Hello Hive, it's already Monday, the weekend went by so fast! Especially since the weather was really nice, and that’s more than pleasant. It’s been a long time since we had such beautiful sunshine.
According to the forecast, we should have a few more days of it because we are currently in a high-pressure system. That’s good news, except for the temperatures, as this means they will be negative, and therefore, our heating bill will increase.
But still, seeing the sun really boosts morale!
Some calculations for saturday morning
We moved into our new house in January this year. The insulation is really bad. To heat our home, we have two options:
- The wood stove
- Electric heaters
In our home, the electric heaters are of poor quality and very expensive to run. So, we use the wood stove, but since we moved in just 30 days ago, we haven’t had time to get firewood delivered.
With the cold weather we have right now, the companies that deliver firewood in the area are out of stock. So, we opted for compressed logs.
The price per kWh is slightly higher than that of regular logs but still lower than electricity. Electricity costs about 0.19€ per kWh, while a batch of compressed logs allows us to reach 0.10€ per kWh. At first glance, the difference seems very small. Spending time researching online for a 0.09€ difference might seem like a waste of time and money.
However, our home consumes about 80 kWh per day. That’s where the calculation gets interesting:
- With only electric heating, it costs us 15€ per day, or 456€ per month.
- With the wood stove, it costs us 8€ per day, or 240€ per month.
That’s quite a difference. If you don’t quite grasp it, just know that 1€ is roughly equivalent to $1 at the moment. So, you can convert euros to dollars accordingly.
Yet, I hesitate to light the wood stove, and it’s purely psychological. I don’t see the electricity I consume, but I do see the pile of wood shrinking. That said, in a week, we will be changing our electricity meter. I will then be able to see my electricity consumption in real-time, and I will better realize the mistake I’m making.
A new camera for the birds
For Christmas, I received a camera to film and photograph birds. A friend of @altheana's parents, who recently passed away, had gifted us a handmade bird feeder. So, we took the time to find a spot and set up the camera nearby.
I thought I would spend five minutes on this. In the end, I spent an hour. It’s funny, when you don’t know something but can conceptualize it, everything seems simple in your head, and you often underestimate how long it will actually take.
But once you roll up your sleeves, everything takes much longer. The problem we encountered was that we wanted to see the feeder from the kitchen.
But we had nothing to place it on. After some searching, we found a large flower pot filled only with soil. We simply placed a wooden pallet on top, then the feeder on top of that. Between the gaps in the pallet, we wedged a piece of wood and tied the camera around it.
We will find a better spot later. But for now, this moves the project forward. It’s better for the feeder to be outside rather than inside. It will be more useful where it is.
Finishing tidying up the lean-to
I still had part of the lean-to to tidy up, the one we dismantled last week. There was a crazy amount of screws and nails in the wood. Rather than unscrewing everything, I preferred using a mini chainsaw. It was more fun and, most importantly, much faster.
Especially since many screws were rusted, and the wood from this lean-to will serve as firewood. There was no need to keep it in good condition.
While sweeping in front of the house, I noticed that under the terrace, there are beautiful red bricks. And they run along the entire house. Once the ground dries, I think I’ll try to dig them out. It will look much nicer and give a neat appearance.
I took advantage of this cleaning to throw away all the cardboard boxes we had in the house. We still have a lot left, but at least that’s some clutter gone.
And I’m happy because the house is really starting to take shape! It’s only been 30 days since we moved in, and looking back, a lot has changed.
The bathroom tile grout
The water in this house is very hard. I think the previous occupants didn’t clean often, especially not in the bathroom. As a result, the grout between the tiles is very dirty.
Using hot water, baking soda, and household vinegar, we tried cleaning it with a toothbrush. Of course, it wasn’t one we use for our teeth.
There’s a small difference—it’s not striking, and it still looks dirty. But all the grout has been cleaned. Now that it’s done, we can think about redoing all of it. That will be a weekend project—I think it will take at least two days to do the whole bathroom properly.
The house plans
On Sunday, I had fun making a 3D plan of the main living area of the house. That’s where we spend most of our time, and we want to decorate it properly.
The advantage of creating a 3D plan is better visualizing the layout and decor before buying anything. It’s not 100% accurate, partly because I’m new to this (it’s my first time), and also because there’s always a difference between a computer model and reality.
It was a busy weekend, yep. We also bought a fridge that should arrive this week. I think it’s going to change our lives! :D
The English translation was done using the DeepL API, and the images were taken with my smartphone.
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