It has been a crazy hot week here making even the simplest of tasks seem overwhelming.  Not having air conditioning isn’t too bad when the overnight low temperatures get down at least to the upper 60’s.  This week that hasn’t happened and it has been very humid so we have not been able to get the house cooled down at night.  We went to the big box store for more paint and found this:

A portable air conditioner!

I had no idea such things existed.  I knew you could get a window air conditioner but not a portable one.  Needless to say we brought one home.  The plan was to use it primarily in the kitchen which for some reason never cools down even when the rest of the house does.  It will make meal prep so much nicer.  So far we have only used it in the study where both of the boys have been hanging out a lot this summer.  The desktop computer, cable gateway and router and the boys video game systems are all in there.  With an east facing window and all the electronics the room gets hot.  The portable A/C made a huge difference.  It will be great to be able to cool down whatever area of the house we need.  We do have A/C on the third floor so we can always hang out up there and sleep up there if it gets really bad.

Since we have been here for a year now, our homeowners insurance was due to renew.  Getting homeowners insurance for an historic home was a challenge we did not expect.  Renewing with our current carrier was horrible.  Our cost was going to increase nearly a $1000.  We hadn’t filed any claims or made any changes.  It was crazy.  There seems to be only two carriers for homes like ours.  Both base your rates on replacement value.  The tricky part about that is most of the features of our home that we fell in love with-the stained glass, the woodwork are irreplaceable.  You can’t get the craftsmen or the materials today to replace these features.  The insurance company still puts a value on it though.  Our home is valued at over $4,000,000.  Yes.  That is six zeroes!  We would never spend that much to replace this house in this neighborhood if we were to suffer a catastrophic loss. Due to the crazy increase, we switched to the only alternative we had.

The insurance company required us to install a security system which we had already had done.  As part of our renewal we needed smoke detectors which we had but the insurance company wanted a remotely monitored smoke detector system in place.  We now have that and these lovely little gadgets had to be placed on the walls on the first floor, eight inches from the ceiling.

So fitting on the walls of our home!

Trying to find someplace where they would not be an eye sore was a challenge but we managed.  I won’t post pictures of the actual detectors on my walls because I am hoping you will never notice them if you come over!  No need to point them out here.  On the second and third floors they are on the ceilings and a little less obvious.  Plus nobody looks at the hallway ceilings there.

Larry the tree guy is coming back this weekend to remove the other mulberry tree, the dead trees and a few trees that will be in the way when we (hopefully) put our pool in next summer.  The backyard/sideyard (I never know what to call this space) will look a lot different on Monday.

Dead tree should go too.

Evil mulberry tree that must go!

Dead trees that need removed

We cleaned up the front floor bed last weekend and added a few perennials and some more shrubs.  We get a lot of compliments on the yard.  The general consensus from the neighborhood is the yard hasn’t been well cared for in a long time and this is the best it has looked in years. I missed having flowers and a garden last year.  It does make it feel more like home when you pull in the driveway and see all the landscaping.  Since the house is on such a visible corner it seems everyone notices.