Home Improvements

The picture to the left pops up in my screensaver every couple days.  Lydia was less than a year old and the boys had short hair.  (their hair is a bit of a contentious issue at the moment.  I loved these short hair cuts, but they both are going for the shaggy look these days.  I am trying to remember that it's ONLY HAIR, but I miss these close cut heads.)

Lydia is pushing on our old sliding door, while all three watch them pour the concrete to bring our outside patio flush with the indoor floor.  We had this done in anticipation of closing in the back patio and turning it into another room.

The project took much longer than anticipated, but Bo did the majority of the work himself.  The project paused while we earned the money, and found the time, but it's been complete now for a couple years and we enjoy having the extra space off the kitchen.  We use it as our office, and the old office became Lydia's bedroom.

 One of things we'd like to consider in the future is adding a sliding door between the office and the kitchen.  While most of the time it's nice to have the open space, there are also times when some additional privacy would be nice.  Since Bo is a fabulous handyman, I am sure he could figure out how to do it.  Years ago, he did quite a bit of woodworking in our old basement (back in WI), and I can envision that he could craft a gorgeous door with sliding door hardware.  I'm not sure when it will happen, but I know that if I decide I really want it, Bo will make sure it does.

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.*

Water Saving Flushes

While we are not extremists, we are always looking for ways to save/preserve/conserve our environment.  The handle on the boys' toilet broke a couple days ago, and when we went looking for a replacement, we picked up a HydroRight Dual Flush Converter to replace the handle/flap on both our toilets!  (Our flapper has had a leak for a while now and we knew it needed to be replaced.)

These converters help save water by getting rid of the flapper (main source of leaks) and also giving users the choice of two flushes.  The box claimed that it could be installed in 10 minutes -- and they were right!

Bo was joking around a bit and sent Nate into the bathroom with the instructions and told him to go ahead and replace it.  Nate did a great job starting the project, but did need a little help to finish it up.  So, I can also say that it's so simple a bright 8yo can do it!

I'll be interested to see if we will notice the difference in our water bill next month, but we could see the difference in how much water each flush uses just by watching the tank.  With a house of 5, we flush the toilet quite a bit!