I’m putting a stake in the ground, and listing the stuff I need, and things I need to do in 2012. This is my official running list. Better get my list done now, so I know what to work towards.

Now in no particular order, the shit I need to get done:

1. Replace my desk with a custom IKEA desk.
2. Replace my Dell 19″ 1905FP monitor with the Dell 24″ U2412. Yup, just swapping Dells.
3. Replace our Epson scanner with something newer and compatible with Windows 7.
4. Replace our Logitech webcam with something newer and compatible with Windows 7, and does HD video.
5. Get an iPad 2, or an iPad 3. Hell, how about one of each?
6. Clean out our basement, and fix it up as a playroom for our kids, or when other kids come over. This will require new carpeting and a fresh coat of paint.
7. Replace the toilet flangey-thing in the hallway powder room so that it isn’t slowly leaking.
8. Paint the kitchen.
9. Clean out my side of the walk-in closet. I found some shirts in there that are late 90′s era. Why do I have them? Also, what was I thinking?
10. Buy a new car when we hand in our lease-end car this summer. I’m thinking a fully decked out Nissan Maxima, red or black.
11. Either evict or adopt the squirrel we found living in our attic this month. I’m not kidding.

That’s all I can think of, but there may be more. Looks like a good list to me, and I’ve got 12 months to do it.

Well, that didn’t go as smoothly as I expected. At least the speakers are finally up.

I hooked up the speakers late this week, with only a modicum of difficulty. Yes, the good news was that I had pre-wired the back speakers by running the extended speaker wiring back in February. That was the good news. However, I apparently forgot a few other things:

1. Each speaker needs to have the proper positive and negative terminals connected to the AV receiver’s corresponding positive and negative connections. While I had done this for the original surround back speaker that I owned back in February, I failed to mark up the other wire. So late Thursday night, I was staring at a wire with identical two strands, and no way to easily know which goes into which terminal.
2. To be safe, I decided to test the wiring with the old surround back speaker. No sounds during the MCACC testing/setup. Twice. What’s up? Following a hunch, I checked the wiring connection at the back of the AV receiver. Lo and behold, I was too lazy in February 2011 to actually hook up the other side of the pre-wired speaker wire at the AV receiver end. So, I had to spend time removing the wire insulation on that side, and trying to hook it up to the proper AV receiver pos/neg terminals.

I finally got it all working fine. You can see how it looks below, but that’s not the end of it. As you’ll notice below, the painting is now not centered, so I’ll have to move that over 16″ to the left. I will also need to pick up some clips to secure the speaker wire to the wall, and make it neater.

Getting the surround speakers installed

After nine years of servitude, it was now time to retire the old apartment-era microwave, and move on up to a bigger model that matches our current kitchen appliances. So far, it works as expected. I mean, seriously, what more can I say? It’s a microwave. ;)

Baby, let me upgrade u.

The old 2003 home theater setup

In late Nov/Dec 2003, I bought my first true surround sound system, an Onkyo HTiB (“home theater in a box”) package from Vann’s (it arrived Dec 1st). I used to use an Aiwa stereo for surround sound but this was a poor man’s home theater setup. Now, I’d have a true home theater system — a 5-disc changer, a dedicated A/V receiver, two fronts, three rears, and a subwoofer. It was one of the newer 6.1 surround sound configurations. The remotes were a bit busy, but the overall sound was excellent for the price. And I was ready to experience the hotness of 6.1 surround sound.

In reality, Hollywood didn’t produce many DVDs with DTS-ES 6.1 surround sound. Apart from Peter Jackson’s excellent Lord of the Rings trilogy, most films came out with Dolby Digital or regular DTS 5.1 surround. My poor surround back speaker went unused and took up valuable living room space.

