Monday, November 05, 2012

House (Garden) Update: Last Weekend

A week ago Friday I was somewhat concerned about how gardening was going to work out that weekend, given that my yard looked like this on Friday morning:
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Saturday morning, I needed to run an errand before I started gardening: I needed to fetch my bank card from the bank whose ATM I left it in the weekend prior... dang thing was probably the farthest possible branch from my home. (It was, however, convenient on my way home from the retreat.) And no, they wouldn't let my mom pick it up for me, despite the fact that she would be driving past it nearly every day that week. *sigh*

On my way home, I stopped in at the Old House Revival Company to look for a cover for a cold air return in my house. The original cast iron cover had broken at some point, and my dad had replaced it with three plastic ones:
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These ones did *not* feel like they should be stood on, particularly the one in the middle. In preparation for shopping, in addition to taking measurements, I also took photos of the other covers in the house. Plain one in the front entryway:
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Another one in the living room:
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(Yes, that's an electrical outlet down there, no I don't know why it's there.) Third floor cover:
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(Yes, all of these are slightly out of focus... my apologies. Low light, and I had switched off "high ISO" on the recommendation of someone else. "high ISO" is now back on.)

I found one that was either the right size or a smidge small, but it was cracked in several places and missing a corner, plus was quite rusty. There were several that were a smidge too big, with this one being the smallest and best condition:
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Success! Not only that, but I found some *really* pretty covers for the wall cold air returns that have been swallowing my belongings ever since I was a child:
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(Yeah, I need to remove the bits of paint, but other than that they're in perfect condition.) I spent a small fortune on these three covers, but I *like* them, they're appropriate for the house, functional, and not badly priced compared to some of the prices I've seen on the web. (Plus, this way there's no shipping of a heavy metal object!)

Up next: "before" photos.

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