Category Archives: Home

Do you name your GPS?

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A few summers ago, when Merri Beth and I were on a trip to New York City we rented a car and got a GPS navigation system. We thought it would be fun to name the GPS–we wanted to yell at it when it gave us bad directions. We continued the tradition on a trip to Boston two years ago when we drove to Westford for the day.

I’ve had my VW Jetta for just over a year now and still hadn’t given my GPS an official name. I toyed around with some German names. I even did some research on names related to guides, explorers, and navigators. Nothing really jumped out. I almost crowdsourced naming my GPS over social media but that sounded like a lot of work. Then this past weekend, it happened. Continue reading →

The 2012 Salsa Garden

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I finally got the vegetable garden going. With the wacky weather we’ve been having, I decided to wait until after April 15th to get this years garden in the ground. I took Friday off of work and got the green thumb going.

After a few errands, I made my way to Logan’s Trading Company. My default location for the vegetable garden. They sell a flat of vegetables for $18. I inspected the large selection of peppers and tomatoes. I ended up getting two flats. More plants than I’ve ever gotten for a season. Continue reading →

New Knock Out Garden

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Knock out roseWe had our work cut-out for us last weekend. The project list looked something like this: weed the garden, mow the lawn, weed eat, edge, trim the pond liner, add protective netting to the pond, re-pot elephant ears, plant new tomato plants, mulch the front gardens, accessorize the upper deck, and plant our new Knock Out® Rose garden.

We decided to document the creation of our new garden with a few photos before, during, and after. We hope you enjoy.

How to create a Knock Out Rose Garden Continue reading →

Update on our Outdoor Living Space

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Deck and patio projectYou may remember that we started exploring creating more outdoor living space here at Ramsgate Manor. The project is well underway and taking a bit longer than we had expected.

Construction started in early May. We were planning on being out of town for about 3 weeks—which presented the perfect opportunity to get most of the project complete (in our eyes). When we returned from our trip to San Francisco and Honolulu, the deck had been framed and the planks installed. Unfortunately, the railing was not installed and the patio was an after thought. Continue reading →

First Early Girls of the Season

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Early girlsThe garden is doing well. Despite being away for most of the month of May, my neighbors helped out and kept things watered and growing. Late last week, the first of green tomatoes started to turn a yellowish-orange. I had a suspiscion that by mid-June, the Early Girls would be ripe.

I could have picked the first of the tomatoes on Sunday, but thought it would be better to let them get a bit more vine ripe for the first batch. Continue reading →

Project Tint and Blinds Complete

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Blinds and tintI started a project last Fall to start upgrading the South facing part of the house. There were two parts that I wanted to help with energy efficiency for our home:

  1. Tint the windows
  2. Install new blinds

In between long runs for my marathon, I worked on the two windows downstairs. The first part was to tint the two sections of each window. The tint / window film I choose is supposed to help with the following: Continue reading →

Creating Outdoor Living Space

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proj2011_elevation

Merri Beth and I have been toying with the idea of adding a patio and a new deck on the second level of the home. We like spending so much time outside, we want to create more outdoor space for the family to enjoy. We are currently getting some quotes for the project but wanted to share our ideas with you to get any feedback or recommendations of contractors who would make this a successful project, at a reasonable price. Continue reading →