new blog header

Several folks have commented on how great (and appropriate) the old header was..."Nothing is plumb, level or square." I love that line, but since I was technically using it without asking, I decided I shouldn't make it into my header with getting permission first. Whether or not they will grant it, I have no idea. Alan Dugan died a few years ago, so first I've got to figure out who to ask...

I fell in love with the poem the first time I read it, in Modern Poetry class as an undergrad. We were instructed to choose from a list of poems and explicate them, without using any reference materials--just our own ideas about the poem. Of course, the professor, who I believe hated me, told me that all my ideas were wrong! I mean, seriously, how do you instruct someone to write their own opinion about something and then say it's wrong? At any rate, I read my paper again years later and decided she was probably right.

The complete text of the poem is located on the lower right of the page. I found a link recently that lets you listen to Alan Dugan reading it himself, but it was different than I imagined, and not in a pleasant way, so I'll leave it to you if you want to search it out yourself.

sticking with blogger...for now

Turns out WordPress wanted to charge for everything I wanted to do, including just using my domain name www.1928bungalow.com. Oh well. Instead I've made a few changes here at Blogger, so let me know what you think. It's a lot of green, I think...but I might play with the colors a little more.

new photos added

I just added more photos to the den, yard and garden, bathroom remodel, and attic folders. The attic ones show our old gable vents, as well as the nest that the nice squirrel is building. Sigh.

deforestation as a positive force

Our back fence BEFORE photos (and yes, there is a fence in there somewhere).

Our back fence after many hours of sawing, chopping, and vine-pulling, not to mention a few run-ins with the poison ivy.

atlanta tornado

Wow.

The storm passed just north of us (we're about five miles south of downtown) and we had no damage at our house at all.

We were watching tv when the first storm came through around 9:40pm and considered heading down to the basement, but it didn't seem that bad so we waited it out upstairs. After a while the tornado sirens went off, including the creepy one with the man's voice telling us it was an emergency, but other than some lightning and a little rain, it was pretty quiet at our house. Watching the news, however, soon let us know that some serious weather had just passed by, and not that far away from us. Reports of broken windows in downtown hotels started coming in, and then the pictures started coming in.

Summaries of the damage to various buildings and landmarks can be found here, and a first-person blog account is here.

Heartbreaking photos of damage to the historic homes in the Cabbagetown neighborhood, along with other areas of damage, can be seen here.

gable vent diy

Sorry, this isn't a class...it's a plea for help. ;)

Anyone have any good sources for gable vents? As you can see from our photos--we have no roof vents. There were two perfectly okay ones, and the contractor for Mr. Flip-It decided it would be prettier to cover them up, apparently. It does give a nice uniform appearance to the gables...but keeping the attic below 5000 degrees Fahrenheit this summer would be nice, too. We've found some on eBay, but wonder if that's kind of hit or miss quality-wise. We also thought about building our own out of some sort of lattice or totally from scratch. We considered installing a stained glass window, sort of like this, but think a triangle shaped one (more like this) at the top might be easier...especially since we hope we don't have to pull off all those cedar shingles they installed. The ones that are existing under the cedar shingles are triangular, but don't really match each other (there's one on each gable), so we'd prefer not to expose them unless we have to.

moving to wordpress?

I'm thinking of moving the blog to WordPress, but haven't decided yet. They offer some cool features, but less flexibility with the template (like, none) unless you pay annually and then you can either upload your own or make changes to the ones they offer.

Anyway, check it out here and let me know what you think...I've imported all the posts but haven't quite gotten all the quirks worked out yet.

http://1928bungalow.wordpress.com/

180 days = 3 months

Perhaps in dog years? I'm not really sure.

We bought a used stackable washer/dryer unit for our condo (did you even know we have a condo? more on that later, then) about six months ago (five months, two weeks, and two days--to be precise), when our tenant first moved in. The w/d came with a six month warranty, or "180 days warranty" as is scribbled across the handwritten receipt. This warranty being the main reason we bought this unit and the main reason we bought it from this store.

