This Reader Reward is now closed. Congratulations to Anne @ Planting Sequoias!
If you read our post earlier today you saw that we recently installed an on demand filtered water tap in the space previously occupied by a broken side sprayer. The install went smoothly (well, at least once Alex followed directions), and the availability of filtered water at the sink has solved a storage issue for us in our refrigerator.
As we mentioned in the earlier post, we were invited to try out this kit and see how we liked it. The cool thing about this offer was that they group that contacted us offered to give a filter kit away to one of our readers if we approved of it after install and use. We love to give you guys things that we like, so this was music to our ears. Now that it's in place, and we're enjoying how it works, we figured now is a pretty great time to give one away to a lucky commenter.
The product is called the Filtrete High Performance Drinking Water System with Maximum Filtration Plus. It's plumbed into the cold water supply line under your sink and it offers on demand filtered tap water at the push of a lever.
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Okay, enough of that, on with the show!
More than the wine we love to consume, more than the happy hour specials we enjoy with friends, more than the late night whiskey, bourbon, and other various mixed drinks our Instagram feed seems to suggest we are always partaking in lately (really, we don't drink as much as it seems we do...), Wendy and I consume a lot more water than any other beverage. A declaration like this would make the eight year old version of me cringe in despair, but it's the absolute truth. (Don't worry eight year old Alex, though you won't eat meat and will work to limit sweets so a middle aged gut doesn't suddenly sneak up on you, you can eat raw cookie dough pretty often and even have pancakes for dinner somewhat frequently, it's not all bad.) Personally, I don't really drink much other than water on a regular basis. I've not had a single soda for several years now, and we tend to stay away from sugary fruit drinks. For us, our large Brita pitcher and filter has been a mainstay in our home's fridge from day one.
As reliant as we've become on our filtered water, it hasn't been without its issues. We've had to purchase three different pitcher-based filters over the years due to leaks, it is slower than I'd prefer in filtering the water, and the pitcher is often left with too little water for the next person who wants to fill their glass. I'm going to go ahead and blame Lulu and Mel for this last item, I'd obviously not be quite so inconsiderate.
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Thursday, February 7, 2013
Valentine's Day is a special holiday in our house. I look at it as a nice reminder to take a few extra moments to show someone how much you love them, as well as an excuse to celebrate the first "major" holiday since New Year's. But most of all, I see it as a date to look forward to long after the magical feel of Christmas has been replaced with the cold, gray days of winter. No matter the reason, we like to add a few festive touches to our home that work to brighten things up, and to use the date as a fun excuse to plan something out of the ordinary.
This year, rather than brave the crowds on "amateur night" and empty our wallets on pricey prix fixe menus, Alex is planning a night in, where he and a friend are cooking for us ladies. I've overheard talk about the potential menu, and I'm really excited to see how it all comes together. Fingers crossed that there's a great chocolate dessert involved!
To give Alex a bit of a head start, I decided to put together a simple tablescape to serve as festive backdrop to the boys' culinary finest. After all, we were starting with a uninspired clean slate.
I turned to my bag of tricks and got to work gathering items from around the house that I felt would work well in a classic Valentine's theme.
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Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Over the last few weeks we've taken you through the various steps we took to bring our bedroom from drab to inviting. From the extensive efforts involving demolition and paint stripping, to the inclusion of a functional pull down attic ladder, our bedroom slowly transformed from a cold and unassuming space into a place we could comfortably sleep at night. But getting from this...
...to this...
...required much thought, deliberation, debate, and gnashing of teeth. In other words, it wasn't easy.
Though the renovation efforts in the bedroom itself were significant, the extensive work to turn a blank and functionless wall into the much needed closets of our dreams was the thing that truly altered the space, allowing it to evolve it into a warm, inviting, and proper master bedroom (and one where we could actually store clothes).
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A few weeks ago we created a basic how-to guide on sweating a copper plumbing fitting. Though this aspect of home improvement is often intimidating (it was for me the first time I did it), it's a completely doable task if you have the right tools for the job and the know how. However, I have to say that I only really started to feel completely comfortable when I picked up one critical item for my plumbing toolbox, my self igniting and hose fed torch.
When I first started soldering with a propane torch I was using the old standby of a flint strike and a torch affixed to the top of a propane canister. To light, you turn on the gas at the torch's knob, then strike the starter to create a spark. The spark then ignites the gas and gives you a flame that you may adjust.
Once lit, you can then adjust the flame to the desired level and then begin working on your soldering task. Not a horrible process, but a bit cumbersome, especially if you're working on soldering something that is upside down. When you invert the torch to get a better angle on the fitting, the propane heads to the top of the canister and your flame grows larger than you intended. This is not desirable, since you want a consistent flame and temperature, and can also be quite dangerous when working in a wall or confined space.
After a few years of working on plumbing using this old standby torch, I figured there had to be a better way to go about the task. I started a little online research for an improved product and discovered just the thing for me.
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