Category: house
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 7
As I may have mentioned previously, our house renovation is being done by Le and Sons. Mr. Le has been our contractor/handyman since we moved into our house in 1996. He has finished our basement and renovated our kitchen as well as done many fixit jobs over the years (since Jim Jim and I are…
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 6
Woodpeckers! I actually couldn’t tell you the difference between a woodpecker and a red-crowned crane (or any other bird), but spring is almost here, which means the birds are returning, and one of the unintended consequences about our construction is that when you leave gaping holes in parts of your house, birds can fly in. …
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The Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 5
We have windows! I realize that some people might take this state of affairs for granted in their house, but when you have been providing a banner year for your propane company’s revenues by semi-heating a house with huge gaping holes in it, windows are a positive development. We even have state-of-the-art windows, which are…
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 4
We use propane for our stove (at least, when we had a kitchen), the heating system, and to power the backup generator. We have 3 large propane tanks that get refilled on a quarterly basis or so. Apparently, the last time we were scheduled to get our propane tanks refilled, the truck drove by, looked…
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 3
Construction continues to progress nicely. The goal is to finish the exterior framing by the end of this week, so that weather will not impact the work going forward. (Of course, if we do have a significant snowstorm, no one is going to be able to get to our house to do any interior work,…
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 2
We got a tour of the structure that’s been framed on the right side of the house over the weekend (I know—it’s kind of strange to get a tour of your own house, but we haven’t wanted to be overly neurotic about the renovation–just normally neurotic). The 3rd garage bay is in good shape, and…
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Chronicles of the Mole Family, Chapter 1
We have been living in the basement for about 3 weeks now, and certain truths are beginning to emerge. First, with 4 people sharing 1 bathroom, planning is an indispensable part of the process, especially in the evening and in the morning. It’s very manageable as long as showers are plotted out in conformance with…
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The Mole Family
I am digressing from describing our charitable organizations to say that we will be living in our basement for the next few months as our house is being renovated. (“Few months” is set at 3 by our contractor and 6 by us.) My theory is that we will either become incredibly tight as a family…