Sealing the Cracks

While booking a summer vacation to Vegas, I was disgusted that all the major carriers now charge $15 per checked bag each way. So, a couple going on vacation may have to hand over $120 at the airport to transport their clothes and toiletries. I wondered - wouldn’t it be cheaper to send my clothes ahead of me via UPS Ground? I concluded: probably.

While researching, I stumbled upon an airline carrier called Jet America, which claims to offer $9 seats to under-served Midwest cities, and a few East Coast areas too. 

The situation, however, is that it’s not really $9. There’s the convenience fee, a 9/11 fee, a baggage fee, and Federal taxes. To start the base price at $9 pre-fees, you also have to be among the first nine people to book your flight. If you’re not, the base price can go as high as $199 pre-fees. 

But, wondering if a decent deal was still at hand, I decided to look up a fare from Lansing, MI to Orlando, FL. I chose flight dates of June 20th - June 27th. The computer told me those dates “weren’t available”, but might I want to go on July 18th - July 25th (yes, a month later!!!). I decided that sure, a month was no big situation this time. (huge eyeroll)

The lowest available base fare each way was $69. Not $9, but not bad! I clicked “Next” to continue. Taxes came in at $40, putting my roundtrip base ticket at $169.20. The baggage fee on Jet America is $20 each way. Seeing as this is a beach trip, I’ll certainly need a bag. Now my total is $209.20, which resembles a normal ticket price on a discount carrier like Southwest. (Also, $200 more than the giant $9 ad on their homepage). 

So, I don’t know America, I think we’re stuck with unreasonable airline practices for the long haul…

Is there a spot in your house, condo, or apartment that’s simply too empty? Maybe you need more furniture against one wall, or there’s a big blank spot on the wall?

Since the day we saw this house, I’ve been bothered by a giant empty space in front of the living room windows. It was clearly a flowerbed at one point, probably several owners ago, but until recently, it was nothing more than 23 feet of dirt and grass bits. Very sad. Very bothersome.

But recently, we took action, which you’ll see on the clickable photos below. Someday, big beautiful white hydrangeas will blossom there. I hope that as people walk by, they’ll say, “What a pretty space!”

Project materials

1. One gallon of Behr paint in “Mellow Yellow”
2. Three white wooden shelves
3. Three decorative plates
4. Three plate holders
5. One roller
6. One tiny edger brush
7. Very accurate measurements (thank you, math-inclined husband)

Total cost: $85

Before photos (click to enlarge):

After photos (click to enlarge):

Project summary

I didn’t like the blue kitchen because I felt it was a good bathroom color, not a good kitchen color. I feel the yellow is a marked improvement, but could be taken further. I am relieved that two coats of the yellow looks much better than a single coat. I will keep my eyes open for nice white antique-finish tables to pull it all together. Short of that, consider the table on my Christmas list.

The kitchen has its first coat of yellow up. I won’t lie, it’s much brighter than I anticipated. I was envisioning more of a butter yellow, but this is a Very Bright Day yellow.

Adam is thrilled. He is a lover of all things bright (t-shirts, cars, kitchen walls). I’m more of an earth tone girl myself. This will take some getting used to. If a Fairy Housemother wanted to drop in a white wood table with an antique finish, I think that’d soften things and give the room a new feel.

Here, you better just see the progress for yourself.

The color’s intensity varies depending on the time of day and whether the lights are on or off. Maybe you should just swing by to see the real deal, hm?

We’ve got one set of our four new curtain sets up, too. Who knew shopping for curtain rods would give me acid reflux - so many choices, yet so few options, really. Valances are tricky. Also, curtain placement is no fun task. I think curtains look nice when they touch the ground, but we have the Roomba and our climbing cats to consider, forcing us to pop them up higher. Lord, I don’t know. At least Annie is happy with her new fort made from the curtain box.

And Holly has found her calling as a Painting Supervisor, apparently.

So what do you think? Inspired to start painting?

Garth Brooks sang that he’d spend his money up to his last dime “Callin’ Baton Rouge”, but all of our extra flow goes toward house improvements, like the budgets of many a like-minded yuppie who wants to put their mark on their home and build a little more equity in the process. The 2009 Home Improvement Season has begun.

