Home Invaders

Box elder bugs have invaded my home. You can see from the photo of my house that there’re a lot of the critters. While most expert advice I have read indicates that they are harmless (although one did say they can occasionally bite), they are indeed “pests.” At first I was content to merely brush them away when they crawled on me. But they are persistent, insistent on returning. I wasn’t very successful in trying to smash the offenders and thankfully so. Another expert said they can stink much as a stink bug does.

So far the best approach seems to involve the vacuum cleaner and the toilet. Could be worse. At least I am not battling bedbugs!

Thanks Lowe’s

Since I will shortly be chronicling our sad and frustrating battle with American Home Shield over our home warranty contract, I wanted to heave some positive feedback in the direction of a corporation that did a fine job for us.

We purchased our new toilet and sink from Lowe’s here in Springfield, Missouri, and opted to use their installation services. We bought the fixtures on Saturday and the install department followed up with several calls along the way. The installer called on Monday to set up an appointment for Thursday. He arrived ON TIME! Although we experienced a minor problem because the faucet we were sold didn’t fit our sink’s holes and a trip to Lowe’s was necessary to switch it, Lowe’s charged us the original price instead of passing on the cost of the more expensive version. The installer went on to put in a dishwasher while we exchanged the faucets. He returned in about two hours to finish the job.

Kudos to the folks at Lowe’s and our installer Caleb. We are very happy customers and we will gladly turn to you again.

Flush with Power

Pardon my pun, but we have the crappiest toilet in the new place, a Titon 1.6 gallon model, which does not do the job. While the idea of a low-flush toilet sounds environmentally good on toilet paper, in practical matters, many of these poorly designed toilets waste water instead of saving it.

Saturday morning, husband asked me if I wanted to go look at toilets and sinks over at Lowe’s and off we set. Although we were tempted by American Standard’s Champion toilet, claiming you can flush a bucket of golf balls down it, we ended up buying Kohler’s Cimarron model. Could it be because our new toilet bears the name of an Edna Ferber novel and movie, Cimarron, I doubt it. I had looked at Terry Love’s Web site before shopping and came across a reference to Maximum Performance Map Testing, the quintessential toilet-rating source. Veritec Consulting, a Canadian company, has found that soybean paste stuffed into condoms simulates the stuff we love to flush away. They make these sausage-like links of mock poop from imported Japanese soybean paste and that's what they use to test toilet performance. And voila!

Maybe they should use a bucket of golf balls.

Sustainable and Affordable Housing

“I see life as both a gift and a responsibility. My responsibility is to use what God has given me to help his people in need.”—Millard Fuller

Anyone who has read the Sink for any length of time knows I’m about connections. As a recently transplanted Alabamian, I found that Habitat for Humanity, the wonderful organization started by an alumnus of my Alma Mater (The University of Alabama School of Law), has a chapter here in Springfield, Missouri, at Drury University. However, Drury’s chapter among others is taking Habitat and community service homebuilding to a new level. Drury’s school of architecture students designed a sustainable or “green” house. No, this isn’t a greenhouse for plants. It’s the kind of wise design for the future I wish more home builders would engage in themselves.

On Monday, during a morning of heavy rain, the Drury community took the first construction step, building prefab walls, inside an old warehouse. Despite rotten weather, some 300 strong, the volunteers included students, faculty and staff.

I think Millard and Habitat co-founder Linda Fuller would be proud. That dream of helping families in their quest for decent, affordable homes, which started back in 1976 after a trial run in Africa, is taking a new direction with forward-thinking efforts like Drury’s Habitat chapter. Follow along with me to see the "House that Drury" builds.


Note: Can any reader impress me and tell me the name of the other famous or infamous University of Alabama School of Law grad Fuller made his millions with?

Photo used with permission and courtesy of Drury University.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

For those out of the children's books loop, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is the first of a series of wonderful books. We came across it the other day as Scotty was packing away some books to save. The plot is simple: if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk to wash it down. If you give a mouse a glass of milk, he going to want . . . Surely you get the picture.

Well, this idea can also be applied to other areas of life, and right now I'm in the midst of my "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario. A real estate agent friend came by the other day, and as we looked around the house with me pointing out what I was doing and what I wanted to do, she said, "You know it reminds me of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Once you paint the walls, you notice the baseboards need paint too. Then the doors and you just keep going."

TTFN. I'm off to Lowe's for more paint.