Adventures in Renovation

So I checked my website statistics the other day and found that all these random people have been finding my renovation blog with keywords like "drywall plaster repair" and stuff. Here's a list of keywords that have led people to this site in March:

• bathroom cube
• deck screws deck mate
• half wall and stairs
• insulation batts vs blow in
• renovation drywall insulate
• small bathroom renovation ideas
• stairs with half wall
• wood wall redo

I left out Anarchy Monkey related searches from the list like "blue stuffed monkey," "best graduation song," and "homophobic protesters." My blog probably isn't very helpful to other people, tho. I thought about maybe putting in more helpful advice and how-to about things I had figure out about my house. But then I decided against it for a few reasons:

1. It's too hard. This blog takes too much time to update as it is.

2. I don't know what I'm doing. Just because I kinda figure something out by trial and error doesn't mean other people should follow my example.

3. I'm sort of in a moral dilemma about wether the whole 'do-it-yourself' culture is helping or hurting our society. If you think about it, the reason my house is screwed up to begin with is because someone else decided they could just do it just as good themselves and they did a really, really bad job and had really, really bad taste. Shouldn't we have faith in skilled professionals? Isn't it the same as complaining that desktop publishing makes everyone think they can layout a brochure just as well as any graphic designer as long as they buy the right software? The reason this whole mentality is so pervasive is because it's encouraged to increase consumer spending. How you feel about it can be just as divided as the debate over Valentine's Day. Is this holiday just a creation of greeting card companies?

I think Lisa Simpson but it best when she said, "Lets just agree that the commercialization of Christmas is, at best, a mixed blessing." Gary Coleman: "Amen."

Posted by at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The old ceiling was constructed so that the ceiling joists didn't run the entire length of the house uninterrupted. Two pieces of wood were nailed together and would lay on top of the walls, even though none of the walls were technically load-bearing walls. So when I took a couple of the walls out the ceiling had a tendency to flex quite a bit.

So my Dad and I nailed a few steel connecters to the joists and now it's totally solid. The ceiling doesn't move up or down now. In other words, steel rafter ties are the Mr. T that holds the whole crime-fighting, gymnastics team together.

Also, here is a picture of the inside of my skylight that shows how sloppy looking things are behind the scenes. There are a lot of pieces of scrap wood or flooring that aren't really attached to anything except the wood lathe. Sometimes it seems like the houses were build out of whatever was laying around. The riddle here is how to insulate around it.

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been working on the plaster ceiling in my middle room upstairs. I have to get it level and cover holes where the plaster has fallen in so I can hang the 1/4" drywall over it. So far, I've found couple good product for this. First, are plaster washers that I heard of from this article on the internet. They they can be difficult to find, but I found some at my local hardware store, Falkenhan's Hardware in Hampden. Local shops in the city tend to carry a lot of items that Home Depot won't because 100 year old houses have different problems than new suburban homes.

Basically plaster washers are thin metal washers that go around drywall screws to help you refasten plaster that's become separated from the wood lathe behind it. Without them your drywall screws will just disappear right through the plaster and won't do anything. They work well but can be kind of tricky. Sometimes they just end up cracking the plaster and make it fall off. They seem to work a lot better on the walls than on the ceiling.

The other trick I've found it that 3/8" drywall is a good for covering areas where the plaster had come off the wood lathe. It's just about the same depth and really easy to work with. I've been pulling little bit of plaster around the hole to square it off and screwing a square of 3/8" drywall in place with 1.25" course drywall screws. I'm actually going to but back some wood lathe that I pulled down. That seems to be the easiest way to math the original ceiling thickness: wood lath and then 3/8" drywall hung on the ceiling joists. The drywall screw gun makes a world of difference too. If you're hanging drywall, it's well worth the investment. It's too bad they aren't much good for anything else.

Now, in theory I could finish off the ceiling with joint compound. But instead I'm going to laminate it with another layer of 1/4" drywall. This way it'll be stronger, smoother, and probably a lot easier to finish. The only thing I'm worried about is the whole skylight area. I'm still not sure if i'm going to laminate drywall on the inside of the skylight opening or try and patch it. I think I'm going to hire a drywall taper so I'll ask him what his advice is. For those who don't know, a drywall taper is a guy who just does the finish work on the drywall, applying joint compound, hiding fasteners, seams, etc.

