AC meltdown...FIXED

So when May turned into August and we began a long streak of 90+ degree weather, we decided to abandon our eath-loving hippie ways and turn the central AC on. At first, everything was cool (pun intended). But after a couple days the AC stopped working. It just wasn't pushing any cold air through the vents. After much freaking out and then a little investigation, we finally noticed something that didn't add up:

There was some white material on the tube connecting the AC to the house - upon further investigation, I realized this was ice. The pipe insulation had disintegrated in some spots, and where it did the pipe was collecting a thick layer of of ice (circled in red in the second picture above).

We turned off the AC unit, and we ran over to home depot to buy some gorilla tape and 3/4-inch rubber, self-adhering  pipe insulation:

We had to wait a couple hours for all of the ice on the outside of the pipe to melt. Once that happened, we used an exacto knife and scissors to tear up and remove the old insulation. Then we wrapped around the new pipe insulation (sealing it together with its self-adhesive). We also wrapped gorilla tape around the pipe to protect the insulation a bit:

So far (fingers crossed) the AC is working and the insulation is holding up.

If we had called an HVAC guy to come over and identify and fix the problem, it would've cost us at least $100 (and probably even more). Because we took the time to investigate a little and do some research online, we saved money (and time spent in the sweltering heat). All said and done, this took us under an hour and only about 8 dollars to fix.

Stay tuned for a bathroom update from Tessie..

Landscaping

In the fall, we stole a bunch of unwanted plants from my parents (and they were generous to give us some nice, larger ones). We planted them and anxiously waited for them to pop back up this spring. And they have! (Pardon the weeds - I'm slowly annihilating them.)

Also, two mystery plants from the last owners popped up! Any ideas what they could be?

Also, we have a veggie patch in the back. I started collard greens, spinach, green onions, tomatoes, and kale from seed during late winter. We've also added asparagus and strawberry plants. I'm currently waiting for string beans, mesclun lettuce, and cucumber seeds to sprout. 

I demanded a patio!

So Andrew and I built a patio over the past three weekends. We started with an ordinary grassy patch...

Then we dug a hole. It was 12'x12' and 5 inches deep at the end close to the house and 7 inches deep away from the house.We graded away from the house so the rainwater would flow away from the house (so to prevent any water damage to the basement). We filled this with three loads of gravel (about 3" deep)...

 ...followed by one inch of sand. We then tamped it down with a tamper and tried to make it as level as possible.

In come the concrete pavers!! We got them at Home Depot for 44 cents each. They're made to look like brick (pretty effectively!), but are seriously cheaper. We laid the bricks down on the sand and gently tap them into the ground with a rubber mallet.

This part was terrible. We hadn't realized just how level the sand had to be. This part took a lot of adding sand, removing sand, and cursing. Eventually I got the hang of it though. Sand was poured over and brushed into the cracks...

And furniture and grill added! (Sand makes patio look white washed - we need to figure out how to clean it without removing sand from the cracks - any ideas?) We've also started making a garden bed in the area closest to the camera in the picture below. This will help prevent the water from collecting on the patio - and will serve for aesthetic purposes.