Most of the comments that I have read about people that have done it, love the look afterswards.  Everyone that hasn’t done it is saying no.  Any feedback?

Only recently did I being to pursue a little more information into Skype.  For about $30 a year, you can get unlimited (Read: 10,000 minutes a month) calls to the US and Canada.  For an additional $30 a year, you can get a local number so that friends and family can reach you through a normal land line or cell phone, without having to have Skype. It of course makes free calls to other Skype users.  And it includes free voice mail when you purchase a year’s worth of calling.

Since I was with Time Warner and purchased their bundled package of digital cable, digital phone, and internet, it took me about two years to really look at my bill one day and realize that I was paying an unbelievable $49.95 a month before taxes and fees for my local phone service.  I couldn’t believe the savings between the two. In just two months, I would already be saving.  Through out the entire year, I would have spent $600 on my phone service.  I now spend $60 a year.

To add to all of this, I also purchased a Skype phone.  The GE – SKYPE – Dect 6.0 Cordless phone. The phone allows me to talk on the phone while not being at my computer.  It’s a cordless unit just like a regular phone but it syncs to your contact list on your Skype account. And because it links to your Skype account you have an electronic call log of who you called, who called you and how long you talked on the phone. It even shows you when you have missed calls and you can check your voice mail from your computer or the phone itself. The phone does have to be plugged into the internet to work but does also support land lines in the event you move or find that you don’t have internet service in your area.  It’s a two-in-one phone.  The service however, does not allow calls to 911.  I don’t think I have ever called 911 from my house and I still use a cell phone while out of the house.  So that wasn’t really an issue.

So far though, I love the purchase.  It’s a move I should have made a very long time ago.

I have finally gotten around to posting photos from the house remodel work that I have been doing. If you can’t tell, I bought a major fixer-upper. I finally broke down and paid for a subscription to flickr so that I could upload more photos and organize photosets.  I have avoided it for so long since I pay for server space for the blog.  But the features and other fun stuff that flikr provides, just can’t be beat.  So here are some photos of the remodel work I have been doing over the past two years and months.

The kitchen was a big undertaking.  After a few coats of paint, replacing the light fixtures and painting the cabinets and back-splash, I really like the way everything turned out.

Here is my kitchen with a before and after.

The front yard had a huge deck the previous owner decided to build. I couldn’t believe it was something that they put in – and it wasn’t done well. The flower beds were also in pretty bad shape. After a lot of sweat taking the deck down and redoing the the flower beds, it has all turned out nicely. I also fertilized and watered the front yard to get the grass in better shape.  There was no grass under the deck so I had to bring in about 50 squares of sod to help that area get started. Here are the before, during and afters.

My backyard has a pool and little room for much else. When I purchased the home, there was little to no landscaping in the back yard. The entire yard was full of weeds and a deck that needed some tender love and care. I decided that I needed a place to plant some plants and add some additional color to the back yard. Since most pools have a concrete border around the pool, much of the back border isn’t really used for walking or standing and hanging out on. So I decided to put in a rock retaining wall and back fill it with soil. I cleaned up the deck, power washed it, tore down the privacy fence that was sitting on top of the deck rather than at the fence line, and added a guard rail to the deck to help open up the back yard.  I then installed deck lights in the poles around the guard rail to create a nice area to be used at night for get togethers. I also installed landscape lighting in the new flower bed at the ends and a spotlight in the middle pointing up through the Mountain Laural.

So needless to say, I have been a little busy around the house. I still have a long way to go with a lot of other projects. Some of them I have already completed, but just need to gather and post those pictures. More to come soon.

All the pictures from these projects can be found here.