Posted by at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Turns out I'm not the only one who got burned by Ryobi tools. This guy Dave got famous for his eBay auction for a Ryobi router table where he explained what horrible purchase this product was. It's titled RYOBI ROUTER TABLE - WORTHLESS JUNK NR! They even did an episode of This American Life for NPR with him in it (episode 263). I'll include the whole text description of the auction here since it expired so long ago on eBay. The auction ended for only $26.22. I wish I had the full size image to this. If anyone has it, please let me know.

RYOBI ROUTER TABLE - WORTHLESS JUNK NR!

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Description (revised)
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For any prospective bidders - I have 100% positive feedback so you know my descriptions are good. I'm trying to describe this item the best I can.

This Ryobi router table is the worst thing I've ever spent money on. Period. I've wasted money on a lot of things in my life: women, cars, other things I didn't need, you name it, but I've never felt like I totally 100% wasted my money on something until I bought this router table. I've wasted money, but I normally got some sort of satisfaction out of it, no matter how small, I got something out of it This is the most worthless piece of crap item I have ever had the displeasure of working with in my life. I have much more colorful ways of describing this but I realize that there may be some kids that will read this so I will try to keep it PG.

It comes complete with most of the crappy accessories it came with. An example is the plastic pusher miter thingie that's so sloppy that I don't understand why they even bothered making it adjustable. It's really nice when you're trying to rout something at an angle and it slips in the middle of the cut and jerks the workpiece right out of your hands and flings it across the room. Or the super anti-precision fence that's almost impossible to adjust and keep in place. Or the slippery painted surface that wears off, exposing the rough surface that mars the workpiece as you slide it over. It does come with a power switch that always worked. I'll give it that. It has a really nice power switch. Some of the other small items got destroyed in a fit of rage one day after fighting it for a couple of hours.

The best part about this table is that it's a one of a kind. yep that's right it's a three legged router table. It became three legged after I was trying to rout something one day and I noticed that the table was moving. That was from the plastic inserts working loose on the leg mounts. It was like routing wood on a waterbed. It was moving back and forth oh I'd say an inch and a half or so. Well after a few more pieces I'm in the middle of a cut and the leg just fell off. So I had to stop to keep from losing any fingers, and I tried to beat the inserts back in. Looked ok so I start making my cut again and would you believe it fell out again?!?! It's supported by a beer bottle to keep it from falling over while taking the picture.

I am an engineer by trade and I feel sorry for the engineer that was responsible for this marvel of science. Someone told him to design this thing and not spend any more than $0.65 on it. So he did it, but I bet he probably lost all self respect for himself after he realized that he just released this miserable failure onto society. Or maybe he got a big kick out of it and is still laughing I don't know. I know they suckered me out of my money that's for sure.

There is a router shown in the picture, the router is not included since it will kind of work most of the time. This auction is for the table only. Hell I'll even throw in the beer bottle (not full per eBay standards) if the buyer wants it. I wouldn't use it as a leg though.

This table comes with no warranty from me. I never bothered to try to take it back, even though it was under warranty because I was so ticked off that I knew I would create a scene when I threw it through the front window of Home Depot. So it sat in my basement for a few months, and now you have the opportunity to own this piece of scrap. If someone had some time they could probably work on it a bit and make it into something that's functional. Like a doorstop or maybe a paperweight. But it will need some more work before it's that good.

I accept paypal, cashiers check or money order. Shipping quoted is parcel post. If for some reason you would want to receive your misery faster I can do that ask me for a quote.

Seriously though I have a couple other nice things that I'm selling. Check em out if you need a saw blade or 1972 Z28 parts.

ADDED 3/22/04 - I've received some emails, and yes I am willing to set it on fire, shoot it full of holes, etc. and mail pics/video to you. If the bid gets high enough to cover my ammo costs, I'd be willing to shoot it full of holes with your choice of the following: 12 gage slugs, 00 buck, or a 40 round mag from an AK. Then I can make a pile of the remains, douse it in gasoline, make the Wile-E-Coyote trail of gas dribbles for my safety, and light it on fire. The winning bidder would get pics if they so choose. Or I can ship it to you. I could even ship you the charred remains if you like. Hey man I just hate it. Let me know. Whatever trips your trigger.

