Today I turn 40, but I don't feel old ( Read more... )

Originally we were just going to pay Home Depot to take out our old (grimy, dark purple) carpet and replace it with something new. But then they told us that they wouldn't install over wood floors, and we happened to have the original-to-our-house parquet hiding the carpet. We knew the parquet was not salvageable (it had sustained damage from ( Read more... )

My brother-in-law helped me remove concrete from the back yard (not as much as we wanted, given that it was reinforced concrete--very tough). We hauled one load of construction debris, two loads of concrete up to the dump in his pickup truck, and two loads of compost back from the dump. The sprinkler system has been repaired. We need to wait ( Read more... )

First we lost another rental to someone else (this is starting to get discouraging ( Read more... )

*wishes once again for the "Roof Pirate" icon*

What I did yesterday:

Woke up ~ 5:45 am

Installed shores to hold up ceiling
Ate breakfast
Ran to Home Depot for supplies
Removed old, funky* sliding glass door with help of linaelynFramed in wall for new door ( Read more... )

If you want a new-looking kitchen but don't have much money, here's what you can do ( Read more... )

I am incredibly glad that the sanding is done.

Stain is on. Today: polyurethane, and we start tearing out the coffee-colored grout from between the tiles. (It will be replaced w/ beige grout.)

Spent all day yesterday sanding down cabinet doors. We are over 1/2 done, maybe closer to 2/3. Today: more sanding--doors first, then cabinet facings. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be ready to stain ( Read more... )

My parents are coming!!

This is a work visit--they're going to help with the kitchen and various other projects with which they have experience--but I'm nonetheless hoping to spend lots of time with them. It's been too long since they've been here.

Friday: skipped going into lab as usual. Worked on dining room instead, patching walls in areas where paneling had been ripped off ( Read more... )