I'd been home from Savannah for about an hour when things got crazy here. We're all safe and fine and whatnot, but there was trouble across the street. Here's the link to the Police Blog story on it. I'm not ready yet to write.
http://blogs.lowellsun.com/policeline/2013/02/24/fire-christian-hill/
Here's another story from the Lowell Sun:
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_22663008/fire-damages-lowell-home
We left for a while because we had dinner plans with friends, and it was important to get Lucy out of the house. They've been doing a lot of stuff at her school about how to dial 911, and they've had visits from firefighters, police, and EMTs to talk about those important jobs. Her comment: "I'm going to have a lot to tell my teacher this week!"
It smells bad here. But at least no one was hurt.
Showing posts with label neighbors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neighbors. Show all posts
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Of Fires and Dryers
Jake made the trip to Home Despot today and purchased a new dryer. It will be delivered on Friday. I know, I know, you're wondering, "but wait, Bridget didn't blog about the dryer being broken." Sorry about that. The truth is that it has not (yet) gone completely kaput. But it is on its way out, and recent events have convinced us that it is Unsafe. For about a month now, the dryer has made a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad sound during the entire run of its drying time. It sounds a bit like a large, sharp, metal thing is attempting to escape the dryer. For 40 minutes. Straight. Thankfully, the dryer is in the basement, so we really don't hear it up here in the living space. Nonetheless, such noises should not be ignored for long.
While we had in fact been quite successfully ignoring this noise, events on Monday changed my mind. In the early afternoon, I noticed a lot of activity outside, and then, suddenly, I noticed that there were no fewer than three large fire engines sitting right in front of my house. I was pretty sure that there was not a fire at 83 Durant, but it was clear that something bad was going on. The three kids from across the street were standing in front of our house with their two dogs, freaking out a bit (both dogs and kids). I had them come into the yard where the dogs would be contained, and I gave them some jackets, but they didn't want to come inside because they were scared. I understood (I'll tell you sometime about the fire at my house when I was a kid). One of the kids explained that their dryer had caught on fire, and, moreover, said dryer was a gas dryer, so their entire house was filled with fumes and could, at any moment, completely blow up (or so they thought/feared/believed). Thankfully, things were contained and the Lowell fire fighters prevented further harm. I don't know what kind of smoke damage they had inside, but it seems that they are back there and everyone is fine. Except the dryer, obviously.
Anyway, this left me reflecting on the dangers of the appliance known as the dryer (even though ours is an electric dryer), thus the purchase. The dryer was in fact on the "appliance death watch" list as it came with the house, and was in fact the subject of a previous post.
So this tale of fire in our neighborhood reminds me of another serious fire that recently changed the local landscape in our neighborhood. The Varnum Building, which stood at the corner of Bridge Street and Third Street was a landmark on the way home -- we passed it every day. On February 13th, it went up in flames, leaving 11 people without their home.
The building dated to 1882, and was on the National Register of Historic Places. Here's a picture of it (not a recent one, sadly):
Here's what Lowell's website said of it:
The Varnum Building is one of the oldest surviving commercial buildings in the Centralville neighborhood. Built in the Queen Anne style, the building’s prominent location and architectural detail combine to make it the landmark of commercial buildings in Centralville. The builders, brothers Leavitt and Daniel Varnum, were extensive real estate promoters and developers in the neighborhood who operated their real estate office in the building’s first floor.
(http://www.lowellma.gov/depts/historic-board/historic-places-architecture/varnum-building-401-bridge-street)
Most recently, there was a hair salon and a chiropracter's office in on the first floor, and many apartments above. The day after the fire, it was deemed a serious hazard (and it was, since it was several stories high and was right up against the sidewalk) so they tore the whole thing down. We went past it early in the day and it was being dismantled; later in the day, there was a great big hole in the ground, and by the next morning, the hole was filled in and it was an empty lot. It was unbelievable.