My mental list is long, as usual, and we can’t afford to do it all. So here’s what we are doing, or have done, for the ‘09 HIS:

• Paint the kitchen (already started!)
• Install a bird feeder for the cats’ enjoyment
• Hang curtains on the ground level (already ordered!)
• Plant hydrangea bushes on the south side.
• Attach a flower box to the dining room window
• Reseed the backyard
• Create six new flowerbeds (four are now sprouting!)
• Buy coordinated sheets for our bed
• Paint the garage’s interior
• Touch-up exterior areas in need of a swipe of paint
• Clean, restore, reseal, or research the best course of action for the delicate deck
• Install trim in the reading room (I’ve given this a mental deadline of mid-Sept, since it’s more involved)
• Reorganize all of the closets and cupboards
• Clean out the fireplace for the season

And here’s the best part: we’re gonna give it all we’ve got to get it all done by May 31st so we can spend our summer months lounging in the flowering backyard, gorgonzola-stuffed burgers sizzling on the grill from Whole Paycheck while the cats chase butterflies and grasshoppers. I really like the “give it hard” approach on projects. Last summer when we had endless painting and unpacking to do, we’d wrap up our work around midnight, brunch it up in the morning, and start all over again, napping in front of the fan for awhile if needed in the afternoon. I like the team spirit that comes with project pushes. Friends would wander in and out, helping as they had time. And the end results were, and still are, so satisfying.

I’ll do my best to update this blog at least twice a week with our progress, since I know a lot of you out there have home decorating/improvements on the front burner at all times. In return, don’t forget to check-out other parts of the site: the fabulous Monthly Tidings articles, the homepage Featured Habit, the Yuppie Watch item requiring your vote, and of course, the forums! Start it all right here.

Onward, ho! Here are the paint samples up on the kitchen wall at this very moment. We’ve chosen the second color from the left, but we’ll go one shade darker… it’ll be bold, my friends. Quite bold.

Embarked on a winter getaway to Cancun last week. Speaking of cities, here’s a story for you. Less than forty years ago, that region was nothing but jungle (”Cancun” means “snake’s nest” in Mayan). Mexican officials took note of its endless beaches and beautiful waters, and thought it’d be the perfect tourist locale to pump money into the country. It worked. Cancun is to Mexico what Vegas is to America. But instead of casinos in the desert, you have dazzling waterfront resorts.

Wonderfully, Cancun is a nice jumping point to many natural attractions in the area. We took a day trip to Chichen Itza, deemed one of the new “7 Wonders of the World“. (Another controversial list for you to debate.) I loved sipping my drinks in front of the Caribbean Sea, but man, don’t miss this if you have the chance:

I also picked up a wonderful new mantra from a fellow traveler while in Mexico. He said, “If you want everything to be like home, don’t leave home.” Indeed. A nice way to deal with travel uncertainties, like when the airline stewardess refuses to give you a customs form in English. (Our British friend simply called her a “vile fat cow”, but I’ll take the high road here.)

So now, we’re back in wintry Wisconsin, and cabin fever is reaching new heights. As soon as the ground thaws, I’m out of here. In the interim, I’ve stocked up on seeds, prepared my Home Improvement 2009 list, and started with some indoor work. Well, rather, I assigned the husband some indoor work while I supervised (I’m much better at the project manager role when nails are involved).

What was once an unused TV propped in our bedroom corner, is now a make-up and jewelry bureau for me:

And a stop at IKEA produced these Windows® logo mirrors for the guest room:

We’re back in Chicago this weekend. I’m sure we’ll stop in Lowe’s on the way home for some new odds and ends. Nothing feels better than giving your home a little splash of newness each season. Try it!

Forbes recently published their Most Miserable Cities list. Here are the losers:

1. Stockton, CA
2. Memphis, TN
3. Chicago, IL
4. Cleveland, OH
5. Modesto, CA
6. Flint, MI
7. Detroit, MI
8. Buffalo, NY
9. Miami, FL
10. St. Louis, MO

Top 10 Best Cities/Top 10 Worst Cities lists are common, and differ widely by outlet. We all love lists, don’t we? But of particular interest on the Forbes list (at least to me, the yuppie running the show), is that I wrote about three of these cities as Featured Habitats over the past year on our homepage: Memphis, Chicago, and St. Louis. And as you know, each city gets its place in the Featured Habitat spotlight for a month. Am I just touting misery over here?

