Of Mice and Customer Service

Because sometimes even the most well-intended plans fall apart. A most miraculous thing happened at our house. We saved a little money. Holy crap!! I know!! I told you it was a miracle. So we started to take stock of some things that were dead, or headed that way, because Heaven forbid we should have money sitting around for too long. On the top of the...

An open letter to the traffic on our street:

Specifically those who choose to remove the mufflers from your vehicles. I'm talking to you. You're very proud of the noise you generate. I can tell, because you step on the gas every time you pass our house. This causes our walls to shake, and our windows to rattle, giving the overall impression that our house is about to implode upon itself. It is not...

There's no turning back now.

As if we would have ever considered that! I worked a half day today and then went to Portland. My dermatologist was able to fit me in a week early. I had a bit of freckle removed. For those of you who care, it went smashingly. Whilst I was gone, MacGyver was home making quick work of tearing the rest of the garage down! See? All gone!! And we met...

Panorama

I created a panoramic photo-collage-type image using Windows Live. Brilliant download, by the way.This is my way of making a tribute to this mammoth tree I have both learned to love and loat...

And this, boys and girls, is how we do it

I came home from work today and found MacGyver working on truckload number three of garage debris. Looks like I made it in time for the exciting parts! I like the way the tree looks looking up through the roof of the garage. MacGyver busted out the sawzall to cut the sides of the garage so the front could come off. This next part is the...

Back at it

After El Stinko blew up last week, demo on the garage was temporarily postponed. We were not so easily thwarted. El Stinko was back up and running yesterday and Garage Removal 2009 was back on track. By the time I came home for lunch, MacGyver had already been to the dump once and was working on removing the rest of the roof I think this is a...

For emphasis

This is a video I took a few years ago during a windstorm.I assure you it's much more dramatic than it appears in the vid...

Demolition Day...sort of

Today MacGyver planned to dismantle the garage/lean-to/health hazard/outbuilding that actually decreased the value of our home during the last appraisal. He spent about 2 hours busting out the roof of the garage and loaded up El Stinko (our old '72 Dodge Truck) to go to the dump. Apparently El Stinko had other plans and decided to blow up at precisely...

The Beginning

This will be the first of many (not too many, I hope) posts about our impending backyard transformation. Those of you who have been to our house (or have been within a sixty five mile radius of Tillamook) have seen the absolutely enormous Black Walnut tree growing in our absolutely not enormous backyard. Here are a few pictures of this voluminous deciduous. And...

It's BBQ time!!!

Is it wrong to buy someone a birthday present that also somehow benefits you? Personally, I think those are the best kind of presents. I look at them as investments. Eventually I too will reap the spoils of my efforts! Meet our new BBQ. It was an early birthday present for MacGyver. They were having a great sale that I couldn't pass up. And...

An Open Letter to Termites

Dear Termites, Please go away. Wikipedia informs me that you are a social creatures that work closely together to sustain your colonies. You are considered eusocial (according to the ever-knowing Wikipedia), indicating that you have a system of dividing up labor responsibilities amongst yourselves, you have overlapping generations, and cooperative care of your young. I see we have some things in common, humans and termites. Yes, Termites,...

Testing photo uploading capabilities

I'm providing a gratuitous photo of Linus and Mojo for testing purposes. For those of you who are not acquainted with the schnauzers that share in our remodeling endeavors, Linus is the one on the left. I know he looks ugly. Don't make fun of him, he's sensitive. And it's rude. Mojo is on the right. You can make fun of him. He deserves ...

Joker's wild

It was just brought to my attention from my friend (thank you, Zack) that the Congress Brand playing card we found in the walls is apparently an old manufacturer of playing cards that used very unique pictures on their faces. I did some Internet sleuthing and found out that a deck in nice condition is worth a little bit of money online. Go figure! I think we'll keep our humble little joker wall-ca...

New Bathroom!!!

This is by far the most exciting (and necessary) project we've completed on our house to date. I did a fairly good job of chronicling the processes this time so the pictures are all here. I suppose that's what happens when you don't slack off on the blogging... Let's start by taking a stroll down memory lane to visit our old bathroom. Here it is folks. All...