Many new homes have “great rooms” that make typical molding and millwork look puny. There are larger variations of common sizes available at the big box home improvement stores (5 1/2″ baseboard to replace 3 1/2″ for example), but sometimes … Continue reading
We live in an earthquake zone that is in constant motion. As a result, I have adopted a habit of bolting all cabinets to the wall so that a small tremor cannot make them fall on top of someone passing … Continue reading
We’ve been here a full month already. How time flies when you don’t know what you’re doing! 😀 Here is Camille, trying to rehabilitate the kitchen last May. We hired a couple of housekeepers to help, and they spent ten … Continue reading
Brand new, out of the box, eight minutes of use. The glass just fell off
On a previous post, I mentioned mitering the ends of a piece of MDF millwork. The reason to do this is that it looks so, soooo much better than just hacking off the end of the trim and slapping it … Continue reading
8:40 AM The new fridge is delivered. Chop-chop, empty everything out onto the counter tops and stand back. This is the first appliance we’ve installed that did not require a panicked dash to the garage to make or modify something … Continue reading
Simmering in the background like a pot of overheated pasta, the deck calls to me like a siren sweetly singing. Harpies, more like. Last week I managed to get a dozen 12′ cedar boards stained and set on stickers in … Continue reading
Every guy knows that the only reason we suffer through home repairs is to justify the purchase of MORE TOOLS! Today I landed a new laser level, that shows me how bad everything really is! In this shot, the wall … Continue reading
I turned on the bath water, and out comes dirty water. Hmmm.. Is this another problem in the house, or coming from outside? It reminds me of scenes in horror movies where the actor is in the shower and the … Continue reading
I guess we can now officially refer to our condo in Everett, where we lived for the last six years, as “The Rental.” It will certainly take a lot of adjustment to get used to that idea, on a number … Continue reading
Sometimes, it’s all you can do. When I discovered dry rot under the kitchen counter top, it launched the entire discussion about how to go about repairing/replacing/remodeling the kitchen. For now, we’ve decided to make do until we can figure … Continue reading
A few of our friends and relatives have cautioned us, eyes wide with horror about the tales of our new house, to avoid arguing about all of it. “Oh my god! Don’t wind up getting a divorce over it!” Funny … Continue reading
Time to pull some of my art out of storage and decide what to take home for hanging! A few years ago, a gallery owner asked me if I had any larger pieces, and unfortunately, I did not. Most of … Continue reading
Camille and her sister Jenifer survey the estate on our initial walk-through. “Hey! This isn’t bad… Just replace the counter top, and it’ll be like new!” It is tragicomic – when we first walked through, the countertops screamed out “REPLACE … Continue reading
Camille’s son Bob rolls out the latex in the living room: