Why I Like Having a Cellar

Lots of people like having a cellar so that they can go to warehouse stores and buy many many many rolls of toilet paper. I do that.

But this morning?

I just ordered a case of carnaroli rice. That's 24 pounds of rice.

We like risotto.

I'm glad we don't live in an apartment anymore.

No Green Paint

And it came to pass that they made a green as green as grass.*

We should have had Brush and Hush around the other day. W. spent the better part of two weekends painting our closet sized downstairs bathroom. When we moved into the house, the kitchen was freshly painted in a really pleasant just-right green. But the previous owners had put nails in the wall in a few places, and we wanted nails in different places, and so for nearly three years there have been a couple of spackled but unpainted patches in the kitchen. Since he had the paint stuff out, and the sellers had had the good sense to leave their leftover paint, well marked, W. thought he'd touch up those few spots. Perfection!

Then he decided to touch up a couple of dings in the adjoining green breakfast nook.

Oops. The breakfast nook is a different, darker shade of green. Observant folks that we are, WE HAD NEVER NOTICED THAT THERE WERE TWO SHADES OF GREEN HAPPENING. The two colors meet at an outside corner, and the difference is hard to see - you really have to think about it because you assume that the difference is due to the variation in light conditions. Those spots in that picture? It's the lighter green paint on the darker green paint.

Luckily, the clever sellers had also left the Benjamin Moore paint strip in a pile of house information, so we know that the kitchen is "van alen green" and the breakfast nook is "sherwood green" and we were able to get a quart of the "sherwood green". But still.


*Someday, when I'm feeling up to it, I will write a paean to Margaret Wise Brown. I do so love her books, The Color Kittens being one of them.

The Big Dig

Oh joy. Here's what's happening at my house today. I'm at work so I don't get to see it. And Miss M. is at Grandma's, so she doesn't get to see it either. Tant pis.

________________________________________

From: W
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:07 AM
To: Magpie
Subject: The Big Dig

Oh, there's a big hole in the street.

Not certain yet if it's our line, but certainly looks like it. Water running copiously from the roadside wall of the pit that exposed our curb valve. The curb valve is not the leaking culprit - somewhere between it and the water main. Line into the house from curb valve looks ok, and is the same material as protrudes from the foundation wall in the basement. This is good because indicates no splices or shenanigans performed upon it. They will snake this line to check it. Line from the curb valve to the house is greater than 48" below grade. Modern code for this climate is 42". This is good.

Five men, excavator, jack hammer, compressor, blacktop machine, road flagman, five trucks. Big crew, hence the price seems relatively fair to me. And barring disasters, they will get it done today.

Yikes!