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 [...]
October 15th, 2009
I’m happy to participate in Blog Action Day for Climate Change, because here at Bungalow Chronicles, we make an effort to lower our carbon footprint (I kind of hate that term, but whatever) every day. It didn’t happen overnight — and it doesn’t have to — but once we got started it became easier and [...]
November 26th, 2008
Thanks for your comments on the previous post. I made my decision and called the PO last weekend (sorry Christopher and Joanne!).
He likes to answer the phone by saying, “Joe’s Trucking” or something along those lines (he has caller ID). I said, “Say I had a couple of dining room cabinets that I was [...]
July 15th, 2008
Remember Phil Hartman from Saturday Night Live as The Anal Retentive Chef? He would show some perfectly chopped red bell peppers and proceed to throw out one that was chopped just a little too big, one that was a little wrinkly, etc. until he finds fault with all of it and has to start over. [...]
July 11th, 2008
Earlier this week I mentioned that we finally started building our WC — not a Water Closet, as a flush toilet was originally called (and what bathrooms are still called today in German), but a Waste Corral to house our garbage, recycling and compost bins. Still housing waste, but a much less icky kind.
We had [...]
April 28th, 2008
Yesterday we had the PO and his wife over for lunch along with a neighbor couple from across the street. We first really got to know this neighbor at the PO’s wedding a couple years ago and they’re a lot of fun. The PO always managed to get the husband, who is retired and old [...]
April 10th, 2008
Say you have a bunch of old VHS tapes lying around, on which you’ve recorded various episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Or a drawer full of empty CD jewel cases.
A bunch of old Zip disks perhaps?
How 1995 of you me.
All of this junk takes up a lot of space, [...]
April 8th, 2008
Pete came up with the idea to pull out the aluminum slats from the fence so that the neighbor realizes the fence removal is coming very soon. Instead of just yanking the fence out in one fell swoop, we’re kind of lessening the shock. We hope.
It already looks much better. And, it’s Earth-friendly too — [...]
April 2nd, 2008
Like Humphrey House and the other residents of Oak Park, we are also fortunate here in Morton Grove to have a recycling program that accepts virtually everything without our having to sort it all: office papers, newspapers, cardboard, chipboard, virtually all plastics including grocery bags, styrofoam containers, glass, cans (including the lid) — even aluminum [...]
March 26th, 2008
There is so much talk nowadays about being green, reducing your carbon footprint, the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and restore, etc. I think it’s great that it has finally become more commonplace, and I hope it increases.
While we’re by no means perfect, since at least the early ’90s both Pete and I having been [...]
November 14th, 2007
We had another productive weekend on the basement project. I painted the window trim as well as the red ceiling stripes, and it is looking fantastic. I love being able to use up paint, and I had a quart of paint called “British Red” from long ago that I thought would be perfect for the [...]