phone dump

3.10.2011 boobs

3.1.2011 the wool taking (more) bad health news in stride

2.4.2011 space heater makes kitties happy. 20 degrees outside, 55 inside the schoolhouse.

12.3.2010 trippy corporate xmas party pics

elizabeth's mealyblue debut

movie

four friends (1981). best fight scene ever.

ever.

the one in the bar. toward the end of the movie.

phone dump

11.4.2010 tree cutters taking calculated risks. these guys climbed all in my oaks 2-3 stories off the ground fearlessly wielding sharp objects.

9.15.2010 foreign and domestic with penguin. food looks like squid ink

9.8.2010 ribbon magnet says 'support my balls'

7.21.2010 pH the old fashion way

6.14.2010 very sick inga. very sad dogmom. spent most of the night and next 72 hrs in e-care.


6.6.2010 bubbles with c.

6.6.2010 house shopping east side around chestnut

phone dump

3.5.2010 bday flowers from mum and c. skinnycat included for scale

2.10.2010 i try not to think of campanella white

1.2.2010 learning to biscuit



12.30.2009 quirk inspects cheap broken house

12.27.2009 the grey menace

best clippers ever

for those of you who have coveted my nail clippers

unstuck

#1 buyer came unstuck 4/9. with a fairly lame excuse about location too far from her work. i don't think you put a house under contract without thinking location through.

being the sucker that i am, i had waived earnest money. she was clearly strapped for cash, single mom. as a courtesy i did, hoping the great score keeper in the ether would return good karma to me.

so i lost a weekend of showings with it 'pending' on her whim. and got paid $150.

option periods are a bad idea. it puts the seller at the mercy of flaky lookers. they don't have to commit. they can tie up multiple properties and take 7 - 10 days to walk away without consequence. maybe they lose their earnest and option monies.

when i bought the schoolhouse, i optioned for 4 days, only because a weekend was involved. and added "or sooner" to the contract. all i needed was the inspection to come back saying it wasn't falling down. i was committed from the minute i made the offer.

wish we had canada's laws. they don't let buyers play house like this.

poker

house listed 3/29 near midnight. 2 offers came in back to back. personally i preferred #1, financially i preferred #2.

#2 fell through. #1 signed 4/5. i don't like poker. here's hoping it sticks.

for sale

http://www.toursmith.com/Property.asp?id=2478&f=4163

monthly special

hand injury club

reviewed

schoolhouse reviewed , lauren tells me at home depot last weekend

tour

virtual tour while it lasts

bell house

blasted plumbing

schoolhouse bathroom is a hack job. escutcheons missing, loose, not caulked. spigot piped through the overflow opening. no overflow. shower diverter seized from calcium deposits. stuck in shower mode. single knob mixer doesn't control volume, just full on. pressure is enough to peel skin off and splash water to the 11 foot ceiling.

then something changed. pressure went to a drip. time to excavate.
cartridge valve check. bad gasket check.
put back together. next try to unsieze diverter.

cookie sheets, pot lid come in handy to shield work area. wet towel might help.

get it hot and smack it around, brace the unsecured copper pipe.

ta-da. bathtime.

project for another day. the aqua tile is gorgeous. iridescent. broken bits make me sad. pinwheel tile on the floor is in great shape. needs a zep treatment to bring back the white grout.

this was all a temporary fix just to use the shower. the surround is cracked, offset, separating. not salvagable.

shower surround will be gutted, galvanized pipe replaced with copper, overflow installed, and proper hardware installed. keeping the tub, floor tile, and the tile wainscot in the rest of the room. have to somehow cut a clean stopping point in the wainscot and match the mud set depth. we'll see.

plas-teek

remember that cold snap?

thermostat set to 55, furnace won't cycle off. outside temp 20s and dropping. inside temp 50s and dropping. panic ensues.

5 stores later, found a space heater at costco. saved 50 bucks compliments of alvin's member card. slept with heater pointed at my head. next day fred helped blow in 12" insulation. he and kim put plastic over windows. maintained house at chilly 55.

warm weather arrived. pulled plastic down. pried staples from 100 year old trim wood. 1 staple nailed every 3-5 inches on 80"h x 120"w windows = a patch and paint project for another time.

cat included for scale.

snowday

not her first snow, but her first at the schoolhouse.


she doesn't even notice the cold.

schoolhouse

100 yr old school house moved from elgin, tx in 1990s. that's all i know for now.


the listing pics.




i moved 1/28. i think. it's all a blur. thanks leigh, fred, earnest.

i've already broken some plumbing and had a furnace panic. there's a lifetime of projects here.

wings

it was like poltergeist but with cat not tennis ball.
she finally made the fall. unintentional i think. bounced off the sofa onto the rug. even she was surprised.

screwston

tempted to pay a visit next time in houston.

hidden arrow

the arabic fedex logo manages to keep the embedded arrow, but it points the other way.