We had a small attack this morning. As we stumbled out of bed and down the stairs, grumbling about coffee and aching joints (we’re not even 30 – why so much aching?), we noticed 4 honey bees bouncing around on the stairwell window. Still half-asleep, I grabbed a magazine and whacked one. Then another. I […]

We just returned from a weekend camping trip in the mountains of West Virginia, and like any good diy’er we ended up coming home with tools instead of souveniers. We were wandering the dusty aisles of an awesome fleamarket in Harper’s Ferry with my sis-in-law Eilis and her fiance Ted – two highly-skilled treasure hunters […]

Notice anything about our site lately? Like, our eternally slow progress and general lack of projects in the queu? I think it’s official: We hit another wall. A big one. If I had to guess, I’d say we hit the wall the day our master bathroom was finished. Since that day, our motivation has been […]

Loyal readers may remember the cat-pee fiasco two summers ago, before our hardwoods had been refinished. When the weather got hot, the floor boards actually became wet and sticky with the years of urine that had soaked into them. (The previous owners had very naughty kitties and, apparently, no noses.) The posts about cat urine […]

Last year, I bought a peony bush with 2 scrawny little blooms on it. This year, it grew exponentially. At last count, it had about 15 big flowers with other small blooms working themselves out. I know they’ll all start flopping over soon from the weight of such large flowers, but right now I’m just […]

Nearly dark, hurrying to finish putting pretty little fence caps on the gate and corner posts. Yesterday I got 4 more panels done, and have the sunburn to prove it. 9 to go……….

When it comes to spatial relations, I’ve got absolutely no skills. Blame it on my female brain if you must, but I’ve never been able to visualize how furniture can move around in a space.  I can look at a design on a computer and tell you to the pixel how far over I want […]

We finally got some rain-free weekend weather, so after three days of half-hearted painting, we’re about 1/10th of the way to a white picket fence. We’re using Olympic solid stain in “Snowflake” (white, but not completely glaring) – because, as one of our readers helpfully pointed out, stain won’t flake or peel the way paint […]

Every homeowner will tell you they make certain sacrifices for their house. Especially fixer-uppers, whose every extra penny goes directly into whatever project needs funding at the time. We’ve made all sorts of sacrifices over the past 2.5 years to keep Dirty Gert happy. Our honeymoon luxury cruise turned into a week in Florida so […]

The life of a fixer-upper can be pretty chaotic. And I’ve got terrible short term memory. TERRIBLE. I sometimes wonder if I have early onset dementia and will soon be putting the dogs in the refrigerator instead of their crate. I don’t think it’s a crappy brain so much as too many things to remember. […]