Welcome to incollingo.com, a personal web site created by me, Jerry Incollingo. I designed this site mainly to allow friends and relatives to view pictures of my family, but have grown it into a resource for people who share the same interests that I do.
Inside you'll find step by step instructions for most of the home projects I've completed. They include the installation of a generator transfer switch, recessed lighting, wiring a home network, installing a home alarm system, and much more. I've documented all my work and took several pictures for your reference. This website will always be a work in progress, don't expect it to ever be completed.
So take a look
around and let me know what you think. Send me an email with your
comments: jerry@incollingo.com
8-25-08 - Well, it's been some time since I've updated this web site. I have been looking to purchase a template and redo this entire site as it is quite old now. The template I am interested in is here:http://www.i3dthemes.com/demos/axiom_family. Tell me what you think.
We just finished up our vacation this year in
Martha's Vineyard. It was very relaxing compared to last year's trip
to Disney World, which required a vacation from the vacation. We also
brought my mother along which gave her an opportunity to hang out with her
grandchildren and allowed Saila and I to go out to dinner one evening. The
island seemed more crowded than in the past. We had stayed there three
times prior and always found it to be quiet, however, the beaches were crowded
when we were there this time. I captured the vacation on a new
Sony HD video recorder which replaces my old mini DV video camera. It
really is a wonderful camera that has an internal hard drive and memory stick
slot. So, you can snap pictures to the memory stick while simultaneously
recording high definition video. If you haven't made the transition to HD
yet I highly recommend it. If I have some time I will redo this site.
Stay tuned for more info.
5-11-07 - I
haven't given an update since our return from Disney World so here goes.
As I predicted, the week before Easter was mobbed at Disney and all of it's
theme parks. The average wait times were 2-3 hours for the more popular
rides. Fast pass return times were 5-6 hours after you received the fast
pass. Needless to say we didn't get on as many rides as we had hoped.
One nice perk of staying in the park are the extended hours. On Friday the
park was open to 3:00 AM in which we stayed till about 2:00 AM since the kids
has fallen asleep. On the positive side the hotel was wonderful. We
were able to walk down to the lake and hop on a boat that drops you off right in
front of the park. The meal plan points is a must. Very convenient
to hand them your room key and the meal is paid, including tip. The
Fireworks at the the castle and Epcot are a must see for the kids, however I
have seen better displays such as Penn State's main campus at the forth of July
or even our own local golf course.
3-24-07 -
My brother's wife has given birth to his second son,
Samuel Elliot Incollingo. Weighing in at 7lb, 12oz and 21" long I hope to
see him for the first time this evening. Good luck Greg, I'm glad the
diaper changing, midnight feedings and crying are all over for me (well the
crying still exists, if you have daughters you know what I mean)!
We will head to Disney World in about a week
and a half. As a gift for my mom's birthday we are bringing her with us to
enjoy Mickey and friends. We'll be staying at the
Wilderness Lodge in the park. The only problem I have with the trip is
that we'll be there the week before Easter when the rest of the country has off
from school! I'm told sardines doesn't describe the experience, so we'll
see if we ever go there again over Easter vacation.
For Saila's birthday I took her away for a
weekend to the
Hotel Hershey in beautiful Hershey, PA. home of
Hershey Park. I'm not afraid to admit I had a manicure, pedicure and
peppermint sea salt body scrub. Getting away from it all, including the
kids, for a weekend was a good way to recharge one's self.
12-20-06 -- With Christmas only 5 days away I wonder when I'll do my shopping. Actually, I did get my mother, brother and the kids gifts, however am left confused about what to get my wife. She was actually mad at me when I asked her for ideas. She said "We've been married for 13 years, you should know what I want". Are you serious? Every guy I talk to has a problem with gift giving for their spouse. I always do jewelry or clothing and usually the clothing gets returned but the jewelry gets worn. So maybe those earrings I saw at Tiffany's will do. I have pictures to upload of the kids and will do that shortly.
8-3-06 --
The summer is already more than half over. I
haven't touched this web site in about 6 months and was a little bored at work
today, so I thought I'd update the site a little. We were on vacation in
Bethany beach Delaware again this year. We stayed at the same townhouse
community for the past 3 years. The kids had fun and the weather was
perfect, except one day, in which I took them all to see Captain Jack Sparrow in
Pirates II.
Japanese beetles have been especially bad this year, attacking my Cherry, Birch,
and ornamental plum trees. Although I spread grub killer in the early
spring, it didn't help much. After much research on the life cycle on the
Japanese beetle (it's all on the web) I found that the only way to truly
eliminate them is to have the whole community participate, which would never
happen. So the best thing to do outside of wiping them out totally is to
make the leaves of the trees taste bad to them. I did not try that this
year, however, will be prepared for them next year. I will post vacation
pictures shortly.
