Tag Archives: House & Home

Insulation, Energy, Assistance

Posted by Santi on May 15, 2013 None comments

So while the guys where at my folks the other day taking care of all of the door and window replacement issues that they have been dealing with as of late, they recommended that my folks check into having a full fledged home energy audit in new jersey to see what else they can do to help keep the cost of energy down at the old home stead. It doesn’t look like any type of energy prices are going to be going down any time soon and now is better than later to get as green as possible in any way that you can, especially in your own home.

There really is a lot of assistance with home repairs businesses and programs all over the country now a days. And considering how hot this summer looks like it will become, I just can’t imagine my parents sweating it out trying to conserve their electricity costs or sweating it out trying to figure out how to pay for that high cost. So now it looks like I’ve got to start looking for a company that does this type of work and some insulation assistance in the state of NJ to get lined up over the weekend.

Mosaic Glass Tiles

Posted by Santi on April 29, 2013 Comments Off

It seems that Judy’s hubby who she just recently married as is now living out in the boonies of Wisconsin, has gotten Judy into the remodeling mode for her own home. They have just recently moved into a house left to her by her late uncle, she fixed it up just enough so that they could move in to and now wants to go the next step further.

The first room is going to be her bath and she emailed some really cool pics and links that are just awesome. One site has a nice selection of hand painted porcelain sinks with just a splash of a little Mexican flair, that are just gorgeous, Judy and I both then fell in love with the glass tile products at another website as well and now she is definitely going for the beautiful glass mosaic tiles that we both agreed on there. It seems that I am involved with more of the choices then her hubby has been.  LOL

Judy’s mother had told her about Edenmosaictile.com, seems she had run across this website while she had been looking for some unique glass tiles for their outside pool area. Judy’s mom did have some lovely decorative ceramic tile work done that is so vibrant and beautifully colored, I’ve seen the pictures of course, thank goodness for the Internet so that we can share such goodies so easily.

Kitchen Wall Spice Racks

Posted by Santi on April 8, 2013 Comments Off

I’ve decided to go ahead with my first plan of buying my mother a spice rack for Mother’s Day which will be here real soon. Her old wall spice rack fell and broke into a million pieces a few months ago, what a mess that was! Now I don’t proclaim to know a whole heck of a lot about spice racks, but I’ve been taking a bit of time and looking around online and I’ve seen a few kitchen spice racks that I think she would welcome into her kitchen.

My mother is one of the best cooks around and she really depends on her spices. I’m not sure why she hasn’t replaced the broken one, except that maybe she knew it would be a good gift idea for someone to get for her on the numerous gift giving occasions, much like I plan to do for Mother’s Day. My mother is a hard one to buy presents for, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to get her something that she really needs and hopefully will use for a very, very long time to come.

Easter Thoughts

Posted by Santi on March 30, 2013 Comments Off

Tomorrow should be a nice easy going Easter family get together that we are hosting this year. We are expecting between 9 and 11 guests, won’t know for sure until it happens. We were very careful as to who we invited and with luck we might manage to avoid any butting of heads or conflicts. That of course is always the mission at each family gathering but it rarely works out that way as we grow older and more drama keeps us busy and at each others throats for numerous reasons.

I’m sure that there will be plenty of conversation to be shared at the extra long table that we purchased for entertaining groups of friends and families throughout the years. The wife very carefully thought out and made place cards at each plate setting with the names printed on them just to make sure that there is a good mix of people that like to talk scattered throughout the ones that are on the quiet side.

Last Easter my brother-in-law pretty much hogged the whole conversation talking about his recent Mass Texting attempts in to boost business and Text Marketing is getting more popular these days and getting a lot of attention in today’s marketing. He has tried email marketing, which I think is a waste of money. For the most part all of those emails land in people’s spam and are not given a second thought or look. I am sure he will be sharing his recent results at dinner. Hopefully he will have some good numbers to brag about and then we can move it along to another person will another subject this year.

I’m glad that we don’t have any little kids that are expected to show up. It is supposed to rain all day and that would totally ruin the best thought out Easter Eggs hunt. Hunting for eggs would just really suck inside a house, especially a house that you aren’t familiar with. Been there and done that before, don’t want to have to do that again.

Texas Bound

Posted by Santi on March 10, 2013 Comments Off

Been spending some of my extra time (and there isn’t a whole lot of that to go around these days) online with a buddy who is considering relocating to the big state of Texas. Now this guy isn’t the most computer literate person in the world, so I help him out when and if I can. He is highly qualified in the cleaning and restoration business, with years of experience in this field. His wife’s family lives in the Austin area and they are needed down there to help out with aging parents issues in a very quarreling and totally dysfunctional extended family. No one has a lot of money to throw around to help them with all that goes along with up and moving, thank goodness they don’t have any children that can throw many other issues into the whole mess.

I have spent the evening utilizing Google with phrases like “fire odor removal austin” and “fire damage services austin” and just for grins and giggles I even tried “fish odor removal austin” to see what is going on in that line of business down there and got some names and numbers for him to follow up on. I really like what I saw at thesteamteam.com. I’ve sent a few emails out and am using my email to respond to if needed. Hopefully we will get through this and get them up and running as soon as possible. These are good people and I hate to see them leave the area.