Cardinal
Cyburbian
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Smashed thumbs, torn-off fingernails, numerous cuts, nails poking through shoes, paint clinging to hair, bruises, etc. - all the characteristic badges of honor of the many handywomyn and men of Cyburbia. The "weekend" thread got us started, now let's share our stories of working on the old homestead.
For me it has been an old farmhouse in the country - no labor of love - just a cheap place to stay, and room to garden. It wasn't habitable when I began two years ago, but is now all but done.
I have added and replaced windows and doors, taken out an put in walls, put up new wallboard on half or more of the interior, dealt with electric and HVAC systems (but farmed out some, and all the plumbing), put in new floors and ceilings, painted, and landscaped.
Along the way I encountered walls up to four inches out of plumb, windows without headers, fiberglass nailed over holes in the roof, rotten walls and floor joists, dirt piled up to rotten hardboard siding, and much more.
I also found several newspapers from the 1950's with articles about Alaska becoming a state, the launching of the Edmund Fitzgerald, segregation in Little Rock schools, and the Janesville, WI City Council considering abolishing the ordinance that prohibited single women from being served alchohol at the bar (they had to be seated at a table).
Oh yeah, I still haven't taken out a building permit.
For me it has been an old farmhouse in the country - no labor of love - just a cheap place to stay, and room to garden. It wasn't habitable when I began two years ago, but is now all but done.
I have added and replaced windows and doors, taken out an put in walls, put up new wallboard on half or more of the interior, dealt with electric and HVAC systems (but farmed out some, and all the plumbing), put in new floors and ceilings, painted, and landscaped.
Along the way I encountered walls up to four inches out of plumb, windows without headers, fiberglass nailed over holes in the roof, rotten walls and floor joists, dirt piled up to rotten hardboard siding, and much more.
I also found several newspapers from the 1950's with articles about Alaska becoming a state, the launching of the Edmund Fitzgerald, segregation in Little Rock schools, and the Janesville, WI City Council considering abolishing the ordinance that prohibited single women from being served alchohol at the bar (they had to be seated at a table).
Oh yeah, I still haven't taken out a building permit.