01-23-06 -- After about 3 months and some minor set backs, the basement is complete. We took delivery of a nice size sectional (14' x12') minus a couple of backordered pieces. We also purchased a wall unit from Pottery Barn Kids, that is also on back order. I purchased a Sanyo Home Theater LCD projector that is reasonably priced and out performs most single chip DLP projectors on the market now. Click here to see it. Also arriving this week is my 8ft (110" diagonal) Da-Lite fixed frame screen. See it here. I will be hosting a Super Bowl party, so I should have everything installed by then. I will try and complete the basement documentary soon.
One lesson I learned about debit cards that I will pass on to you. Basically, lets say I go to the gas station and use my debit card and select debit as the payment type. Some gas stations will then put a hold on your account for $75. When you are finished pumping the gas lets say you spent $50. Your card is then charged again for the $50. So, at this point you have a negative $125 against your account until the original hold of $75 rolls off in 5 days. In our case, when we purchased the overpriced Pottery Barn furniture, some was backordered. So what happened was we had a hold on our account for the total bill, then half the items shipped and they billed us for those items as well, the hold was not lifted and our account was overdrawn. After 40 minutes in my local Commerce bank branch I finally received a refund of $66 for non-sufficient funds. So, the moral of the story is to never use a debit card for airline reservations, hotel reservations, or large purchases over $500. Live and learn.
11-27-05 --
Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and
gone, and today the Christmas decorations went up. Once December arrives I
find it always moves quickly into the new year. Finally, after several
years of talking about it we have hired a contractor to finish the basement.
We stuck very close to the original plans, but have added a few things such as a
theater area with stage, built-ins for DVD, audio equipment and wine / glasses,
plus a half wall to divide the play area and the theater area. For a full
documentary of the basement see my basement pages here.
8-7-05 --
Vacation is over and the kids had a great time
at the beach. You
notice I say the kids. As a parent,
making
sure they don't drown in the ocean, or get
lost on the boards is a job in itself. I know a few couples
that have a family vacation and then have a 'husband-wife only' vacation.
Unfortunately, our kids aren't to the point where folks will gladly watch them
for a week. Three is a lot to impose on family members at this time, so we
wait for them to grow older so we may again enjoy some alone time. Our
last day of vacation was nice as we drove to
Assateague island and were lucky to see some wild ponies roaming in the
parking lot. The picture shown to the right captures the horses in the
background. We stayed in a townhouse on the beach, which was nice because
the private beach meant that it was never crowded. See more vacation
pictures here.
7-10-05 --
A couple of days ago I hit the 37 mark in
age. I remember when I was in my twenties and thought that anyone over 30
was 'old'. I can hardly wait for 40 to arrive, NOT. It's been
a hot, dry summer thus far; forcing me to run the AC and water the lawn to keep
things cool and green. Vacation starts soon for the family as we head to
Bethany, Delaware for a week with the family; a vacation I am most looking
forward to. We've been tossing around the idea of moving again, with
houses so overvalued now and interest rates so low many Americans are jumping in
blindly and living beyond their means. Houses in my area are selling for
almost 200K more than they were purchased for 8 years ago, which is a good
amount of equity. It's tempting to want to move up, but one has to weigh
the risk factors. Click
here to see the model we want to buy.
Click
here for some more pictures of the
kids.
3-17-05 --
Spring is approaching and I can't wait. I just love Spring time.
This year I plan on landscaping the West side of my home that is kindly
nicknamed the 'ass' of the house. It is where the AC compressor, exhaust
pipes, satellite dishes, and electric meter reside. It's ugly and needs to
be dressed up. I'll probably just remove the grass and mulch. I have
no say in the shrubs that will go there, only Saila gets to choose those, so I'm
told. I did the other side of the house with just boxwood. I love boxwood
and would line my whole yard if I could, but Saila said it is too boring.
We need to mix it up with some color and flair. Whatever. She's the
boss and I obey, that's the secret to a successful marriage! I am also
considering a larger shed in the rear of the property. If you look in the
projects section you'll see pictures of a smaller plastic she that I put up last
year. It is now filled with stuff and I still need more storage.
With the ride-on lawn mower that was given to me taking room in the garage, it
would be nice to be able to park it in a bigger shed. Also planned is the
replacement of two square columns in the front of my house. The
deteriorated to sawdust and I plan to replace them with the same fiberglass
columns used on my deck.
I forgot to post some winter pictures, so see them
here.
1-30-05 -- With the first snow behind us and the Super Bowl a week away, I'd say the first month of 2005 has been pretty good. Saila's SUV has has been repaired to a state in which even I, sometimes called anal, completely approve of -- the total bill was close to $10K and her speed never exceeded 15 MPH. Things have been quiet around home. Peyton just celebrated her 8th birthday with Jack turning 4 back in December and Jordon turned 2 in August. They sure do grow quickly.
