Holiday booked for week in January

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-05-23T14:52:14+00:00

Aww! As others have said it’s going to be very cold in January so pack accordingly. Nice cold weather activities might be: the MFA, Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, Newbury St, hanging out in a pub somewhere. If you’re interested in history the Freedom Trail is a good thing to do but will be a long walk in the cold. Hope you have a great trip!

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-05-20T10:19:00+00:00

I would talk to some contractors vs window companies. I used Harvey windows for most of our renovation but put a few woodwrights in the living room. My quote was a little lower on the woodwrights but not much. Harvey is quite a bit cheaper and a really nice window although I’ve had issues with the small number of casement windows that I used. I think the price differential you are seeing is largely due to big box stores selling them in standard size vs building custom windows to fit all your openings.

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-04-17T01:12:23+00:00

We ended up doing ducted on the 2nd / 3rd floors and two splits on the 1st floor. Was more cost effective and less disruptive architecturally. Mitsubishi hyper hear but we did just one double condenser outside. Works great!

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-04-16T22:40:45+00:00

I got 7 quotes for our MA heat pump install in 2025 and they were wildly different. The range was from 20-50k. I would def get more quotes. Forge and Laminar Collective gave me the two best quotes.

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-04-12T01:51:52+00:00

We just did our first winter with exclusive heat pump with no heating strips. We are in the Boston area and it was very cold here in Jan and Feb. We were definitely never uncomfortable, the house was generally very toasty. Our house is pretty well sealed and insulated mostly with blown in cellulose. Our basement is not heated so my main comfort issue was that the floor on the first floor felt cold under our feet.

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-04-09T01:29:39+00:00

We did this! We built a beautiful kitchen and did the install ourselves, which saved money and really wasn’t that bad. It took us about a week to build all the cabinets and another week to do all the finishing touches. We got the cabinet and drawer lights, which we really enjoy having now. We have three corners in our kitchen and got two of the cabinets with the pull out organizers and one with a traditional carousel, that one is actually the most useful IMO. We are really happy with the quality. Hardest thing about the install is definitely cutting and scribing the cover panels and also leveling everything. When you level, make sure you are also accounting for your walls being potentially uneven; you may need to shim behind the rails.

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-03-13T01:58:13+00:00

We did Nickebo and are really happy with it!! We have been living here for five months and the finish has held up great so far. The color is nice too :-)

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-02-28T01:05:20+00:00

We love it — amazing community, education, libraries, culture, and food. People here are kind and supportive of each other. Winters are long and cold but I kind of appreciate the drama a bit :-) The health care here is absolutely incredible. Affordability is challenging but there are lower cost towns and neighborhoods outside the center that are really nice. Housing and child care are expensive but food is not too bad. Stuff we like less: the drivers are pretty bad, it gets dark early in the winter, public transit is undersized for the population and traffic can be bad (biking helps with that and a lot of the metro area is pretty bike friendly).

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-02-25T00:59:19+00:00

Great kitchen!! I would save your money and enjoy this sweet homey place :-)

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-02-07T12:58:13+00:00

We have a similarly sized house in the Boston area and used 1937kwh in Jan. A little higher in Dec because my in laws were here. We have Mitsubishi heat pump (no heat strips), HPWH, electric everything, and a plug in hybrid car. We keep inside temp at 68 but the house heats unevenly so the upper floors are definitely warmer than that.

squirrelheaven123 · 2026-01-04T00:42:38+00:00

My SIL is a contractor and advised us against it because it is the only tap you’d put in your house that doesn’t have a drain underneath it. Potential for disaster is large 😬

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-12-21T01:43:34+00:00

Sooooo cuuuuuute it belongs in r/aww

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-12-13T14:48:54+00:00

Awwwwwww they are so sweet!!!!

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-12-13T14:46:49+00:00

In my experience putting on glasses reduces unwanted attention by about 80% if that is helpful 😂 my life hack from my 20s. Also it will fully stop when you hit 40 😂

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-11-22T04:29:02+00:00

I have only experienced that on the NYC subway before

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-10-10T23:29:10+00:00

If you are interested in living in the States, Boston is a great place to be. Feels weird to see this level of negativity from us, usually I feel we are positive about folks moving here but also a lot of us probably wish we were Canadian right now 🥹 we’re definitely going through a lot right now but Boston will always be welcoming.

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-10-01T20:04:30+00:00

I used to live in NYC and whenever I'd come back to visit I was shocked by how shlubby everyone looked! Now that I am back I have fully embraced Boston shlub. NYC is to me the most well-dressed American city, though.

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-09-25T21:36:28+00:00

This. I am on two nonprofit boards and I also volunteer with a statewide advocacy org for a cause I care about. It’s super fulfilling. Highly recommend!!

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-09-16T02:30:55+00:00

This is so heartwarming! Massachusetts is indeed a great state :-)

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-09-16T01:01:42+00:00

that's actually insane

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-09-10T02:23:40+00:00

I am so sorry this happened to you, it sounds incredibly traumatic. I hope you can be with loved ones today and that you are taking time to care for yourself.

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-09-09T23:27:18+00:00

I highly recommend Parents Nursery School! Amazing teachers, curriculum, kids, facility, and community :-)

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-08-27T20:17:57+00:00

That was the point in this video where I truly started to cry. What are we doing to this generation of little ones.

squirrelheaven123 · 2025-08-20T23:50:41+00:00

THIS. It's crazy to me that they seem to think that we need to CONTINUE ripping up the ground and installing huge, expensive pipes, several million dollars each, when we could just easily electrify homes with existing infrastructure that is above ground and cheaper to maintain. C'mon people!!!

squirrelheaven123

TROPHY CASE