Jay Gaulard Blog

Switching From Incandescent To CFL

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

I am always looking to be as energy efficient as possible. One of the ways I go about this is to always use CFLs (Compact fluorescent lamps) whenever possible. I have seen these types of bulbs bring down electric bills, first hand.

When we moved in to this house, I knew I had my work cut out for me. This house is much larger than our last. In that house, I think I changed about 15 light bulbs from incandescent to CFL. I thought that was a real challenge and was quite proud of myself. Well, in this house, I already changed out over 20 bulbs and think I may have finished all of them, except for the dimmers. There are at least 20 more dimmer bulbs that need to be changed.

The problem is, I just read a bunch of reviews on dimmer (dimmable?) light bulbs on Amazon and they were not very good. People were saying that they buzz and flicker, to say the least. Some people said they burned out easily and didn’t work from the get go. I think I am going to wait on the dimmers, which kills me.

Just a word of advice about CFLs…when buying them to try to mimic a regular light bulb, go with the “soft white” ones. On most packages, you will see three choices. One is “daylight,” which you really don’t want, unless you want a very hard light. Another is “bright white,” which is pretty white and not that soothing for indoors. The last is “soft white,” which looks the most like a regular bulb. I bought the “bright white” and the “soft white” and the soft white looks much better.

Google Pagerank Update Underway

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Just in case you haven’t noticed your Google Pagerank lately, it is currently being updated as I type.

I was typing the last post in this blog a few minutes ago and noticed that it now has a Pagerank of 2. That’s twice of what it was at 1. The reason it’s only a 2 is because I have relatively few links to the blog and the domain name is very young. Some of my other sites picked up a few points.

Good luck and let me know if your site gained any PR.

Some New Shelving For the Garage

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

I never thought it would take so long to unpack a garage.

It’s not that I have a lot of stuff, it’s that I refuse to just pile things up like I did in our other house. I say “other” because it’s not sold yet. There, I kind of had stuff over there, over here and then over there again. There was no organization. One thing I really want is one bad-ass tool box…like a Snap-On or something like that. I saw one I liked in Sam’s Club a while back. Who knows if it’s there anymore because we haven’t been to that store in over a year.

Well, I already did my “screw a strip of wood to the wall and then hang all my rakes and stuff off of screws trick” a few days ago. I just did another one today. I also hung both of my ladders up nice and neat. Today’s challenge was to head over to the Home Depot to get some real garage shelves.

Mission accomplished. I bought two heavy duty shelving units. They measure 48″ wide, 24″ deep and 72″ high. I would say they are very sturdy. Now, with these large shelves, I can store and organize all my stuff as neatly as I have always imagined. It’s funny what one imagines when left alone in a garage.

We have our new garbage service coming to drop off the 65 gallon trash can on Friday, so I can get rid of some of the junk I put together in the cans I brought with us. That should make some more room to work with. After that, I should have made enough room to actually pull the cars in if we needed to.

We Met Whole Foods Today

Monday, April 28th, 2008

If there is one thing that should motivate you to move to a new town, it should be Whole Foods.

I remember a few weeks ago when the realtor was showing us houses in this area, she said, “Ooh, and they are building a brand new Whole Foods here. It should be open in a few days. We are all VERY excited.” Laura and I were sitting there like, “Uh huh. What in the heck is Whole Foods?” Of course we nodded because we knew our realtor wouldn’t lead us astray.

So, what is Whole Foods? Here is a clip from their website: “Our motto — Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet — emphasizes that our vision reaches far beyond just being a food retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is measured by customer satisfaction, Team Member excellence and happiness, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment, and local and larger community support.” Let me just tell you, they live up to their motto.

A few days ago, Laura informed me that we should make a visit to this new grocery store. We still don’t have natural gas (next Monday), so we have to eat items that can be cooked in the microwave or cold, such as our famous wraps or sandwiches. You really should try them. I was pretty excited because Whole Foods is located in Glastonbury and if you have never visited, Glastonbury is my kind of town…well off.

