Any day that you learn something is a good day. Today, we learned quite a few things about our house that we were previously unaware. Thankfully, we learned them because the previous owner stopped by to say hi rather than through too many things breaking.

The gentleman that we bought the house from got a Christmas letter from our neighbor which mentioned our break-in. He stopped by mostly to let us know that there is in fact a burglar alarm installed in our house. That was a nice thing to learn. He showed us where the controls are and how to operate it.

He also let us know a few tricks like where the water shut off is to the valve in the back (I had already found that) and that there was not one in the front because the shaft was long enough that you could just drain the water with it turned off and be all set. That had been driving me nuts because I could not find a shut off valve inside the house, and had given up.

Shortly after returning my neighbor’s plywood, which he lent us to cover the hole in the back of our house, I discovered that there was some plywood beneath our shed. The gentleman who sold us the house let me know that that is to cover the bushes and small trees in the front of the house from snow falling off of the roof. That’s a good tidbit to learn before we start getting significant snowfall.

It was very sweet of him to stop by and let us know about the burglar alarm and such. He misses his house; he built it with his own hands and lived here for 40 years. Him and his wife are too old to maintain a house themselves, though; she can barely move, and he is at the point where he can not mow the lawn any more.

I gave him one of our wedding beers as a Christmas gift. Merry Christmas.

After our house was burglarized, we had basically written off our tree. The only time that my wife would have had to decorate it was on Friday evening, and since the tree was coated in glass there was no safe way that we were going to be able to bring it upstairs and decorate it. We had decided to leave it outside so that we would at least have the semblance of some sort of holiday spirit; maybe the cars driving by would have reflected off the bits of glass.

Yesterday, while cleaning up the glass from the basement, I decided that I could not stand to see my wife look so dissappointed. I spent about 3 hours on the tree with the safety goggles, some good gloves, a respirator and a shop vacuum. I started at the top and worked my way down, sucking down any leaves, bird feathers, and bits of glass that I could find. When I got to the bottom, I cleaned up what had been knocked to the floor. Then I worked my way back up. I probably traversed the tree at least 8 or 9 times. I doubt that I managed to find all of the glass in the tree, but I cleaned it up enough that I only saw one piece of glass in the last 2 or 3 times up and down the tree. At that point, I thought that the tree would be safe enough to bring upstairs and decorate.

We were a couple of days late, but we were able to use our christmas tree. I saved Christmas! My wife is very happy with me now.

Yesterday, my house was broken into. The thieves broke my glass door in the basement and stole my piggy bank. This left a lot of broken glass littering my basement and whereever it happened to be tracked through the house by people walking through it.

To clean the glass up, I used a combination of a plastic cup, a dust bin, a piece of wood (that used to wedge the sliding glass door shut but does not prevent people from coming through the door) and a bunch of paper bags. I double bagged the paper bags and filled them about a quarter to a third of the way before moving onto the next one. I also used a broom a few times, but for the most part it was easier scooping with the cup and the dust bin.

After almost hitting my head on the remaining glass in the door, I decided to get the rest of it out of the frame, which left a bit more to clean up. At least I didn’t have to worry about where I stood anymore.

Once I got the majority of the glass picked up, I got out the shop-vac. My boss let me borrow the shop-vac from work, and it made picking up much easier. It worked out quite well for getting things out of the corners and for the little bits strewn about everywhere. I still need to go outside and get the piles that are outside the door, but at least the vast majority of what was inside is picked up. We will be able to get in there and safely measure the door frame now to determine what we have available for a door replacement.

What do you do when your house gets broken into? What steps should you take? How do you make sure that it does not happen again?

My house got broken into this afternoon. They stole my piggy bank. Eight and a half months into home ownership, and I have to replace a door. The worst part is that they covered my Christmas tree in glass; since the door was made of safety glass, it shattered and left a fine coat of sharpness over a vast majority of my basement. We had the Christmas tree right in front of the door to acclimate it and planned on bringing it upstairs tonight to decorate it. Now, it would be too dangerous. I will probably put it out in front of the house for a couple weeks.

My wife and I got home at about the same time tonight. We immiediately noticed the change on the kitchen floor and part of my fire engine piggy bank just inside the door. We assumed that the cat had been having a whole lot of fun. After she had been fed and went downstairs, though, we heard her crunching through something. It turned out to be all of the glass from our sliding glass door. We took a quick look around and called the police.
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At the end of August, I told my Geico that I had gotten married and my insurance premium dropped by over $100. I had planned on combining our policies shortly thereafter.

Well, over 3 months is shortly thereafter, I suppose. We never wound up combining them and then getting a refund on the unused policy. Instead, we just combined the policies once the original one that we were cancelling came due. All in all, we will be saving about $360 or so per year. Next year I plan on shopping around to see if I can get a better rate, and bring that number down even more.

I woke up this morning and saw my mail box in my neighbor’s driveway. Looking up and down the street, and you would not think that there was anything wrong.

My neighbor’s mail box is on a post next to my mail box, which stands directly in front of a telephone pole. The pole is driven into the ground in the side of a ditch. I guess that just makes them that much more of a target.
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Last weekend I installed soffit extenders and increased the insulation in my attic. The first quarter or so of the house took me a long time. I had gotten a pretty good system by then, though, and was able to do the next third to a half of the house much quicker. Then I found an even better way to install them. I will lead you through the process.
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On Saturday, I climbed up into the attic to install the first soffit extender to get a feel for what I was going to need. It quickly became very obvious that I did not have enough in the way of safety equipment. A quick trip to the store and then I was ready to really get started on my work. Here is a quick run down of the safety precautions that I took while I was insulating my attic:
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One of the things that worked out really well for me while doing work up in the attic was buying a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood and cutting it into 4 pieces that were 4′ x 2′ in size. I had a bunch of smaller boards that I could balance myself on between the joists, and those were handy and easier to move around than the larger boards. Unfortunately, they do not work very well when you need to lie down safely, because putting too much weight to one side or another could roll you right through your ceiling.

Having the 4′ x 2′ boards let me set up platforms for myself, which especially helped with installing the soffit extensions and the insulations under the edge of the roof. Putting out the insulation in the middle was better served with the smaller boards, though, because I needed to move around a lot quicker than the large boards really allowed.

Another advantage to the large boards was that I could leave them on top of the insulation after I was done. I now have a walkway that reaches all the way to the edge of the house; I will either need to move them or buy another sheet of plywood to easily get to the other end. Since I do not have any need to be at the other end in the near future I am not too worried about that. It did make it easy to do some work on the hose from my bathroom vent.

This weekend I installed raft-r-mate soffit extenders in my attic, and then doubled the existing insulation. I currently had insulation installed between the joists, but I wanted to make sure that I got the most for my heating oil dollars this winter. Between being sick and getting ready for a marathon, I did not have time until this weekend to take care of this project. Thankfully, I did not have anything else that I needed to get done this weekend; it took me a while to get everything done.

Yesterday, I went to Home Depot to get everything that I needed. I wound up having to make 3 trips in total (2 trips, plus I turned around and went back a third time when I was 3/4 of the way home when I realized I forgot something), and rather than having more than I needed of everything I wound up having not enough.
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