While looking for photos of the Varnum Building, I stumbled on someone else's blog, and they had a rather nice photo essay about Christian Hill, our neighborhood. I'll link to it here so you can see some shots of some of our environs. I keep meaning to get out and get some photos, but....well, things get busy. I hope to do that as things get warmer here.
Until then, beware of dryers.
While we had in fact been quite successfully ignoring this noise, events on Monday changed my mind. In the early afternoon, I noticed a lot of activity outside, and then, suddenly, I noticed that there were no fewer than three large fire engines sitting right in front of my house. I was pretty sure that there was not a fire at 83 Durant, but it was clear that something bad was going on. The three kids from across the street were standing in front of our house with their two dogs, freaking out a bit (both dogs and kids). I had them come into the yard where the dogs would be contained, and I gave them some jackets, but they didn't want to come inside because they were scared. I understood (I'll tell you sometime about the fire at my house when I was a kid). One of the kids explained that their dryer had caught on fire, and, moreover, said dryer was a gas dryer, so their entire house was filled with fumes and could, at any moment, completely blow up (or so they thought/feared/believed). Thankfully, things were contained and the Lowell fire fighters prevented further harm. I don't know what kind of smoke damage they had inside, but it seems that they are back there and everyone is fine. Except the dryer, obviously.
Anyway, this left me reflecting on the dangers of the appliance known as the dryer (even though ours is an electric dryer), thus the purchase. The dryer was in fact on the "appliance death watch" list as it came with the house, and was in fact the subject of a previous post.
So this tale of fire in our neighborhood reminds me of another serious fire that recently changed the local landscape in our neighborhood. The Varnum Building, which stood at the corner of Bridge Street and Third Street was a landmark on the way home -- we passed it every day. On February 13th, it went up in flames, leaving 11 people without their home.
The building dated to 1882, and was on the National Register of Historic Places. Here's a picture of it (not a recent one, sadly):
Here's what Lowell's website said of it:
The Varnum Building is one of the oldest surviving commercial buildings in the Centralville neighborhood. Built in the Queen Anne style, the building’s prominent location and architectural detail combine to make it the landmark of commercial buildings in Centralville. The builders, brothers Leavitt and Daniel Varnum, were extensive real estate promoters and developers in the neighborhood who operated their real estate office in the building’s first floor.
(http://www.lowellma.gov/depts/historic-board/historic-places-architecture/varnum-building-401-bridge-street)
Most recently, there was a hair salon and a chiropracter's office in on the first floor, and many apartments above. The day after the fire, it was deemed a serious hazard (and it was, since it was several stories high and was right up against the sidewalk) so they tore the whole thing down. We went past it early in the day and it was being dismantled; later in the day, there was a great big hole in the ground, and by the next morning, the hole was filled in and it was an empty lot. It was unbelievable.
While looking for photos of the Varnum Building, I stumbled on someone else's blog, and they had a rather nice photo essay about Christian Hill, our neighborhood. I'll link to it here so you can see some shots of some of our environs. I keep meaning to get out and get some photos, but....well, things get busy. I hope to do that as things get warmer here.
Until then, beware of dryers.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Electrifying
During the process of spare bedroom demolition (detailed in a previous post), there was one unintended, accidental destruction: we broke the lighting fixture (the overhead light w/ the switch). Today, I was thrilled to have our lovely next-door-neighbor, Lisa, and her daughter Cookie, come over and fix it for us. Lisa is an electrician and just all around lovely person. Cookie (who is in third grade) serves as assistant on Lisa's smaller (at home) jobs. It turns out that we had broken it in two places -- the switch itself and the overhead light were both messed up. (I'm sketchy on the details, so I'm afraid "messed up" is as well as I can explain things.) But they are no longer messed up, and instead, we have light! And safety!
She also mentioned that the electricity in the house was updated by the owners BEFORE the previous owners, so about a dozen years or so ago. She said she thought the wiring actually looked a lot better than most of what she'd seen in houses this age, so that was nice to hear.
