You’ve probably seen the commercials (whether the 30 second or the half hour version) for Direct Buy, promising “insider prices” to average schlubs. Being an average schlub myself, I was taken in by the commercial and called the 800 number for my free invitation to an open house. I bought the sales pitch and my [...]
Gearing up for spring projects
Saturday, 1 May 10
No more excuses, it’s time to get back to work. With the in-laws scheduled to arrive in July for a three month visit, there aren’t many weekends left to finish up the projects that been on hold while we regained control of our finances. The cash crunch has now been replaced by a time crunch.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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?
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]