100th Post...and I Have Mice...

I wish I could celebrate my 100th post with a topic that was a little more pleasant.

A few nights ago, we noticed what looked like mouse excrement in the counter around our kitchen sink. This is the same sink that I had the problem with a couple of months ago. I should have thought about this back when we had that problem- that the combination of moisture underneath the cabinet and the fact that there is no barrier surrounding the holes around the pipes probably makes this an inviting place for a mouse to go. Directly below the sink is my crawlspace, which to me is just about the darkest, creepiest place on the entire planet. It makes me wonder how many more are living down there.

So I went to Lowe’s and stocked up on mouse poison trays and a covered mousetrap (I did not want to see a cute, dead mouse). I initially wanted to trap them humanely, but then realized I’d have no where to legally release them (except in my yard, which wouldn’t make sense).

Yesterday, we caught our first one. I’ll leave it set for the next few nights, and then try to find something to cover up the holes around the pipes. I ended up spending a total of $12 on the supplies. In retrospect, I probably did not need to buy the poison trays, as the trap seemed to work.

Have a Question for Ace's Helpful Hardware Man?

Lou Manfredini, Ace Hardware's "Helpful Hardware Man," has offered to answer reader questions, especially for us. Post your questions here, and I'll be sure to get them over to Lou!

According to Ace, Lou "is a nationally recognized home do-it-yourself expert who is a master at giving tips on home improvement and home renovations in a way that even the most novice DIY person can follow. He has authored five DIY books, has a call-in radio show with WGN Radio in Chicago called The Mr. Fix-It Show and a nationally syndicated TV program called House Smarts."

Please get in your questions by this Wednesday (3/25).

Why is There So Little Financial Education in Schools?

As home ownership is a subset of personal finance management, I thought this post would be appropriate for my readers.

Why are classes like home economics and physical education mandatory in most school districts, while a class on managing your finances is not? Such a class could introduce kids to things like saving, balancing a checking account, going to college, buying a home, etc. By the state of the current economy, it looks like many people have not gotten such advice, and many others are not suited to give it, as well.

I know some districts have introduced such classes, but from what I read, changing a curriculum is herculean task in many places. Let's hope it happens.

Can't Wait for Spring!

In my part of the country, we have great hopes that no more snow will arrive and that mild weather will come soon. Today, actually, I was able to take inventory of my yard and came up with this list of things I want to soon do:

• Mulch around the fenceline (I picked up the free mulch at the local recycling center and did it all in two trips today)
• Mulch alongside the driveway and in a bed
• Clean up the remainder of leaves
• Get the garden ready for planting
• Plant the garden
• Buy plants to line driveway
• Fertilize grass

I hope the weather cooperates so I can get this stuff done sooner than later!

Free Instructional Sites

There are lots of sites on the web that offer tutorials for DIY projects and fixes. I'm sure you have your favorites, as do I. I've been in DIY mode for a few years now, but I only just recently stumbled upon these sites, so I thought you may have missed them as well: Instructables and Fixed4Free.

These sites were helpful to me recently when I couldn't get a tape out of a VCR. I plan to use them in the future the next time I need some assistance.

New Logo!

What do you think? OK, I'm just using this new logo as an excuse to test something I'm working on with my feed. But tell me if you have any comments about it!

I Love the Mortgage Interest Deduction

Last week I received my income tax refund. What other day of the year do you get thousands of dollars given to you in exchange for the relatively short amount of time it takes to file your taxes? Yes, I know it was money I overpaid to begin with, and some will argue I should change my W-4 to lessen my overpayments, but for the paranoid like me, I’d rather get money back than have to owe and pay penalties.

Only the last couple of years have I had significant refunds. I owe that to the mortgage interest that I can now deduct. What a benefit of homeownership that has turned out to be: before I owned this house, I’d owe or get refunded less than $300 every year. Now, the refund I get is equivalent to about 2.5 house payments. I find that to be amazing.

I bring all this up because President Obama seems to be thinking about reducing the amount of mortgage interest that can be deducted by high-income people. I don’t want to get political, but since I’m not one of those high-income people, I have no problem with this. If I was fortunate enough to be one of them, I’d be disappointed, but I would understand the reasoning. However, there are those who say this will lead to a decrease in housing sales, which confuses me. The mortgage interest deduction currently applies to the house that is your main residence. Everyone needs somewhere to live. So because they end up not being refunded as much money as they are used to, they will instead become renters?

The bottom line is that the mortgage interest deduction is an unheralded perk of homeownership, and I don’t think it gets enough prominence from the pro-home-buying people (whoever they may be).

Energy Monitoring Devices

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Google's efforts to help people understand which of their home devices and appliances suck the most energy. While they are still a ways away from making that goal a reality, I found other products that can do basically the same thing, though they will cost you a few dollars.

Some units, like The Energy Detective, consists of two units: the transmitter (which must be installed in your electical box) and your display (which is where you can read about the energy use of each breaker). Black & Decker's Power Monitor consists of installing a device on your outside meter and then watching the display. If you want an even simpler device and you mainly are curious about finding which of your items is an "electricity vampire," check out the Kill A Watt, which simply allows you to plug in anything to it.

They range in price from around $20 to $150. I haven't personally tried any of them out, but I'd really be curious to find out where my usage is coming from. Maybe I'll add one to birthday list.