她飘过
像梦一般地，
像梦一般地凄婉迷茫。
像梦中飘过
一枝丁香地，
我身旁飘过这个女郎；
她默默地远了，远了，
到了颓圮的篱墙，
走尽这雨巷。
在雨的哀曲里，
消了她的颜色，
散了她的芬芳，
消散了，甚至她的
太息般的眼光
丁香般的惆怅。
撑着油纸伞，独自
彷徨在悠长、悠长
又寂寥的雨巷，
我希望飘过
一个丁香一样地
结着愁怨的姑娘。”

而这些年，年轻人听着是哀伤的丁香花

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgx9r2u7gs

不管哪一种，丁香总是一种淡淡的哀愁弥漫。

家里最早的开是这种白色丁香，香味中等。因为开的早，极容易被伪温暖的天气打败，去年一整年因为乍热之后骤冷，叶子都没舒展过。

我比较喜欢另外一种白色的丁香，香味很淡，得细心一下才能闻到。

之后，等这些丁响树都花谢之后，紫丁香就浓烈登场了。我每次都躲，这个味道太浓了，跟撒了无数香水的臭味一样。浓的要忍不住打喷嚏。后来发现，要开窗，从窗户间弥漫进来，慢慢的整个屋子也有了香味。

这几天，Rhododendron开的正盛。今年的开的比较旺，去年才可怜6朵花。
Iris 也开始慢慢要登场了。

今年的杜鹃似乎花期特别短。爷爷奶奶走了不到2周，花开花谢。

人间四月芳菲尽，我们这里是五月才始盛开。

日本枫好像一夜之间长满了树叶。

第一次走进dogwoods，才发现原来这些粉色小花一朵朵都是可爱的重瓣。

发现美需要心情。住这里第三个春天了。某一天从厨房看出去，突然发现篱笆那边竟然有开白花的树。

原来这种花是日本黄玫瑰（山吹），英文名Kerria (Kerria Japonica)。

最后，我们的院子。

没房子的时候，觉得满草坪里绿色里点缀着黄色小花，多美啊。后来自己有了草坪，才知道这种黄色小花竟然是草坪噩梦。种子跟降落伞一样，飘飘扬扬，来年就是更灿烂的
黄色草坪了。

等领导厂家保证的坚决杀死宽叶草的昂贵的药也打了很久，都还没抑制住黄色小花从这里从那里向我们招手，去年春天，我和我娘就想出了一个办法：人工拔草。我们两拿出
愚公移山精卫填海的大无畏精神，每天坚持把拔草运动当做健身运动，每人平均运动半个小时（当然，俺娘比我运动得多，俺娘一得空就被强迫症去了），坚持到了花谢。后
头实在拔不来及，号召全家每天出去采花10分钟。。。

上个星期，在家休息，天气一下从冬天跳到了夏天，忽然发现黄色小花又出来了。晚上跟领导说，蒲公英又开始了。还同时献宝说，我拔掉了一袋，看来今年应该没有去年多。
我个乌鸦嘴。后来两天，据领导说，小黄花更多了。连他也心惊的去拔草（而不是摘花了）。
周末在家，拔了不少。

出去的时候，就看路边人家的草坪究竟开了多少黄花。
陪闺女去游泳，人家的黄花跟黄金甲一样金灿灿。
我忍不住说，我真想拔了它！！！
闺女说，妈妈，你要是带你的工具来，是不是就可以动手了？
我说，希望妈妈还没有这么变态。。。
领导说，你可真别去挖噢。。。你的眼神都不对了。。。
我说，哦，我看到黄色的花我就恶狠狠的想挖了它。。。
闺女说，妈妈，你可以考虑帮人挖花挣钱。。。。

It is so useful and effective to ORANGIZE everything. Mom’s pain reliever!

Perfect for Library, although I need so many books at first!

Living room? Also it is good for playroom.

 

I like the white expedit and the vibrant strips wall.

This playroom is so neat!

Think how to copy it? Just use multiple 4×2 or 2×2 expedit shelves!

Basement leakage is one of the most common problems found in houses.

When we moved into this house, we found 5 spots of water leakage when it was heavy rain. In our area, basement flooding in spring or fall is expected.

• Poor exterior grading along the perimeter of the foundation walls is likely the number one cause of leaky basements.  Common sense tells us that we want surface water to flow “away” from a house, not to collect and pool adjacent to the foundation walls. A good “rule of thumb” is a 1-to-1 relationship in slope. In other words, at least 6-8 inches of slope away from the foundation walls, extending for the first 6-8 feet.  (items #1 and #2 in diagram)
• Lack of adequate gutters can force water run-off from the roof, directly onto the loose filled area of the “excavation ring”.  Ensure that your gutter extensions are long enough, so they extend past the excavation ring. Replace any leaking or rusted gutters. (Item #2 in diagram)
• Poor grading inside window wells as well as a lack of window well covers, can greatly contribute to basement leakage.
• Plant and shrub overgrowth, especially when very close to the foundation walls, can allow for water to penetrate next to the house, by following the root systems.  
• Landscape edging that is too high and doesn’t allow for water to flow over it can act as a dam, restricting water from flowing away from the house.
• Patch or fill any cracks in foundation walls.  Smaller cracks can be filled with caulk or mortar. Larger cracks, or cracks that extend well below the surface, may require special repairs (epoxy, rubber membrane, etc.), and a specialist should be consulted.
• Cracked or poorly sloped paved surfaces that are adjacent to the house can greatly contribute to water intrusion, because they shed water so fast.   Any open gaps in driveways, patio slabs, etc., adjacent to foundation walls should be caulked.
• If the water level inside the sump basket is up onto (or close to) the entry drain tile lines (see item #5), it can back up around the house, inside the lines, creating a leakage problem. When water levels are this high, it’s time to install a pump.
• Patch / fill open cracks in basement floors with epoxy, to prevent water from being forced up through them.
• Always operate a dehumidifier in the summer months.  While central air conditioning will provide some dehumidification, there is no substitute for a stand-alone unit.
• Wrap pipes with insulation.Some water lines are more prone to condensation than others, and consideration should be given to placing insulation wrap on them, to minimize the potential for condensation & resulting dripping.What

