Scalloped or not scalloped?

Our front yard is cheesy. We have a large red clay washout where erosion has slowly taken our yard down the drain. We also have bushes camouflaged by overgrown grass and falling brick edgers.

Fresh off weed mutilation with our new trimmer, I decided to take on the foul bushes that line our front porch.

I raked the wood chips aside to get a clear shot at the pesky grass (how is it grass grows where you don't want it, but not in the yard where we need it?). I pulled and pulled. I thought I was making good progress.

That is, until I stood up from my little patch to find that I was only about one-third of the way through. Angry at the flower bed, I yanked up all the scalloped brick edgers and banished them to the garage. But what to do with them after that?

Hmm...

I really don't mind brick. In fact I planned to buy actual bricks and do a double line of bricks like I saw in one of the fancy decorators' magazines. That plan was derailed when I realized how heavy such a small load would burden my compact car.

The scalloped edge was what was bugging me. I have nothing against other yards that use scalloped brick edging, but it's too close to stone doilies for me.

But the clean bottom edge seemed right up my alley. Flipping them upside down was the solution.

I started digging a little trench for my new-to-me edgers. And that's where the entry ends. The weeding was started, but not finished. The edgers were partially installed, but not finished.

Perhaps if the mood strikes, when I look at the front yard in a few days and say, "ech, it looks cheesy," then I will continue my decheesing. Until then, I need some tea and a cold shower.

Our first utility bill

I remember almost having a stroke when I visited the City Offices about two months ago.

In order to connect our water, sewer and electricity, we were required to pay a deposit based on the residence's prior utility usage. We dropped nearly half a mortgage payment just to get it all connected.

The thought of high deposits didn't bother me. We came from a history of renting, and almost anything you do is subject to deposits in the renting world. What really scared me was the idea that each month, we would face similarly outrageous utility bills.

We received our first bill in the mail yesterday.

Covering a little over a month, I was fully expecting a $250 bill. I even budgeted $400 just in case.

It wasn't that bad. Our water and sewer was around $30, and our electric was around $100. Definitely manageable, and definitely near what we were spending when we were renters. Crisis averted.

So that got me wondering if it was our lifestyle that kept us from high utility bills, or if some of the crisis-averting measures we put into place could be credited. What were my measures?

Fluorescent bulbs: The bulk discount warehouses have big packs of the compact fluorescents. Although these warehouses don't exist in Statesville, I stopped in Hickory just before we moved. The bulbs put out the same wattage as incandescents, but use 25 percent of the electricity to do it. That means a 100 watt fluorescent puts out what looks like 100 watts, but only uses 25 watts. Once you replace all the bulbs in your house (they come in varying wattages), you can really start to see the savings.

Heating and cooling: My dad is an HVAC repairman, so during our housewarming cookout he gave our system a checkup. He showed me how to keep the outside unit's coils clean and free of debris so it wouldn't have to work as hard. Then we installed a digital thermostat. The thermostat lets us control what times throughout the day we want the unit to work harder. There are four key times: when you wake up, when you leave, when you return and when you go to sleep. Although I would like to say the new thermostat had an affect on the current utility bill, we won't know for sure until the next bill because it was installed two weeks after the bill ending date.

Weatherproofing: I inspected all the windows and doors for proper weatherstripping. I noticed two areas for concern: where the previous dog tenant chewed through the weatherstripping on the door from the interior to the garage, and small drafts from the front windows. I got a tube of window caulk and a replacement weatherstrip from the home improvement store, and easily took care of both. Next on my list is to check the amount of insulation in the attic.

Ceiling fans: Speaking of drafts, we leave our ceiling fans running on low constantly. The air flow helps the heating and air system work less, and running the ceiling fan takes almost no energy. We can also use less air conditioning in the summer with the fans running. For instance we keep our home around 75 in the summer, but with fans it feels closer to 70.

Window treatments: As much as I love sunlight, during the summer it wreaks havoc on the inside temperature. I installed faux wood blinds (it was a hard decision since I try to avoid all things vinyl) on all our windows and patio door to cut down on midday sun. In the winter we will let the sun in to help us warm the house.

Front-loading washer and dryer: Not only do they look cool and you can stack them to make a small laundry room feel double the size, but front-loaders have an added bonus of saving water. I've read that the traditional top-loading machine can use 30 gallons of water in a wash cycle. Front-loaders use around six. If that's true, imagine how many loads of laundry you do in a week or a month. Now imagine that the same water usage can be translated into sewer usage, and the difference is huge.

Our first utility bill puts me more at ease about our consumption, and makes me happy to know that maybe we're doing something right for our environment. Plus we won't be in the poor house after each bill is due!

Thermostats

Our house was built in 2004. Our thermostat looked like something from the '80s. I figured that was the reason why I had to set it to 80 degrees just to get a comfortable temperature and maintain it.

So when I asked my dad, a heating and air man, if he would help me install a new digital thermostat, he walked me through basic AC maintenance.

First we cleaned the coils on the outside unit. We removed grass, dirt and dead bugs that were clogging the air flow from the fan. We then went inside to tackle the thermostat.

The reason for the high setting was simpler than I thought: it was TV's fault. When we arranged the furniture in our living room, we naturally put the TV closest to the cable outlet, which just happened to be directly under the thermostat. My dad had me hold my hand at the wall behind the TV and feel the hot air coming from it. That hot air was tricking our thermostat into thinking it was much hotter than it really was.

We moved the TV about three feet to get it out of the thermostat's way, then worked on the digital thermostat. The wiring in the house works with any thermostat, as long as you get one that corresponds with your type of heating and air. He said ours was a heat pump with auxillary/emergency heat coils in the attic.

The thermostat is very exciting. It comes with three different four-stage schedules to save energy. You can set your schedule for weekdays, then one for Saturday and one for Sunday. Instead of maintaining a constant temperature while you're gone, this new thermostat will get the house exactly where you want it at a certain time each day.

Although it was a little intimidating to tackle such a technical project, I would recommend other homeowners consider installing programmable digital thermostats. I just happen to be lucky to have an electrician for a dad.

Backyard after photos

The back yard is a little tricky. Now that the weeds have been knocked down I can see that the hill is, well, ugly. I thought a small retaining wall (about 3 feet high) would add some contouring and extra space in the corner, but I'll have to check on what it would do to the area's drainage.


Surprise! We had a couple trees in all the overgrowth. We also need to put something on that hill to give us some privacy from our neighbors. Not that I have anything against them, but I'd rather look at a myrtle than someone's back porch.