Sun Tea, Lemonade, Tire Composter

Given the tell-tale signs of a thriving rodent population, I've been anxious to consume seldom-used food items, like sugar and tea.

Sun Tea
Cost:  $1.00/carafe

Steep 6 tea bags in carafe in direct sun until it assumes tea-like hue (approx 3 hours).
Put used tea bags in worm bin

Lemonade
Cost:  $1.50/8 glasses

Drink half of a gallon jug of water, leaving you with 8 cups and a container
Pick ripe lemons off your tree (you need about 20/batch)
Juice lemons - tire compost the rinds
1.5 cups lemon juice
1.5 cups white granulated sugar
8 cups of water
Mix

Tire Composter
Stack any tires the previous owner left you with (2)
Fill with a layer of veggie/fruit matter (citrus b/c the worms don't care for it)
Cover with brown matter (chipper shredder mulch of hideous tree)
Repeat (breakfast grapefruit!)

When we're super sophisticated, we may experiment with watering the compost, stirring it, and infusing it with chicken poop...

Mildew Remedy

I was afraid drying the couch cushion covers would shrink them.  As a result, the couch smells about as bad as Kai that time she introduced herself to a skunk.  A 10 lb dog is one thing, but we don't have nearly enough tomato bisque (or Axe) to cover the couch, so I resorted to a remedy out of Kelly Coyne's Making It.  

Mildew Spritzer

Cost/Treatment:  $0.50

• 1 tablespoon tea tree oil (first package thrown over padlocked overgrown fence yesterday)
• 1 cup tap water
• 1 commandeered water container and spray nozzle

If I could do it again, I'd choose a day when we're not working from home.  Tea tree turned out to be overwhelmingly fragrant itself (think rancid pine sap).  Thankfully, it seems to be dissipating and taking The Stench with it.  

1,000,001 Ways to Save Money

A er... incomplete list...

1.  Home brew coffee $0.67/cup

2.  Buy gently used jeans off eBay $83.02/pair

3.  Carpool to work $4.00/day

4.  Buy vs. rent $548.85/month +equity

5.  Home brew craft beer $0.15-$1.15/bottle

6.  Vermicompost $2/lb

7.  OTC pet allergy meds $1.84/dose
8.  Insurance Broker (home) $207.05 + $358,750 more coverage
9.  Mortgage Broker $4,000 seller credit retained +13 bp interest rate reduction
10.  Redfin Realtor $2,400 +  21% reduction from list
11. Used Amazon books $2.81-$23.85/book (AMZN vs B&N new)
12.  Audit cell phone feature usage $15/month
13.  Lender cashback credit card applied to mortgage $0.01/$1 charged
14.  Ask retailer for replacement plate from original set $5.00
15.  Bed Bath & Beyond coupon $5
16.  Moving boxes from Home vs. Office Depot $3.50/box +10% more volume
17.  At restaurants order soup or salad instead of meaty entree $2 per meal
18.  Keep receipts and return unused items $60/doorknob @ home depot
19.  Shop contractors $81/repipe and a more competent team
20.  Downgrade internet baud 5 Mbps $15/mo
21.  Follow up about commitment to discount vanity saved $130 off $279 list
22.  Use total wine coupon on Bruery stock up $10
23.  DIY worm compost bin $61.73
24.  Home Depot sale avocado trees vs. fancy mail order lamb hass variety.  $70.47 + an extra tree for hass-reed extended season
25.  Report wrong version (paperback) of used book was shipped; get refund.  $30
26.  Consolidate auto insurance with home owner's for both vehicles.  $600

Stripping attempts

Belle made a good point yesterday that this was the first night where we did not stop at home depot after work! That being said we really need a rake for the yard so I will be swinging by tonight.

We were both pretty tired so Monday was supposed to be a low impact 'day off'. That started off well with us delivering the keys to the apartment people for Belle's place. Stopped by the bank to deposit our Redfin rebate (how are traditional real estate companies even able to compete with Redfin, their service was awesome and the cost half as much???) and then cooked steak and mushrooms on ye olde stovee.

