Home improvements

We try to do at least one home improvement project each summer, and this year we decided to tackle our balcony. We have enough room out there for a table and chairs, and there's a nice view of the city, but it's a little... bland.

Table & chairs removed to show you the plain concrete floor.

We bought deck tiles at Ikea, and it took a grand total of five minutes to install them. They just snap together!

Ben is so handy.

After I stained and sealed them.

The following weekend we went to a nursery and picked up some window boxes and flowers. After getting them all set up, and bringing the patio furniture back out, now it looks like this:

(We still have to get real pots for the basil on the table)

 To recap, with a few hours work and a couple hundred dollars (almost all for the decking), we did this:

Before

After

Take that, Tim Allen!

New Digs

Last week our office moved across town to a nicer building, since our old office building was somewhat decrepit. However, our old building was a perfect 15 minute walk away from my house, and this new one is a cruddy 30 minute SEPTA ride away. So, I used to have a lovely free commute and now I have to pay money to be crammed into a subway car with a bunch of sweaty Philadelphians - I'm not yet convinced the nicer building is worth it.

Other tradeoffs: My new cubicle is newer/cleaner, but also smaller than my old one:

There is nowhere for me to look while I'm thinking without creepily staring at one of my neighbors.

Our staff was split between several rooms at the old building, and now we are all together in one big space. Except, the space is really, really open so you can see/hear what everyone is doing at all times:

The old office was in Center City, and had a lot of nearby restaurants for when you didn't pack a lunch. The new office is next to a graveyard, which contains the creepiest grave of all time:

An eyeless, half-naked doll would be sad on a little girl's grave, but on a 68 year old man's grave it is kind of unsettling.

There is some cool stuff near the new office too, like this giant fish mural:

And this building with trees growing out of it:

And this house, which upon closer inspection has a gargoyle on its roof:

And upon even closer inspection, has a Chucky doll in the attic window:

So, you know. Strikes and gutters.