Filed under: the neighborhood
Here’s a shot of the neighborhood as we/they were setting up for the annual block party. Unfortunately I had to get on a plane soon after this picture was taken, but I heard the kids had a great time.
It really is a nice, friendly neighborhood. If we could just get rid of the half-dozen or so drunks who seem to hang around nearby, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, our street is between some really run down areas, and a store that sells fortified wine. So we get more than our fair share of alcoholics walking down the street.
But hey, that’s what keeps the neighborhood affordable. Our house in Hyde Park would’ve cost us 100 grand more.
Filed under: Architectural stuff
We had a decorative fence installed in the front of the house. I think it will look really nice when we landscape out there next Spring. We plan on some roses and lavender and other stuff that will grow well in the direct sun. Also it’s great if we want to sit on the front porch and keep various puppies and children under the age of 3 from running down the street.
Notice the front door is stained…but not polyurethane-d yet… Also, looking at these pictures makes me think we really need shutters on the second floor.
Filed under: the neighborhood
I know I promised some pictures, and I’ll have them as soon as a room in the house is clean enough to photograph.
But I did want to mention some news. The Columbia Journal is a monthly newsletter sent to everyone in the neighborhood. It used to be updated online here, but it hasn’t been this year. We just got the print version at our house yesterday and it had some really good news about the neighborhood:
First, crime is down in the area by about 25%. This is great news.
Second, the city approved $160,000 for street-scaping on Stanley Avenue between Columbia Parkway and Eastern avenue. For those of you not familiar with the street, that is the section you can see from our front porch. Looks like they’ll be putting in some bricks and trees hopefully in the next year.
…and finally, my favorite bit of news: The Journal said “rumors of a specialty grocery store are well founded”. A grocery store within walking distance would be incredible. I’ve heard rumors about which one as well. The Journal didn’t publish this, but I think it will be a small grocery store that only currently has one location in Cincinnati and its name rhymes with “Trader Schmoes”.
Filed under: excuses
I haven’t abandoned the blog, I just haven’t had much time to update it. Here’s what’s happening. We’ve finally moved and sold our house! That means only one mortgage payment! We are about 90% done, just some odds and ends. The last really big project for me this year is tiling the 3rd floor bathroom. I hope to get to it soon. Brian is finishing up the back deck, I just couldn’t find the time to do it. It looks great by the way. It will be nice to sit out there this fall.
Pictures are on the way, I’ll move the boxes and clutter and start posting interior shots. We’re hoping to do a Housewarming/Halloween party at the end of October.
Here’s the third floor front of the house in February. The framing on the right side of the picture is going to be a full bath
…And here it is today: (more…)
It’s been a solid month since I’ve updated. I’ll have some new pictures shortly.
But until then, let’s talk about some of the day laborers!
The most interesting character is “shirtless Rick”. (more…)
This is what a 100 year old heart pine floor looks like after 2 days of sanding. They should be putting down polyurethane today. This is the second floor office. I finished painting the trim and window in the MB yesterday, all it needs now is a couple of tiles in the shower and some grout, and that room is finished.
This is the walkout from the Master Bedroom. We are deciding on final decking material. We’d like to use some synthetic like Timbertech, but it may be too expensive. If that’s the case, we’ll do hardwood. We won’t put down a pressure-treated floor. Brian used powder coated aluminum spindles for the railing. They can be removed easily to paint the rails, and I think they look great.
The other small project I was working on this weekend is restoring the door hardware. Most of the interior doors have old mortise locks on them. They are in great shape, and just need some cleaning. I also have to find keys to fit, but that shouldn’t be a big problem. Yesterday I removed all of the knobs and escutcheons and started cleaning and repainting them.
I’m also trying to get an estimate on painting the third floor, I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with all of the painting. I’d like to spend some weekends and evenings with the family this summer.
Filed under: interior design
OK, so just the refrigerator is in place (and it isn’t actually plugged in), but the rest are there. We are just waiting on the replacement cabinets so the dishwasher and oven can be put in place. It’s really starting to look like a home. Notice John’s lights. Very cool.
I’m racing Brian to paint all of the rooms before he puts up the trim…and losing. I painted the living room last night. Lisa’s choice was a color called Clove Bud. It looks really cool.
Lisa and the boys came over at about 7 to bring me some dinner. It’s always fun to have the boys come and help. They saw the orange paint and were really excited. They don’t like to paint with white or primer apparently. I gave Max the roller after taking it off the pole, and let him help. Sammy demanded a paint brush. I gave him my really nice 10-dollar nearly new paint brush which he immediately dunked up to his knuckles in the paint bucket…(cringe). I gave him the job of painting the corners, and he did a really good job.
We bought one gallon of the paint since it is expensive and I hate having a bunch of 3/4 filled paint cans around. It covered the entire room, but eventually I’ll probably do a second coat to get a nicer color.
A note about Behr paints. This is Home Depot’s house brand, and it is crap. I’ve never had a good experience using the paint. Years ago we painted our front porch with Behr floor paint. It wore off and peeled up almost immediately. Home Depot was having a huge sale on 2-gallon buckets of Behr ceiling paint. They were about 21 dollars each, that’s about half price. Well either it was stored improperly, was too old, or was just crap because it all had little bits of drying paint in it which meant I had to continually stop to get the bits of the ceiling and wipe them on something to keep the finish smooth. I was using a new roller cover, new paint tray liner and a new freshly opened bucket of paint, properly stirred.
I’ve used Porter, Valspar, Sherwin Williams and Killz and haven’t had any problems with them. Don’t buy Behr paint, you’ll be sorry.
