With old houses, you come to expect it…. even the easist of projects are never easy, because you’ll inevitably uncover some mindblowing new problem while trying to fix the original one. And when you gut a room? OHHHHH, the things you’ll uncover. It’s the reason our kitchen remodel took 6 months, and our master bathroom […]

We just finished up the type of work weekend you can only pull off a few times a year….. one where you get more accomplished in two days than you usually do in two months. And even though my lungs are full of drywall dust (despite the safety gear), my snot looks like dirt, and […]

Every time we open up a wall, we’re secretly hoping to find a big wad of cash – or at least some fun little trinkets. Obviously, I’ve watched too many episodes of “If Walls Could Talk” on HGTV. When we started busting open the master bathroom walls this afternoon I was really optimistic. Alas, we […]

Though it needs a railing, newel post, trim, and some touch-up drywall, you can now see where we’re headed with the stairwell project… Here’s the new view from the dining room: And here’s the new view from inside the stairwell: When you compare it to a photo pre-removal, you can see how much more open […]

Did you ever think you’d reach a stage in your life where Home Depot felt like Toys-R-Us? I never would have guessed it, but I find myself wandering through the aisles eyeing all sorts of unnecessary (but oh-so alluring, just look what it can do!!! or lives would be so much easier!!!) tools and tool […]

In order to get our rather large tub upstairs, we knew we’d be doing some finagling. Our stairwell is tight, to say the least. It twirls to the right the minute you enter it. It’s steep angles and uneven steps are not for the faint of heart. We’ve had a number of run-ins with large […]

Black Friday is upon us, which means……… ’tis the season for frantically running from store to store in search of the perfect Christmas gift. I love giving presents, but I hate finding them; the perfectionist in me is never quite happy with what I find. In the back of my mind, there’s a little nagging […]

I was digging around Greg’s site last night, since he’s in the process of remodeling his downstairs bathroom and as usual has some great eye candy (like this AMAZING toilet) and detailed information on where he’s getting all his goods. Anyway….. he posted a link to Vintage Plumbing Bathroom Antiques, a salvage shop in LA […]

As you may recall, we were thrilled to pick up a salvaged clawfoot tub a few weeks ago. We still haven’t gotten to the cleaning stage yet, but I’ve already lept ahead to the refinishing process because I love me some research. There are basically three parts of the tub that need restoring, and each […]

If you noticed our suspisciously long absensce from the blogosphere, fear not – we’re back! I didn’t want to alert every burglar in town that we’d be away from our beloved house, so I didn’t mention that we’d be going on vacation. Cause you know, burglars just can’t wait to get their hands on our […]