Author: doug

Our contractor installed the beam allowing removal of the old closet wall today, shown here still surrounded by its temporary supporting walls.  This thing is absolutely enormous in comparison with the 120-year-old lumber surrounding it.

We didn’t get to see the flowers on our cherry tree last year because by the time it was planted, they had already passed.

Our first progress in the building-back-up department: framing for the pantry closet!

That little induction hotplate is actually a pretty reasonable heat source.  Certainly much easier to control than a camp stove.

Our contractor did the major demolition of the old kitchen today.  What may be good news: it looks to me that the house’s original fir floor may be intact under several layers of other flooring material. What may be bad news: my untrained eye wonders if the loose, flaky underlayment below the lowest layer of linoleum could be asbestos.  For both possibilities, only time will tell.

…are outside on the deck, waiting to be put out of their misery.

Lis and I took a walk in Auburndale Park today.  I didn’t bring my wildlife lens because of the threat of rain. So of course, we came across very photogenic and cooperative wood ducks. This was the best shot I could get of them.

It turns out there’s a tropical volcano inside our wall.  I think this project is going to be more involved than I realized.

Homemade whiskey stones, cut by me from soapstone.

Testing out a motion-sensitive webcam in the basement today, I caught one of our plumbers investigating our Samovar