House in Progress Diary

Is this renovating? Or dating?

The cable person stood me up today.

I feel like I am dating again.

I thought A and I were safely tucked away within the bonds of matrimony and suddenly we've been thrust into the front lines of THE HOME REPAIR GAME because we have bought a fixer-upper. Waiting by the phone? Yes. Wondering if they'll like you enough to come back? Yes. Moping around until you hear from them? Yes.

I'm in high school all over again. I'm scanning the "Ask Norm" column in This Old House magazine as feverishly as I used to scan the "Dating Tips" column in Seventeen Magazine.

So, we did a lot of stuff ourselves this past weekend while pretending like we didn't care that the most POPULAR contractors were spending time with OTHER clients. Probably cheerleader clients.

We took the garage from WORSE than this (click on the picture for a close-up):

To BETTER than THIS:

Raising our hopes (oh please please please!) for a garage/yard/basement sale in September. That's right, you heard it here first...GARAGE SALE IN SEPTEMBER. Of 2003 even! Probably the 2nd or 3rd weekend. Bring the kids. Unless you need the room for the amazing STUFF you'll get. eBay auctions for a few choice items will begin that same weekend...more later.

We dragged this little beauty from the garage to the upstairs bathroom to temporarily solve our ventilation problem near the shower...

Aii-yup. (I drawl, as I hook my thumbs in my suspenders and rock back on my heels.) That there is a gen-u-ine Berns "Air King" RE-versible window fan. Just a touch of the lever on the top and the whole fan unit inside that grill flips over to blow air in the other direction. 'a course, we've got it facing OUT so that the moist air from the shower doesn't wreck the "bedroom-turned-bathroom in 1951" anymore than it is already wrecked. No plastic? Art deco styling? I'm guessing the fan is from the 1930's or 1940's...

Ah, the GOOD life. With modern technology....

Posted by jeanne on July 31, 2003 at 9:08 PM (1)