theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Home Improvement

  • christmas decorations 2011

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    christmas decorations 2011

  • firsts: big girl bed

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    sparklet’s first night in a big girl bed went about how we expected — two hours of unbridled excitement at her new bed followed by a period of shear “wait, you expect me to sleep in this thing” terror.

    mommy had to sing about 20 minutes of twinkle, twinkle after the lights went out — a shockingly long time considering her current repulation for the easy manner with which she goes to sleep.

    of course, we’re spinning this as a “present” for sparklet, but in the end she’s got to get out of the crib because thing two is going to need a place to sleep in the spring.

    UPDATE: the following night it was back to normal, with a quick hop into the new bed and snoozing just 5 minutes later.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    big girl bed

  • christmas lights

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  • leaves

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    leaves, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • found: home

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  • raking the leaves

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    raking the leaves, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • transoms & chimneys

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    turns out climate control in a 97 year old house is a bit of a challenge.

    who knew.

    it’s that time of year finally, and we’ve started to do the things i sincerely hope to be doing in this backyard each October for the rest of my life — pulling in the porch furniture, turning off the outside spigots, and firing up the radiators.

    the boiler that feeds the radiator turned out to be a bit of a problem — it’s 40+ years old, and seems to be throwing a lot more heat back into the unfinished basement than it’s putting up the pipe to the main living areas. when we called a chimney person to investigate, it turned out that the chimney has collapsed, so the heat just has no where to go.

    needless to say we’re getting that fixed. actually, we’re probably just going to replace the 40+ year old boiler while we’re at it.

    in other news, sparklet’s room has become a bit of an ice box — which is (mostly) as we expected. it’s on the north side of the house (so gets very little sun) and has a door, a window and a transom — all of which are 97 years old and all seemingly more proficient at escorting the outside in than keeping it out where it belongs.

    so, i spent last weekend opening up the transom windows to let some hot air circulate between the rooms. of course, i was doing this with a chisel, a mask and a hepa-rated vacuum cleaner just in case our 97 year old paint had some heavy, metalic surprises inside.

    regardless, i think we’re all setup for the winter on Monroe Street — the first of many, i hope.

  • end of summer

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    it’s officially the end of summer.

    we grilled one last time before cleaning and covering, winterized the house, did one last round of gardening, emptied the (we-waited-so-long-the-leaves-are-rotting) basil plants, and put stuff away.

    next up is inside — it’s 60 degrees out, and we can already feel the drafts through our 97 year old windows.

  • sirens

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    if sparklet has missed anything about our old place on park road, it’s the complete lack of fire and police sirens at the new place.

    before, we were on one of the main east/west routes for emergency traffic — and now we only see sirens if something is happening on our specific block (and it’s a quiet block).

    about a week after we moved in, someone half a block over caught his grill on fire, which led to sparklet busting out the front door and running up and down the porch until i agreed to walk her down to see the commotion up close.

    there’s been nothing sense, sans an occasional driveby while we’re walking around the neighborhood — regardless of how much sparklet makes the “more” when she hears something pass in the distance.

  • flag of honor

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    one of the best kept secrets of capitol hill is that you can get an actual American flag (not the “patriotic banners” Walmart sells now to skirt the flag laws) flown over the Capitol for really reasonable prices.

    while we’ve been flying the District flag and the Great Flag of the Republic from our porch for a couple of months now, on national holidays it’s growing increasingly hard to fly a non-American flag without betraying our separatist leanings.

    so, after another awkward holiday (July 4th, featuring our Texas flag) we finally ordered an American flag, and did so in honor of my grandfather, grant “poppa” roberts.

    it seemed an appropriate thing to do considering he is the only man i know who flew an American flag from his porch each day for the last couple of decades — right up until he moved into assisted care a month or so ago.

    and, besides getting a reasonably priced flag to fly, we also got a nice little certificate from the Architect of the Capitol:

    The is to certify that the accompanying flag was flown over the United States Capitol. At the request of the Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, Member of Congress, this flag was flown for Kate Elisabeth Parker, in honor of Grant “Poppa” Roberts.

    long may it wave.