Nom de Plume

Which I reread last night, curled up in bed with my Petzel headlamp because Steve was asleep. It was instant childhood revisited. I always pictured Harriet’s bedroom and tiny bathroom as my bedroom and tiny bathroom in our house in Bucharest. It was at the top of a large three story house, and I was […]

Normally, I don’t write about really personal things. I mean sure, I talk about Steve and Harry, and post pictures of the house and all that–but I tend not to write about work, or very personal issues.. So this post is an exception, and you are forewarned that it’s personal and also very long. I’m […]

I am afraid I have done Mr. Demo a disservice, making it seem as though more of our house is in complete construction mode than is the case. I had lunch with Pete and Marc last week. Pete asked just how much of our house is livable. The answer is: quite a lot. Don’t believe […]

Steve called this morning to see if his mother had made it off okay.
Actually, let’s rephrase that. He ostensibly called to see if his mother had left, but really just wanted to inform me that we are ripping out the kitchen cabinets tonight.
“All of them?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“Will we have anything in there? I mean, […]

Here’ s a little reminder of what the bathroom looked like when we moved in:

This is it now:

The tub, in which I have been spending most of my free time:

We bought the mirror at an antique store about a year ago. The corner cabinet was that unfinished furniture stuff. I’ve stained it, still have to […]

Otherwise known as what we in my family call girding one’s loins, in fond memory of someone who once got his tongue a little twisted with very amusing results. The bathroom? It’s DONE. I’ve painted. There’s still some minor trim work, but it looks fab. And now, I’m loining my girdle in preparation for […]

Charlotte’s excellent Green Meme.
1. What do you for the birds and the bees? According to the report, we need to plant a pollinator garden to counteract the effect pollution, pesticides and habitat destruction are having on birds, bees and insects. Bees, for instance, like yellow, blue and purple flowers. I attempt to do things, but […]

Yesterday, Dave ripped out the tub, prepped the subfloor, put in insulation, and added a couple of water shutoffs because we only had one. It’s amazing how fast it goes. Dave’s kind of fun to have around. He was talking to his girlfriend the other night, and saying, “Don’t let the dogs in the bed.” […]

Remember the bathroom saga? That has been restarted forty bazillion times? It’s actually going to be finished–within the next week.
Steve’s brother was laid off. He doesn’t seem overly concerned about it, so we’re not either. But Steve flew him out here and is paying him to finish the bathroom for us. The boys have left […]

Girouard describes the changing social history of England through its architecture. This sounds like a dull reference book–indeed, I thought it would be one–but Life in the English Country House was, instead, really quite fascinating. He covers the shifting balance of public vs. private lives and living spaces, the changing role of servants, the role […]

Two weeks ago
It’s about two in the afternoon. Steve calls. “For my company Christmas party, do you want steak or salmon?”
“When is it?”
“I’m not sure. Which do you want?”
“I don’t care,” I say, running through my schedule in head. “Can you forward me the e-mail?”
“We’ll get one of each then.”
“Forward me the e-mail.”
“Okay.”
Later that night
We’re […]

Still have to seal the floors. Now who knows when we’ll get around to the tub portion? BTW, that’s the royal we, meaning Steve.

And just for reference, this is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in. As you can see, we busted out the stuff covering the window (which Steve reinstalled) and got […]

So the plan is to tile up to the bath tub, put up trim, reinstall the toilet and the sink, and then go on vacation. After vacation, we’re dealing with the tub side of the equation.
Steve put down subflooring and measured out the tile. I cut out the black tiles and laid out the pattern.

This […]

Today, Steve was going to take out the toilet and start laying the tile. It is not going according to plan. Every half hour or so, he bellows expletives while I rush over and say, “What?! What?!” and the dog scoots under the dining room table as fast as his short little legs will carry […]

Steve is taking a two month sabbatical from work, and is dedicating himself to projects around the house. The problem is that he’s much more excited about destroying than rebuilding.
Case in point: He’s rebuilding the deck, starting today.

Never mind that this is what the bathroom looks like.

I should say that he did install the […]

This time we mean it. Here we go …
Steve cut this bit out months ago to see if we could get rid of the jog in the wall.

More …

All gone!

This mold is DISGUSTING. We put on masks and gloves, and carried it out as quickly as possible.

The original window area reappears.

Steve realizes that even though […]

When we first moved into this house, I posted pictures of what it looked like (complete with the belongings on the previous tenants). I thought it would be kind of fun to juxtapose what it looked like then and what it looks like today — though I am shamelessly NOT putting up pictures of […]

We have a very haphazard approach to renovation. For instance, the kitchen floors are done (as of more than a year ago), but we have done nothing with the cabinets. Steve picked up spares from the last condo job he was on, and they’re sitting in the garage. But he has since decided not to […]

Steve was totally depressed coming back to our house after staying at Geoff and Michael’s place while the floor was redone. Part of that is due to the fact that their bedroom is the same size as our living room and the other reason is that their bathroom is utterly gorgeous. Needless to say, they […]