That One House I Built – Page 5

Back To Business

January 3, 2011 8 Comments

You know the holidays tend to put a kink in the whole working-on-the-house thing, usually because I can’t get my rapidly expanding waist-line off of

Ending 2010 Right: A Message to All DIYers

December 20, 2010 4 Comments

Twenty-ten will be known around our house for many things (notably the year we built most of the house) but on a personal level I

Order of (Room Finishing) Operations

December 17, 2010 10 Comments

So, good news on the home front is that all of the drywall has been installed in the house except for an inexplicably blank spot

Walled In: Part 2

December 15, 2010 7 Comments

I know, I know… how many days of looking at blank wallboard can I really find exiting enough to post on the internet, and here’s

Walled In: Part 1

December 14, 2010 2 Comments

The title says it all, does it not? This is the “finished” side of the house. I can now say I have a bedroom. Actual

Hanging Over My Head

December 13, 2010 10 Comments

You’ve never seen someone this excited to not have walls, and it’s only because I’ve got ceilings! In the bedrooms… The bathrooms… In the kitchen…

Arrival

December 10, 2010 6 Comments

On the list of things that terrify me, having a crane full of drywall extending from the driveway past my wood doors into the house

27 Colors and Counting

December 8, 2010 12 Comments

In the way of construction we, at this point, may or may not have walls this week. (Read: no chance in hell we have walls

A Pivotal Weekend

December 6, 2010 8 Comments

About three seconds after we got the green light on the rough framing, I had the insulators and drywallers scheduled for installation. I am so

Things I’m Thinking About

December 2, 2010 13 Comments

We’re in the middle of a swirling vortex of snow, insulation, drywall, inspections, wiring, trench digging, and pipe laying. It’s enough to make my head

You know what this means…

December 1, 2010 3 Comments

Either I can tell you about the cab ride I took today with a possibly drunk and definitely deaf cab driver who tried to leave

Building Soffit Boxes (And wood soffit installation.)

November 30, 2010 13 Comments

I equate soffit building (particularly those funky boxes on the corners) as the house-building equivalent of being attacked by a shark. One minute you’re all

Physics and Other Framing Lessons

November 27, 2010 6 Comments

You know that all I want for Christmas is some walls in my house, and last week the building inspector came through to do what

One Step Closer To Drywall

November 19, 2010 4 Comments

Drywall has become the proverbial mecca of our house-building experience to date. Not moving in, not having a working bathroom… no, I’ll just settle for

Decisions, Decisions: Outdoor Lighting Edition

November 18, 2010 30 Comments

Since it’s pitch black just a hair after noon these days (or at least by the time I leave the office, so same diff) I

I'm not interested in a mediocre life. I'm here to kick ass or die.

(formerly DIYdiva.net)

THE STORYTELLER

Back in 2004 I started writing about my adventures in fixing up houses on the internet. A lot of things have changed since then, with me, with my houses, and with the internet. These days I am basically a cranky old man trapped in a slightly less old woman’s body. The internet has changed and I am staunchly refusing to change with it. You won’t find any algorithms here, or feeds, or ads, or social media. Just good old-fashioned stories about a woman drinking beer and building shit, and living an unexpected life.

(While you won’t find updates on social media, you can sign up to receive new posts via email here.)