Our Home Still has Good Bones

So we didn’t get a turn-key ready world: there are worse things.

I refuse to let negativity and cynicism become defining characteristics of my children’s childhoods. Read More

So It Turns Out I’m a “Pool Guy”

Halfway through my first summer as a pool owner, I’ve clearly become a “pool guy.”

At this point we’ve survived small gatherings, family swims, and a blowout party without any major incidents so something’s going right.

We don’t yet have the stereotypical lifesaver on a rope hanging on the pool house wall but we’ve got a first aid kit with a lifeguard cross on the cover, a freezer full of freeze pops, and a counter full of sunblock. Read More

The Subtle Art of Dealing with Painters, Plumbers, Electricians, or any Home Repairman You Need

I’ve dealt with at least twenty-five different home service providers in just the past year ranging from your standard plumbers and electricians to targeted specialists in things like radon mitigation or basement waterproofing.

If you include all of the ones I’ve gotten estimates from, it’s gotta be well over one hundred.

“Oh, you must work in real estate or construction,” the casual reader might think, but no. Read More

Waiting for My Weeds to Bloom

This time of year, homeowners need to keep ahead of invasive weeds otherwise things in their yard can quickly get out of hand.

This is especially challenging for me this year because it is my first spring in a new house.

New things are constantly popping out of the ground and I have no idea which ones are purposeful and which ones are working to suffocate the flowers and plants we actually want. Read More

Overthinking How to Use a Lawn Sprinkler

If I had to guess what the most mentally exhausting part of my first solo week as a stay-at-home dad to a toddler and a newborn would be, I never would’ve guessed: “watering a giant patch of dirt.”

Yet, since the landscaper told me to water the spot twice a day “enough to really get it wet but not so much that it pools or makes puddles,” it’s practically all I think about. Read More

New England Springs Keep You Humble

Patience is hard to come by when your time in the sun has come.

I’m so excited for spring that I started using a spring-scented fabric softener when I clean my face masks. Read More

Waiting on New Neighbors

I don’t like change and I hate things I have no control over so anticipating new neighbors put me out of my comfort zone.

Every morning I expected the beeping sound of a moving truck to replace my privacy with something entirely distasteful like snarling dogs, brunch-prone twenty-somethings, or competitive badminton players.

Nobody wants their weekends interrupted by people grunting over shuttlecocks. Read More

Leaving Home for the Last Time

Last month I left my home for the last time (after selling it to move two towns down the road).

I’ve left many homes before but never quite like this. Read More

Welcome to My Staged Home, Make an Offer and It Could be Yours

Welcome to my staged home, make an offer and it could be yours. Will simply meeting the list price be enough? Make the offer legally binding and find out!

All-cash offers are preferred but any will be entertained. Assuming pre-approval for mortgages, of course. We are civilized, after all. Read More

I Never Want to Live Without Central Air Conditioning Again

Since moving into our current house five years ago, my wife Jenny and I agreed to never again live in a home without central air conditioning.

Connecticut has a peculiar aversion to central air conditioning. Most of our public schools still don’t even have central air because our local governments are run by seventy-year-olds who microwave their ice cream to take the chill out. Read More