Prettified Table Lamps
Almost two years ago, when I was off in Ohio helping tidy up my parents’ basement, I set aside a few things to have shipped…
Author: stega
Time for a Crafty Post
While waiting for some of the larger projects to percolate, I try to stay busy with a variety of crafty projects. Some of them warrant…
Courtyard Landscaping, Before and After
Now that we have lived with the new foliage and pavers on the courtyard side of the house for six months, we’re pretty happy with…
Stage One Landscaping Completed
Continuing from the previous post–once the demo work was done, the crew laid in some drain pipe, while avoiding the existing electrical runs out to…
Landscaping in Stages
We finally started to make headway on revamping the tired landscaping surrounding the house; we refer to the area as the “house garden(s).” Just about…
A Bit More Outdoor Art
Last summer, a local auction house had a few interesting pieces going up on the block. I refrained from bidding on any of the many…
Another Eagle Landed
A mini-story. Back when I first started buying stuff from auction houses, I found a gorgeous steel wall sculpture. It went for more than I…
Even More Auction Finds
I’ve continued to find bits and bobs from auction houses for the house. Over the last year I picked up some great bargains. Like this…
We Forgot About Manny!
Way, way back in August of 2019, we bought another bit of kit. This time we picked up a man-lift from United Rentals. While it’s…
Softener Drips
This is an incredibly mundane story–dare I even say, boring. In late 2021 some of the plumbing junctions for the water softener got very leaky.…
There Be Race Cars, Part Seven: The Rustang
The race team that works out of Purgatory is named Bernal Dads Racing. Most of the racers are indeed dads and most originally lived in…
New Trailer
In addition to the Radical mentioned a while back, we also took ownership of a big enclosed trailer during the pandemic. We bought a small…
Round Table Tale
Early last year I found an interesting auction listing at a house in Connecticut with whom I’d done business in the past. When the item…
Other People’s Houses
When we get a dumpster in, we offer any remaining space to neighbors once our stuff has been packed in. Among the bits and pieces…
Another use for that fabric…
(For those who haven’t been following along, back in 2015 when we had initial inspections as part of the escrow process, we discovered the baffle…
More Custom Pillows
The lovely vintage couch I picked up at auction for the Great Room was a bit plain, but I had some leftover fabric I had…
Final Bus Footage
When writing the earlier post about The Bus, I came across a few short videos of its final journey. I assembled them into a quick…
There Be Race Cars, Part Six: The Radical
At the start of the crazy pandemic, Agent Smith picked up an interesting little track car, an older model Radical. He built a rolling stand…
Every July the Valley Explodes
With the exception of “safe and sane” fireworks allowed in some counties and localities, it’s illegal in California to set off fireworks. Big shows sponsored…
There Be Race Cars, Part Five: Pegamoose (BDR6)
When the Bus was totaled up at Sonoma in 2018, the team set about building a new car. They wanted to keep to the same…
Finishing the New Story
Once the basics were done and the new mezzanine was in place, a few extra touches were needed–namely some sort of railing needed to be…
Second Story in the Garage
One of the primary reasons we bought this place (now over eight years ago!) was the ginormous garage. In two years of looking at houses,…
Signage for Idiot Drivers
We often get people who are lost up here. Because the road clearly splits at our driveway with the left side going up to the…
More Signs to See
Last August a friend surprised us with something he found on eBay. It was a sign of true epicness. We knew where we wanted to…
Found on Auction
Longtime readers to this site know that much of the furniture (especially in the great room) was picked up from local auction houses. Now that…
Humans and Screen Doors
It’s not only birds that unwittingly run into glass here–humans sometimes fail to notice screen doors. This is a particular problem in Agent Smith’s office.…
Birds and Windows: Reduxed Redux
In the years since buying this crazy house, I’ve worked to curb the number of bird window strikes, as with over 100 external panes of…
Wild Life Part 8: Vultures
This last post about the wildlife here got waylaid in the bowels of WordPress, but that said… We have lots of turkey vultures here in…