I complain about this place pretty often, but the truth is there’s plenty to love about Central New York. Like, for instance, the beautiful and historic town of Ithaca - home to a great non-profit salvage store, the Ithaca Hour currency system, and as of a few months ago my brother Cody.
Whenever I get bored […]

This picture sums up our entire summer. It’s Teague, eating his favorite snack during a break on a 90-degree day spent sanding drywall. That Nikon d40 I splurged on? Click on the image above to see the full-size version and you’ll see that camera was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.
Tags:drywall

Our fabulously beat-up digital camera heaved a heavy sigh and conked out last week, so I have been camera-less for about 8 days. I have been totally lost without it. I don’t take particularly good photos, but I take tons and tons of them. Without photos, I could not fully share how pathetic the baby […]

When my parents got rid of all their personal belongings and hit the road, we became the proud owners of some really awesome antiques. One of my favorite pieces is the Edison Disc phonograph, which came from my father’s family and (I think) dates to around 1915. Here it is in our front entry room:

One […]

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I am a huge fan of organizing things; clutter and chaos makes me itchy. I don’t know when the compulsion to organize began, because my mother can tell you stories about my years of teenage-bedroom-slobbery. I distinctly remember finding a glass of fungus on my bedside table during one of […]

After nearly three months of work (that’s 12 fun-filled weekends, plus the work we squeezed in on weekdays), the master bathroom remodel is officially done. We put the finishing touches on it this past weekend. And now, every time I walk in there, I marvel at the beauty and order we created out of total […]

After all the complaining I’ve made you listen to, I figure you guys have earned a look at the glorious freestanding chrome shower, faucet and drain we FINALLY have installed and working properly. It’s a beauty….you know how a piece of real silverware feels decadent and fancy compared to a plain old cheapo fork? That’s […]

We didn’t make any progress last night - too tired, too bored with drywall - but I thought I’d post some photos of last weekend’s wallapalooza.

That is the ceiling “before” - you can see the insulation peeking through, and the rough shape of the lathe. This is why we decided to frame up a new […]

I’ve been a Flickr addict lately, as you may have noticed. We finally went “Pro” so we could share all the photo-album goodness with you guys, since the photos I post here tend to be smaller and you have to dig around to find them.
So here it is - the Fixer-Upper Flickr gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixerupper/sets/
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I know many of you have bungalows, so I thought I would share Teague’s latest construction project - a garage for a beautiful bungalow he repainted last year.
We don’t have a garage, so when I saw the latest pics of his work I was amazed at what the man can do, and also disappointed it […]

While walking through the halls of Crouse College yesterday en route to a meeting at work, I was struck by a piece of art I must have seen dozens of times. I had to bring my camera back today to snap the frame, because the top embellishment looks very similar to to the decorative elements […]

When we gutted the hallway, we found some gorgeous wallpaper samples. It was badly damaged and falling to pieces, but I did manage to get some good photos of it before we decimated things.
Here, you can see how it was applied - it may have gone all the way up the wall at some time […]

In all my years of house voyeurism, I have never seen a bathroom with features like this:

Notice that this is a one-piece - some serious flushing cabability!

See the matching light fixtures, shelf bracket, towel rod, etc? I was amazed it was all a perfect match AND still intact, given that the house has changed […]

As promised, here are the photos of our hallway after my battle with the rainbow rug:

The disintegrated carpet pad along with 2 out of 3 of the tools I used (the other was a hammer)

The “after” shot. Ignore the unmade bed.

A good shot of the pink tin tiles. You can see where they had a […]

Thought I’d make myself feel better by posting a before and “during” (because of course, there’s always more work to be done to ALL our rooms) of our living room. It’s not great now, but it is MILES away from where it started…….
For two young newlyweds on a budget, paint is the best thing ever […]

You may remember this pink and purple gingerbread Victorian from the neighborhood tour I posted a while back. It’s one of my favorites in town because of the incredible attention to detail. Everything about the exterior echoes certain design elements, right down to the flower trellises. It’s on the market now - the man who […]

Our curiousity got the best of us last night; Teague casually mentioned wanting to see inside the cupola, so I told him if he brought me a ladder and a light I’d climb up there.
Ten minutes later, I was balancing precariously on the ceiling beams with a spotlight in my hand. I’d planned on […]

Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions on obtaining/keeping insurance. You’ve given us some really great ideas. I’m working on the situation, and will keep you guys posted on how it works out.
For your viewing pleasure, here’s the neglected back room that the insurance companies despise……. as you can see, it’s not pretty.

This […]

Our dining room was the first room we really plunged into. It was a room that we knew would look ok with just a quick facelift, so it has been our “showcase” room, the one that illustrates our house’s potential and keeps people from thinking we are crazy folk.
I’ve been holing off on posting […]

I am in love with our town. It’s a tiny little place surrounded by farmland. We live about two blocks away from the main village, which is full of historic houses and storefronts. They call it “Canal Town” because the Erie Canal was a big part of it’s history. The canal was opened in 1825. […]