There have been times when the sting of having almost nothing tangible from my parents has hurt. Thousands of photos, my father’s desk, my great-grandmother’s rocker, my grandmother’s baptismal certificate—who knows on what breeze they’ve blown off and where they landed. They are decorations somewhere, divorced from their history. Nevertheless, some boxes with my name […]
Actually, God’s been the pilot the last four months and I’ve just been along for the ride. If it had been the other way around, I’d have lost my mind. Mostly, my responsibility has been to show up every day and to do the work in front of me. Rehabbing a house is a cooperative […]
I had intended to show this house with artwork on the walls, but as a buyer I would far prefer flawless wall surfaces to beautiful staging. Today a truckload of our stuff is heading to Maine. Much of this is painting inventory. The contents of this house have diminished and concentrated as we’ve finished room […]
My back has been giving me grief for months. The best cure for a bad back is to walk for miles and miles, but I simply haven’t had time to keep to my usual schedule. Finally, I had enough of it and saw my doctor. He ignored my bleating that I just needed pain-killers and […]
There are some items which are very useful but which you can’t pass along to thrift stores—cedar shakes, Tyvek house wrap, steel shelving, etc. I could pack some of this up and take it to Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, but frankly, I like the informal recycling system in our neighborhood better. Our trash day is […]
It’s time for a brief update on my home-repair project. It seemed to me like I’ve been treading water. These pictures make me realize I have made progress.
My mother had a garden of several acres. Being sent out to weed a single row seemed like a life sentence. The plants stretched out to eternity. Knowing I wasn’t free until it was done was the worst feeling in the world. That was before my brother and sister died in separate accidents four years apart. Then […]
Most everything I know about home repair, I learned from my parents. It’s not that they set out to teach me, mind you. It’s just that those were the days when parents had no qualms about enlisting their children as free labor. “Hold this,” “Get me that pipe wrench,” “Mix this while I run over and buy more […]
The other day I was complaining to my pal Barbara that I was having trouble reaching a high spot. “I hope you are getting those tall men in your house to help you with your painting, she replied. I stared at her in horror (totally wasted, because we were IMing over Facebook). “I would never […]
I am in Rochester staging a 1928 Tudor house for resale. This is a craft project and my success or failure means a great deal to my pocketbook. The beginning of the week involved a lot of slippage as I struggled to get organized. Yesterday was the first day I found traction, even though the […]
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