After dinner we talked some about kitchen and bathroom plans and which we think should come first. Did some CAD art in the google CAD tool, 1 room to scale! Afterward my second wind kicked in and I wanted to strip the paint off the interior kitchen door. We had picked up some 'safer stripper' from the Sunday home depot run so I got to it. It turns out our doors have at least 3 coats of paint on them and the stripper take off one at a time. We had white (most recent), then "Casa decrepit pink", then "Who the hell paints over redwood Yellow". I did a bonus coat in the middle to get down to the wood and as suspected really good looking Redwood...

Will scrape some more off today. Pics:

Sunday Super Update

Monday	Get keys Move bed Discover dozen people in backyard who assist with unload Candlelit In-n-Out dinner (b/c we have no power) Establish basecamp (fly swatting, stuff moving)
Tuesday	Change padlocks Establish power Move couch-passerby helps! Move Minicooper Establish fridge (aka cooler full of beer and water) Deeper clean bathroom
Wednesday	Let former groundskeeper in to collect his tools Move projector cabinet, recliner Discover half dozen people in backyard to assist with unload Change lock
Thursday	Move Koi pond, The Park evacuation complete* Continue Cleaning (Spider-guarded apocalypse provisions cabinet) MacGyver braves the clawfoot shower
Friday	*raid The Park for laundry facilities Original Mike's for dinner sans Klee Kai Continue Unpacking, Cleaning (previous owner wife's cremains container, nazi collectibles)
Saturday	Establish internet Setup "war room" projector b/c We're Under Attack @ work Deeper clean kitchen Partially remove hideous green awnings (chicken coop roof?) Remove heavy duty drapes Give first tour to a passerby who wants to buy the house First bid on Copper Repipe (plumber #2 is a no show) Make Sun Tea Paleontologist Kai unearths jawbone treasure Water closet running water fix attempt 1... Indiana Jones, PaGyver, 모친, and Benny arrive with furniture, real mini fridge, and Tools Original Mike's for dinner (they gave Benny water!) Discover Dan Halladay's Will scratched in pencil on snake oil box from 1918
Sunday	*Raid The Park freezer for Kai food Provision fridge Introduce Red Sheriff's mom to Treasure Heap Setup car tire composter Juice entire lemon tree Backyard adventures with power tools Continue Cleaning

• The Moving Diet has not kicked in...  I am up 2 lbs...  Probably attributable to carb-heavy grazing.
• Balancing urge to kanban the move (1 truckload of stuff comes in; 1 truckload of trash goes out), but folks are worried we will accidentally throw out a Treasure.
• PaGyver estimates this will be a 5-10 year project; not 3, sorry MacGyver!  

Bought the Farm! [Caption Contest]

MacGyver and Indiana Jones' "before" pictures.  For a chuckle, compare to the before-"before" MLS listing.

It has started.

We have gotten the house and moved in. The first night was very rough with no electricity and a very stinky bedroom. Flies literally everywhere and a layer of dust 10 years thick coated every surface.

Most of the effort so far has been moving stuff in, all we have left is the lovely Koi pond documented earlier. Outside of that, the only thing we have done is changed the locks and cleaned.

Changing the lock on the backdoor was somewhat tricky as I needed to use a hole saw to cut a 2 1/8" hole in the door to install the new lock. The previous lock had 3 holes a 1/2" center hole and 2 1/4" or so through holes for the bolts. The bolt holes lined up with my new lock but the new lock had 2 1/8" ribs that smashed into the door. Using a hole saw with a starter bit smaller than an existing through hole is very hard to impossible. Solution was to find some spare 1/2" wood in the garage and drill through that then use it as a jig. I then only cut about halfway through the door, just enough to fit the ribs. Problem solved.

Day 1 Flies Killed: 20
Day 2 Flies Killed: 47
Day 3 Flies Killed: 25

Nazi artifacts found: 3

Overall status: Swamped!