Cereal strainer
I’m tired of getting to the end of the Lucky Charms and Count Chocula and having all the tiny cereal powder clog up my milk. Having a cereal-oriented strainer would allow me to lose the powder and just keep the charms all to myself. I might even go so far as to insinuate that this increases oral hygiene, because the small powdery bits have a greater chance of getting lodged in places where brushing and flossing can’t completely get rid of them.
General Mills, are you listening?
Scrabble walkway
My father is putting in a new walkway between his garage and his front porch. I suggested that instead of the (yawn) traditional stone or cement slab walkway, he pave the new path with Scrabble tiles. I was unsure of which direction the tiles should face – readable for people walking towards the house, or people leaving the house? While each approach has pros and cons, but I think that walking up to the house is a better angle. It’ll give people something to talk about when they get to the front door, assuming they have nothing else to talk about, or perhaps just as filler material when the conversation slows down of its own accord.
Pulte Homes, are you listening?
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Detroit housing market imploding
For as much as I liked our houses in Michigan, it doesn’t look like a good time to be there. I would really like to be back in our house in Ypsilanti, as it was nice (we’d just finished the basement and all that) but I fear that now, if we were back in Michigan and had to move for some reason, we’d be stuck. This article points out that 1 in 80 houses in metro Detroit started foreclosure proceedings *just* in Q3 of 2006. That’s an insane percentage, and doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon.
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Switching to CFL
I was at Home Depot today and picked up 4 CFL bulbs as a bit of a test. 4 “60 watt equivalent” cost me $7.97, so about $2 each. I haven’t bought ‘regular’ bulbs in awhile, but Lesley did pick up a pack some time back. If I recall, the GE ‘long life’ ones came out to about 70 cents each or something around there, so CFLs are about 3 times as expensive.
CFL – compact fluorescent light – is apparently a relatively new type of bulb which is much more energy efficient. They are a little funky looking, to be honest. Think of a long thing fluorescent tube coiled on to itself, with a ‘regular’ bulb socket fitting on the end. Or just look over here to see what one looks like (look at the top left image). I quoted ’60 watt equivalent’ before, because that’s how they’re labelled. To produce the equivalent of a conventional 60 watt bulb, the CFL uses only 14 watts. So, something that costs 200% more but uses 75% roughly less energy should pay for itself relatively quickly. I tried to use one of the online calculators from the EPA to determine the cost savings over time, but couldn’t quite work it out (I dunno was my cost per kwh is, for starters). I do know that it might only be a break even for me from a cash standpoint, but over time if it helps in some small way to reduce energy consumption, it’s probably a good thing.
This article was the one that brought CFLs to my attention, although having poked around some other sites it seems they’ve been around for a bit longer than I thought (someone on another site mentioned they’d been using them for almost 4 years). It’s a bit frightening the power WalMart seems to be able to wield, and should give everyone some concern. It’s also funny to think that they (WalMart) will claim there’s nothing they can do about getting better health coverage for their workers, or complying with environmental regulations, etc., but can reduce green house emissions around the world by stocking and price cutting some light bulbs. Certainly there’s some degree of PR going on here, but it’s still good to see some positive environmental news once in awhile.
Interesting quote:
What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
So, it seems there are some easy things everyone can do to help reduce power consumption, besides the obvious ‘don’t use power’ argument.
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Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti house for sale
Some friends of mine are selling their house in Ypsilanti, MI, and I put together a small website to help them out. If you know anyone looking for a family home in that area, please have them check out http://8172thornhill.com and arrange a viewing.
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Pet friendly house plans
I’m looking for pet friendly house plans. Having been pet owner (2 cats) for the past 8 years, and having looked at dozens of houses (and moved 4 times) during that time, I’ve yet to find any houses which acknowledge that the family may have pets. Whenever we look at homes or house plans, it’s always a struggle to find a place to put the cats’ litter box. We’ve considered getting a dog, and yet have not seen houses which have dedicated places for dogs (little sleeping bed area, for example). Given that the pet industry is billions of dollars strong, and that American pet owners spent $38 billion dollars in 2006, I’m more than a little surprised major home builders like Pulte and KB Homes aren’t even considering pet accomodations in their houses. I’m not suggesting adding on full-fledge pet jungle gyms or whatnot, but dedicating a little 5′ by 5′ area someplace as a ‘pet haven’ or something like that would certainly be a welcome addition for pet owners such as myself. As simple as it sounds, a touch like that would probably sway us in our next home purchase. These things would add resale value to houses as well.
If you know of pet-friendly house plans, please comment here or email me at mgkimsal@gmail.com
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