House in Progress Diary

How about "People are Strange" by The Doors or
"Too Much Time on My Hands" by Styx

There's an old Phil Collins song off Face Value called "The Roof is Leaking" ("-and the wind is howling/ kids are crying 'cos their sheets are so cold/I woke this morning found my hands were frozen/I tried to fix the fire, but you know the damn thing's too old").
No one's ever heard of it because its so depressing.

"If I had a Hammer"

My own experience includes "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore"

How about the Indigo Girls, "Hammer and a Nail"---the refrain always plays in my head when I'm doing something handy...

I gotta get out of bed
Get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head
I think myself in a jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand
And a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth
If you want a rose

Ain't a gonna need this house no longer----Rosemary Clooney

Ooh, I second the Indigo Girls. I love belting that one out while driving. :)

How about "Ghost in This House" by Alison Krauss and Union Station? A story of emptiness and heartbreak, it's not exactly full of holiday cheer.

I don't pick up the mail
I don't pick up the phone
I don't answer the door
I'd just as soon be alone
I don't keep this place up
I just keep the lights down
I don't live in these rooms
I just rattle around

Kristen, I think we have the same taste in music---I love that song, too!

The rest of the song is cruddy and not really related to houses, but I find that singing the chorus of "Fire Water Burn" (by the Bloodhound Gang) especially therapeutic when things break.

The roof
The roof
The roof is on fire
We don't need no water
Let the ************ burn

Um, its pretty depressing for a holiday home album, I suppose! :-)

Yet another Talking Heads tune: "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" I like Shawn Colvin's cover version--it always puts things in perspective as to what is important when I sometimes lose my way....

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me round
I feel numb, born with a weak heart
Guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
Its ok I know nothing’s wrong…nothing

Hi-o I got plenty of time
Hi-o you got light in your eyes
And you are standing here beside me
I love the passing of time
Never for money
Always for love
Cover up and say goodnight…say goodnight

Home is where I want to be
But I guess I’m already there
I come home she lifted up her wings
Guess this must be the place
I can’t tell one from another
Did I find you, or you find me?
There was a time before we were born
If someone asks, this where I’ll be…where I’ll be

Hi-o we drift in and out
Hi-o sing into my mouth
Out of all those kinds of people
You have a face with a view
I’m just an animal looking for a home we
Share the same space for a minute or two
And you love me until my heart stops
Love me till I’m dead
Eyes that light up, eyes look through you
Cover up the blank spots
Hit me on the head I go oooooooh

Beatles:
Maxell's Silver Hammer,
or:
she came in through the bathroom window,
or of course:
Fixing a hole where the rain gets in

SD

So, are you looking for "holiday" songs about houses or general songs about houses to put on a holiday CD? If the former, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help. Heh. Talk about niche.

"This Old House" on Van Lear Rose, the acclaimed new Loretta Lynn/Jack White album:

If this old house could talk
what a story it would tell
we built this home together
and with love we drove each nail
take me in your arms and hold me
cause we've been apart too long
why if this old house could talk
all it would say is welcome home.

(sing it so "tell" and "nail" rhyme)

the house that guilt built, by the Wrens.

Wow. I step away from the site for 24 hours and you people show me that YOU ARE TOO COOL FOR US!!! WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF YOUR COOLNESS!!

But we'll take it anyway :)

Boy. I wish copyright laws weren't what they are right now. Or I wish I was really, really talented and could play a variety of instruments.

Because there is a compilation album that I would love to give to all of you.

(P.S. For the question that was asked earlier, we are looking for "house songs" to put on a CD. It just happens to be close to the holidays. It seemed like a fun thing to have playing in the background while we are hammering and sawing.)

All these Talking Heads songs are making me nostalgic...here's "Big Country," my favorite Heads song from my oh-so-avante-garde youth, and though it doesn't have anything to do with fixer uppers, it still resonates when I think of the McMansion communities that seem to be spreading like crabgrass and kudzu all over the countryside. http://www.lyricsondemand.com/t/talkingheadslyrics/bigcountrylyrics.html This could be the anthem of all urban neighborhood dwellers!

What about Our House from Madness. The name of sone and the name of the band say it all.

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our ...

Our house it has a crowd
There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed

It may read like a downer, but it's a good upbeat country-rock foot-tapper! Hoyt Axton's great for singing along to on road trips - oh wait, we don't do road trips anymore, there's too much stuff to do around the house!

Hoyt Axton, Boney Fingers

See the rain comin' down and the roof won't hold 'er
Lost my job and I feel a little older
Car won't run and our love's grown colder
But maybe things'll get a little better, in the mornin'
Maybe things'll get a little better.

Oh! the clothes need washin' and the fire won't start
Kids all cryin' and you're breakin' my heart
Whole darn place is fallin' apart
Maybe things'll get a little better, in the mornin'
Maybe things'll get a little better.

Refrain:
Work your fingers to the bone - whadda ya get?
( Whoo-whoo ) Boney Fingers - Boney Fing-gers.

Yea! I've been broke as long as I remember
Get a little money and I gotta run and spend 'er
When I try to save it, pretty woman come and take it
Sayin' maybe things'll get a little better, in the mornin'
Maybe things'll get a little better.

Refrain:

Yea! the grass won't grow and the sun's too hot
The whole darn world is goin' to pot
Might as well like it 'cause you're all that I've got
But, maybe things'll get a little better, in the mornin'
Maybe things'll get a little better.

Refrain:

How about the bluegrass gospel song "Working on the Building"? Or maybe the Dixie Chicks' "A Home":

Not a night goes by/That i don't dream of wandering/Through the home that might have been/i listened to my pride/When my heart cried out for you/Now every day i wake again/In the house that might have been/A home

It's from the CD also called "Home".