ADDED 3/23/04 - Yes I can drive over it with something. I can drive over it with a Massey Ferguson 620 CI diesel powered tractor.

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On Mar-24-04 at 09:06:41 PST, seller added the following information:

For those who are interested, the bottle does carry a $0.10 Michigan deposit, and it's pre printed for the other standard deposits for other states ($0.05). So yeah it's like a huge bonus, worth hundreds of times what the table is worth. Remember - I'm throwing that in for free!

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On Mar-24-04 at 20:59:57 PST, seller added the following information:

Yes the beer bottle is a "double deuce" or a 22 oz ish beer bottle. Actually it's a Miller Lite 24 oz beer bottle, so that makes it extra rare. From what I hear there was only somewhere around 42 million of them made this year, so get yours fast! I suppose it has some additional extra value from a scrap weight aspect, but I think the deposit is the same. Collector's value had got to be in the hundreds if not thousands of Turkish Liras.

No unfortunately I don't know of any women that are willing to fire the guns naked and send you the pics. If I did I wouldn't be wasting my time writing this auction, that's for sure.

The tractor is basically a huge articulating tractor with dual wheels on each corner. It weighs somewhere around a gajillion pounds. It's about six times the size of the largest general motors product you can think of. It's big. It might take me a couple of weeks to get video etc but yeah I'll send it to you. Pics/video will be complete with firearms, Ryobi arson and all the profanity you desire, whatever you want. Again - for christ's sake the next bid is $0.02, and I'm willing to do all this crap for a penny - the video's got to be worth $5!!!!!! Bid and tell me what you want!!!!

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On Mar-25-04 at 18:31:48 PST, seller added the following information:

Dear davesan455,

I will bid if you place it in a barrel and fill barrel with concrete. I will pay the insurance if you pay the shipping.

um....ok. I can do that as long as the bid is $1400.

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On Mar-25-04 at 19:08:08 PST, seller added the following information:

Why are you restricting shipping to USA only? I would think you should be excited about the possibility of sending it to Iran, or hell or france or something. Just wondering.

Yet another good idea. I will ship free to France as long as they surrender. It doesn't matter who they surrender to, it could be Australia, Bruce Willis, or even McDonalds. But if they surrender before this auction ends free shipping to France!

Also- Free shipping to any US military base (Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Venezuela, Selfridge Air force Base, etc) upon the following conditions: The person receiving the router table send clear pictures/video back of the table being destroyed by superior force, i.e. tank shelling, hellfire missile attack, shooting sheet with an anti-aircraft gun, or some sort of awesome display of military power, or even a pic of their whole company dancing around a bonfire which contains the router table. Three Cheers to the US Military / Coast / National Guard! I'll drink to that.

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On Mar-26-04 at 05:18:33 PST, seller added the following information:

Could I see a picture of it actually ripping something out of someones hand and tossing it to the other side of the room? Or better yet an arm off or something?

Sure. Buy it, and have someone videotape you using it. Eventually someone's going to lose an appendage.

Posted by at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had an anxiety dream last night that my roof was leaking. In the dream water leaked all the way from the roof to the basement and screwed up the ceilings I was trying to fix. What's up with that? I could be because Vicki and Rachel's house has a crazy leak in the ceiling around the skylight that the landlord should definitely want to fix but he doesn't seem to care. I don't think they care either. "Not my house," was what I used to say all the time when I rented. I think it's time to call roofers to install a nice new rubber roof.

Posted by at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was really excited when I started using my new tools tonight. The drill way outperformed the Craftsman 12v drill and totally rocked drilling 3/4 inch holes with the auger bit (pictured). But then it BROKE! The same day I bought it. I can't believe what a piece of crap this is. At first, I noticed it was hard to drive screws and they kept stripping. But it was because the electric brake and the variable speed both stopped working (they're probably related problems).

It's funny because I found this review on the epinions.com website. This person had bought the drill and then it broke after 18 months. So when he took it to the authorized repair place, they said he'd have to wait because they were so backlogged with repairing these things. Supposedly the repair guy confessed that Ryobi stuff is "junk." Then I just found this review tonight about the exact same problem I'm having!!!