We're so so thankful to have such kind & capable neighbors!
A funny thing happened while Lisa was working on the project. She needed to run out to the hardware store in the middle of it (I was pleased that we're not the only ones this happens to), so she went to our local Ace Hardware. While there, buying stuff for the spare bedroom, she ran into Zach, the former resident of that very bedroom. No kidding. We had never met him, but Lisa knew the former owners, including Zach (one of the kids) very well.
Zach asked if we had done anything to the house, and she told him we'd done a lot with the outside. The he asked if we'd done anything to his bedroom, because it was a mess, and because he knew there was a big leak in the room -- one that required a bucket -- that they had spray painted over when they sold the house. He said he thought they should have told us about the leak. He also mentioned that he had punched some holes in the wall, and that he could see outside through them. These things, of course, we have already discovered on our own. But he did mention one thing that we didn't know -- he said that there's asbestos in the attic. This seems a little strange (I thought asbestos was mostly in basement, around pipes and furnaces), but interesting. I wish they had told us about the leak, but, we figured it out soon enough.
All around, it was a very informative day!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Garden Edition, Issue 4
The garden was looking in sorry shape due to the overgrowth of WEEDS while we've been busy with other projects. Today we had some beautiful weather, and it seemed the ideal time to take on the weediness.
Armed with information and color-coded photo provided by astute reader and gardener Jess, we knew this much: yellow are peppers and the red are weeds and the purple are in question, but probably weeds. [If you click on this photo, you'll get a better view of the colored circles that Jess did to help us figure out these plants.]
We made an important discovery about the things Jess circled in purple (see photo above); they are not weeds -- they are RADISHES! This is particularly funny since Jess's partner in crime, Stephan, planted these "joke radishes," as he called them, all over the garden. We are indeed enjoying our joke radishes quite a lot.
So I went to town pulling up all sorts of things. There was a lot of grass, and A LOT of shamrocks and lots of little trees sprouting from acorns that squirrels had hidden in the garden. Check out the bucket o' weeds:
And here is the improved garden:
OK, maybe Carter lounging in the lettuce patch is not an improvement, but at least he's not sitting on the herbs (as he was earlier today). There are still some weeds (especially in the lettuce patch to the lower right), but we've gotten rid of a lot of the nasty ones.
By far the most exciting development today was the discovery of BLUEBERRIES on our blueberry bushes:
We each ate a few that were ripe and they were DELICIOUS! We need to get some netting material fast to keep the birds from discovering and devouring our treat.
Today was also filled with another unexpected treat. We were invited to the birthday party of one of our 9-year old neighbors. The birthday party included a live animal show, complete with a python, hedgehog, alligator, and other sundry creatures. It was all pretty amazing. Oh, and there was ice cream cake too. Pretty awesome. We should go to more 9aery- olds' birthday parties.
Armed with information and color-coded photo provided by astute reader and gardener Jess, we knew this much: yellow are peppers and the red are weeds and the purple are in question, but probably weeds. [If you click on this photo, you'll get a better view of the colored circles that Jess did to help us figure out these plants.]
We made an important discovery about the things Jess circled in purple (see photo above); they are not weeds -- they are RADISHES! This is particularly funny since Jess's partner in crime, Stephan, planted these "joke radishes," as he called them, all over the garden. We are indeed enjoying our joke radishes quite a lot.
So I went to town pulling up all sorts of things. There was a lot of grass, and A LOT of shamrocks and lots of little trees sprouting from acorns that squirrels had hidden in the garden. Check out the bucket o' weeds:
And here is the improved garden:
OK, maybe Carter lounging in the lettuce patch is not an improvement, but at least he's not sitting on the herbs (as he was earlier today). There are still some weeds (especially in the lettuce patch to the lower right), but we've gotten rid of a lot of the nasty ones.
