 25th (or until funds run out) RUN, don’t walk to a participating retailer. [...]
April 14th, 2010
The garden is starting to wake up and I’m looking forward to planting season next month. The plants I added to the parkway in front of the house are starting to peek through, but I think it will still be a while before they fill in.
We made an early purchase last week and added [...]