Free Plug

A friend of mine recently temporarilly gave up the rat race to live for a while in Brazil. You can read about his exploits (including getting items stolen from him on the beach, and accidentally crashing a party of strippers and hookers) on his blog HERE.

No Good Deed...

I donated a bunch of stuff to Community Forklift, a non-profit that takes home building stuff and sells it, using the money for charity. Sort of like the Home Depot meets the Salvation Army. I figured, (1)I could probably use the tax deduction next year, (2) I could definitely use the space, and (3) it's a lot less stressful than trying to sell it on Craigslist and dealing with the flakes there.

Among the stuff I donated were a huge antique buffet thing, a refrigerator, and the vanity that I replaced with a smaller one.

I guess the move didn't go so well, apparently when they came to pick up the stuff (I wasn't there, but my Dad told me what happened), they broke the bottom of the vanity and left what's left of the cabinet in front of my house. They broke the drawer on the buffet/bar thing and were going to leave the drawer there also until my Dad convinced them to take it because no one would buy it without it (they left the skeleton key, so that's not great either), broke the door on the fridge trying to get it out, and took the utility sink, but forgot the legs.

I'm putting pics below in case I lose my camera and need the pics for the IRS, so that I'll be able to find it. Anyway, It really bugs me when someone is so haphazard and incompetent at their jobs. If you suck at moving furniture, maybe you should take some night classes and learn how to make coffee and become a barista. Or run for congress, you don't need to do heavy lifting or thinking for that.

More Pics

I wish I had a pic of the old sliding door with iron security bars that was in the kitchen before, but I forgot to take a picture of the craptasticness before it was taken out. This door was REALLY difficult to install because when the door was taken out, we found out that the wood on the bottom was rotted and the previous door (like the window in the kitchen) had no header installed. After the rotted wood was replaced, and a header was installed, this went it, but it ended up being an all (long) day project instead of a 2-3 hour project.







But it was worth it.









If you thought the stairs upstairs looked silence of the lambsy, you should see what the basement stairs looked like. (more pics to follow).











Any ideas what to do with my front "yard"?

I thought we were in a recession?

So the guy who was supposed to come on monday to clean out the debris/trash in my driveway flaked on me. I called and left a message, but no reply. I feel like the ugly chick with mono who gets stood up for the prom and has to stay home and watch American Idol with her mom and annoying little brother. Okay, maybe not like that, but you get the picture.

They came about a year or two ago and removed a lot more stuff than I have now in my driveway, so I thought it was lucky of me that I still had the business card. I figured with the recession and lack of homebuiliding now that it someone would want to paid actual US Dollars to do actual work. Oh well. I guess I'll have to go on Craigslist and try to find someone else to do it.

I hate looking at that pile of debris in my driveway, but at least the feral cats will keep the mice away, and the pieces of lumber will be like a ghetto scratch post for them.

New Stairs!

So the hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs looked nice, but the stairs that connected them looked like crap. I thought about refinishing the stairs, but decided on having them done over, which cost a lot more money, but ended up looking nicer, I think.






Before Pic Number 1: this is the transition from upstairs to the stairs.







Here's what the stairs looked liked from downstairs. There's a fine line between "shabby chic" and "silence of the lambs" and these stairs were on the wrong side of the line.









Here's a pic of the stairs in progress. It's missing the part you step on, which makes it not yet a staircase.











Here's what it looked like when the stairs were in, but before it was stained and painted.











I went to a paintstore so they could get the stain to make the pine stairs look like the oak floors downstairs. Preety good match, I think.







Stained, painted and drying













FINISHED!

What Progress Looks Like

There's been a lot of progress going on at my place over the last few weeks. I'll post some pics of the finished projects soon, but in the meantime, I'll show you the debris that was created in the process.

This is what the driveway in the back of the ninja fortress looks like (for now). Someone will be coming on Monday to get rid of it all, but in the meantime the feral cats in my alley will keep the mice from taking hold there and the protuding nails will hopefully keep the burglars away.