Well, today was the day. We drove over to the store and started walking to the entrance. One of our all time most favorite stores in the world is Wegmans. We were wondering if this one would be better or worse. When we got inside, I asked a woman from the florist section if they have plastic bag recycling. I have had a pile in my back seat for a few weeks now. She walked me over to the recycling area. I put the bags in the bin and from that point on, we were in heaven. You should see the place. Ok, you know the organic section at regular supermarkets? Well, this whole store is like that. Up and down every single isle is the highest quality food you have ever seen. We were looking for Folgers coffee and they didn’t have it…too regular. We had to buy a different (twice as expensive) brand. I will say that the shopping experience unexpectedly cost much more than anticipated, but it is kind of worth it. I don’t think we will be doing all our food shopping there, but as far as fun and healthy food shopping goes, this is the place. What a niche.

When we were done putting all our items in our cart, we wandered over to the check out register. The first question the girl asked us was how many bags we had, meaning reusable bags. Man, what a trip. Just the way she assumed that we had them told me I was among my kind of folk. Unfortunately, we only had one bag. As it turned out, that was all we needed because we stuffed it to the gills.

Oh, before I forget, Whole Foods has a realy good micro brew area. I was looking through it when I said that we should leave the isle before I buy something. Just as we turned around and started to leave, something sucked me back to the beer like it was a huge magnet and I had an iron plate in my chest. I bought “Fuel Cafe Coffee Flavored Stout” by Lakefront Brewery. I am drinking it right now and it tastes a lot like Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, but without that bite. It’s much smoother and very good.

After we left the food store, we drove over to Home Depot for a few things. Then, we traveled back to the hometown to drop something off at the post office. What a pleasant day. Over and out.

One Nice Blog…

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I must say that I think I came across the best written blog today…”One Project Closer.” I know this has nothing to do with anything, but I just have to say something when I see this kind of quality.

Take a look here and check out how these bloggers write. What I particularly like is the way they section off parts of each post and give pros, cons and conclusions. If I were only that organized. It makes things very easy to read. Also, I like the questions at the end, like, “What do you think? Would you use tree compound? What tips do you want to pass along?” This really gets the reader involved with commenting. It’s like in sales, you have to put the item in the customer’s hand and walk them to the register.

Anyway, bravo guys…nice job.

Wordpress 2.5 - HTTP Error When Uploading Images - Firefox

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Well, I hate to say it, but we may have a picture”less” blog here. I have been having trouble uploading photos into this version of Wordpress (2.5 and 2.5.1).

Before we moved, everything was fine. After we moved, I remember starting up the computer and Firefox wanted me to install the recently downloaded upgrade, so I did. Since then, I haven’t been able to upload any photos into Wordpress. When I try, either it continues to say, “crunching” or I get an error that says, “HTTP error.”

Just to see what would happen, I tried to upload photos by using Internet Explorer (IE) on my laptop. Everything worked fine. This leads me to believe it’s an issue between Firefox and Wordpress 2.5.

Any suggestions are welcome.

By the way, I just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress and the problem persists.

The House is On the Market

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Well, we went back to our house in New York today to do a final cleaning and get some stuff we left behind in the kitchen. On moving day, I thought it was just a few things. Today, I realized it was a full car load. When I say car load, I mean, trying to find a place to squeeze a wine bottle in full. Again, it was a full car load. I even had to leave my two red gas tanks behind. These were five gallon plastic tanks that I used to fill up the lawnmower. One of them was full, so I poured the gas into my car and then gave them to my neighbor, Tim (who by the way missed us very much already. We miss him too.). I didn’t think Laura would appreciate me making her carry them on her lap. I am such a gentleman.

We cleaned up all the rooms and mopped the floors. I did a little touch up painting throughout the house and cleaned all the windows. When I took all the curtain rods down, there were small screw holes left in the walls. I filled the holes and painted over them. I thought that would be a good idea since the house is empty. We cleaned the kitchen and bathroom very, very thoroughly. It never looked so good. When it was all done, I took a step back and realized the amount of work I actually put into the place. Someone is going to get a very good deal…the house looks brand new.

