Annuals and a Perennial

We aren't usually fans of annuals - I don't really enjoy gardening so planting something only designed to last one summer seems like a waste of time. But this year we had a large patch of mulch from where the oak came down that needs to sort of decompose before we can plant something lasting - the arborist said to wait at least a year before putting in another tree or shrub. So this seemed like the perfect excuse for some colorful annuals. And as for gardening, well at least I had "help":

Lots of purple and white pansies to fill in the space - maybe we should  have planted them tighter and bought more...

Now I thought the whole point of annuals is that they are really robust for their season of glory, but these guys are already looking pretty sad. Hopefully the recent rain will perk them up a bit. Or I just wasted $60 on plants that will be dead and gone by May.

In happier plant news, we have what looks to be a happily established new tree. The zelkova that we planted last year to replace the white oak that we took down in October is coming alive! We were worried about it because it didn't start budding until this month, but now it seems healthy and alive.

For a better idea on where this and the annuals are on our property, you can look at this post from before the oak came down.

Fingers crossed they all make it through the summer and our forgetful, careless, and haphazard watering.

Classing up the Closet

Our master bedroom walk-in closet already was classier than most - back in 2010 when we redid the bedroom, I painted the closet a pale shade of blue and reinstalled some of the bars so that the clothes slid around better. As closets go, it's pretty nice in there.

The lighting left something to be desired though - an exposed bulb with a pull cord. Fears of having a CFL bulb break over our head led us to put a cage around it a couple of years ago, but it certainly wasn't pretty. 

Worse, the fixture had some kind of short, possibly from the metal base and screws. Sometime it wouldn't turn on and sometimes it flickers and sometime it would only turn on if we turned the cage or jiggled it, and every time, it was a little scary. The electricity in our old house has always been somewhat of a (fire-hazard) mystery.

So for a long time, we've wanted to replace it with something a little less "unfinished basement" and a little more "elegant dressing room." After discussing a few options, we decided to splurge for a very impractical but awesome upgrade - the Ikea Kristaller (don't click the link if you want to be surprised by the big "reveal" picture at the bottom.

Fortunately, the wires, while old, all looked like what they were supposed to look like - no surprises there.

One "oh duh" surprise that happened literally minutes after purchasing the lamp: this lamp is designed to be used with a switch (as most are) and not with a pull cord. And we certainly weren't willing to have an electrician come and wire us a wall switch just for a closet. Crud! We had just gotten to our car and decided to turn back and look into returning it, knowing full well that returning something to Ikea is a miserable multi-hour process.

Our ticket said something like 690. We estimated that moving through almost 30 returns before us with just two lines open would be something like 3 hours. I think we'll keep our $40 lamp, thank you very much. Oh, and as if it were a sign from above (or below) - see what number they were handling when we walked up?

Now calling customer 666...

Incidentally, Ikea is tricky because this lamp was $40 but it took 3 rather specialized light bulbs, each costing $7. So really we spent over $60 for the lamp. Still not worth waiting 3 hours to return.

Fortunately, Home Depot sells a kit for $3.50 that can convert a lamp to a pull cord, used most often as a ceiling fan switch replacement. Drill a large hole into the lamp:

Screw in the pull cord, attach the wires, and voila! Pull cord lamp!

The install was pretty simple - standard lamp fare, given how many lamps we've installed in this house.

We removed all the links and have the chandelier hanging at its highest possible spot (without doing anything dramatic like trying to cut the pipe and rebuild it, etc.). Practical? No way! It gets in the way of the clothes a little and doesn't even light all that well. Amazing and makes us smile? You bet!

Worth it!

(Yes there's still some ugly orange insulation visible. We might paint over it or we might try to go all in on this ornate look and buy a fancy ceiling medallion instead.)

Make Basement Great Again: Dump the Pump

A few months ago J noticed that she hadn't heard the sump pump run in a while. I agreed to look at it, then forgot. We both did. A few weeks ago I noticed the basement seemed a bit damp. A few days ago I finally put it all together and opened up the sump basin.

Yuck. Full to the brim with oily water. At least it hadn't overflowed. I unplugged the pump. After removing about 8 gallons of water with the bilge pump, I had only reduced the water level a couple of inches.

I then took a flashlight to the basin and looked more carefully to see if anything looked amiss. There's supposed be a float switch that activates the pump. I whacked it a few times, but nothing happened. Then I realized that it was still unplugged.

Success!

Well, not quite. The float valve thing keeps getting stuck in the bottom of the sump basin. So it doesn't turn on when the water rises. I managed to wedge it in the 'up' position, so every few days I just plug it in and let it run for a few minutes.

Eventually we got a plumber out and he said the oily water was from the pump itself. The seals have degraded and oil is leaking out. He also said the check valve, which controls whether water goes in or out, also needed replacing. In a few days he'll get us a quote on replacing the pump and check valve. Hopefully it won't be much. In the meantime, I'll keep manually activating the pump to control the water.