It's too bad. I really thought I had beat the system on this one. I really like the reciprocating saw too. Oh well. It's going to be DeWalt or Makita. I'm taking this crap back.

Posted by at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I hooked up another light in my basement yesterday afternoon. This was my first bit of electrical work. And I didn't kill myself. Time for a pat on the back.

I just hooked up another pull chain light that I branched off the one the electrician put by the circuit breaker. Pretty simple really. Now I can see when I change clothes in the basement again. Little things can be very encouraging.

Posted by at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bought some new power tools today. You know, big boy toys. Nothing makes you feel more like a consumer whore than buying a set of power tools. That's why Home Depot has those bumpers stickers that say "Home Depot: My Toy Box." Duh.

Basically my Craftsman 12v cordless drill just wasn't cuttin it. It worked great as a screwdriver and for drilling lighter duty stuff like pilot holes. It also worked great with assembling and disassembling stuff when I moved. But the charge wore out fast when driving it hard even tho I just bought it, and it couldn't drill through 2x4's with a spade bit like I need for running electrical and plumbing. I had to use my Dad 35 year old drill which worked great but lacked little conveniences like variable speed, a keyless check and even reverse.

So I bought a big old 18v set made by Ryobi. Consumer reports ranked it as a best buy so it was a good excuse to get a reciprocating saw too. I keep finding myself in situations where I say to myself "If only I had a reciprocating saw..." They're pretty indispensable when it comes to demolition. Coincidentally, Consumer Reports ranked my Craftsman drill pretty poorly, and I'd have to agree.

So why did I buy some cheesy Japanese brand tools that look like Tonka toys? Well, because I only have one house. I'm not a professional so I didn't want to pay $500 for a set, or $200 for one drill. I'll let you know how it works out. The guy in line behind me said, "I got one of those for Christmas. You'll love it."

Posted by at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Dad and I hung the first piece of drywall yesterday. Very exciting. Just one piece on one side of the half wall. Only took a few minutes. Wasn't all that hard. Very easy to cut. But working around all the old plaster and framing is increasingly frustrating. Below the other side of the half wall for instance has uneven plaster on top of an even more uneven floor joist just below the wall. So in order to hang a piece of drywall, I have to tear off the plaster and build it back with strips of wood so it's the same thickness and the half wall. That's probably too hard to visualize from my description.

At any rate, everything that I'm trying to do around the old plaster and wood is becoming really complicated like that. The bay window is especially difficult. All bay windows have a tendency to sag after 85 years and mine is no exception. Plus none of the stud are very straight or even because they were covered with lathe and then two layers of plaster to make them straight. Now, I'm trying to come up with ways to fur out the walls to an even level for hanging drywall. There just doesn't seem to be an easy way to do it. I can tell it's going to be a complicated solution.

Using the drywall router around the electrical boxes was a little tricky at first, but I think I got the hang of it now. Initially I tried going around the inside of the box and ended up cutting through it in a couple places. The second time I figured out what you need to do is start in the middle and cut to the outside till you hit the box. Then 'jump' over to the outside of the box and cut around the outside counter clockwise. Slow light pressure works better, otherwise you can cut right through the plastic.

Also, Greg get's the number one friend trophy for helping me haul 36 sheets of drywall in his truck. Hooray Greg!

Posted by at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finished building the new half wall yesterday. Half wall version 2.0 is better than ever. I used 3" Deck-Mate deck screws to put it all together so I won't have any nails wiggling out. Gregory Gannon's ingenious idea to put in a brace that ran along side the floor joist is what really made it work, though. Greg has big ideas! Before I put that in, the wall didn't seem all that much sturdier than the last one and I was almost regretting taking all the time to redo it. But now everything is really tight. And no squeaking either... the old wall had started to squeak when you wiggled it. Now I'm completely confident that when I add the drywall it's going to be rock solid.

