And now for something completely different

I have, er had, a problem with our powder room remodel. No matter how tight I tighten the toilet seat bolts, the darn seat would slide from side to side. This toilet doesn't have the normal bolt and nut holding it on. It has a special newfangled nut that I didn't want to strip out. I found what seems to be a nifty solution - Safe-T-Bumpers. These little plastic L brackets screw to the seat and eliminate the side to side movement. I just installed them and they seem to work, but time is the true test.If you have this same problem and want to give them a try you can find these on Amazon.com. They cost four buckaroos. I got two packs to fix two toilets.

BTW, I put our old sink and toilet up for sale on Craigslist. Within a few days I had sold them. A lady bought them and said they would be perfect for her vintage style bathroom. I didn't ask much, just $50. I was glad to get rid of them.

Update: These little brackets have done a good job at eliminating the seat's side to side movement. I am pleased.

Making good choices

Today I received a call from Payton's school. Usually I say "Oh Crap" when the school calls, but I didn't this time because I didn't look at caller ID first, I just answered the phone. Payton's teacher Mr. Marrone called to let me know that Payton had been doing well and making good choices at school. Whew, that's better than bad choices. It was a good call to receive. I got Payton a special donut for him to enjoy when he got home from school.

Our new garage

On December 5th ground was broke marking the beginning of construction for our 2-car garage. Since then work progressed steadily until it was stopped January 13th. The garage structure is complete except for the exterior finish. That will have to wait until warmer temperatures in the spring. The electrical contractor will soon begin running power from the house to the garage.

The garage has 2 bays and is 24'x30'. It has stairs leading up to an attic. Now I have a place for all my tools and lawn machinery. The new attic provides loads of additional storage for the things we have now and seem to be collecting.

I was happy to see the project started!

One week later the foundation and floor were finished.

It didn't take long for the walls to go up.

The roof took shape quickly after the walls.

The exterior finish will match the house - eventually.

The dormers add lots of space upstairs.The (almost) finished garage.

The attic is big and I've already started filling it.

Ahh, a nice shop area.

There will be no running water in the garage. There was really no great need for this. Maybe some year in the future we'll add plumbing. The building would make a nice studio apartment.

Jungfrau mountain

Now I think this a pretty cool. To celebrate the 100th year of the Jungfrau railroad the Swiss have lit up their mountain with their flag. El Paso, TX has a star on their mountain, but with this the Swiss have topped them 100 fold. But I doubt the Swiss will be making this a permanent display. I wish I could have seen this with my own eyes.

Our newly remodeled powder room

We finished our powder room remodel. We just didn't like the pieces or fixtures. The pieces were a grayish putty color. The fixtures were brushed nickel, but they had gold trim. But worst of all the room didn't have an exhaust fan.

Now the room is painted a pleasant blue - a steel blue sort of. We added crown molding. The fixtures are biscuit and the sink has a nice furniture-like vanity that offers good storage. An exhaust fan was installed in the wall. The house's framing layout didn't allow for the usual ceiling mount. We are quite pleased.

Ringing Rocks Park

Today was a nice day. Maybe a rare one with the coming of winter. We took advantage of it and went to see a natural oddity. Ringing Rocks Park is north of us, but still in our Bucks County. At the heart of the park is a field of rocks. This field is said to be about 7 acres in size while the entire park is some 120 acres. The rocks have an unusual property. When they are struck with a hammer or another rock, they sound as if they are metal and hollow and ring with a sound similar to a metal pipe being struck. The park also has Bucks County's largest waterfall.

I only had one hammer. I used to have several, but after unpacking from our move I haven't seen any of the others. Anyway, Payton did most of the pounding, but Kathleen and I struck a few rocks ourselves. Parker just had fun climbing over the rocks. It is a cool place for a little boy. I took my camera for pictures and Kathleen took her little one to record some sound. Back to this in a minute. People won't be hauling these special rocks off easily. They are good sized with many being very large. I imagine this park will around for many generations to come.

We also walked along a nice creek with a pretty neat looking waterfall. The boys tried to stay dry, but by the creek was mud and water. They brought a good amount of this home. Fortunately neither of them went for an unexpected swim. There is a family campground nearby. We just might spend a weekend up there this summer camping.
Remember how I said Kathleen brought her camera to record some sound? Above is Kathleen's camera with no battery. I've done this sort of thing before. I once drove a ways for a photo shoot. Got there and didn't take a single picture. I had left my memory card at home. Aaargh. No matter, some guy posted a good video on YouTube and you can watch it below.

Family Christmas photo

We got one - a Christmas photo. We waited until the last possible day, but we got one. You'll have to look at it for a while as I'm using it for the blog picture. It can be trying to get the four of us together for just a blink of an eye, but we did it on the first take.

The boys had a great Christmas. They play with one thing for a minute before moving on to something else. They'll be busy for days.

We hope that all of you had a great Christmas too.

Christmas trip to New York City

This weekend we traveled to New York City for an overnight visit. We went to see a Saturday matinee of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the world famous Rockettes. And a spectacular show it was - very well done and very entertaining.

Grandma is visiting us for Christmas so she was able to join us. Kathleen's brother and his family live nearby as were also able to join us. By suggestion we traveled a little differently than last year. Instead of driving a little ways from the house and taking an hour and a half train to the city, we drove a couple of hours to Hoboken, NJ. This is just across the Hudson river from New York. We parked there and took a 15 minute commuter train into the city. Much better and way easier than last year.

Saturday was nice, but Sunday - while sunny - was pretty cold. Saturday night we walked by a small city park call Paley Park. It really is small for a park at 4200 sq. ft. Within the park are shade trees and some table and trees to enjoy the space. At the far end is a width of the park 20 ft. tall water fall. It drowns out the city noise making the space quite tranquil. My phone wasn't going to take a decent picture at night, but I think the silhouette looks cool.

Our decorated house

Instead of just decorating 'the low lying fruit', this year we decided to have someone string lights for us. I don't have a ladder tall enough nor did I really want to climb that high on one if I did. We like how it all turned out. We did a few extra things on the inside too. Each year we'll keep adding more. Good thing our new garage is under construction because we need the storage space between seasons.

Merry Christmas to all!

Santa's coming is just around the corner. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. Now enjoy our Jib Jab Christmas videos!





Okay... I went a little overboard making these little videos. But it was so easy to do on JibJab.com. They're a lot of fun. Enjoy!