Anthony Rants

Well I have to apologize for doing such an awful job of updating my blog, almost two months since my last entry! For shame! Home ownership is keeping me very busy, lots of 'fun' activities, from fence building to yard work to situating the garage for more than door painting, the 'fun' never ends around here. In amongst all of this fun I have learned a few things that I will share, call these "Anthony's lessons learned so far from home ownership".

1. In Champaign/Urbana, Menards > Home Depot > Lowes in terms of prices... in terms of quality? Maybe Lowes > Menards > Home Depot... Choose wisely. A really nice thing about Menards is that anything you purchase on a credit card can be returned because you can print out receipts for anything you purchase on a credit card at a kiosk in the front of the store.

2. People are stupid with electricity, never trust anything that has been marked by previous owners... honestly, don't trust anything involving electricity that the previous owners had a part of.

3. If you ever have a house with a subpanel, or you end up installing your own subpanel, do yourself a favor, stick with the same brand that your main panel is... its a pain in the ass to remember which brand corresponds to which panel. Even worse, locally I have the worse luck finding the breakers I want for our subpanel (Cutler-Hammer).

4. If the toilet doesn't flush on the first attempt... plunge it! Do not under any circumstances attempt to flush the toilet again... Found this out the hard way... when you're busy cleaning poop-water off of your bathroom floor, only two thoughts go through your mind: Why didn't I spring for the shop vac that had 8 gallons of capacity!? AND Why didn't I just plunge it!?

5. If you have any painting to be done, hire it out. Painting itself isn't a big deal, but the cleanup is a bitch. Especially if you're doing something silly like painting all of the doors in your house... and especially if some of those doors need to be one color on the front but a different color on the back.

6. Need a fence? Hire it out. Your (not) sore back and (not) blistered hands will thank you.

7. People are stupid about electricity... repeated I know, but it is just that important... If you happen to see a double pole 15A breaker in a panel, don't assume that it controls the power to anything, could be whatever it did control power for is long gone... Don't assume that the breakers labeled 'Garage' are actually all of the breakers that control power to your garage... luckily I am in the habit of carrying a little voltage testing pen device that will beep if a circuit is still hot.

8. Fiberglass insulation, warm weather, and copious amounts of perspiration do not mix... take a cold shower after attempting to mix these ingredients... calamine lotion seems to help after the fact as well.

9. While the house itself is one big project, divide it up into little projects lest you be overwhelmed before you get anywhere.

10. Reward yourself after you complete a project, even if the project is as trivial as planting some flowers... have a beer... or three... the projects don't seem so big after a good strong ale... after all, it was Shakespeare who wrote, "For a quart of ale is a dish for a king."... and as a home owner you are truly the king of your castle :)

In all seriousness, I have gotten quite a bit done over the last few weeks. Completed a wooden privacy fence (posts, concrete, panels and all!), rewired the garage, insulated the garage (has to become a habitable brewery after all!), lots of yard work, and even some unpacking in amongst all of that. Things are going really well for Anna & I and I'm really enjoying having something to do for a change (aside from brewing beer that is... and now that I'm on a sort of brewing hiatus [brewery isn't unpacked or setup yet!], I'd go crazy were it not for these projects to keep me busy).

I have other stuff to talk about too, I'll see if I can't get another post out of my brain again soon.