Big Glass
An annoying thing that exists since we first looked at the house were the seal failures on all the large downstairs windows of the great…
Category: Projects
Garage Lighting
In June 2018, when we rented a scissor lift and installed new glass in three of the courtyard lights, we completed another big project: Agent…
Courtyard Lighting Revamp
The last post covered replacing the glass in three of the courtyard lights in June 2018. We held off replacing the glass in the remaining…
Plastic is bad, mmmkay?
We took a break from furnace replacement projects to address an annoying outdoor issue. We have these incredibly lovely old street lights that reside on…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 7 (Dénouement)
After a full seven days of very hard work, the Ventwerx crew were finally done with demolishing our old furnaces and getting our new Fujitsu…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 6 (The Small Gotchas and the Studio)
In addition to the uncovered drainpipe mentioned previously, there were two small gotchas. Originally the Ventwerx guy thought they’d be able to install both inverters/fan…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 5 (Opening the Walls and Making Piles)
While the crew under the house continued to remove the old ductwork, a couple of other Ventwerx guys got to work opening up the walls…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 4 (What Was Left)
Once everything was out from under the house, we were left with a few relics. The return and supply ducts at the crawl space look…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 3 (Demolition)
There was a lot of upheaval when we replaced our furnaces, as we the crew was here for over a week, and furniture had to…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 2
Beneath most of the house is a crawlspace with a poured concrete floor. There are three access points to get under the house–in the guest…
Getting Off the Diesel, Part 1
In May 2018, we started the very large project of decommissioning our twin diesel furnaces. Even though we had nursed them through two winters, cleaned…
Birdhouses of Purgatory
Finally, a story I’ve been wanting to tell for ages, but forced myself to get through the backlog of other stuff first. One of the…
Lost Wall Videos, Part 2
As part of the digital tidying-up project, I’ve been plodding along the last few weeks. I sat down at my computer and sifted through a…
Lost Wall Videos, Part 1
Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy putting up another website to house all the various noteworthy images I’ve taken over the years. Since…
And On the 15th Day, There Were Gutters
After getting the fascia rot issues sorted in January 2018, we were all set to put gutters on the house–something that hadn’t been done since…
Yet More New Fencing
Originally the fencing at the main gate and along the road to the parcels past Purgatory was made of wood and painted white. While pretty in…
The North Garden Now-ish
It’s now been over a year since the garden area outside my office was “finished.” Sure, I’ve added a few more bottle bushes and birdfeeders,…
Filling in the North Garden
Continuing a story I started well over a year ago, the garden space outside my office was finally planted at the end of 2017. That’s…
Exterior Repairs Prior to…Gutters!
In January 2017, we had to address the fascia, as we knew when we bought the place there were pockets of dry rot. We wanted…
Replacing the Second Water Heater
In December 2017, we had the second water heater replaced. Our house has two water heaters: one for the north end of the house for…
Last Studio Details: Blinds and Curtains
Continuing on from the last two posts–as part of the studio renovation, we ordered remote-control motorized blinds via Blinds.com and matching drapes. Installing the blinds…
Studio Painting
Before lights and rugs and blinds were installed in the studio building, we had our regular painter come and give the space some love. I…
Sealing and Lighting the Studio
The long, drawn-out saga of the studio building has taken longer to write about than the actual work took to complete! Past posts detailed the…
Fast Kitchen Makeovers, Part 3
One last recent kitchen addition was so simple, I installed it myself the same day Agent Smith and his father took apart and cleaned the…
Fast Kitchen Makeovers, Part 2
The last post covered the simple fan controller changes we did in the kitchen, which got me thinking about the powers of Amazon and the…
Fast Kitchen Makeovers, Part 1
The previous owners of the house had rather questionable design taste, evidenced by the kitchen and bathroom remodels they completed prior to relisting the property.…
The North Garden Takes Shape
Once a few deliveries of topsoil arrived, I set about spreading the dirt with Giggles. Video of some of the work streamed live on Google.
Finishing Touches in the North Office
Continued from the last post–after repainting my office space, work still had to be done. I decided to repaint the rather tired wooden blinds that…
Office Recoloring
When we bought this place, just about every room was painted the same blah, light poop-brown. My office was no exception. Below are what it…
Bathtub Gardening
Once the great cleanup was done and the bulk of the rubbish left by the previous owners removed from Purgatory, I went about collecting bathtubs.…
Upstairs in the Studio
Returning to the Studio renovation saga–things limped along for quite a while last winter, but once the windows were in place we were able to…
The Clouds and the Pool (video)
Back in the spring of 2017, we resurfaced the pool (you can read the first post in that saga here). Well, one of the video…