kpjoyce.com

Alison and I are engaged

I proposed to Alison last night. All went well (she said yes), she seemed happy, and we had a great time gathering friends at the last minute to celebrate. I'll let Ali tell the story, but here are pictures:

The Story - Kevin made me one of our favorite dinner dishes, grilled salmon. After dinner he pulled out a gift bag and informed me he had something he couldn't wait to give me. I opened the bag and found a wooden jewelry box inside. I then opened the box and found the most beautiful diamond engagement ring. I immediately put it on! Kevin then grabbed my right hand and started in on his speech. It was great, although I don't really remember what he said. Something about making a great team. Of course I said yes. After a little while, we called our families and gathered some close friends to join us at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Avenues. The sommelier found us some great champagne, we had two bottles and enjoyed the celebration. We were so happy so many of our friends were able to join us on such a short notice.

The Kitchen Project is Finished

Everything is installed and working in the new kitchen, so I have declared this phase of the home renovation project finished. Sure, there are pieces yet to come. But it is a beautiful and functional kitchen as of last night.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I think that the transformation is enough that I didn't really need the 'before' and 'after' prompts.

Some things yet to come:
-pendants haning over the sink/window
-open shelves on the wall to the left of the microwave
-the missing drawer front
-a filler for that gap above the fridge
-many home-cooked meals

The Kitchen's Gone

The last time that I discussed my home renovation project in this forum, I had just substantially finished work on the living room. A significant amount of work has happened since then. I enjoyed the improved cleanliness and livability of the new living room for about a week before I tore into the big project that is the core of the whole renovation: the total rework of the kitchen and breakfast room area. This killed any hint of cleanliness or livability.

This is going to involve the complete removal of the existing kitchen and restructuring of the back of the house to remove a room. I will have to repair significant water damage from past plumbing disasters and rot from irresponsible regrading in the back yard (causing wood framing to come in contact with the soil). I will add a half bath and laundry room, and replumb the house. I will take the opportunity to rewire a good portion of the house as well. And then, I will of course have to put in a new kitchen. Maybe I'll post pictures of the plans.

I'm a few weeks into this already. Precisely, I have just finished the demolition and am starting construction. Demo was a slippery slope. Every time you removed one area, you could justify taking the next area as well. I can be pretty confident that I'm done at this point, though. There is nothing more to remove.

I don't know why I have been so quiet about this here. Anyone who interacts with me on a daily basis will tell you that I think, talk, and worry about it incessantly. I'm really enjoying it, and it is a nice distraction from work. With work, my disposable keyboard time is pretty minimal which probably has a lot to do with the lack of discussion here. Still, I'm excited to share the story and share progress with anyone who is interested. To that end, I'm experimenting with putting my house on Twitter. This way, I get another outlet for incessant house project talk along with an excuse to play with my iPhone. So stick my house in your RSS readers, kids, and follow along at home.

Like Mike suggested, this can be your own private HGTV program. Only I don't lift weights as much as the contractors on that network. I swear that they recruit carpenters on the Golds Gym bulletin board.

I can also get pictures up faster and easier using Flickr. Here's one from early last weekend. Click the photo to see the whole photostream. And check back often to see updates.

Stimulation

Well, I don't know if you are as excited about the stimulus bill as I am. First, the economics geek in me loves watching government test every theory in the textbook to try and address this meltdown (to limited practical effect, I might add. But this has to be fertile ground for future study). Next up, a classic: Keynesian govt spending. As someone who's first economic professor was Paul Krugman (NYT columnist, 2008 Nobel prize winner, and unapologetic Keynesian), I'm fascinated to see the results.

I should say that I'm disappointed with the politics of the stimulus process, however. It is unrealistic, I know ... but I expected that the plan would be created in a more thoughtful way -- rooted in application of theory and analysis. Ultimately, congress had to put this together, I suppose.

Tomorrow's bill will be pretty good to my industry, renewable energy.
Solar:
The 30% tax credit for capital expenditures on solar has been changed to a 30% grant. This solves a major problem with the tax credit: companies that don't make money don't pay taxes. Most aren't making money right now, and 30% of a 750 million dollar solar project is a big tax credit. They've also made it possible to take advantage of subsidized financing and the 30% grant at the same time. Projects that start this have to start construction by 2010. With the lead time on permitting, this means that only projects in advanced stages of development really have a shot.
Wind:
The tax credits for wind were extended out again ... three years to 2012.
Wind projects that start construction this year or next can choose to use the solar 30% tax credit instead of the production tax credit. That is a much bigger credit (if they can find someone with a large enough tax bill to absorb it).
Overall:
Accelerated depreciation has been improved for renewable energy projects.
$6B DOE loan guarantee program
Money for renewable energy bond programs: $1.6B
Also significant money for smart grid upgrades and transmission studies (We do those!).

There was a time when earmarks and tax breaks for the energy industry were evil things. I don't mind them when they go where I want them.