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Thumb and Hammer Blog

In defense of popcorn

Thursday, 28 January 10

Among the most reviled design elements today is the horrendous popcorn textured ceiling.  So why did we choose to have this texture applied to our living room ceiling at a time when most people are removing it from theirs?  First of all, there was already a stucco texture applied to the ceiling that was not [...]

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Contractors’ work complete!

Tuesday, 26 January 10

It was a long wait.  The contractors had put our project on hiatus back in June, promising to return at a later date to finish up the last few details.  They did return once, to install the front picture window, but they didn’t do any of the other work, assuring us that they would indeed [...]

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Catastrophic computer failure

Wednesday, 6 January 10

Our desktop computer is dead.  We aren’t sure if the motherboard got zorched by a power surge, or if it stopped working for another reason.  The bottom line is that it stopped working.  And our main hard drive was messed up as well.  The last time we did any significant backup was a couple of [...]

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Master bedroom wired

Tuesday, 20 October 09

It may have taken over three months, but I eventually got around to finishing the structured wiring in the master bedroom. A this blistering pace, the stair railing may get painted sometime within the next decade.
Where has my ambition gone? Why am I so pathetic? How do I get my motivation back?

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Cooler heads prevailed

Wednesday, 12 August 09

It is one of those unwritten laws.  If an air conditioner is going to die, it will be on the hottest day of the year.  And, for added insult, any heat wave will end the day after the air conditioner is fixed.  On Monday, the temperature in the house approached 90 degrees and we became [...]

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The master bedroom: still unfinished

Saturday, 8 August 09

My wife seems pleased with the progress, but I am not.  I had planned to get our master bedroom put back together last weekend but I ran out of time.  I planned to get our bedroom back together yesterday but I ran out of time.  Our bedroom is still not back together.  The curtains and [...]

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Quiet house, and work to do

Saturday, 1 August 09

As I write this, my wife is whisking her parents home.  Actually, it’s a ten hour drive– a pretty long whisk– so that may not be the best term.  At any rate, I am left alone with our dog after spending the last two months with two additional people and two additional dogs in our [...]

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Putting our house back together, part 2

Thursday, 18 June 09

I admit that I am not a fast worker, but at my own painfully slow pace, I am gradually getting things done.  All the ivory plugs and switches in my daughter’s room have been replaced with white ones to match the trim.  All of her QuickPort jacks are wired up so she can have phone [...]

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Room to spare in the kitchen

Monday, 15 June 09

We may have destroyed our budget by having the kitchen renovated at the same time as the rest of the house, but I am so glad we did. We now have more than enough storage making it a breeze to stay organized. And preparing meals is so much more enjoyable with the new [...]

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Putting our house back together again

Thursday, 11 June 09

So, here is how the week has been going: On Monday, I made my feeble attempt to fire up the air conditioning without much success. However, I took care of enough other small jobs that I felt as if I had accomplished something. On Tuesday, I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unless [...]

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