Category Archives: repairs

The Great Wall of TROUBLE

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architects office

There’s The Great Wall of China, and The Wall in Manhattan…. the Lennon Wall in Prague and Pink Floyd’s THE WALL…. but our wall is not the kind to be celebrated, and I’m pretty sure it won’t attract tourists. One thing I am sure of is that it’s been nothing but trouble.  After three years of waiting we finally conquered this hideous beast.  Lets look back and see what all the fuss was about.

I’m still in my workout room but we are making progress each week.  Richie and I have about a day and a half each week to work on the house ….

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A Workout

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damagedsheetrock3

It’s been so nice taking a much needed break from renovation work.  The holidays were very restful and Richie and I enjoyed our weeks off.  I’ve decided that I really would love to be a “stay-at-home” chick!  I won’t go into all of it because… well… it’s freakin’ OVER and without coming off as a grouch I’m happy it is.  The holidays stress us out and we are always happy to get through it.  (I know, I know.. cranky ass!)

With three weeks off during the holidays I found myself getting pretty bored near the end.  I’m use to going ….

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All this for a TV?

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mediacabinetprimer

Well, it’s still raining here in Texas, but at least not non-stop. We’re doing our best to work around the down pours.  It looks like the upcoming week shows some improvement and we’ll see the return of heat and humidity. Never thought I’d be so excited for the return of both!

I have been taking advantage of the fact that there is always an indoor project to do when the weather doesn’t cooperate. So LUCKY ME, I’ve been working on a portion of our media cabinet. Yes, aren’t you jealous?… I know you are. If dirty, messy, stinky, and sticky are ….

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“Who’ll Stop the Rain”

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mushrooms in yard

Credence Clearwater pondered it, Prince colored it purple, Adele set fire to it, Gene Kelly sang in it, Led Zepplin were fools in it, The Cure prayed for it, Husker Du stood in it, Willie Nelson saw blue eyes crying in it, The Jesus and Mary Chain were only happy when it happened, the Eurythmics let it fall on their heads, and Bob Dylan knew a hard rain’s gonna fall…….  but I’m just SICK OF IT!

My drive to work most days looks like this.

Every day for the last 12 days it has RAINED!  I know, I know, most of the country ….

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She’s lovely… but she squeaks!

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Danze Parma

It’s always SOMETHING! I guess that comes with home ownership, doesn’t it? There’s always a “to do” list that seems to shrink and grow at the same time.
(add to list — Repair Shower Valve)

So here’s my lovely Danze shower valve with chrome trim. I love her. She batted her eyes at me online and said “buy me, I’m so simple and pretty, buy me”! I fell for it, she was mine. After glowing reviews and 5 stars a plenty… she arrived during our bathroom renovation and was installed end of 2010.

We really don’t use this bathroom much at all… so ….

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Help, I’m stuck!

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George Nelso Jewelry Storage

After 3 weekends of doing nothing on my bedroom project because of my job, I finally have a weekend to get back on track. I’m at a point in the refinishing of our built-ins where I need to make a decision and just can’t. I’m having such a hard time and Richie tends to pull that “oh, whatever you choose will be fine”, thing. I appreciate his flexibility but it’s not helping me to actually come up with a FINAL decision that I won’t regret later. (ahhhhhhhh!)

So many of you have incredible homes and amazing design eyes… so I need ….

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Sunday bloody Sunday

posted on
Open Window

….. and how was your weekend? HA HA! Mine was bloody good, thank you.

HEY, home renovation is NOT for wussies! You got splinters…too bad. Your legs ache from standing on a ladder all day… too bad. You’re blowing black boogers out of your nose from sanding disgusting windows for hours on end … FEEL PROUD! (yes, we share our sanding boogers with each other. It’s true love. :-) LOL
At the end of the day that’s what it takes … and so that’s what we do. And a good time is had by all.

Did you believe it when I ….

