PEX Water Piping: A Thing of Beauty

This post will probably solidify my standing as a big house dork, but frankly, I don’t care. This is how much I admire, and envy those that have, PEX water piping. Unless you live in a new construction home, your water pipes are most likely made of copper or old galvanized iron. They run along your basement ceiling, sometimes cutting into joists, making various twists and turns before they disappear into the floor above and

Leaf Collection and Disposal in Greater Hartford

Autumn is my favorite time of year, as I really enjoy the fall colors on the trees. I don’t enjoy the leaves quite so much once they’ve fallen on the ground. We have 4 ginormous maple trees that hover over our postage stamp sized lot in Hartford. Our yard is also fenced, which causes challenges in getting our leaves to the street for vacuum pickup. But somehow we manage. Each year rakes, tarps, and an

The Heating "Game"

Kyle and I have an annual tradition, a “game” of sorts. We try to see how long we can go without turning on the heat in our living quarters. This all started back in the ’90s when we lived outside of Boston. We were young and foolish, living on the top floor of a 4-family. We lived the high life with minimal wall insulation but newer windows, mooching heat off of the unit below us.

Picking Your Home's Outerwear

Fall is a good time to paint the exterior of your home because the air is typically less humid and temperatures are lower. These are optimal conditions for paint to adhere which lengthens the life of your paint job and protects your home from water entry and wood rot. Just make sure the surface is prepped properly with scraping and sanding. Actually picking the paint colors for your house is no small task. There are

West End Sidewalk Update

This morning I visited the Hartford Department of Public Works to get the latest on the city’s sidewalk review. The bottom line is that a new round of sidewalk notices are on the way. We’ll start with a quiz – can you spot the violation in this section of sidewalk? As a quick recap, Hartford homeowners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks on their property. The city is responsible for ensuring that homeowners maintain their sidewalks