Greg also has other big ideas for making loft style modern row homes. I was telling Greg last night that I almost don't want to refinish my floors upstairs because they already look really good. When you clean up a spot, you can see that the finish on the floor is beautiful. The only problem is that there are 8 million little nail holes, some really big gashes (from the previous owner's and from me using a crowbar to rip up the old linoleum tile), and the unfinished spot in the floor where the old walls used to be. Greg was telling me about how he saw once that a guy just lightly sanded the wood and then polyurethaned it leaving shadows of old walls and things in the floor. It's an interesting alternative but I'm not sure I could pull it off. I don't know if I could get away with something so post-modern without making the rest of the house just as industrial.

Posted by at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I know I said I don't usually do product endorsements but like this one is really pretty alright too and I think people should know. So here it is:

The Arrow JT-21 staple gun is way better than the T-50.

Why? Because unless you ran out of nails or you're trying to tack things into cement or something, you'll never need a T-50. It's tempting to think you'd better go with the stronger one when it's hanging on the shelf at the hardware store, but don't be fooled! The T-50 is inaccurate, the bigger staples are harder to pull out when you screw up, and it's just a paint in the ass to use in general. During my freshman year in art school, my entire Painting 1 class sat around and stretched canvas together. And all the kids with T-50's were struggling the whole time cursing they're staple guns.

Long live the JT-21!

Posted by at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday I smashed the half wall. It had to be done. Ever since we first built it, it wiggled around when you put any weight on it. No matter what I did to it, I couldn't seem to make it any stronger. At first I thought the drywall would make it strong. And if I had just put drywall on it right after I built it, it probably wouldn't have been fine. But I just kept coming back to the half wall and messing with it. I added a bunch of lag screws. I added a bunch of steel brackets and connectors. But last Saturday I was adding a steel connector and the nail just blew the stud apart because it already had so many huge nails in it. That was the final straw. I tore it all out to start over. It was a real bitch too because those steel connectors are really hard to take off.

It's a good thing though. The next wall will be way better. When I took the half wall down, I could see that the floorboard it wall nailed into had been punctured so many times that it had totally split apart. The next wall will be screwed right to the floor joist and I'm going to build it with deck screws so it'll be really tight. Also, I plan on putting 5/8 inch thick drywall on either side for extra density. It'll be awesome.

In other news, my new insulation arrived yesterday. It was tricky to track down this new cotton insulation. It's made of recycled cotton denim. I'm real excited to put it in. Here is what they say on their website:

"UltraTouch contains no chemical irritants and requires no warning labels compared to other traditional products. There are no VOC concerns when using UltraTouch, as it is safe for you and the environment."

"UltraTouch contains 85% post-industrial recycled natural fibers making it an ideal choice for anyone looking to use a high quality sustainable building material."

Posted by at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight I smashed the bump-out walls upstairs. These are the same walls that I wanted to turn into built-in bookcases (if I had all the time in the world). After the electrician took out the bottom portion it seemed inevitable that I'd have to redo the whole wall. It would be hard to try and match the old plaster with new pieces of drywall. Also I'd have to strip the old wallpaper off and fix the holes and broken corners that happened when I took down the wood paneling. Or just smash it and rebuild it fresh. Plus, now I can air seal the top portion where it meets the ceiling. Otherwise, air could still leak from the attic down into the walls.

It seems that the brick chimney doesn't run all the way up. Now that I'm looking at it taken apart, I'm tempted to leave it this way to some extent. Maybe build a small wall a third of the way up to close in the electrical and vent and leave the top open. Then later I could build a bookcase in this space. Maybe I'll just leave it open and then I can make a decision later after I live with it a while. Any suggestions?

Posted by at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How cool are carpenter's pencils? No really, how cool are they right? I don't usually make product endorsements, but like carpenter's pencils are just so cool everyone should take a moment to recognize how awesomely rad these things are.

They're flattened so they won't roll away, they have big, fat, heavy-duty leads in them for making manly marks on lumber, and you don't need to buy a sharpener to sharpen them. You just use your manly pocket knife or a razor blade to whittle down the point. No need to create an industry around making another product usable. Well actually, you can buy a special sharpener for carpenter's pencils, but the point is you don't HAVE to. How sweet!

Here is a picture of the oldest known pencil in existence that just happens to be a carpenter's pencil. Coincidence? And here is an article that a pencil collector wrote about carpenter's pencils. Whoa.

