Why I Oughta...

With the foundation and stand complete for our diy'd wood-fired pizza oven, I recently started turning to building the *actual* oven by cutting bricks last week.   The process of starting the actual oven begins with prepping the top of the hearth to accept the calcium silicate insulation boards.  Cal Sil boards are water-resistant, but you want to keep it as dry as possible so the mass of insulation works as ACTUAL insulation under the oven floor.   The latest innovation for dealing with water penetration that has been driven through the community over at Forno Bravo is the addition of mats of mosiac tiles - set upside down - on top of the reinforced hearth and under the insulation boards.  The idea is that by setting the mosiac tile upside (with the mesh/glue pieces facing up), you create little channels that any surface water that hits the hearth can find its way to the drain holes. I went up to a closeout flooring store on North Avenue in Northlake recently a...

About a month ago, I showed the last pictures of our #NewOldFarmhouse where we were having our driveway poured out front.  More recently, the crew moved on to the landscaping and that includes the underground routing of drain pipes.  We're putting the downspouts and the sump pump drain into pipes underground.  You can see one of the big runs in the image above.  They're taking some of the pipes and running them towards a dry well and others...they're running into the yard and installing some 'pop ups' and then letting the grading of the property take over.   I took some photos of the drywells (yes...there's more than one) that we put in underground and I'll post the details of those over time.  It seemed that we had a few choices:  put in the drywells or include a water garden - like the one that the City of Elmhurst recently installed as a demonstration .   From a landscaping perspective, I had a really unique experience.  ...

If you live in Elmhurst and opened your utility bill recently, you probably saw this notice in the envelope that calls out the tax increases you're about to be hit with.  They call it a 'Utility Bill Rate Increase', but let's all call it what it is:  Government reaching into your pocket and taking more of your money for no new services. This increase is a 12.6% increase for this year, but if you read closely, they say that there are EVEN MORE tax increases coming in the next few years.  They say, they *might* not be all the way up to 12.6%, but you can bet they'll be near 10% next year and the year after and the year after. Don't even get me started with the sewer costs.  How does the City figure your sewer bill?  Welp, they just take the consumption amount of water and charge you that rate for sewer fees.  Even if it all doesn't go down the drain.  Water your grass or garden?  That water isn't going in the sewer is it?  Nope.  Do...

Hey kids, look!  Rhein Falls! The largest 'plain' (whatever that means) waterfall in all of Europe .  And it happens to be in (or very near as far as I can tell) the very town that my sister and Equation Boy/Man are living.  My sister took us out there for a bit and we had quite the time.  We went on the little, flat bottomed boat and it got a bit hairy (at least for me) as the captain turned the boat sideways right INTO the current.  I could have sworn we were going to capsize and I held on for dear life.  I was quickly doing the mental math of which child to grab and as I looked around figuring out where the kids where, I quickly realized that all the rest of the tourists were acting naturally, smiling, taking photos of the grand falls.  And it was, sadly, just me freaking out about...apparently....nothing.

This is the main route around Downtown Elmhurst.  As you can tell...it is un-passable.  The last time I spotted the Palmer Underpass in Elmhurst flooded was back in July of 2010.   Here's the photo of that flood . Can't tell, but I *think* this time the water is higher than back in 2010.