Well, That’s Different
After a number of years with just exposed OSB subfloor (and a couple of rugs) as the flooring in my kitchen… It now has (part of) a floor. Do not be fooled by that picture. It is still mostly this… I have
Texturing Ceiling Patches: An Epic Failure
I don’t want to give anyone the impression that it’s all “oh, look, I’ve never roofed a donkey barn before but I gave it a shot and it was a cake-walk” around here. I mean, that stuff does happen but the flip
And Then The Floodgates Opened
So far this week I’m averaging about four hours of sleep per night, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m having a little post-traumatic stress from the last three months, or if I’m just having too much fun tearing off wallpaper
Celebrating With Paint, Purchases, and a New Project
I’m sure a wise person once said that you should take a little time to enjoy big accomplishments before moving on to the next thing, and while I do like to flout conventional wisdom at every available opportunity, I felt like a
The Bank List: I Get The Money, They Get The Last Laugh
If somehow you missed that almost every single post on this website for the last three months was about a list of repairs the bank insisted I do to this house (and by “insisted” I mean “held a lot of money hostage
Decisions, Decisions: Barn Color Edition
For those of us who build things but don’t necessarily make them look pretty, there’s a certain, um, tightness of chest that comes when it’s time to put down the hammer and actually paint or decorate something. I mean, Pinterest exists for
Possibilities, Neatly Stacked (Rubble Pile, My Ass)
This? This was one of the more compelling features of this property when I bought it. Do you know how hard it is to find a barn’s worth of weathered wood for making things like this… Or this? I mean the rubble
What You DIY and Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stronger
The only way I can describe what it feels like inside my body after five days of hammering, hanging 10 foot sheets of barn siding, balancing 15 feet off the ground on makeshift scaffolding while mudding drywall over my head, and moving
5 Day Project Marathon: The Final Lap
First off, I have to say that the awesome comments and enthusiasm about my big win with the barn siding have totally kept me going through the final lap of this project marathon. In the last four days I’ve devolved into a
The Middle of Nowhere is a Popular Place
When people who haven’t been here before visit the Liberty House the thing first they say is usually either “whoa, you are out here” or “how the hell did you find this place?” And it’s true, you have to do a little
5 Day Project Marathon: You’ll Never Believe This
Here are things you will believe: 1.) By 11 AM on Friday morning I already had paint on my eyelid. 2.) I thought this was a good idea. And it was, because this… Now looks like this… 3.) I also thought this
5 Day Project Marathon: This Is What “Vacation” Looks Like
I took a few days off from my day job over this week and next week, which means I’ve got five full days to knock out the rest of the projects on the bank list. That’s 120 hours of paint, drywall, swearing,
Excuse Me While I Spend More Time With My Face Pressed Up Against The Barn
I don’t have a lot of words left in me today, mostly because I have a bloody lip and a splinter in my face (completely unrelated) and I used all of my brain power to come up with different combinations of swear
Barn Siding Adventures: Lost & Found
Lost, somewhere in the barn loft: Sanity. Found, somewhere in the barn loft: One potentially fabulous chair… Ten clearly fabulous and almost completely intact metal frame windows… (It’s possible I threw my hands up in the universal “touchdown” signal and then hugged
Barn Siding Adventures: I-saw-that-going-different-in-my-head Edition
This weekend I bought myself four new tools in the span of about 36 hours. This could indicate one of two things. 1.) I just won the lottery, or 2.) Things are not going as planned. Considering that most of the tools
Texturing Ceiling Patches: An Epic Failure
I don’t want to give anyone the impression that it’s all “oh, look, I’ve never roofed a donkey barn before but I gave it a shot and it was a cake-walk” around here. I mean, that stuff does happen but the flip
And Then The Floodgates Opened
So far this week I’m averaging about four hours of sleep per night, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m having a little post-traumatic stress from the last three months, or if I’m just having too much fun tearing off wallpaper
Celebrating With Paint, Purchases, and a New Project
I’m sure a wise person once said that you should take a little time to enjoy big accomplishments before moving on to the next thing, and while I do like to flout conventional wisdom at every available opportunity, I felt like a
The Bank List: I Get The Money, They Get The Last Laugh
If somehow you missed that almost every single post on this website for the last three months was about a list of repairs the bank insisted I do to this house (and by “insisted” I mean “held a lot of money hostage
Decisions, Decisions: Barn Color Edition
For those of us who build things but don’t necessarily make them look pretty, there’s a certain, um, tightness of chest that comes when it’s time to put down the hammer and actually paint or decorate something. I mean, Pinterest exists for
Possibilities, Neatly Stacked (Rubble Pile, My Ass)
This? This was one of the more compelling features of this property when I bought it. Do you know how hard it is to find a barn’s worth of weathered wood for making things like this… Or this? I mean the rubble
What You DIY and Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stronger
The only way I can describe what it feels like inside my body after five days of hammering, hanging 10 foot sheets of barn siding, balancing 15 feet off the ground on makeshift scaffolding while mudding drywall over my head, and moving
5 Day Project Marathon: The Final Lap
First off, I have to say that the awesome comments and enthusiasm about my big win with the barn siding have totally kept me going through the final lap of this project marathon. In the last four days I’ve devolved into a
The Middle of Nowhere is a Popular Place
When people who haven’t been here before visit the Liberty House the thing first they say is usually either “whoa, you are out here” or “how the hell did you find this place?” And it’s true, you have to do a little
5 Day Project Marathon: You’ll Never Believe This
Here are things you will believe: 1.) By 11 AM on Friday morning I already had paint on my eyelid. 2.) I thought this was a good idea. And it was, because this… Now looks like this… 3.) I also thought this
5 Day Project Marathon: This Is What “Vacation” Looks Like
I took a few days off from my day job over this week and next week, which means I’ve got five full days to knock out the rest of the projects on the bank list. That’s 120 hours of paint, drywall, swearing,
Excuse Me While I Spend More Time With My Face Pressed Up Against The Barn
I don’t have a lot of words left in me today, mostly because I have a bloody lip and a splinter in my face (completely unrelated) and I used all of my brain power to come up with different combinations of swear
Barn Siding Adventures: Lost & Found
Lost, somewhere in the barn loft: Sanity. Found, somewhere in the barn loft: One potentially fabulous chair… Ten clearly fabulous and almost completely intact metal frame windows… (It’s possible I threw my hands up in the universal “touchdown” signal and then hugged
Barn Siding Adventures: I-saw-that-going-different-in-my-head Edition
This weekend I bought myself four new tools in the span of about 36 hours. This could indicate one of two things. 1.) I just won the lottery, or 2.) Things are not going as planned. Considering that most of the tools
