And the paint brand winner is:

This is the paint we will be using in both the bathrooms and kitchens, because it's very durable.

Now for the moment you all been waiting for... What shade of beige won?

Here we have 3 contenders.

1. Lyndhurst Timber (2007-9C):

2. Lyndhurst Gallery Beige (2006-10B)

3. Oatland Subtle Taupe (6005-1B)

I know they are look very alike...but that's the point. I couldn't find the 'right' beige.

But after days of looking at the shade in daylight, at night and everywhere in between the hands down winner is:

(drum roll)

*** very long pause***

# 2 lyndhurst gallery beige (2006 -10B)

This will eventually be the color for both the bathroom and the kitchen.

Vent about paint chips

Ok...this is strictly a venting session.

Why in the world does there need to be so many different shades of beige in the world? I just want a simple beige....but there's 150 stupid names!!!!

So go into any paint store and this is what you see:

So what is a person to do? I tell you what you do.... you pick up a dozen of these little paint chip cards, tape them up to your wall and after 3 days decide that you can't really tell the difference and you wish one of them simply was named "beige".

*pulls my hair out*

Blow Test

So as you all know we've been making improvements to our small but loveable first home. Most of these updates have been energy efficiency improvements. We were able to fund this through the energy loan program from our local utilities company. But before the loan closed, and all the people who installed the insulation, windows and furnace gets paid we must first have what is called a "blow test".
Well we had the before "blow test" and an after "blow test"....and our results are and improvement of 20%!

We're excited about those results, but we definitely know there is more we need to do. Like what you may ask??? Well we have a basement garage door that has a lot of air flow issues. We need to replace the garage door. We also have a lot of little cracks in the foundation of the master bedrooms' crawl space. Phillip is thinking about adding dirt up around the exposed foundation wall has both an insulator and a way to prevent heat loss.
Does anyone else have common household leaks we may need to explore?

As we continue with improving our energy efficiency we had a new furnace installed to replace our 80% furnace.

   

 Since this along with all the other work we have been able to lower the thermostate by 3.5 degrees!!! According to http://www.eia.gov/emeu/consumptionbriefs/recs/thermostat_settings/thermostat.html that means we save $15 to $40 a YEAR for each degree we lower. So in our case


15 * 3.5 = $52.5 a year


to


40 * 3.5 = $140 a year


It is important to realize that the payback for some of these improvements take a while.


This is Gloria.  I couldn't wait to put in my two cents about the furnace.  It's so nice to not have to worry about CO poisoning from a 15 + year old furnace with no cover.  Or worse the potential fire hazard was astronomical.  It's definitely one worry this stay-at-home mother doesn't have to constantly worry about.  I personally don't even care about the financial payback...because the stress-free-ness of the situation is worth much more.

New Windows

As part of our Energy Effiency upgrades we install new windows throughout the entire house. It is really nice now to be close to the window and not feel a draft just because the single glass pane is so cold. Video Below for your enjoyment.






This is Gloria.  What my husband is not really saying is the those old windows didn't have a draft, they had and elephant sized breeze that drifted in constantly.  I'm not over exaggerating either.  Some days when it was especially windy outside you could see the curtain move to the current. 
The only downside I can see with these new windows is that that they are so new and clean we have to put up better window treatments.  LOL....ok I know what you are thinking.  "Gosh how dirty was the old windows that new windows make you exposed?"  
The answer is... ''Do you really want to know?"

Clogged Kitchen Drain Line

This is Gloria.  Before you watch this video you should read the prior post about the garbage disposal.  From that post you will notice it mentions a clog.   Well I didn't realize we were so close to a potential clog when I requested the garbage disposal, but oh well.... Enjoy the video and Phillip's explanation.  I do love my husband, even if he ends up covered in filth in order to get my plumbing functional again.
XOXO





The Solution by Phillip:

We have a local tool rental location where we rented an electric sewer snake for about $30. I started at the location in the video to clear the line. The first thing I noticed was that after I started working in this section no water came out. This proved that the clog was closer to the location of the sink. But since we just installed a new garbage disposal and undersink drains I knew it was somewhere in the basement. Just for good measure I decided to continue going to clear this line just in case there is a blockage further out. After going the full length of the snake (about 50 feet) I pulled it back and to my disgust. The snake had removed tree roots. So someday in the future this line will need to be replaced, and it will be expensive.

After clearing that portion of the line I moved closer to the sink and got the kitchen drain line cleared. I then used lots of bleach and kitty litter to clean everything up. And all is well in the brown household.

photos of garbage disposal install

This is Gloria.  I wanted to make sure to give you background history to the reason we installed a garbage disposal at this particular time.
Well long story short, I was tired to trying to keep food from going down the drain all the time.  I'm use to having a garbage disposal in the houses I live in so I asked Phillip to make my Christmas present a garbage disposal.
Yeah I know all those sayings about women upset when they get new vacuums and food mixers for gifts.  But they can just dismiss those iconic sayings with me...I want things that make my life easier.  If I was at a normal full time job out of the house I think no one would be upset if I asked for a new computer to better do my job...so I have to issues asking that my gift was getting my garbage disposal even though it wasn't in our house or our gifting budget this year.
Oh and don't even let me start on how expensive this simple gift turned out to be.
One thing I can't say is that I now don't trust every craigslist ad I see out there anymore.
The next thing I'm grateful for is that I won't have clogs like we just had...but that's for another post. 
*smiles*