I’m dreaming of the day our (thoroughly cleaned) hardwood floors do not look like they’re caked with four layers of mud and grit and grime. Right now, they ain’t pretty. Even my father, who’s more frugal than me, thought maybe we should just throw down carpet and hide them for a bit. But I’ve held […]

We pulled up the downstairs carpet the day we moved in, over a year ago. Since then, we haven’t dared go barefoot for fear of stumbling upon one of the carpet staples or tacks that were scattered across the hardwoods like little landmines. But now, finally, we’re free to let our feet breath! I spent […]

We’re about 90% done with the interior kitchen renovation, and I know you’re all curious, so I thought a slideshow might be in order. But first, a few before and afters – click on a thumbnail below to see a larger version: Before After Before After All in all, it’s been quite an experience. We […]

Last spring, we received a lovely shower curtain from my cousin and his wife. It was a wedding gift, and I adored it. And then, like everything else we own, dirty grimey handprints somehow magically appeared on it. So, I washed it. You would think a shower curtain would be machine-washable, but NO…. after one […]

My friend Jonah is a great photographer. I was flipping through his portfolio tonight, and came across a photo of a truly beautiful lantern: You can see the large version (and his porfolio) here.

Yes, we’re moving up in the world. We’ve now got overhead lighting in the living room and the bedroom, without any 80’s overhead fans attached, and WITH A SWITCH! Yeehaw. Because the old knob and tube “knobs” are still in the wall behind plaster and lathe, it’s not easy fishing wire around without getting caught […]

It’s tax time again. Are you all anxiously waiting to file so we can see how much of our hard-earned money we’re getting back? And are you all dreading the process of getting them filed? Blech. This year there’s much more preparation involved, what with the house and the new small business to deal with. […]

One of my biggest cleaning chores has always been the dog cage. It’s big, it’s unwieldly, and my little guys aren’t too proud to let loose and pee in it from time to time. I’ve gone through a few different “systems” trying to find the best solution to this problem. For a while, I had […]

Our new kitchen faucet is a dud. What a huge disappointment. A few weeks ago we purchased a Pegasus two-handle high spout faucuet, very similar to this one, from Home Depot. We paid $179, an amount of money I had a hard time parting with even though the faucet was very pretty and exactly the […]

We’ve had a few roof leaks over the past year, and plan to redo one of our roofs in the spring. The original roof was flat, and now has a second roof built up over it. When we do the repairs, we’d like to take it back to a flat roof in keeping with the […]