New Roofs, No Pavers Required
Regular readers know the wind up here does not mess around. In the winter of 2023–24, one of our typical storms brought hurricane-force winds that…
Category: Projects
In the Trench, Part 3
After the trench was dug and filled back in, we could fill the well tank only by flipping the breaker in the garage to turn…
In the Trench, Part 2
Carrying on from the last post, in early 2023 we needed to fix the run between the wellhead and tank. Because we live halfway up…
In the Trench, Part 1
Cue the Time Machine music… Way back in December of 2022 we discovered an issue with our well. The float mechanism inside the tank was…
Long Road to Streaming Automation
Back in spring 2020 I started messing about with PoE, RTSP-capable cameras. I set up a livestream scheduled to push a feed up to YouTube…
New Doors Acquired
Since buying this place, one of the tiny, yet annoying, issues was the large gap between the front doors. The gap was unsightly, but more…
Changing Colors for Better Sleep
We cannot remodel the master bathroom because of the Santa Clara County Department of Planning’s inability to do its job in a timely fashion. This…
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…
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,…
Once more under the house we go…
Longtime readers will remember that when we bought this place, the crawlspace was a very tight space. The huge ducts for the old diesel furnaces…
Tiling Success
A few years back, I started researching if it would be possible to get matching tiles made for the great room. I found the original…
Shed Video
Here’s a walkthrough video of the new shed in all its glory!
Shed Blinds and the Door
Still not quite done documenting the lovely new garden shed–bear with me for just two more posts. The door was looking a bit scruffy, so…
Final Shed Bits: All Moved In
At the start of January, the new garden shed was finally open for business. Over the last year, so much planning had gone into how…
Cladding a Shed
In January we completed the last bit of work on the new garden shed. If you read the earlier post, you know we didn’t have…
Painted Shed
Once I got back from the epic trip to Ohio, I arranged with our favorite painter to see to the new structure. (Let’s be honest…
Constructed Shed
Carrying on from the previous post, the crew made great progress and in two days the shed was almost constructed. A few additional deviations from…
Delayed Construction
As mentioned a few posts back, we found some plans for the type of shed I wanted on a website called iCreatables. The plans included…
Shed Pad Time
Once the new plumbing and electrical were in place, it was time to get our concrete contractor back to fill in the channels he’d cut…
New Wires
After the plumbing for the new shed was done, we had to take a small break from construction because there was a HUGE fire raging…
Pretty Pipes
Once the concrete bits were removed, I called in our favorite plumbing outfit and explained what I wanted done. First shot below is the “drawing”…
We abhor “We Love Paving”
And here’s an unscheduled/bonus post detailing why… Every few years we need to reseal our long-ass driveway. Since I’m in the middle of plotting how…
Weird Outdoor Closet Demolition
Continuing on with the shed story…way, way back at the start of the pandemic, Agent Smith wanted to destroy something, so I got to work…
A Girl Needs a Shed
We try not to clutter up the house. While both my and Agent Smith’s offices are full of all sorts of useful things, we try…
Emergency Exit
The long twisty road that winds up to our little patch services about 50 residences; it’s actually three roads and all of them are “private.”…
Living “Private”
When we bought this place in 2015 we really didn’t understand what the term “private road” meant. Now we do. A “private road” means that…
The Lesser Wall of Purgatory: Part 3
Once the concrete cured, we had a wall, but just a wall. The area between it and the pool coping was still unfinished. The drainage…
The Lesser Wall of Purgatory: Part 2
Carrying on from the last post, we needed a small retaining wall to help tidy up the area along the south edge of the pool.…
The Lesser Wall of Purgatory: Part 1
Back in 2016 we rebuilt the Great Wall of Purgatory. It was a very arduous project that took months. You can read the full tale…