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
Decisions, Decisions: Fireplace Edition
I’m not sure how many of you remember back in the day—the pre-blogging, pre computer day—when if you got a little over-eager with punching the keys on a typewriter, one minute you’d be going along fine, and the next minute there were
DIY House Addition: How To Properly Flash & Trim Windows
There’s nothing like having a few gaping holes in the perfectly good exterior walls of your house during rainy season to make you fully appreciate that windows in your house will either be a blessing, or the bane of your existence. Depending
True Value DIY Road Trip: Fireplace Makeover (Day 1)
This weekend I packed up my tools and took my big yellow SUV up to Ann Arbor, MI– Home of the Wolverines. There was a fireplace in need of some serious help. And tile. And a little paint. The fireplace belongs to
Living in a garage in the country? Awesome.
By far mice are a central theme in the most interesting things we have to say about living in a garage in the middle of corn fields. Like that time I found one camped out in my shoe, or the time that
Memory Lane
There are things that come with building a house that you expect: lumber, mud, tears, sore muscles, paint swatches, gray hairs, heavy equipment, and depressingly fewer zeros at the bottom line of your bank statement. There are things that come with building
Gimme a Brake
No, that’s not a bad homonym (somewhere, my fifth-grade English teacher sheds a tear of pride) after this weekend I really do want a brake. Not a break, although one of those wouldn’t hurt either. Up until Thursday of last week, I
DIY House Addition: Month 4 Wrap Up
I’d like to be writing a really witty and/or eloquent opening sentence to this monthly wrap-up, but I’m having a hard time typing through the utter and complete panic I’m feeling about the fact that winter will be arriving in Michigan approximately,
112 Trips Up The Ladder (things to watch out for in window installation)
I took two days off from my Actual Real Job to work on the window trim and siding on the house, which actually ended up being 112 trips up and down a ladder– seventy of which were doing things that I thought
Things you need to know about waging war and installing siding
For the last week I’ve been preparing to side the house the way a general prepares for battle. I took two days off work –one for framing the windows, and one to get the siding going– and the seven days leading up
House Colors: Houston, We Have a Decision
It may have taken over a year, and several material swatches spread out on the floor of the paint store that resulted in conversations that went something like, “Excuse me ma’am, is that a piece of your roof on the floor?” Why
DIY Walk-In Shower: Step 1 – Rough Framing
You know I never shy away from a tiling challenge, so I jumped in hammer first when it came to building the walk-in shower for our new master bathroom. MysteryMan only balked for a minute or two, because hey– his man-cave bathroom
Country Mornings
Never enough time On a crisp country morning To just enjoy life I’m too busy writing meaningless haiku’s. And sympathizing with spiders. We all wake up with things to build these days. (Today I’m working on framing in a shower, what about
Don’t Measure When You Can Mark (And other things I learned on the Habitat build.)
Needless to say, I do a lot of “working on houses” but this is the first time it’s been sponsored by my Actual Real Job, which has nothing to do with houses– building them or otherwise. They do have a couple of
Stain on the Brain: Is this a fix?
Well, two good things happened today which means I’m in a much better frame of mind than I was yesterday. 1.) I had a blast learning the tricks of the trade from some old-timers at Habitat today (yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll share
Things I Messed Up On Our House: Cedar Beam Edition
So. So. I’ve been putting off writing this post since last Thursday, because I haven’t been able to think about the money we spent on cedar posts and beam-wrap, and what that wood actually looked like when it was delivered, without having
Decisions, Decisions: Fireplace Edition
I’m not sure how many of you remember back in the day—the pre-blogging, pre computer day—when if you got a little over-eager with punching the keys on a typewriter, one minute you’d be going along fine, and the next minute there were
DIY House Addition: How To Properly Flash & Trim Windows
There’s nothing like having a few gaping holes in the perfectly good exterior walls of your house during rainy season to make you fully appreciate that windows in your house will either be a blessing, or the bane of your existence. Depending
True Value DIY Road Trip: Fireplace Makeover (Day 1)
This weekend I packed up my tools and took my big yellow SUV up to Ann Arbor, MI– Home of the Wolverines. There was a fireplace in need of some serious help. And tile. And a little paint. The fireplace belongs to
Living in a garage in the country? Awesome.
By far mice are a central theme in the most interesting things we have to say about living in a garage in the middle of corn fields. Like that time I found one camped out in my shoe, or the time that
Memory Lane
There are things that come with building a house that you expect: lumber, mud, tears, sore muscles, paint swatches, gray hairs, heavy equipment, and depressingly fewer zeros at the bottom line of your bank statement. There are things that come with building
Gimme a Brake
No, that’s not a bad homonym (somewhere, my fifth-grade English teacher sheds a tear of pride) after this weekend I really do want a brake. Not a break, although one of those wouldn’t hurt either. Up until Thursday of last week, I
DIY House Addition: Month 4 Wrap Up
I’d like to be writing a really witty and/or eloquent opening sentence to this monthly wrap-up, but I’m having a hard time typing through the utter and complete panic I’m feeling about the fact that winter will be arriving in Michigan approximately,
112 Trips Up The Ladder (things to watch out for in window installation)
I took two days off from my Actual Real Job to work on the window trim and siding on the house, which actually ended up being 112 trips up and down a ladder– seventy of which were doing things that I thought
Things you need to know about waging war and installing siding
For the last week I’ve been preparing to side the house the way a general prepares for battle. I took two days off work –one for framing the windows, and one to get the siding going– and the seven days leading up
House Colors: Houston, We Have a Decision
It may have taken over a year, and several material swatches spread out on the floor of the paint store that resulted in conversations that went something like, “Excuse me ma’am, is that a piece of your roof on the floor?” Why
DIY Walk-In Shower: Step 1 – Rough Framing
You know I never shy away from a tiling challenge, so I jumped in hammer first when it came to building the walk-in shower for our new master bathroom. MysteryMan only balked for a minute or two, because hey– his man-cave bathroom
Country Mornings
Never enough time On a crisp country morning To just enjoy life I’m too busy writing meaningless haiku’s. And sympathizing with spiders. We all wake up with things to build these days. (Today I’m working on framing in a shower, what about
Don’t Measure When You Can Mark (And other things I learned on the Habitat build.)
Needless to say, I do a lot of “working on houses” but this is the first time it’s been sponsored by my Actual Real Job, which has nothing to do with houses– building them or otherwise. They do have a couple of
Stain on the Brain: Is this a fix?
Well, two good things happened today which means I’m in a much better frame of mind than I was yesterday. 1.) I had a blast learning the tricks of the trade from some old-timers at Habitat today (yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll share
Things I Messed Up On Our House: Cedar Beam Edition
So. So. I’ve been putting off writing this post since last Thursday, because I haven’t been able to think about the money we spent on cedar posts and beam-wrap, and what that wood actually looked like when it was delivered, without having
