Archive for the 'Fun' Category
How Many Neighbors Do You Know?
Rick Green posted a link to this nifty little study recently released by the Pew Research Center.
For those of you that don’t want to read the study, the gist of it was that only 43% of American adults know “all” or “most” of their neighbors by name. Twenty nine percent know “some” of their neighbors and surprisingly (to me) 28% claimed they knew “none” of their neighbors.
Really, how is it possible that more than a quarter of the adult population in this country doesn’t know the name of at least one of their neighbors?
Let’s take a look at this pictorially, shall we? Let’s say you live in the neighborhood pictured below. And let’s say that you need to provide at least the first name of one of the people in the 11 homes nearest to you. Can you do it? How many of your 11 closest neighbors can you name?
I understand that not all of us live in walkable neighborhoods with sidewalks and .25 acre lots- which realistically makes it a lot easier to know the names of our neighbors. But come on. Even if you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, wouldn’t you know the name of your nearest neighbor? Simply because there might be an emergency. For example:
Erma: Hi Mildred, it’s Erma. Fred fell off the tractor again and it looks like he broke his leg. Can you come over and watch the kids while I take him to the county hospital?
Mildred: Sure Erma, I’ll be right over, just need to fire up the tractor…
See? Even people that live in the boonies need to know their neighbors and interact with them from time to time. [NOTE: Kyle and I both grew up in the boonies and we knew the names of our neighbors, so we are allowed to poke fun.]
So, my take on this survey? If you know the names of your neighbors, great! Maybe make an additional effort to go out and learn more. And if you know the names of none of your neighbors? Stop being such a recluse and, unless you’re agoraphobic, go out and learn your neighbors’ names. They don’t need to know your business, just your name. Because you never know when they could help you…
The Great Air Conditioning Debate
This summer has been hotter than normal for CT. On average, in the Hartford area, there are 18 days a year that are 90 degrees or more. So far this year we’ve had 26 days of 90 degree or warmer weather. And we’re not even half way through August yet. Sheesh.
When buyers are looking for homes, particularly during the warmer months, they often focus on central air. The house they buy should have it. In reality, there are many homes in our area that do not have central air. A quick look at the CT MLS tells us that there are currently 3,885 single family homes for sale in Hartford County. Of those, 1,823 have a central air system. So 47% of the current inventory available has central air. If you look at the breakdown based on construction year, 63% of the homes with central air conditioning were built in 1980 or later. Not really surprising. And not great for people that tend to gravitate towards older homes. They’ll most likely have to do without central air. Or suck it up and put it in themselves.
And this is what brings us to the Great Air Conditioning Debate, which was recently underway at the Bergquist residence (and I’m sure a bunch of other homes in the Hartford area). We live in a big, old house that does not have central air conditioning. Usually we are able to manage the heat with a series of open windows/run window fans/close windows/close curtains procedures that we’ve trialed and errored over the years. But for some reason this year our systems aren’t working that great and the entire house has just been really steamy. Our home office is located on the third floor, the hottest part of the house. After about 11:00am we have to abandon it and move our laptops down to the first floor. Sleeping has also been restless.
In early July we called “Uncle” and brought out the 2 window units that were sitting in the basement. Last year we didn’t even need them. They’re now installed in our bedroom and the home office. The rest of the house remains gross.
All of this discomfort has caused Kyle and I to start discussing the thought of putting in central air. It would be great to have cooler, less humid air. It would contribute to our resale value somewhere down the line. Window units are a hassle and don’t really fit well into our oversized windows. Also, it would be nearly impossible to effectively cool our house with window units.
The main detractors for us seem to be the overall installation cost and the somewhat wasteful nature of the system. Old houses are more expensive to retrofit to central air. It would cost us somewhere between $20,000-$25,000 to put central air into our house. That’s a good piece of change. Additionally, I can’t really wrap my head around the idea of paying that much for something that’s only used about 30 days a year. We’re actually big fans of fresh air, so if temperatures weren’t approaching the 90s, we would prefer to just have our windows open.
Neither of us had central air growing up and we’ve made it this long without it. Do we really need it that much? We’ve decided no. We’ll keep running our systems and that will be good enough. Even if I am a little bit whinier on the hot days. And the overarching reason why we won’t get central air? The curmudgeonly native Vermonter in both of us won’t allow it. Who can’t deal with a little heat? 
If you’re going through this, or went through this at some point, feel free to share the outcome. Until then, stay cool! Whatever your strategy…
Patchwork Roof
I’ve seen patchwork quilts, but had never seen a patchwork roof before. Until last week in West Hartford…
From what I can tell from the picture, it looks like a minimum of 8 different types of roofing shingles have been used at various times in this roof’s life. Quite a piece of art!