The new 2011 home theater setup

These days, we’re an HD house — I ditched the old DVD player for my upscaling PS3, and bought a newer Pioneer with HDMI ports. Even better, it supports a wide variety of surround sound formats, including DTS-HD MA (“Master Audio”) in 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 formats. I’m a big fan of Blu-ray discs that support DTS-MA 7.1, as the sound is much improved, and I get more usage out of my lonely surround back speaker. Even with a disc that doesn’t natively support 6.1, a 7.1 system will mix the surround sound, but you do lose some directionality with the rear surrounds. It works, but I would love a true 7.1 setup, as more discs are coming out supporting 7.1.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a video and audiophile. You will never catch me watching a film for the first time on a bootleg DVD, or sitting in the worst-seat-possible at a movie theater. When I watch a movie, it should (reasonably) be the best video and audio experience. The video should be clear and encompassing. The audio should be bombastic. I need to be sitting in the best possible location (“the sweet spot”.) When it isn’t, it irks me greatly. I’m not crazy. I just know what I like. And having a sucky setup at home quietly irks me.

True story: I remember one time I was at someone’s house, and he had set up a 5.1 surround system in their living room. However, not only were the positions of the speakers off, but the speakers were in wacky and mismatched places. A surround speaker in the front, a subwoofer… somewhere over there, a front speaker pointing only God knows where. Suffice it to say, I was absolutely appalled. I volunteered to help make right what was wrong. Seriously, it was killing me inside.

So, as I mentioned, I’ve been waiting patiently as I looked for the right speaker/speakers to upgrade the current setup. Earlier this year, I found a guy on Craigslist who had a matching Onkyo HT-767 surround back speaker, but he jerked me around for two weeks without meeting up with me, and I ultimately gave up on the guy. Seriously, a jerk.

Today, we took the plunge. This week on eBay, we bid on and purchased a pair of matching Onkyo SKB-540 (later model) surround back speakers. They can hang on the wall, and sport a slightly slimmer profile.

I’ve had my one surround back speaker sitting on a speaker stand, but this always runs a risk of being knocked down by the kids, the cats, or guests. The new speakers will be slimmer, and I intend to hang them on the back wall. I’m pleased that I had the foresight earlier this year when we had the carpet installed to pre-wire for 7.1 surround sound — I went out and bought 20′ feet of heavy gauge speaker wire, and ran it under the carpet while the carpet installers were working. It’ll be a piece of cake to fix the back wall setup without disturbing the carpet too much.

The speakers will be here early next week, and I can’t wait. I’m a tech head, and I love an upgrade.

Hot water should never be taken for granted.

Since last summer, we realized that the hot water heater which came with the house was on its last legs. The amount of available hot water was decreasing each month. It required regular flushing due to internal corrosion. I had our regular HVAC guy come in earlier this year, but we weren’t ready to bite off the quote he provided. It was just a lot of money.

On the way home from shopping, we decided to check out our local Lowes. They had some decent hot water heaters, and install costs were just $299. We signed up.

Of course, the usual rigamarole occurred — long waits for a contractor to come out and do the initial inspection/measurements, miscommunications on dates, switch from plumber to another, etc. Also, the cost would jump up significantly as we found out we’ll need additional work to move up from a 40-gallon tank to a 50-gallon tank.

Did I mention that on the day of the install, as I was driving home from work midday to meet the plumber, I got a call from him to warn me that the hot water heater I had selected was likely too big for us to accommodate? And did we want to select a smaller (and cheaper) alternative, or take our chances with the bigger tank with all the bells and whistles?

In the end, we downgraded to a cheaper tank with a smaller footprint that wouldn’t be too high, and it was ultimately the right decision. Phew! The heater installation took a little more than an hour, and is working fairly well.

Yea, clean hot water that lasts more than two showers.

For many years, our dining room furniture consisted of a simple round table and four chairs that my future-wife bought me as an apartment-warming gift back in 2002. It’s stood the test of time against three cats, two children, one move, and multiple house parties. However, the time had come that we’ve outgrown this little table. Probably the umpteenth time we had more than two guests over, and I had to sit on the stairs to eat.

Cognizant of the costs to purchase a new dining room set, and since she has been looking to find one she liked for years, my wife was happy to find something she liked on Craigslist. This married couple rarely used theirs, and were looking to get rid of it. I went by after work one evening to check it out, and it looked great. Pretty good condition, six chairs, a built-in leaf for expansion, and a china cabinet. Have I mentioned that our wedding china has been sitting in our basement (or storage) for 8 years?

