Welcome

Aloha! Since this is the first post, I should mention that I bought an old (1910) townhome in DC and am going through home improvement hell. I am thinking of starting a blog on it would be a good way to vent my frustations since breaking holes in my newly finished walls would cause more stress than it relieved. I was thinking of calling my blog “the Home Improvement Ninja”. Ninja doesn’t really refer to stealth, but more to the realization that I do my best work in the dead of night with tools that look deceptively simple but are deadly when I wield them…mostly due to my incompetence with them. I figure I could post pictures of my progress and interesting anecdotes about my numerous floods and the hilarity that ensues. Maybe I’ll throw in some pith too. Pith is key!

About the place. It's, I guess, described as a Victorian. It's got two upper floors, an english basement and a subbasement. (I'll describe what I'm currently working on in future posts.). Basically, the house has been gutted down to the studs and is being rebuilt from there by moi. THe previous owners lived there for 30 years and did almost nothing to improve the place. What little they did do seems to have mad the place worse. The fact that they liked the old-lady walpaper and rugs shows that they are either clueless, or that their taste was so poor in that in that area of DC that such things are not only acceptable, but actually chic. It looks like Frank Lloyd Wright and Kafka had a love child who went mad from watching too many Trading Spaces episodes episodes and had a breakdown in their living room. Luuuuuuuv that textured ceiling with the smoke stains.