I really think the big sellers are the huge screened in back porch and the brand spankin’ new kitchen. The wood mixes just perfectly with the floor and the walls. I am going to miss that kitchen. If you remember back, that was about a month and a half of eating on the couch and washing dishes in the bathroom. I never even peeled the protective plastic off the face of the dishwasher. Brand new dryer and semi-brand new washer. It’s the whole package. The new floors and vaulted ceiling in the living room help, but it’s all about the porch and kitchen.

Ok, enough selling. I just thought I would tell you that the house officially goes on the market tomorrow. We were going to wait until Tuesday, because we were going to do the cleaning on Monday, but Laura reminded me that there really was nothing to wait for. The sooner we list, the sooner someone can purchase.

I will tell you this…it is a little weird seeing a real estate sign hanging in front of the house you were just sleeping in a few nights ago.

Cable vs. DSL

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Back in the old house, we had DSL for about 2 1/2 years. It worked well with only a few minor issues. Towards the end, I did begin inquiring about more upload and download speed. I called Frontier and they said I was maxed out…that’s all they had. The reason I needed more speed is because I have a few weekly chores I need to do which required downloading about a gig’s worth of files. It has gotten pretty nonsensical.

Yesterday, we had the guy from Comcast cable come over to hook up the TV, phone and internet package. After a while, he got it all hooked up. I did some work last night and then some again this morning, but didn’t notice all that much more speed. I think the DSL we had before had a download speed of 1.5 Mbps (short for megabits per second). I am not sure what we have now, but I do know that a file that used to take about 10 minutes to download now takes about 3. That makes my life doing chores a heck of a lot faster. I think I heard something about 6 Mbps, but I’m not sure.

Come to find out, after talking to my hosting company today, I need a static IP address, not a dynamic one. This is for one reason or another. I called Comcast regarding this and was connected to the business area. I may have to get my package split up…the internet under a business account and the TV and phone under a residential account. They are going to call me on Monday.

What’s the point of this post? I think cable is faster than DSL.

Ok, bye.

The Day After Moving Day

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Do you want to know what really hurts? My legs, that’s what.

I am not sure if I ever told you that I hate moving. Boy, if there’s anything that can suck the excitement out of the big day, it’s the actual work involved with it all. And we even had a moving company this time. Oh well. Everything went well with the move. We filled a 24′ truck all the way up. I really didn’t think we had that much stuff. I actually had to leave my little blue recliner back at the house. That’s ok, I got that for free anyway.

So, now that we’re here, I think we’re getting used to it. Since we don’t have any plates (they are still back at the house…we have a few more bins to grab when we go back to do a final cleaning), we ventured out to the local Chinese food place last night. We were soooo hungry. I hadn’t actually eaten anything all day and was ready for some food. I have to say, the Chinese food wasn’t bad.

The place is still all full of stuff like big bags and boxes, but we’re getting there. I have the garage about half unpacked. I am starting a list of stuff I need, so when we go to Lowe’s, we can grab it. I need some of those automatic door closers, like the ones for screen doors. I don’t want any of the animals to get out. Also, we are going to grab some new door knobs…some of them are a little wiggly. All in all, everything seems to be in good order. One thing I am finding that I really need is a few 2X4s and some shelves.

I think the cats really like the upstairs. They seem to be very lazy and like to lie on the carpeting.

I will write more later, when I get some rest. I think I was so tired last night that I didn’t sleep all that well. I hate it when that happens.

We Bought the House

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Wow, what a long day. Driving over to the new house takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It seems longer than it is.

Today was the big day…not only for us, but also for the sellers. It must feel great to sell a house. I mean, your mind is most likely on your new one and all you want to do is to get the process over with. Congrats.

We are thrilled. I think it is a very good move. From what we gather, people tend to move around in the same town a lot, meaning, they like the town. That’s a good thing.

