Another Home Improvement Task

After the fireplace insert was installed, I said no more home improvement until spring. That lasted a whole month.

In retirement!

 A few weeks ago I decided to do something about the hot water heater. The   existing hot water heater is 25 years old. I figured it can't be all that efficient,   and  it makes a lot of noise when it's heating the water. While it works, I'm   always thinking it could go out any time. Honestly, I've been amazed with how   the water heater still worked after 25 years. 

 But . . . I decided it was time for it to retire. So I bought a tankless water   heater,   and this week, I installed it. Well, I had help installing it. I did, though,   a lot of   the work to get it up and running, and I enjoyed the process from   beginning to   end. I learned so much about how my house is set up along with   what might be   needing attention down the road.

Nice and neat!

Because my house is small at 1300 square feet, with just one bathroom, no washer and no dishwasher, I went with a water heater designed for small spaces. It puts out 4 gallons per minute, which for me is just fine. I don't use a lot of water per month, averaging around 600 gallons (which seems high to me since I'm the only person here and I shower twice a week and do dishes maybe four times during the week). That's an average of 20 gallons a day, and I'm not convinced I use that much water each day. This might gross some people out, but I don't even flush every time I use the toilet. I live by the "if it's yellow let it mellow" philosophy. I'm really trying to reduce consumption, but each month my bill shows between 500 and 700 gallons used. Maybe next time the water guys come by I'll have them show me the meter and start keeping track myself.

I might have gone overboard!  

 With the tankless now installed, my attention is   turning to starting   seeds. I ordered a bunch of different seeds. I mean a   bunch! Too   many,   really. But I'm excited about getting my garden going   this   spring and   summer since I didn't have one last year. I need to sit   down and sketch   it out to get a feel for how it can be set up, and my   hope  is I have nicely   started plants to transfer once the last frost has   come  and gone. I've   been watching a lot of gardening videos, which   is  getting me all fired   up to garden. The weather, though, is   saying  not  so fast, Missy, with its   single digit temps during the day   and negative numbers overnight. The   next few days is snow and more snow in addition to the very frigid temps. I'm fine with this. It'll give me time to set up the seed starting station in the basement.

Now, the kitchen is calling. The weather is perfect for potato soup and homemade bread. And maybe some vegan chocolate chip cookies. The dj on the radio just said it's -11 wind chill. Some yummy comfort food is definitely calling to me.