After making arrangements, my brother-in-law Robbie was a good sport and came with me to rent the truck, and help me move the furniture to our house. A note on the rental truck process — 6 years later and the reservation process still sucks. I’m still scarred for life after spending 12 hours back in 2005 worried that we wouldn’t be able to find a truck back then. In 2011, the information on the Budget Rent-a-Truck website is still meaningless and inaccurate. To be safe, I called a few locations, and no one had the size of trucks that the website said were available. I eventually located a storage facility in Trenton that could rent me a 16′ foot truck for $29.95 a day plus mileage, but that’s after calling place after place.

The move went off without too much of a hitch, except for when we went on a wild hunt in the truck trying to find a nearby branch of my bank in that part of NJ to get cash to pay for the dining set. We efficiently loaded up the truck, sat for a quick bite at a nearby McDonald’s, and drove home. Got gas for the behemoth, unloaded the furniture in our house, I gassed up the behemoth again, and returned the truck before 4pm.

We got the table and china cabinet together, and it looks good, so we’re pretty happy.

Here’s the update on all the gardening efforts of the past month.

Short summary:

The grass is growing, but the flowers ain’t blooming yet.

Details:

Our lawn after one week

I have good news. I may not be any good at raising aquarium fish, but I’m not so bad at gardening. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but we’re making strides through research and hard efforts. Our perennials and annuals planted this year, and the hanging flower baskets are still alive, which is the good news. The side flower bed hasn’t sprouted much except errant clovers. I’ve done more mulching to fill in areas where the weeds are sneaking through. It’s a never-ending battle against the weeds. Those Scott’s commercials are rather sadly accurate.

Now, for the big news on the front lawn. About a week since we readied, tilled, and planted grass seeds in the front lawn, grass sprouts began shooting up. I was initially ecstatic, but upon closer inspection, I noticed they were primarily growing where there were heavy concentrations of Miracle-Gro. Where the Miracle-Gro was light or non-existent, I had barren dirt. Still, it was progress. Not to get discouraged too early on, we waited and continued to water the grass/dirt daily. I figure that if the grass doesn’t sprout later in the barren spots, I’ll just do additional tilling and reseed those problem areas.

Fast-forward another few more days, and today the grass is looking healthier and fuller. It’s not perfect, but it’s looking more respectable. I still have problem areas, such as the barren spots, and the original grassy areas that are dead or are wilting. I suppose I should have ripped those up at the same time when I put down the new top soil and seeds, but live and learn. I plan to wait a few more weeks until the heat wave is over, then do the fixing up.

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 1

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 2

When we were house-hunting, I still remember walking around our now-current (but then-prospective) house, and being impressed with the flowers and manicured flowering bushes. Coming from an apartment, the whole idea of a house of our own, a garden, all of that, was pretty heady.

Fast-forward through the next several years, and the reality of managing a young family presents some stark reality. My wife and I managed raising two young children, and taking care of them (and managing our own careers) took precedence. Second priority was managing the interior of the house, while the exterior was a distant third.

As a result, I’m embarrassed to admit, the front, back, and sides started to look rather unkept. Sure, we made small attempts at gardening here and there, but we never could dedicate enough time and money for proper upkeep. Add in the limited gardening green thumb knowledge and experience, and that resulted in us doing the bare minimum. The bare minimum means cleaning up here occasionally, a few hanging flower baskets that die in the heat, a backyard patio that was in a losing battle against the encroaching weeds, and finally a largely ignored front yard.

Sad, isn’t it? Well, it was reality, and I’m not one to sugarcoat it. Time for the good news. If you’ve been keeping up on our doings and happenings, the past two years have seen many much-needed updates and welcome changes around here. The kids have gotten easier to manage, and monthly childcare costs have decreased. Also, we felt a strong urge to make the big fixes.

In the past few years, we made many updates to the kitchen, the living room, and many other parts of the house interior. This year, we started looking askance at the exterior, and we declared it “Not good.” Again, we’ve done the mulching thing, the few planted/hanging flowers here and there over the years, but the whole exterior area needed work. In my mind, I recall the beautiful grounds that the previous owners cultivated, and I personally grit my teeth in consternation. We drew a line in the weeds, and said, “This far and no further!”

