Home Improvement

I have been a very handy girl lately. These things come with the territory when one moves into a new house. There are a zillion little projects. Most of them are nagging little things that are easy to ignore once the place is really home and you've left your mark. We're not there yet. These things are not so easy for me to ignore -- though I think Buster could care less. He's not as picky as I am.

Some wives make a honey-do list then wait patiently or nag until their husbands take care of it. That's definitely not my style. I'm proud of being a handy girl and I don't like waiting or nagging. Besides, if I do it it'll be done my way, and I like that. Don't worry, Buster has plenty of his own projects.

I started my extra long to-do list a week or so ago and took most of the day off work today to tackle a few more of these little buggers.

The thermostat was digital, but not programmable so I installed this one last week:


To be honest, it was a lot easier to install than to program. Might have to replace it with something a little less obtuse sometime in the not too distant future.

The bedroom windows were all covered by nasty old roller shades, some of which were not exactly functional. Yesterday I started hanging curtains in the master bedroom. I still have to do the two smaller windows, but the big window is all done:

No, we don't have astro-turf for bedroom carpet, but it is the same color. That's on the list of big money projects. We're not ready to tackle those yet, sadly.

Today I started in my office. The dimmer switch no longer dimmed, it just turned the light on and off. I replaced it. Now I can have the right amount of light for any occasion, and the switch looks much nicer, too.


Moving on to the livingroom, this dimmer switch worked, but it was.. well.. backwards:

When I turned the dial it would click on to the brightest setting then dim as I kept turning. I know plenty of people wouldn't think twice about this but I found it really irritating. So I replaced it. Turns out that the installed dimmer was actually meant to be a fan control, not a light control. Maybe that explains the backwards operation.

This was the only project that gave me any trouble. You see, I've been stubborn and I refused to turn off the electricity to do any of the electrical work. The breakers aren't properly labeled and it's always an adventure (rebooting computers and resetting clocks) when I need to turn off a breaker. Anyhow, as I was hooking up the new switch, it bit me. It was just a little jolt to the thumb and I'm not really sure how it happened because I don't think I was even touching anything with that thumb! No harm done and I managed to finish hooking up the switch without any more zaps. It works like a champ.

In case you might think I learned a lesson from that project, I moved right on to my smoke alarm project without even thinking about flipping breakers.

The old smoke alarm seemed non-functional. I wasn't going to test it with actual smoke, but the test button didn't work. That was making me a bit nervous.

I've never had a smoke alarm that was wired into the house electricity before. Regular battery powered smoke alarms are super easy to replace but I wasn't sure about the wired kind. No problem. Turned out to be a piece of cake. No zaps this time and the new smoke alarm nearly deafened me when I hit the test button:

It's also got a "it's not a real fire, I'm just cooking" button. I need one of those.

Next up, the blinds in the bathroom.


Those are standard aluminum blinds, but that is not a standard bathroom window. It comes down a lot lower than bathroom windows should. There is no way to open those blinds without completely sacrificing all modesty. So I replaced them with a top down pleated shade.


Now we can enjoy natural light in the bathroom without sitting naked in front of our neighbors. And, the new shade is very pretty. You probably can't see it in the photo, but it's got a very nice little leaf pattern. I like this shade so much that I'm thinking about ordering more for windows in the livingroom and guestroom.

Tomorrow I have the day off work (it's my birthday) so I'll work on the rest of my list. I still need to

• Hang a top down shade in the other bathroom
• Hang the rest of the bedroom curtains
• Put up a second smoke alarm (no wiring for this one)
• Put up a CO alarm in the basement (furnace 10+ years old? Get a CO alarm.)
  
• fix a bathroom faucet (ooh! plumbing! this should be fun.)
  
• Install some GFIs (none of the bathroom or kitchen outlets are GFIs -- maybe I oughtta find the right breakers before I tackle this one...)
  

And that's just the stuff I already have parts for. If I can get all those things done I might go buy some paint -- that's when the real fun starts!

P.S. Sorry for the dark photos. I used my new iPhone (Thanks, Mom and Dad, this thing rocks!). As soon as I remember where I put away the cable for my real camera I'll start using a flash indoors again.

A New Home

Departing from politics for a bit....

We're all moved into our new house.


Sorry, it was pretty cloudy when I took that picture so it looks a wee bit ominous. I promise, the house is not quite so imposing. It's warm and welcoming and bright and I like it very much. I especially like it now that I've gotten most of our stuff out of boxes...

Most. Not all.


Too many books. Not enough shelves. I need to fix that. Also on the list of things to fix:

• My office has no doors (once a dining room, then a den, now my office).
• Our dishwasher, garage door openers, and window shades are all so old I think Cleopatra may have been the original owner.
• Our cooktop is electric (EWWW! the horror!!).
• The bathrooms are painted in flat white (flat paint in a bathroom = dirty walls).