Posted by at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are three or four layers of paint on the inside of the tub including a layer at the bottom of 2-part epoxy. And there are even more layers on the outside of the tub because that's where they start to rust. I've been using three different paint strippers and a heat gun on my old claw foot tub. They all work... somewhat. But each stripper is very slow and involves a lot of scraping. It's like scratching off paint off with your finger nail.

I've managed to strip sections all the way down to the porcelain and it looks like it's in fair shape. Doesn't look like there's a lot of rust coming through the porcelain. Unfortunately it probably is too porous and if it was painted before with epoxy they probably etched the porcelain. If so it would probably need to be resurfaced. I talked to a guy yesterday who can resurface it with several layers of epoxy and stuff for $245 for the inside, $300 for the outside and $75 to strip it. People tell me it looks beautiful and new when they're done.

I'm already sick of trying to work with this thing so I'll either get someone to fix it or I'll smash it into bit. Apparently that's the way you remove an old tub. You smash it into little bit with a sledgehammer. Sounds like fun but I'm not looking forward to carrying in a new one. Those things are incredibly heavy.

Posted by at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I did some tests on the paint on my walls and I couldn't find any lead paint. that's the good news. The bad news is that it all has to be removed because underneath all the paint, is poorly installed wallpaper so you can see the seams through the paint on every wall. Those are the walls that were underneath the wood paneling so they didn't get covered with a thick coat of hallucinogenic murals.

I've started the slow process of stripping the wallpaper . Here is a photo of about how much you can strip in a half hour. This is serious work for someone with OCD. It's like picking at peeling sunburn. But once you get into it, it's hard to stop.

Initially I started messing with the areas of thicker paint where there crazy tenants had painted flowers next to the stairs. After trying to sand it and use paint stripper on it, it turns out that the paint is so thick that you can scrape it off with a stiff 1.5" scraper. The paint chips off down to the wallpaper backing. Then you soak the paper with some water in a spray bottle and scrape again. It's pretty easy because the plaster wall beneath it is so hard.

Posted by at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As of yesterday, all the rough electrical is done! Jerry from JAC Contracting came in and whipped it into shape. He replaced my service panel, the service wire outside, and wired the entire 2nd floor. And all in two days! What a huge load off my mind that is. I can leave the all the power on at my house and not worry about it burning down.

Now it's time to insulate and hang drywall!

Posted by at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a saying that goes "Never start a plumbing project after the hardware store is closed." Truer words were never spoken.

Sunday I spent with Camillo working on the plumbing for the bathroom. It was like a big scavenger hunt. We were missing tools and parts all day and we went from plan B to plan C to plan D. It was pretty funny. You should see the hole we cut in the floor for the sink drain. It took two drills, a chisel and a reciprocating saw. It ain't pretty but it works!

I'm just glad we're working with all plastic pipes. I can only imagine how long this would all take if everything we we're doing had to be soldered. We're still not done, but It's very, VERY close.

Posted by at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jerry came by Saturday to replace my service panel and wire up the upstairs. While he was doing that I went ahead and pulled down the kitchen ceiling so he could get to the wires beneath. The ceiling was covered in wood paneling that was nailed and glued to 1/4" plywood that was nailed to furring strips attached to the joists. Someone put a lot of work into making a very ugly ceiling.

Before he came, I prepared by tearing out the rest of the kitchen closet thing so he could run all the wires from the basement up the chase to the second floor. I uncovered the old back doorway form when the house originally ended at the kitchen. There's a door shaped opening in the brick and a space above it for a transom window. Then it was covered by paneling and drywall when it was turned into a closet. The original window for the back of the house was turned into a big doorway to the laundry room.

When Jerry cut a hole in the laundry room ceiling, you could see that above that drywall was a painted tongue and groove wood slat roof. This was the house's original porch. At some point they turned the porch into an extension of the house. That's why every house on my block has the same shaped extension on their house because they all did it. But then everyone added a porch behind that and everyone has some different half-assed, screwed up porch behind their house. It's such an ugly mess out there.

Posted by at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes it's hard to stay inspired when there is so much work to do on my house. But at least I didn't buy The House of Horrors!

Here are photos from the scariest house I looked at during my house hunt last summer. It makes me feel a little better about my situation.

Posted by at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)