We wanted to start in the spring, but this year it rained an awful lot, so that didn’t work out. Better late than never, I say. In the past two weeks, I’ve personally made four (or is it five?) trips to Home Depot for new gardening tools, mulch and garden/potting soil galore, flowers and seeds. Sometimes it was the whole family, sometimes it was just me making a quick run after work. We’ve had top soil delivered, replanted plants, and arrived at a stalemate with the almighty underground tree root. We’ve done a lot, and now we are waiting and cultivating the fruits of our labor. Shall I recap the work performed? Are you still reading?

Backyard

After a brief flirtation with some hanging baskets we bought through a church fundraiser, those flowers burned in the direct sunlight. My wife did research, and she found some hardier plants. During our first Home Depot trip, we picked up new flowering hanging baskets, flowers for planting, and the first in many bags of mulch and gardening soil. After much effort, the backyard looks pretty good. I keep spraying the weeds, but they keep sprouting new ones like a many-headed hydra. Next year, we want to redo the backyard patio with pavers, ones that don’t allow gaps for weeds to spring forth anew.

Front yard

Ah, the front yard. We never go out here, except to get the mail. The original owners had some sort of plant ground covering instead of grass, a bush, and two trees. The extent of our gardening was placing a new hanging basket and occasionally remembering to water out here. Sadly, we were remiss last year, and the basket and the ground covering died an ignominious death.

Two weeks ago, Josh and I raked up all the dead plant matter. We Ipes did some hedge trimming, put out a new hanging basket, and planted three new hardy ground plants.

My first dirt shovel

Namita and I wanted grass, but it turned out that the entire front yard was covered in tree roots. No wonder the previous owners had a ground covering — there was no top soil for grass to grow. I bought a tiller and a shovel, but there was no way we could grow a lawn in this situation.

After much discussion internally and with friends, we decided on a plan. We ordered 3 yards (a total of 300 square feet) of top soil to cover our yard with at least two inches deep of soil. Namita read up on how to best grow grass. I borrowed a wheelbarrow from my friend Doug. The top soil arrived yesterday, and my neighbor and I shoveled and transferred it to the front yard in the wheelbarrow. Today, I leveled the soil as best I could, spread around the Miracle-Gro garden soil and grass seeds, and Namita did a helluva lot more tilling. We’ll have to put down more mulch around the trees in a week or two. Next year, pavers to make a raised area next to the house, and we’ll plant some flowering bushes.

Borrowed wheelbarrow	Did you order 3 yards of top soil?
Front yard view 1	Front yard view 2

The Side

Our new flower bed

The side of the house along the sidewalk is our responsibility. We had a lot of dead and dying plants here, due to years of not taking care of them. In the past week, starting last Sunday and in the evenings this week, we ripped out the dead plants, dug out many roots, and planted new perennials and seeds for a new flower bed. Of course, don’t forget the mulching.

So here we are. Two weeks of gardening, and we’ve attacked the grounds with gusto. We are now in a waiting and cultivating stage. Continuously watering, pruning, and weeding. 30 days until we see if the front yard grows some grass. If the flower bed starts to bloom. If the backyard flowers survive or burn in the sun. I never did so much gardening in my life, and yes I’m sore and tired. I’ve also gotten a lot of good exercise, learned more about gardening, and now I own my very first tiller and shovel.

I loves me some symmetry. Months later, we went and bought the matching bookshelf for our living room. The living room is almost complete — now I need some fish that will love longer than 30 days.

As you know, I’ve become more adept at home improvement jobs around the house, mostly through trial and error. I’ve had to, since it isn’t cost effective to hire someone to do it. Plumbing has been my Achilles Heel, and have been thwarted regularly.

With some small modicum of trepidation, I replaced the faucet in the main floor powder room. It wasn’t so bad. The kit also came with materials to replace the stopper (and the associated flanges, gaskets, pipe, etc.) However, once it started talking about Plumber’s Putty and Tape, and when I couldn’t figure out how to replace it, I said forget it, good enough.

Looks good, I think, and the hot water works again.