Picaso I am not

So over the weekend, I decided to paint the walls of my garage. I just went with a white colour and figured that it would just brighten it up a bit instead of looking at wall spackling. I also wanted to do it before I started hanging up cabinets and other stuff. I went with the Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint from Home Depot which is a primer and paint together. I wasn't looking for a perfect paint job, nor did I want to do more than one coat. I did give the walls a really light sanding but you can still see some seams and rough spots here and there. I literally slapped the paint on the walls and you can see certain spots where it's not super even or may see some lines here and there. But that's okay, I wasn't expecting a work of art although some would argue what passes for art these days. I was also reminded how much I dislike painting which doesn't bode well for when it comes time to paint the inside of the house. Hmmm...hiring painters may be something to consider. Anyway, the garage looks much nicer and brighter with the paint. I'm glad that I did it. Sorry, I forgot to take before and after pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination. It's really not that exciting but thought I'd post something on this blog which I've been very deliquent in updating.

Wam(my)! Bam(my)! Thank you Ma'am(my)

One of my awesome neighbours took the initiative and contacted a few companies to give a quote on eavestrough. He compiled the information and left a nice note summarizing the pros and cons of each company. In the end, he felt that Wammy was the best one of the three. He said the owner was very pleasant to deal with and the materials that uses are a slightly better grade. Turns out that one of my good friends also used Wammy for their house and recommended them as well.

All three quotes for my house were within the same price range. We just went with the standard eavestrough and didn't get get the gutter guard or anything like that since there aren't any big trees or anything like that to clog them up. So in the end, I think there was 13 of us in total that got their gutters done. It was completed over the Easter long weekend and the finished product looks good. It matches well with the house. I wasn’t home that weekend so my neighbour kept an eye out for me. The other nice thing is that all five units in my row all got eavestroughing so we have a nice continuous look. Cost for my house was $700.

Where art thou humidity?

About a month ago, the weather got really cold and dry. Consequently, the humidity in the air inside my house dipped down quite low. I bought a cheap hygrometer from Canadian Tire and it showed at one point that it was as low as 20%. Normal humidity I believe is supposed to be between 40 and 60%. I was also getting shocks upstairs where it is carpeted. Aside from the comfort level from the air being so dry, I was also concerned about the hardwood flooring. Too low of a humidity can cause separation.

So my problem solver comes in the form of a Honewell TrueSTEAM humidifier. I saw it mentioned on the forums and did some quick research on it. What I like is that it operates independently of the HVAC system. It will simply turn on the furnace fan if it needs to circulate the steam. It's also low maintenance. There is no water or filter to change. It's piped into a cold waterline. It will also self flush out as needed. But they do recommend just cleaning the tank out once a season. Basically, you flush out the water, take the tank off, clean and then reassemble. Aside from that, it's pretty much a "set it and forget it" system. This system is pricier than other systems. Even though my installer didn't have much experience with them, he thinks it's a very good system and has heard other people raving about it as well. Good enough for me. :)