By far the most exciting development today was the discovery of BLUEBERRIES on our blueberry bushes:
We each ate a few that were ripe and they were DELICIOUS! We need to get some netting material fast to keep the birds from discovering and devouring our treat.
Today was also filled with another unexpected treat. We were invited to the birthday party of one of our 9-year old neighbors. The birthday party included a live animal show, complete with a python, hedgehog, alligator, and other sundry creatures. It was all pretty amazing. Oh, and there was ice cream cake too. Pretty awesome. We should go to more 9aery- olds' birthday parties.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Yard Work and Questions for Readers
Today we joined millions of Americans celebrating Memorial Day by doing yard work. We didn't do a lot, but we did accomplish a few things. I started by trying to mow the back yard. Here's the situation:
That grass is tall. Too tall, in fact, for our humble push mower. It couldn't do a thing. So we went to our friendly neighborhood Ace and bought a cheap weed eater.
It did the job.
We had one large, ugly pile of debris in the yard from the demolition of various fences. Jake split it up -- one pile for wood, one pile for metal, and also hacked down a fair amount of the wood to more reasonable sizes.
This brings us to READER QUESTION NUMBER ONE): How does one fix (or get fixed) the power cord to a power saw, if, say, one might have used said saw to cut through said power cord? Please feel free to suggest your answers in the comments. FYI, we are quite aware of the hilarity of this situation. And the danger.
So now we have two piles of junk. We're hoping to find a scrap metal/scrap wood place so we don't have to just throw them in the trash. The piles are now on the other side of the yard, and it's somewhat less unsightly. Here's a before and after:
Carter seems to enjoy this new spot, but he also seemed to enjoy crawling under the pile. We think he needs a doghouse, which perhaps we can make for him sometime.
Next problem: the hose by the garden (in front of the kitchen). It's a mess, as seen here:
And here is our solution:
The hose roll-up thing (with seat!) is a nice addition, but you might be wondering about that blue bucket. The problem is that the faucet drips. And it's this weird frost-free kind.
Which leads us to READER QUESTION NUMBER TWO) Does anyone know how to fix such a faucet? We can turn off the water from the inside. Jake tried turning that little screw in the center of the plastic handle, but it didn't seem to do anything other than hold on the label. It's a NIBCO Frost Free. (I'll try to get a better close-up image of it soon.) We're leaving it alone for now and hopefully the bucket will do its job.
And finally, here is our READER QUESTION NUMBER THREE) What should we do with these hydrangeas?
They are definitely getting new growth on the lower parts, but the woody stems look pretty ugly. Some of the old woody stems seem to have new buds and growth on them, while others seem thoroughly dead. Should we cut these off? Does anyone have any expert pruning advice for hydrangeas?
Finally, as an advance thank-you for all the thoroughly helpful comments I'm sure we're about to get, here is our 83 Durant Cute Overload photo:
Those are two of our neighbor kids and their duck. That's Dmitri, Junior, and Big Bird. Or, as we like to call them, Junior-Junior, Junior, and Junior Duck.
That grass is tall. Too tall, in fact, for our humble push mower. It couldn't do a thing. So we went to our friendly neighborhood Ace and bought a cheap weed eater.
It did the job.
We had one large, ugly pile of debris in the yard from the demolition of various fences. Jake split it up -- one pile for wood, one pile for metal, and also hacked down a fair amount of the wood to more reasonable sizes.
This brings us to READER QUESTION NUMBER ONE): How does one fix (or get fixed) the power cord to a power saw, if, say, one might have used said saw to cut through said power cord? Please feel free to suggest your answers in the comments. FYI, we are quite aware of the hilarity of this situation. And the danger.
So now we have two piles of junk. We're hoping to find a scrap metal/scrap wood place so we don't have to just throw them in the trash. The piles are now on the other side of the yard, and it's somewhat less unsightly. Here's a before and after:
Carter seems to enjoy this new spot, but he also seemed to enjoy crawling under the pile. We think he needs a doghouse, which perhaps we can make for him sometime.
