Category Archives: Blogging

Feb 26 3 comments
Blogging

You Make My Day!

Jen Wolf from Blog at Ranch Revival has listed this blog as one of her daily reads. I have to say, that is one of the nicer things that anyone has said to me in a long time. Thanks, Jen! So now it is my turn to share the love, as it where. I have an eclectic list of blogs that I check regularly:

  1. Helpful Advice for Home Construction and Improvement. Todd has a great blog about his house project in New Hampshire with lots of useful information about home construction. Todd is an engineer for a major building company and is expecting has second child, a daughter, to arrive soon. Todd, I can say, life will never be the same!
  2. Green in Medusa. Baldomero and Stephanie embark on a green building project in Medusa, NY. It is interesting to watch a project still in the design phase take shape and come to life. I check in often to see what is happening.
  3. gCaptain. Formerly a sea going person, I find it interesting to see what is going on in the shipping industry. Many of the articles are engineering in nature, like this one about large diesel engines used on ships. Good stuff!
  4. Tiny Old House. Yet another Jennifer writes about fixing up a house! I like this blog because Jen and her husband are real do-it-yourselfer’s. Learning by their mistakes and telling us about it. That takes a good deal of heart.
  5. Jay Gaulard Blog. Jay is a personal friend, former co-worker, a bit of a kook and has undertaken numerous house projects over the last year or two.

There are actually many other blogs that I check regularly, but I feel that these are the ones most deserving recognition.

Here are the obligatory “rules” that go with these sorts of posts…
The ‘you make my day award’ works like this:

1) Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think and/or make your day.
2) Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3) Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Aug 27 1 comments
Blogging

Blog Reader of the week, II

Since this was so much fun last week, I thought I would do it again. This week I nominate Jay as my blog reader of the week. Truth be told, this blog is all Jay’s fault. One day, in July of 2006, I was sitting at my desk messing around with Blogger when Jay stepped into my office and asked “What are you doing?”

When I told him I was messing around with starting a blog on blogger he said, “Oh no, no, no. You want your own domain name, that way all those back links you get belong to you.” Because we all know that back links are what drives the internet search engine results.  We do? Okay.  The result of that conversation is this blog.

Anyway, Jay also runs his own blog, a few on line stores, and some web classifieds site or something.  You can check out his on line empire at Gaulard.com/blog.  He is a like minded individual when it comes to things like the environment, politics, etc so it is fun to go to lunch with him.  He also contributed to the deck project, for which I have to figure out a way to pay him back.

Here’s to Jay, marketing genius, web guru, and all around good guy, unless you cut him off in traffic.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Aug 21 8 comments
Blogging

Blog Reader of the week

I decided that I should recognize my faithful readers, who, for reasons only known to themselves, read my posts no matter how inane or off topic they may be. To that end, I will post once a week a little blurb about my favorite reader and why I picked that person.

This week it is the anonymous reader from Wien, Austria. For those of you that don’t know, Wien is the German name for Vienna. Since almost the beginning, when I barely had 20 page views a day, this person has checked the blog either by visiting the home page or taking a RSS feed. During all that time, nary a peep has been heard back from that part of the world in this direction. No comments or email, just the same mysterious IP address showing up regularly in the stat counter. Ah well, perhaps it is better left a question mark so I can fill in the blank with my own imagination.

Since we know nothing of the reader himself (or herself), here is a little bit about Vienna:

Vienna was founded around 500 BC, originally a Celtic settlement.

In 15 BC, Vienna became a Roman frontier city (”Vindobona”) guarding the Roman Empire against Germanic tribes to the north.

During the Middle Ages, Vienna was home of the Babenberg Dynasty

In 1440 became residence city of the Habsburg dynasties from where Vienna eventually grew to become the capital of the Holy Roman Empire

Vienna twice stopped the Ottoman invasions of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries outside the city gates. (see Siege of Vienna, 1529 and Battle of Vienna, 1683).

Styles itself as cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine

From our friends at Wikipedia.

So, here’s to you, Mr. (or Mrs or perhaps Miss) Anonymous reader from Austria. Because of you, I lie awake at night wondering what in the world I can post about tomorrow.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Aug 08 0 comments
Blogging, General

Home Improvement Web Directory

In my spare time (yeah, right) I have been fooling around with a link directory page for the Home Owner’s Blog. Since I receive many requests for reciprocal links, I figured I would automate the process and make life easier for myself. I think it will be helpful to those looking for links to their pages, but don’t want to pay Text Link Adds or somebody like that. I will be putting links to this directory in other web directories as well.

The link directory has about 70 categories and about 400 links right now. If I forgot anything that you think should be in there, let me know.

So head on over, take a look around, let me know what you think:

Home Owner’s Blog Link Directory

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jun 20 0 comments
Blogging

It never hurts

To get a mention in a newspaper. Jay sent me this link this morning from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

 

Home Web

catskillhouse.us/blog/

Billed as “A homeowner’s trials and tribulations,” this blog written by an engineer in the borscht belt of New York is filled with lots of “been there, done that” advice and tips. Blogger Paul Thurst is the third owner of a house built in 1965 and the first to live in it full time. Previous owners used it as a vacation home, meaning it was frequently vacant and had the maintenance issues to prove it. Thurst chronicles his efforts to fix it up with great detail and enthusiasm, making it fun to read, if only so you can be grateful you’re not him.

– Cheryl Reid-Simons

Thanks!

Popularity: 2% [?]