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there’s water where?

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fall apart

Those three words came out of my mouth at the exact moment we were trying to leaving for our friend Charlie Stagg’s memorial service this past weekend.  Not three words a homeowner wants to say or hear.  It means trouble.

We were just about to leave the house and my husband had taken a quick shower.  We noticed water come out from under my brand new cabinets in the kitchen. OH SHIT, the kitchen plumbing was leaking?  No, it’s fine.  Where’s it coming from? The shower that is on the other side of the brick wall in the kitchen.  No doubt ….

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Feels like Monday

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handmade envelope pillows

… and it certainly looks like a Monday back at work. YIKES! My desk is exploding with papers. (thank goodness it’s Tuesday… that gives me a short week!)

Sometimes I feel like I can’t escape the messes. Mess at home… mess at work… and my poor little car hasn’t been washed in months. I know, I know, it’s just a time in life that you “get through”. Change is certain and I always tell myself when I feel overwhelmed, “Will this matter in 5 years”. NO! I’m just whining today. ….

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He Lights up my Life!

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WHITE is better

While the rain moves in and constantly stays over our house… Richie decided to move inside and tackle the electrical chaos that is going on in our “studio” area of the house.
We hired electricians to do the front part but the back part was something Richie knew he could handle when the time came. (saved us a couple thousand, too!) So with the help and knowledge of his father they have been working on it for the last couple of days. I snapped a few pictures. Boring pictures… probably, but trust me when I say we’re happy to be getting ….

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Finally Fenced!

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P1090025_web

It’s been a while since I posted an update but I wanted to wait until the fence was done. The rain showers (even though we needed them) really slowed things down…. actually things came to a screeching halt for a while. Richie continued to work every chance he could to finish the gate and fence and there were lots of little things to wrap up. Finally, it’s done. He made me promise that I would wait a few weeks before I stained it so all the wood could dry out.. but of course I’m chomping at the bit!

A view from ….

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One Picket at a Time

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New Fence View

Work on the front fence and gate continues….

Now that the front fence and gate are pretty well done, it was time to set new posts for the redesigned fence. Most of the fence was setting above ground on concrete blocks, which was really great, but we decided to go ahead and dig holes and do it the “standard” way. Here you can see the new poles as they set up. Now we have to play the waiting game…… Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.  Only time will cure that crete!

While that dries I lend a hand and help Richie remove ….

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Fence & Gate Update

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New Siding and Pickets

Here’s an update on our front fence/gate project. It’s been a really hard, very hot, totally exhausting week for Richie, Dean, and Ben. Thanks to our helpers we’ve made some progress. This house is fabulous and part of what we love about it is that there are fences and walls, courtyards and special places that surround this house and keep it very private. With walls and walls of windows we absolutely MUST have these fences. Time, weather, 2 hurricanes, and over grown vegetation left pretty much every fence around the house in terrible shape. Most of it is hanging by ….

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Exterior Work – Carport

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Car Port
The exterior work continues and the heat has been pretty brutal. Luckily Richie is working under the carport this week.

We have a nice drive through car port at the front of the house and have done plenty of work to this area.  (It’s hard to tell… but we really have.  It just happens in small steps)

We’re back to pick up where we left off and get the roof beams all capped and lookin’ good.  There are five beams total.  Richie went to work measuring, cutting, and securing caps to seal up the bottoms and ends of each beam.  He’s done ….

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Back to Work

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halllpanels-stacey

Home renovation sure isn’t for sissies! It’s back to work for the “crew of two”. My work is pretty low-key because my left arm is still out of wack. The x-rays were inconclusive and had to be sent off to a radiologist. It’s either a dislocation or I have “funky bones”. If it’s funky bones, then it’s a damaged tendon. Either way it’s light work for me… and messy hard work for Richie.

Richie started working on the support beams at the back of the house. Each beam had to be taken apart, repaired and a new cap was put on ….

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