I rode Eleanor O home from work and groceries today, rolled her into her lock-up spot in the back yard, lifted the basket of groceries off her handlebars, and came into the kitchen via my new back door ( Read more... )

Ed, bless his hard-working heart, came over today in the ungodly heat and put the final touches on Project Empty: Phase II, Mudroom.

( The ever-popular Way Before, Before, and After shots )

Foam mattresses are delivered rolled up. Mine came tonight at about 9:30, vacuum-packed in plastic.

What they don't tell you is that you practically need a pair of trauma shears to set it free.

( Everything's almost done! )

Today my new door is due to arrive, and this evening I get my new mattress ( Read more... )

After today, the only thing lacking for me to be able to go from my kitchen through a clean, tidy, non-leaking mudroom into a well-groomed and attractive outdoor living room in the back yard is the door itself.

( All But Door )

Hoo-whee, I'm tired. And boy do my hands hurt ( Read more... )

I have poured the concrete. After much muddling about in my mind about how to mix and transport 120 lbs of concrete, I ended up just slitting the bags open right in the wheelbarrow what brung 'em to the backyard, and running the hose in there.

Mix with shovel.

Shovel into bucket.

Dump bucket into form.

Repeat several times.

( ...et voilà! )

There's something about working till 6:00 or 6:30 every day that makes doing hard manual labor in the evening afterwards seem pretty unappealing.

Which is my way of saying that I didn't get a damn thing done on the mudroom this week ( except some actual mud. )

I'm giving myself the evening off for good behavior. Well, for cleaning.

There comes a point in every house project where tools and substances normally hidden away create such a mess being out all over the house that nothing else can safely happen. I'm way past that point ( Read more... )

Damn mudroom. Damn painting. I knew it would become a remodeling job! I knew it!

I couldn't stand to just slap paint on over the foundation wall and hope for the best. It leaks. It's a problem. There's mildew and algae and water damage. I had to strip the existing coating so I could fill the cracks with hydraulic cement ( Read more... )