I've been working on gutting the pink and blue tiled bathroom in my house. So far this week I've removed two of the three tiled walls above the tub. It's tough work! There are basically five layers of stuff to go through - first the ceramic tile, then the cement holding it in, then the wire mesh holding that to the plaster, then the plaster and ( Read more... )

I was parked and putting up my sun shade yesterday when my cracked open driver's side door was hit by a trucking pulling in beside me. That ruined my day ( Read more... )

Today while walking through Park Place - one of several shopping malls in Tucson - a teenage girl at a cell phone kiosk stopped me and asked how I was doing. I replied with "I'm fine," and tried to escape any further questioning. Half way turned around she said something that I made out as either "What did you get me today?" or "Come hit me." She ( Read more... )

I'm getting closer to being finished with the living/dining room in the new house. It wasn't until this past weekend that it finally started to look good:


( Read more... )

One more week and I should be living in the new house. My concrete floors are being stained tomorrow and sealed to a glossy finish on Wednesday. The electrical work is almost done - just a few things like installing the data, telephone and cable jacks remain. I hope to paint Thursday and Friday, and move in during the weekend.

( This is going to look fabulous in a couple of days: )

Yesterday I took off early from work to spend most of the day meeting various contractors at my new house. I had two show up at once - a concrete staining woman and a heating and cooling man. After getting the estimate to replace my ac and furnace with a single gas pack, the concrete woman said "Just get a MasterCool. We got one in our house and ( Read more... )

I just closed on my house! I get the keys after it records this afternoon.

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 04:08:47 -0000
From: "xx"
Subject: WANTED: WORKING WASHER & GAS DRYER

well she's finally gone, but there goes the washer & dryer.
just want something that works, don't care for laundry mats.

The reinspection of the house I'm buying was on Friday - pushed back a few days because of roofing contractor delays. It happened to be raining, so it was the perfect day to test the integrity of the new roof. Turns out the roof was the only thing ready for the inspection! Despite being "fixed," there were still several electrical problems: ( Read more... )

I recently joined the Tucson freecycle group because I thought it sounded cool. I can't believe some of the things people offer to give away. Check this out:

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:01:58 -0000
From: "xxx" Subject: OFFER: Last Sunday's newspaper coupons ( Read more... )