I am still alive!...

...although you wouldn't know it from the date of my last update! We have been spending a load of time coordinating some improvements to the house. I finished chopping up the old porch into manageable chunks that the city will haul away, and then couldn't move for a few days after. Some of the rafters are pressure treated 2x8"s so I pulled the nails and hardware from the straight and clean boards and kept those for some planter boxes I'm planning to build in the front yard. This summer I'm going to try my hand at growing grapes! (and yes, the pressure treated boards are sealed and painted so we won't risk eating copper and arsenic and whatever else they use on pressure treated wood these days.

The roofer will begin his thing on the 5th of May (I will or course be watching from the sidelines with a bucket of Coronas!) We are using a non traditiona roofing process called Hydro-Stop http://www.hydro-stop.com/ that should be a more energy efficient and longer lasting process that hot seamed rolled composite that they usually put on flat roofs like ours. The Florida Theater downtown has a Hydro-Stop roof, and the super says that he's not had any issues in the 7 years that the material has been in place. The final finish will be white too, so that should help out the electric bills.

On the 20th of May, The AC guys will be out to replace our entire central air system. That will go a very long way towad reducing our power bills. I'm in favor of low bills. Low bills are good. AN electrician will be around to replace the ac breaker and inspect the supply wire, which might be aluminum and would then need to be replaced. While the electrician is on site I'm going to have him relocate some conduit on the roof, replace an outlet in the kitchen, and run an exterior outlet for the porch. He may be asked to send power to the shed too...but I haven't decided. I still play with the idea of using solar panels and a 12V supply in the shed...with an inverter and a deep cycle battery to run the juice. Solar baby! I won't be able to recharge power tools out there, or run a welder or anything, but 12V would supply lights and an inverter could power a small fan and maybe a bench grinder or some other small tools.

Then...the screen porch guy comes out and rebuild or rear porch but with SCREENS! I'm so excited to be able to sit outside and have blood stay in my body.

Anyway...the quick and the dirty update. I'll post something a little more fun soon!