The Housegleaners: A DIY Freestyle Fixerupper Remodel Blog Focused On Salvage, Reuse, and Upcycling

Didn't have much planned for today. We both had stuff to mail and since it wasn't raining we walked to the post office, a little more than 6 miles round trip. That got us hungry and we eagerly ate reheated soup, crackers, and cheese for lunch. Simple food so good. A pretty sincere nap followed, accompanied by the cats, all four of us abed on a winter afternoon. Wiped the sleep from our eyes around 3:35 and it didn't look like much was going to get done today, but we had more or less vowed to move fridge from garage to kitchen, so we did.... That triggered more actions. I installed a fold down countertop and Sarah transferred the ad hoc cooking station from the living room. Today was one of those days where we focused on quality of life improvements versus repairs and construction. Having a sink and fridge in the same room brings us well into the 20th century, the miraculous dawning of mechanical domestic convenience. There's much to do before we lay down the permanent f

Optimism is a helluva drug. I used to get so high, man. Really out there! Like that time two months ago when I first tore into the water damaged kitchen floor. The vintage linoleum was worn away in spots and the plywood backing crumbled like shredded wheat. Start of kitchen floor demo - November 8, 2022 The shiplap subfloor splintered apart where I tried to pry it up and I stepped right through more than once. Despite that evidence, I wanted to believe I wouldn't have to replace it all. That was the Optimism talking. See, it doesn't look so bad. What rot? Gimme another hit of that Optimism sh*t.   Call it mission creep or a can of worms, but instead of replacing just a couple of sections of rotted wood, in the end I tore out all the shiplap, extricated two large water tanks , trenched the crawlspace , re-mortared the river rock foundation , wrapped the pipes in electric heat tape and insulation, demolished an intractable monolith , laid a plastic membrane, tucked in mineral woo