While painting the kitchen, I noticed a cold draft coming from the space where the back wall meets the floor. Since drafts are our enemy, I got down on my hands and knees to check it out. What I found was a sizeable gap between the floor and the bottom of the wall; I could […]

Mindy began to paint the kitchen tonight to freshen up the walls and attempt to disguise the door that has been poorly sheetrocked over. As Mindy and I began to move the fridge away from the wall she suddenly paused and put her hands over her mouth saying, “Honey… I found a dead mouse and […]

It’s 8:00am Saturday morning, I’ve just finished carrying a couple hundred pound I-beam into the basement, with much needed help from my father, to use as a linear support for jacking joists back up flush with the girders and sublfooring and replacing sagging ledgers. We began at what so far seems to be the more […]

Now that the dining room is painted, the giant gouge of a doorway that leads to the stairs stands out even more. Here’s what it looks like right now: (click for larger) Why the hole-like appearance of what appears to be an original doorway? Well, our house was a two-family for some period of time, […]

This Saturday marked our second full week in the house, and once again we managed to make a dent in our project list. Hurray for being young, able-bodied, and energetic. On Thursday, I made a stop at Sherwin Williams on my way home from work. I am extremely picky about paint colors. I used to […]

The Victorians loved their wallpaper. If I was a millionairre, I would be shopping at Bradbury & Bradbury for my wallcoverings. But that’s not in the budget right now (or ever!), so we’ve got to improvise.

Plans are in the works to start repairing our foundation problems. We’re doing it ourselves because we can’t afford to do it any other way, and because Teague’s father has a good understanding of the process and some hands-on experience as well. If you’ve got the cash, I imagine it’s probably better to hire a […]

The downstairs tub was covered in old, crusty non-slip decals. Look what a little hot water, a putty knife, some Goo-Gone and a little elbow grease will do: Before After

Hurrah – the upstairs toilet is now usable. No more running down the stairs half-asleep, dogs in tow, just to go pee. Teague and Don replaced the cracked cast-iron pipe this weekend. They removed about 10′ of it, shattering the cast-iron with a mallet to get it all out. We now have shiny, nicely sealed […]

It’s hard to believe we’ve been living in our house for less than a week. Scrubbing every surface in sight must have made me to develop an intense attachment to the place, because it already feels like home. Tonight Teague and I are taking a much-needed break from the house, and plan to see The […]