We met the realtor over at the house at 2PM for the final walk through. The house was nice and clean and everything was just as we expected. We dabbled for a bit and talked for a while and then we went to the closing at 3:30PM. Everything went very smoothly and yes, the sellers are just like us. You can almost tell by the way they kept the place…clean, tight and when something broke, they fixed it. As a buyer, I definitely appreciate that. They were actually very personable people.

Ok, enough of that, now for the pictures. I mean, who cares about the writing anyway? It’s not like anyone reads it anyway.

Here is the front of the house. I think it has a nice “Connecticuty” look.

This is the rather large kitchen. There is room for a table in there and it also has a nice island. The door that is open goes out to the garage. Also, there are doors that go out to the back deck.

This is the fireplace. I am very happy there is a fireplace. I plan on getting a pellet stove insert for this and using it as a main heating source. Since the house heat and hot water are run off the oil burner, I am going to get an electric hot water heater and solar panels. I just have to figure out a way to make the look good and fit into the neighborhood.

These are pictures of the main entryway. Do you know how hard it is to get good photos of two floors up close? Not easy.

This is the blue room, AKA, the dining room. We have no plans for this room right now beyond walking through it. We don’t have much furniture.

This is one of the upstairs bathrooms. It’s pretty big and has one of those tubs that bubbles.

If you want to come over to visit, you can stay in the guest bedroom. It has a large walk-in closet and a full bathroom.

Here’s that bathroom I was talking about. So that’s two full baths on the top floor and one half bath on the main floor.

This is going to be Laura’s office. She gets the purple room. It’s pretty soothing. The girl that this room belonged to has a nice little setup. Perfect for a young girl.

I also got a picture of the room that’s going to be my office, but it came out blurry. It’s pretty much like this room, but different colors.

Here are some photos of the master bedroom. It’s a large room with a dormer facing West. There are two closets and a cable hookup. I am starting to sound like a realtor myself.

This is the one of the finished downstairs rooms. It is really comfortable and cool. It’s going to make a perfect…something.

This is the other downstairs room. This used to have an exercise machine in it. Laura wants to use it as a Pilates room. I have to buy her one of those exercise balls.

Can you say, “garage?” It’s about time. Yes, I am going to like the garage very much. I know that almost all homes now come with them, but I have yet to have one. I am quite excited about the electric garage door openers too.

Ok, last one. This is the little patio in the back that comes out of Laura’s exercise room.

You want to hear a funny story? You know how much I have grown to hate barking dogs, right? I never used to hate dogs, it’s just been lately, since so many people don’t seem to take care of them. Actually, I love dogs, especially my old dog, Mickles. I really really love Golden Retrievers.

I had a hunch that the only close neighbor had a dog. I wasn’t sure, but I did notice a fence around the back yard. They have an in-ground pool, so it may have been for that. I didn’t think so. I kept on telling Laura that there was a dog next door. I was really hoping it wasn’t a yappy little white dog.

Today, after the closing, we went back to the house to drop off a few boxes we brought with us. We were trying to loosen the load for moving day on Thursday. I parked the car and started walking in the back yard. I noticed something moving inside the neighbor’s fence. I quickly turned around and told Laura, “THEY HAVE A DOG!!!” I turned back around to see what kind it was. My stomach almost dropped through the floor. Upon closer examination, I noticed that it was a reddish dog. I then realized is was a Golden Retriever. I am not sure how it happened, but I found myself over there petting the dog. The neighbor called me over all excited, “Are you my new neighbors?” I say yes and both Laura and I walked over to talk to her. Then, out of nowhere, three more Goldens came trotting over…all offering tennis balls. I was in heaven. I was on my knees, petting them and shaking their fur all over the place. I was really excited. They are fairly quiet with the ever so often bark while looking at the ball. In Golden talk, that means, “Hey stupid, throw the ball.” I threw the ball a few times and what a riot it was watching the four of them jump all over themselves trying to get to it.

I am really happy that both Laura and I met the neighbor so soon and got to know the dogs. Now, we can go over and play with them without actually having to own another one. That’s fine with me.

So, now we have two houses. Anyone want to buy an 1,150 square foot cape on 1.25 acres? Just remodeled…You let me know.