What's Going on Here?

So, its been over a year since I've posted and just about the same since we touched anything on the house. 

Our careers and extracurricular activities have kept us pretty busy.  But 2010 is here and we're newly motivated. 

My grandmother always used to say "S**t or get off the pot"

And since Miles here has graciously decided to leave us a bit of toilet paper, albeit finely shredded, we're going to ....um....stay on the pot and keep blogging. 

I'm looking around for a new template in order to freshen up the site an make it less clunky.  As soon as I get that arranged, we'll be back on the air.  Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Let Me Tell You Why I Suck at Blogging

I've clearly fallen off the blog bandwagon. Don't worry, there's lots to report. I'm just keeping busy trying to save the neighborhood.

So in honor of all of you, this photo is for me.

Ladies & Gentleman....The Doors!

Okay so I know I'm really behind....we've been busy. More on that later.

I wanted to share that we found a suitable salvage door at a nearby salvage shop, White River Salvage

The door we're replacing is this monstrosity.



We wanted something that was similar to the original back door off our kitchen. Here's a photo.

Say hello Miles. Hello Miles!



And here's the one we picked out.



Very close...except without the dividers in the glass. We opted for this one because there is a three pane transom above the door and the wife couldn't handle it if the transom was three panes across and the door was two. Sheesh!

And, we're changing the door around so the door opens inward and we're adding a full-view screen/glass door for the exterior.

So Miles can look out the window.

Oh That's Sweet......A Hugger Tree

Well with all the bad storms we've been getting in Indianapolis lately, we knew we'd somehow be affected.

We didn't have to worry about flooding because our house is up on a small hill. So if our house ever floods, well then there's a lot of people that are really going to be screwed.

And since we're on a hill, I have this fear that one day our house will be struck by lightning. Well, not this time.

So what does that leave? Oh yes. The wind.

Well Monday's wind apparently scared one of our maple trees so bad that the thing decided to grab on to our house to keep from blowing away.





The problem is that he stretched just a wee bit to far and broke himself. Now we've got half a tree stuck to our house and a few hundred dollars worth of damage to our new roof.

Plus, we're going to need to have call a tree guy to get in here and remove this thing.

Spectacular! Mother nature can be a real bitch sometimes.


***UPDATE***
$300 to take the branch off the roof and basically butcher what's left of the tree so the other damaged portions don't fall on it too.

Next up is the estimate for the roof damage. Hopefully it won't be too awful.

Hmmm....wondering if I can apply for a FEMA grant to help pay for the damage....

Oh Nothing Major....Just a Small Fire

So the other week while the painters were priming the back of the house, they bumped the conduit that houses the (dated) electrical wires for the motion detector light.

Apparently this severed the lines and shot sparks up the side of the house which then lit the side of the house on fire.

Nothing major. Right? Hey does wood burn? Oh....oh my God! Holy Crap!

Actually it really wasn't bad. It just lit some of the paper under the shingles on fire. Luckily they were around when it happened. And it was promptly extinguished.

So this past weekend....the light you see in this photo....was permanently removed. Because hey, I'm not really into burning my house down. Not yet anyway...I'm close.



That removal process itself is worth a post of it's own as 6 foot 4 Brian had to fit his entire body into a crawl space the size of a coffee table to reach the wiring for that light.

I'm Flattered

So I installed this little software thingy called Sitemeter on my page. It tracks your blog visitors so you can see how many people are reading your blog.

It also shows you the pages that referred visitors to your site. Anyway, I happened to notice that I was receiving a few visitors from a website called The Arts & Crafts Society. When I clicked on the link to investigate I found the following:

Blog of the Month

Read about the trials of restoring a Stickley bungalow at Damn You, Stickley Bungalow!. The house is spectacular.

Wow! Really? I'm honored. Thank you!

Welcome to those that have joined us from The Arts & Crafts Society. Feel free to look around and kick the tires a bit.

My home blog is your home blog.....or something like that.

Thanks for the Help.....You Jerks

It's so great living in a neighborhood where everyone helps each other out with their home remodeling projects.

Just last week some friendly neighborhood folk decided that they'd like to help us paint our house.

Unfortunately, their method, while unique, would take just a wee bit longer than the old brush and roller method.






And yellow isn't really part of our paint scheme.

But thanks for the offer.