What we do to prevent the water damage:

(1) Install gutter system along the whole house. The previous owner didn’t install it. Gutter seems to be a dilama since it also will cause the difficulty of snow slipping and melting during the winter although it could prevent water running into the loose-filled area.  After we installed the gutter system, 2 out of 5 spot are completedly dried.

(2) Grading: my husband use sands/little stones to form the grading along the house.

(3) Extend the gutter exit long to at least 3 ft far away the base. If the water cann’t be flow out, they will accumlate and pentreate into the foundation again. Try to lead the flow as far as away the base.

(4) Remove all the plants that are too close to the base. The plants that are close to the foundation, will make the water flow around the root system and let the water penetrate the foundation. I removed all the plants in the 2 feet-area, especially large bush or tree.

(5) Always operate a dehumifier in the rain season, especially in the summer. The dehumifier is powerful to remove any water humidity. 

(6) In the winter, to prevent any ice bank, remove the snow from the roof effectively. We got two water damage accidents due to this reason.

(7)Patch any cracks in the basement.

(8) Check the basement frequently, especially in the rain season.

Of course, it is a long-term fight. Any improvement will make the thing turn better and better, i need to believe it.

A dry basement, we tried our best to make it real.

Heavy, very heavy. With self-amounted lights. All wood. Perfect color. Of course, perfect price for me, which made me happy.

I planned to put two of them on the side of the fireplace in my family room. But, they cann’t be fitted in because the limestone of fireplace blocked their way. when the second day after my father-in-law’s arrival, he chopped the stone! My husband tried to tell me there was no way to get rid of the corner of the stone for two weeks!

Anyway, everyone was happy.

 One more picture, the flower:

这个就是花钱的问题。我们请了termix的人在感染的地方下药，在屋子一圈定期监测（每三个月）。貌似这个问题得到了控制。

可是，被领导一怒破坏的木头就那么丑陋的放在大家眼前。一过就是2年。我们每次说，什么时候找木匠来换木头吧。
话说10年我们要re-fi，必须让人来重新评估房价。老太太对着这个车库嘟囔了很久。
最后我忍受不住了，说，咱们把车库门修了吧。老这么放着太难看了。

我家领导向来已经把“修”跟“自己修”等同了。
某天周末起来，说，我今天要修车库了。
然后拿着工具，光机光机把外面的墙面撬掉。露出里头的木头，检查损坏情况，计算要换多少木头。
中间的情况恶劣一点，两边的稍微好一点。
然后我们又去买木头。里头的木头全部换成了4*2的high-pressure treated木头。外头换成了PVC板。
回家之后，先把坏的木头一点一点锯掉，换了7ft高的新木头，底下跟土地接触的地区提前自己填了水泥（原来都是泥土）。然后最后把外板敲回去。两人刷漆。
拆外墙比较复杂，要拆的尽量不破坏原来的。后来又去买了新的siding boards补。才发现我家外墙刷的不是paint，而是stain。HD的人说，10月天气太冷了，stain已经不可能上去了。幸亏补的面积不大，他建议用类似的paint。还好颜色配的很相似。
工作time：3整天。

结论：我们两就是两死大胆。

After I did a lot of research, I found, it was one of the difficult projects we will meet. If possible, we could put it in the list FOREVER!

In the summer of 2010, my husband went down to the basement to check the water damage due to the heavy rain. Then he noticed some water traces from one wall, which we never noticed there was water leakage. Then he soon found it was due to the joint between the house and the deck. Then, the problem pushed us to REPAIR IT.

It always comes with the same consequence: when we open the exterior board, we found it was completely soaked and rotten…Then we decided to replace a brand new one…After we finished it, my husband said: it is time to repair all of our windows,the same thing will happen again and again if we don’t do it now.

At the beginning, we still want to do the work as small as possible. Ideally, just repair the trim by using expoxy or repair kit (as I did research before), then repaint. Soon we found it was not feasible since (1), the repair kit is very expensive and very small amout (only 2 oz for $18). (2)The paint cann’t be well-adhesive to the surface if the surface is not well-prepared. After we tried 3 windows, my husband decided to replace the whole sill.

We measured all the sizes, rushed to Homedepot and Lowes. Oh, we love these two stores so much. We got all the materials after we spend the WHOLE DAY inside.  Btw, the sill was pre-molded into the desired structure (including body and sill head). For DIyers it is just a cutting job.

My husband used a plier to take off all the old cast trims and sills, or use reciportaing saw to cut the demaged part. Put the new replacement in and fix it. Repaint it in white (exterior paint). All done. Ooops, it is not easy, he took three days to finish all the painting and fixing job for the whole house (around 30 windows).

This time we replaced total 6 windows, repaired 5 windows.

As a first-house-buyer, we finally learned an important lesson: how to choose the right house exterior design to avoid water demage?

never know the name of this yellow flowers beneath the japanese pieer
but i knew it is the bell ring of spring

Daffodils are dancing everywhere

New lives are hatching

Blue sky, finally, spring is here!