HousePet

Monday, January 24, 2011

I could live here

ArchDaily strikes again. I could live here. Yep.

© Paul Warchol Photography

Sunday, January 23, 2011

genius

© Brett Boardman

I would kill to have a little bathroom like this accessible from the outdoors.
Spotted at archdaily.com today.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

© Peter Crawley
Architectural reflections on white watercolor paper made by UK illustrator Peter Crawley.

I love this stitched illustration. I've been poking around the blog-world all morning and came across this post at konfettiform.blogspot.com

I just added konfettiform to my ever expanding Google Reader. This blogger (Lena) also has a nice pin board at Pinterest.

This is my fave from her collection of amazing homes (pinned under HOUSE fasade)...

photo credit: Jesper Ray

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

today

it felt colder than 32 degrees today. the goldfinches were out in full force.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

whole house humidity

After Mark did some research, we decided to go with the Desert Spring brand Rotary Disc Furnace Mount Humidifier . It's 100% water efficient producing 1 gallon of humidity for 1 gallon of water. This humidifier uses very little power and does not require hot water to operate. One of the key selling points was that it never needs replacement filters or pads which saves money and creates less waste.

We could actually feel the difference after running it for less than 24 hours. Humid air also feels a couple of degrees warmer than dry heat. We purchased a wireless hygrometer (a fancy thermometer) to monitor the amount of humidity that's being created indoors as well as the current humidity outdoors.

I love this thing. When you live in a place where you have heat cranking all winter long, you end up living with dry flakey skin and a crusty nose. Not anymore!! That kind of dry heat is not so good for your hardwood floors and interior woodwork either.

This humidifier was semi-easy to install (as long as you are comfortable cutting steel duct work) however the instructions said the electrical connection could be made in two different ways... either with the supplied plug into an outlet or hardwired directly into the furnaces' existing motherboard. Naturally the way Mark chose, hardwiring it, totally fried the motor just minutes after using it for the first time. We then had to order a replacement motor for an additional $30 bucks. So just plug it in if you get one.