I like to think not. Here’s the preamble given by Forbes: “We compiled our rankings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., which meant those with a population of at least 378,000. We ranked those metros on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather.”

Commute times, taxes, unemployment, violent crime, superfund sites… those check out for me. Corruption? Weather?! Pro sports teams?!?! My eyebrow is raised. Permanently.

And I suppose, because I’m a Midwest girl, and I can drive down to Chicago whenever I fancy for lunch, I’m pretty upset about the #3 slot. I understand that visiting a city is different than living in a city. But when I think of Chicago, I think of the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline and the clean parks sprinkled throughout downtown. I recall the largely friendly residents who have, one more than occasion, strolled up to me and offered to take my photo in front of landmark I was admiring, or directed me to the best place for a cup of coffee as I scanned shop signs. I love, and still return to, the wonderful museums dotting the cityscape. I think about the defined neighborhoods, each one boasting about what they have that the others don’t. 2.8 million people live in Chicago, and 9.5 million people live in Chicagoland. I know the reasons why.

What do you think about the Forbes list?

I’ll leave you with a photo I took just a week ago in Chicago… and I’m going back in March!

Internet advertising is getting slicker, but not always more appropriate. Check out the embedded advertising on the forecast for Madison on weather.com:

I mean, gardening and golfing would be fine if the ground wasn’t frozen solid with a bed of snow over it. What?! And if weather.com wants to pay for the bill, I actually do need new tile installed…

With the Super Bowl fast approaching, I am reminded that visual commercials stick with us, but print advertising has to be pretty spectacular (or pretty ridiculous) to matter. Do you agree?

On the peppy front, I received this lovely gift this weekend from a fellow yuppie. If you dig it, you can get yours at the Anderson Soap Company. (Look at me, advertising on the Internet…)

Attended a live cooking show at Madison’s 2009 Home Expo this weekend. It panned out much like you’d see on TV - shiny new gadgets being advertised to wow the audience (effortless choppers and waterless cookware being the big hits), with plates of freshly cooked food circulating the audience. I consumed a delicious salad first, then tried savory chicken (no grease! no lard!) and nicely seasoned potatoes. Highly enjoyable.

I was deeply amused by the demeanor and sexism of the chef, however. His approach to selling products: “Now ladies, how many of you just stand by while your husbands buy new pricey fishing poles and hunting gear? Raise your hands!”

… no hands are raised …

“Oh! Maybe this is a lawn and garden type of crowd!” the chef declared. “How many of you get sooooooo irritated when your husband brings home a new riding lawn mower or huge wood chipper?! Isn’t it your turn?! You DESERVE the best cookware out there!”

… crickets …

… snickering from yours truly …

Anyway, Chef Chuckles aside, he did pose an interesting challenge to the audience that I’ll pass along to you: only buy produce that’s on sale, super sale preferably, and plan a recipe around this produce when you arrive home. In other words, don’t go to the produce aisle with a list - get the deal, and get creative. I like it! Have you ever tried this? Do you make a shopping list beforehand, or browse and buy on site? I’m a list gal myself.

P.s. I accidentally deleted a few comments from previous posts. I feel they are gone forever. Sorry about that… *sad face*

… a monthly heat and electrical bill for $449.

Surely there was a mistake! But after comparing the numbers to our last bill, and a quick call to another Madison homeowner, we realized the sad truth of the situation. Our large house, coupled with a new rate increase from the utility company, has resulted in a frightening number, especially considering how low we keep the heat at night.

Like silent swans, gliding away from each other in their home pond (trying to jazz up the somberness here), we moved apart, closing vents, closing doors, and stacking the fireplace. We were so proud of our fall weatherstripping efforts, but the rate increase negated that nicely.

New Year’s Resolution #1: conserve, conserve, conserve.

But, given our record breaking December, I don’t think there’s much more we can do. Have you seen my quaint film? You might want to put on a sweater before watching:

New Year’s Resolution #2: Realize that things could always be worse. Because I’m sure we’ll re-break the record next year.

Have any resolutions to share?

Anyway, I’m packing up my things and heading to Milwaukee to celebrate the coming of 2009, which I hope is a little cheaper than 2008 but still loaded with great times. I’m pretty darn sure we can make that happen…