We still own the old house and until that's sold, we don't have the extra cash to do too much on our to do list. We've had a fair number of showings and we're reasonably optimistic that it will sell, perhaps early next year, sooner if we're lucky.

In the mean time, winter has arrived.


The first snow of the year is clinging to the grass in our back yard. With a heavy heart I declare the end of my 2008 road biking season. I'm going to get my mountain bike tuned up and see if I can't find warm enough clothes to spend some time exploring the many dirt roads near my house this winter. I'm also planning to spend lots of time at the gym. I want to start the 2009 road biking season strong!

Conservative Fundamentals

Thank goodness, the election is over. For the first time ever the American people have elected a racial minority to the highest office in the country. That's very exciting! He happens to have been the most liberal Congressman in the Senate. That's not so exciting. I hope the conservative media are wrong about Obama. I hope he turns out to be more moderate than expected. I hope he's able to unite the country and keep taxes reasonable and improve our foreign relations and do many of the other things he's promised.

I have many fears and hopes for the next two years while the Democrats rule the roost, but that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the Republicans, a party that, with a good deal of personal and ideological compromise, I've recently embraced. I want to talk about the future of conservatism and my hopes and fears on that front.

Jed Babbin wrote:

Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) got it right last night. He said the Republicans need a housecleaning. They need to reclaim the title of the “party of big ideas.” Those ideas have to be conservative ideas: smaller government, strong defense, and individual freedom.

This is a popular notion among conservatives right now. Get back to fundamentals. Get back to conservative idealism and reform: Small government, strong defense, individual freedom, and a strong commitment to the Constitution. Boy, does that ever sound good! A small government that allows capitalistic free markets to function with little or no interference. A government that provides for the defense of it's citizens and defends individual freedoms. A government that focuses on staying small so taxes can stay low across the board. A government that seeks to reduce it's responsibilities rather than grow it's power. A government that seeks to abide by both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. It warms my libertarian-leaning heart.

The problem with the Republican party arrives in the baggage. In recent conservative ideology, individual freedom doesn't appear to include the freedom to marry someone of the same gender. Nor does it include a woman's reproductive freedom. The Constitutional tradition of separation of Church and State doesn't seem to stop the far right from endorsing the ridiculous notion that the public schools should teach creationism. This is all baggage that the Christian Coalition dropped on the Republican Party. These three ideas in particular don't fit on a true conservative agenda.

For some reason a vast majority of conservatives have jumped on the anti-gay marriage band wagon. Not one single person has given me a good solid reason why we should disallow two people from marrying no matter their genders. People argue that a marriage should be about the potential to have children. If that's so, then why are infertile people allowed to marry? Or women past menopause? Technology and adoption allow same sex couples to have children just as they allow infertile hetero couples to have children. Others argue that the traditional family (man, woman, children) is the backbone of society. To that I say look at the rising divorce rate, look at all the single parent homes. Divorce is causing a lot more damage to the traditional family than gay marriage! Would it be right to ban divorce to protect the institution of marriage? I don't understand how people can oppose gay marriage for any reason other than pure bigotry. This is in direct opposition to the notion of personal freedoms.

Abortion is a tough issue and I don't believe that either party has it figured out. The folks on the far left want it flat out legal even when the baby is already half born. The folks on the far right want every abortion banned even when the mother's life is at risk and the baby has little chance for a meaningful life. Both sides take it too far. Either way I personally think decisions about abortions should be left to individuals and their doctors. Until we can objectively determine at what point a fetus becomes an individual human being, any legal restrictions on abortions should come at a state or municipal level where local custom and the local moral majority can decide for themselves. If we really want to minimize government and maximize personal freedoms, such questions should not be handled at a federal level.

The ridiculous notion of creationism is just that: ridiculous. How any right thinking intelligent person could embrace such an idea is beyond my comprehension. How anyone could want such bull-hockey taught to impressionable children is again beyond my ability to comprehend. In any case, the first amendment to the Constitution guarantees your right to practice whatever religion you like. There's a tradition of separation of Church and State in this country (contrary to popular belief, the separation of Church and State is NOT part of the constitution, but a concept adopted to help uphold the first amendment). Creationism is a religious concept, NOT a scientific one. If you wish to teach your children creationism, you are free to do so, just don't ask the public school to do so.

When faced with these issues I'm embarrassed to call myself a conservative. On nearly any other topic I'm likely to agree with the conservative point of view. Smaller government, strong defense, individual freedoms, free market economics, flatter taxes, fewer social programs, patriotism, tradition, and strong adherence to the Constitution, these are conservative notions I can get behind. If the Republican party is going to make a fresh start perhaps it should shed the anti-gay pro-life creationist ideologies. Such ideas are contrary to the most fundamental of conservative ideals. I'm all for getting back to the fundamentals.

As far as President-elect Obama goes, I'm planning to give him the benefit of the doubt across the board. I will set aside my concerns about his past and judge him based on his actions from this day forward. A clean slate and a fresh start. I hope that we can look back in 20 years and remember our first black president with pride and honor.