12-19-04
-- The Curse of the Black Pearl -- A few
years ago I bought my wife a nice piece of jewelry. A pin that was shaped
like a spider. The abdomen of the spider is a black pearl and the legs are
white gold with the head being a small
diamond. Upon showing it to my mother-in-law,
who, by the way, is extremely superstitious, told us to get rid of it as it
would bring bad luck. Well, she really didn't want to get rid of the pin,
so, there it sat in her jewelry cabinet for a couple of years. Then, a
couple of weeks ago I pulled the pin out to take a look and then the very next
day I had to take Saila to the ER with extreme pain in her abdomen. We had
come to find out that a small kidney stone was the cause. Then, the
following week, she was involved in an auto accident. Thankfully, nobody
was hurt. So, now what to do with the dreaded black pearl pin. Keep
it? Sell it on EBay? Pass it on to a friend or other family member.
Would you want it? The mystery continues...
9-19-04 -- With Fall's arrival its a good time to do some final lawn maintenance to keep it looking thick, green and weed free. At this time of year I like to over-seed my lawn, that is, add additional grass seed to promote a thicker, denser lawn. The thicker your lawn, the more difficult it is for weeds to take root. I first 'scalp' my lawn by cutting it at the lowest setting possible, without taking it too low, then I aerate it, then finally I seed and fertilize. If we don't get rain within a couple of days of seeding then you need to put your sprinkler out for at least a couple of hours.
My brother's basement recently took on about 8 inches of water from the huge amount of rainfall we had in mid September. His home theater receiver and DVD player were completely submerged in the murky water. However, I soaked them in his bathtub to clean out the dirt, then set them in the oven on warm (~150-180 degrees F) for two hours, however, have yet to try them out. I'll let you know if they work.
We visited Long Wood Gardens at the end of the summer. It really is a nice place to take the kids and let em' run free. Check out the pictures here.
8-05-04
-- One of my neighbors failed to put oil
in his 3 year old MTD Yard Machines lawn tractor and blew the engine. He
went out and bought another one and in my subtle way I asked him for the old
one. He agreed and I began my search for a replacement engine. Well, my
favorite place, EBay, has new ones for sale for $320. I purchased the
engine, installed it in about an hour and unbelievably it started on the first
try. I later mowed that neighbors lawn one last time as he was moving.
My other neighbors looked at me in wonder as I finished my own lawn with my push
mower. You see, I always bag my clippings and the ride-on mower doesn't
have that attachment; but will in about a week!
I was invited back to Super Chevy
this year. Click here for pictures
from the show.
We spent a week in Bethany Beach, Delaware. See the vacation pictures
here.
6-23-04 -- The temptation to move is really eating at me. Just recently, a house in our Cul-De-Sac sold for a record development high of $314,900. You have to understand that that is nearly twice as much as the original price for these homes 7 years ago. Thus, simple math shows that I could have $170K toward a new home if I were to put my house on the market at $310K. The issue is that all the new houses in our area start in the low 400s now. This wouldn't be an issue for us, however, in our current situation we could survive on a single income. Moving up means relying on two salaries, thus the dilemma: stay the safe course, or take the risk and get into something really nice. What do you think? Shoot me an email.
There are a few more pictures of the kids, click here.
5-5-04 --
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Spring is here and I've started a couple of outdoor
projects. The first, is an effort to clear out some of the junk in my
garage by putting it into a shed I purchased at Sears. This includes the
pouring of a 6x6 concrete pad in which to sit the shed. You can see
pictures and info on this little project my clicking here. The next
project is to get the basement finished. I have only entertained one quote
form a local contractor in my development. I was disappointed when he came
back to me with a quote of nearly $9000. Now, you might think that sounds
reasonable but keep this in mind: he finished 2 of my neighbor basements for at
least $3000 less and I offered to do some of the work myself. The work I
offered to do was electrical, insulation and placing the drop ceiling panels in
after he built the grid. So, I will get some other estimates and see what
happens. I could do this project myself, however, finding the time with 3
children around isn't easy.
2-3-04 -- Recently, my grandmother suffered from a stroke. I'm glad to say she is recovering. Living on her own in North East Philadelphia, she was discovered lying on the floor in her living room. If my Aunt had not called her that evening and showed concern when there was no answer there's no telling how long she might have been lying there helpless. My cousin Raymond recently underwent treatment for cancer and is doing well now. All of these events started me thinking about how we often get so caught up in the daily grind of life that we easily forget about family and friends. It had been 2 years since I saw my grandmother last and she has never even seen my two youngest children. The last time I saw family from my Dad's side was at my cousin's wedding about a year and a half ago. So, when people ask the question "Do you have any regrets in life" my answer to that would be yes, not spending enough time with family and friends.