Next problem: the hose by the garden (in front of the kitchen). It's a mess, as seen here:
And here is our solution:
The hose roll-up thing (with seat!) is a nice addition, but you might be wondering about that blue bucket. The problem is that the faucet drips. And it's this weird frost-free kind.
Which leads us to READER QUESTION NUMBER TWO) Does anyone know how to fix such a faucet? We can turn off the water from the inside. Jake tried turning that little screw in the center of the plastic handle, but it didn't seem to do anything other than hold on the label. It's a NIBCO Frost Free. (I'll try to get a better close-up image of it soon.) We're leaving it alone for now and hopefully the bucket will do its job.
And finally, here is our READER QUESTION NUMBER THREE) What should we do with these hydrangeas?
They are definitely getting new growth on the lower parts, but the woody stems look pretty ugly. Some of the old woody stems seem to have new buds and growth on them, while others seem thoroughly dead. Should we cut these off? Does anyone have any expert pruning advice for hydrangeas?
Finally, as an advance thank-you for all the thoroughly helpful comments I'm sure we're about to get, here is our 83 Durant Cute Overload photo:
Those are two of our neighbor kids and their duck. That's Dmitri, Junior, and Big Bird. Or, as we like to call them, Junior-Junior, Junior, and Junior Duck.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Peg Board!
Those of you familiar with my organizational urges will understand my JOY at the installation of our basement tool pegboard!
We actually relocated this piece of pegboard from its rather inaccessible location back in the furnace/hot water heater room. Now it's a lot easier and more useful, right above this bench where we do various tasks (mostly Jake works on bikes). I'm so pleased!
In other weekend updates, yesterday, while I was planting some grass seed in the front yard, a bunch of the neighborhood kids came by (as usual). This time, there was a new one, a little boy who told us his name was Joshua, and looked/sounded to be maybe 5 or 6 years old. Joshua was wearing a polo shirt and shorts, at least as well as I could see through the picket fence (he wasn't much taller than the fence). He informed me "I'm Superman!" and started shooting laser beams or something at me (I wasn't sure of the specific technology, only that it made the sound "bbbshew bbbbshew shew shew). Next thing I know, he is ripping off his clothes, proclaiming "I'm Superman!" and lo and behold, underneath his mild-mannered polo shirt, there was A SUPERMAN COSTUME. Seriously. He then ran down the street, perhaps to thwart evil in another yard. It was all pretty awesome. I'm hoping his super powers will help the grass grow.
We actually relocated this piece of pegboard from its rather inaccessible location back in the furnace/hot water heater room. Now it's a lot easier and more useful, right above this bench where we do various tasks (mostly Jake works on bikes). I'm so pleased!
In other weekend updates, yesterday, while I was planting some grass seed in the front yard, a bunch of the neighborhood kids came by (as usual). This time, there was a new one, a little boy who told us his name was Joshua, and looked/sounded to be maybe 5 or 6 years old. Joshua was wearing a polo shirt and shorts, at least as well as I could see through the picket fence (he wasn't much taller than the fence). He informed me "I'm Superman!" and started shooting laser beams or something at me (I wasn't sure of the specific technology, only that it made the sound "bbbshew bbbbshew shew shew). Next thing I know, he is ripping off his clothes, proclaiming "I'm Superman!" and lo and behold, underneath his mild-mannered polo shirt, there was A SUPERMAN COSTUME. Seriously. He then ran down the street, perhaps to thwart evil in another yard. It was all pretty awesome. I'm hoping his super powers will help the grass grow.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Tom Sawyer with Topsoil
We've had an amazing day. It was beautiful outside, a perfect opportunity to start some yard work. We went to the local garden center and found out that they could deliver a cubic yard of dirt TODAY. We thought that would be perfect for the hole situation in the back yard, as portrayed here:
Last fall, I partly filled in the holes with leaves, but it kinda made the holes into tiger-trap like pits, covered in a deceptive layer of leaves, leading to a few twisted ankles.
