The Cross House

            Cody embarked upon his 10-hour drive around 6PM. With two VERY unhappy kitties. I heard them shrieking in our telephone call. I urged that he check into a motel around 10PM but he might push through. Ahhh, to be so young and crazy again! So, on Saturday (drum roll,…

                          Friday is gonna be intense. There will be soooooo much to do to help assure a soft landing for an exhausted Cody. Clean sheets on a temporary bed! A shower curtain! Some more doors! Toilet paper! A bar of soap! More grout!…

  Huh? I had to get Scott’s help to remove it, and this was only obtained by CUTTING through the long bolts. My guess is that some previous person occupying the bedroom was convinced that angry and ferocious demons lived in the plenum and so no effort was spared to help, if possible, with a…

  THE GOOD NEWS         THE BAD NEWS     THE VERY BAD NEWS      

Recently, I posted about a problem I was having with my first-ever actual plastering, using Structo–Lite® basecoat plaster by USG. Glenn wrote in and suggested I call the company. An actual human answered on like the fifth ring, AND confirmed that they could help after I explained the issue. Golly. It seemed like 1955! An actual…

8:50AM I read an email from Cody. He found a cool sink on Facebook Marketplace for $10. In Emporia. Oh. My. A 1932 American Standard with original legs and all-important mounting bracket. I wrote the seller, STAT. He still had it.     9:45AM     11:30AM     I love love love how the…

The carriage house has not had water since I purchased the property in 2014. No place to wash hands. No place to pee. Dry. And today?     SQUEE! SQUEE! SQUEE! OMG, to have water! All the plumbing is new, a combination of PVC, CPVC, and Pex. It is all very neatly done. Which delights…

So, I’m doing the final mud coat to the removed second entry door of the Secret Bedroom in the carriage house. To assure that my mudding is near perfect, I plugged in a 1,000W work light. Oh. My. While my mudding did, indeed, look pretty good, the other walls in the room suddenly looked a…

So, as y’all know, Ross finally braved doing a plaster scratch coat. Just a bit. Now, a week on, when I brush the scratch coat with my hand, it easily becomes loose and sand-sized particles fall to the floor. Is this normal?    

Y’all are probably wondering: What the hell happened to the new faux bois finish on the stairhall niche arch? Was Suzi kidnapped by aliens and unable to finish? Well…no. Suzi was…OK about the new finish. Then she said: “I think you can actually do better.” I gulped. She made up two jars of paint, and…

  However…I had matching flooring stuck in the garage. It is from the circa-1921 front porch, which I removed in 2014. Then I stored its flooring away. The Other Justin though hates working with old flooring, as the tongues and grooves are normally all junked up. So, we made a deal. If I cleaned up…

When I have to do something I have never done before, I procrastinate. I imagine the task to be massively difficult. And I know, just know, that I will screw things up. And, even though now at 64-years-old, and having learned countless times that what I imagine, and what will prove the reality, will have nothing…

    The faux bois finish faced the bedroom. The shellac finish faced the hall. What will the other bedrooms reveal?