Guests Best Check For Their Stay!

I opened the basement door that leads into the garage the other morning (this was back in April) and this is what I was presented with.  Do you see it?

At first I thought it might have been related to a very near miss I had with a red-tailed hawk driving home from the commuter rail.  We almost collided, as the hawk was weighed down by something in it's talons.  I assumed that this dead bunny was what the hawk was carrying and to avoid the collision it let go of it, which somehow landed on my car unbeknownst to me and slid off at some point once I parked in my garage.

However, after finding some additional oddities in the garage, here is what I think happened -

First, the other oddities were the mouse traps I had set in the garage, al four had been tripped and one was missing. I looked high and low I could not find it.  Only after mowing my lawn, when I was cleaning off the mower before pulling in back into the garage, did I find the missing trap.  It was on top of the mowing deck, an odd place!

What I believe happened is the rabbit ventured into the garage, perhaps when I had left the door open and was puttering in the front yard, and got itself trapped in there when I finished for the evening.  At some point it got into the traps, although small mouse traps, perhaps one injured it enough to eventually be fatal.  The one missing trap found on the mower deck would indicate it had shut on the rabbit in some way and came off as it moved around.  Or, maybe it was too cold in the garage, on the concrete floor, for an overnight stay and it didn't survive.

Frye Pack Rat

Before there was Clark Griswold and the Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon, there was the Frye Family from Massachusetts.

From an early age we'd take road trips down south to visit family.  They all took place in a flavor of station wagon which usually had "stuff" strapped to the roof, as well as the back loaded up too.

Although, I don't recall specifically watching my dad and his loading process for these trips, somewhere along the way this knowledge was transferred to me.

I'm now proud to tout this talent, which I'll give you a glimpse of in the above picture.  Once the lawn tractor is moved across the street and into the neighbors shed for the winter I'll be able to park my Corolla in the garage with plenty of room!  Of course, all the items against the back wall will not be reachable until Spring but my car will be safe from the outside New England elements and much warmer for when I initially get inside.

This has become a yearly rite of passage to both store the outside yard 'stuff', i.e.lawn furniture, and get my car inside.

Success!

We've Updated & Upgraded

Before

After

We pulled the trigger and decided to have our garage doors replaced!  It was time, as they were the original ones installed when the house was built.  They were solid, heavy wooden door but the New England weather had taken it's toll on them.  Many of individual panels were bowing and starting to separate; you could see daylight between some, so it was time.

We went with pretty much the same style but changed it some and had the windows moved to the top.  The new doors are aluminum, so they much lighter, and have much higher rating on their insulation value as compared to the old wooden ones.  It's something like an R-value of 8 with the new versus a 1+ with the wooden.

Hopefully this will keep the garage better insulated, which we're hoping has a positive effect on the family room above where we spend most of our time.

Now, onto the next home improvement project.  Just need to win Megabucks, alas...

Garage Parking...For One At Least

I've been making progress in getting the animals and yard put to bed for the winter. Actually, we're 99% complete with just a few more smaller odds and ends to tidy up.

One of the biggest accomplishments, and the one with the most dire consequences for me if I failed, was "reorganizing" the garage to allow JoAnne to park her vehicle inside. Unfortunately, and as you can see, I will not be parking my vehicle inside this winter, nope! I basically relocated everything to my side of the garage. I'm hoping I won't be needing anything from the back corner. If so, I'm SOL! Too much "stuff" - I need a shed. Also, gonna need a good ice scraper and snow brush, alas...

Stanley Out, Chamberlain In

It's only taken like 8 months but I finally installed our new garage door openers, hip hip hooray! We bought them in early 2008 and they've been sitting taking up space just waiting to be put to use. Well, with winter fast approaching I simply couldn't postpone it any longer. That and the fact that the old openers were starting to flake out - the light and remote stopped working on one unit and the second unit began opening itself up all on it's own for some unknown and strange reason and at random times.

Stanley, before

Chamberlain, after

The Stanley openers were 1/2-hp, chain driven and in place when we bought the house. Also, they were VERY noisy when opening and closing, especially with our family room above the garage. However, we became accustomed to the noise but the new Chamberlain openers are almost silent. They're 3/4-hp and belt driven and make a tremendous difference. Perhaps, not the best time to make such a change with teenagers...

Start Your Engines

On this edition of "MTV Cribs" we visit Emilie's garage and get a peak at her 3-wheel and 4-wheel rides. Stay tuned, after the break we'll sneak a peak at her playroom to see how the other half live...