We prepared the way by making a tarp-based delivery chute covering the steps that lead from the driveway (where the truck would be dumping our dirt) to the backyard (where we needed the dirt).
We bought a new wheelbarrow for the job. We own a wheelbarrow. We're officially grown-ups.
And here's our giant pile of dirt
While we were waiting for the delivery, a couple of the boys across the street (5th-grader Junior and his brother, 3rd grader Demetri) came over because they were having trouble with their bikes. Jake helped them out and got both bikes going again. The kids were very happy, and suddenly wanted to join in the dirt shoveling. Shortly after, another boy, 7-year-old "Tiny" stopped by to see what was going on. He actually ran home, got himself a shovel, and joined the madness. His 10-year-old brother, Isaiah, showed up shortly thereafter, followed by 13-year old Ariana (Junior & Demetri's sister) and 12-year old Deanna. They demanded tools, and joined in shoveling and hauling and pounding and shoveling and hauling and dumping and arranging the dirt. It was insane.
We kept telling them to go have fun and ride their bikes, but they just wanted to shovel the dirt (and play with the dog, and roll around in the dirt, and throw the dirt, and play with the wheelbarrow and generally run around in our yard).
To be honest, I have no idea how we would have accomplished this job without them. I know there were some serious labor law violations here, but man, those kids were amazing! They stayed around for THREE HOURS helping. We actually had to send them home finally. We did give them lemonade and cheez-its, but that's an insanely low hourly wage. The thing is, there is no way these kids would have done this if their parents told them to. [In fact, Jake has talked to Junior before, when he wandered over here after his mom gave him a chore to do and he didn't feel like doing it.] But once they saw other kids shoveling dirt, they thought it was the coolest thing. We even tried to talk them out of it, but they were totally into it. I've never seen anything like it.
Last fall, I partly filled in the holes with leaves, but it kinda made the holes into tiger-trap like pits, covered in a deceptive layer of leaves, leading to a few twisted ankles.
We prepared the way by making a tarp-based delivery chute covering the steps that lead from the driveway (where the truck would be dumping our dirt) to the backyard (where we needed the dirt).
We bought a new wheelbarrow for the job. We own a wheelbarrow. We're officially grown-ups.
And here's our giant pile of dirt
While we were waiting for the delivery, a couple of the boys across the street (5th-grader Junior and his brother, 3rd grader Demetri) came over because they were having trouble with their bikes. Jake helped them out and got both bikes going again. The kids were very happy, and suddenly wanted to join in the dirt shoveling. Shortly after, another boy, 7-year-old "Tiny" stopped by to see what was going on. He actually ran home, got himself a shovel, and joined the madness. His 10-year-old brother, Isaiah, showed up shortly thereafter, followed by 13-year old Ariana (Junior & Demetri's sister) and 12-year old Deanna. They demanded tools, and joined in shoveling and hauling and pounding and shoveling and hauling and dumping and arranging the dirt. It was insane.
We kept telling them to go have fun and ride their bikes, but they just wanted to shovel the dirt (and play with the dog, and roll around in the dirt, and throw the dirt, and play with the wheelbarrow and generally run around in our yard).
To be honest, I have no idea how we would have accomplished this job without them. I know there were some serious labor law violations here, but man, those kids were amazing! They stayed around for THREE HOURS helping. We actually had to send them home finally. We did give them lemonade and cheez-its, but that's an insanely low hourly wage. The thing is, there is no way these kids would have done this if their parents told them to. [In fact, Jake has talked to Junior before, when he wandered over here after his mom gave him a chore to do and he didn't feel like doing it.] But once they saw other kids shoveling dirt, they thought it was the coolest thing. We even tried to talk them out of it, but they were totally into it. I've never seen anything like it.
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