Sigh.

When I called them last weekend to report that the dryer cycle setting knob had fallen off, they said I needed my receipt. So I dug through all our paperwork and produced the receipt. I called them back and give them the number printed on it. They say they can't find the original copy. Ask if I can fax it to them because they have a receipt with that number but it doesn't have our name on it. Are we sure we bought it there? (Yes, we are.) I tell them I can bring it personally, and ask when they might be able to replace the part.

Then the drama begins.

She hems and haws and finally says, "Well, really...if it had broken in the first month, then yeah, we would fix it, but this close to the end of the warranty? You'll probably have to pay for the repair. If it broke, it's probably your fault...you know, because you've been using it and all."

What?!

Later I call back (after having tracked down a replacement part--$11) and ask for an owner. She (same she) asks if she can help me. I say, obviously not. A man comes to the phone, defensive from the time he says hello. We argue, he says I am not listening, he doesn't care anything about any Better Business Bureau (I filed a complaint), he doesn't care anything about any "attorneties" (I complained to a friend whose husband is a soon-to-be "attornety"), he's been in business for years, and none of that means anything to him. Then...THEN...he tells me that it's my fault again, for ripping that knob off AND had it broken in the first THREE months, then he would probably fix it, but five months and two weeks? Nope. Not gonna' happen.

I generally like people, but I (only somewhat guiltily) hoped that some awful misfortune struck this man on the way home from work that day.

but still no chinese food!

We're excited to see that we are getting a new Thai restaurant in East Point! We went to the one in Hapeville this weekend and it was very pretty and cozy, the service was excellent, and the food was pretty good, too. Not the best we've had, but definitely not the worst. Not sure when White Elephant will be opening up in EP, but we're looking forward to having somewhere new to choose from.

We took B's mom to our local Mexican place last weekend...I'm not sure if she's recovered yet ;) We have a Tex-Mex place that's pretty good, but there's lots of stuff on the menu like ribs and wings there, so for more authentic Mexican, we head to El Rocio, located across the street from the EP MARTA station. El Rocio has stuff on the menu like tripe tacos and whole fried fish with the head still on. Awesome! They also usually have all the TVs on telenovelas or news or sports, with the volume turned up full-blast...then usually someone will go over and start the jukebox...also at full-blast. Last Sunday was made even more interesting by the group of very drunk guys at one table, who figured out how to turn the jukebox on even though the very patient waitress told them it was broken. Too funny. Usually we are the only people there when we go for some reason, but the food is great and the waitress (we always have the same one) is extremely nice. On weekends, they even bring a small, free dessert with the check--usually either a flan of some type or sopapillas. Mmmm.

a blog post with no name

It's been a busy, busy week since I last posted. Or two weeks, I guess it's been. We got back from Asheville with a rush schedule ahead of us to get the house ready for our first family event--a double baby shower for B's sister and cousin. There was some stress, some yelling, and some making up, but we managed to get most of it done in time. Other things (like the molding in the hallway that's just propped into place) will have to wait until we can get around to them.

We did get the bathroom finished, thanks to some trim painting help from my mother-in-law, who also came over to clean before the shower since I had to work. A million thanks for that, Patrice. The shower was a huge success and the day was the most gorgeous we've had in months here, so the girls ended up opening their gifts in the front yard since all the guests had all drifted out to the porch during the morning. We had maybe 40 guests and received numerous compliments on the house. Brandon's aunts and cousins did a fantastic job with the food and decorations, but I don't have any photos because my camera was in a cabinet behind all the gifts!

We've been looking through the Craigslist ads this week for doors and furniture, and may have a lead on an old Craftsman door. We also found this loveseat for $120, and the guy agreed to deliver it for another $20. It's not old, but we like the way it looks. We might re-cover it eventually, but for now the colors match the living room. Not sure yet if we're going to use it in the living room or move it back to the den. Obviously, it won't stay where it is in the middle of the room! You can also see that Gecko has already adopted it as his new home. Ha!

More photos are under the links to the right.