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

Every day starts and ends with cats. They wake us up when they want breakfast, and after they eat they crawl under the covers for a snuggle session while we drink coffee in bed. At some point we begin work and they are interested and eager participants, unfazed by the noise and commotion. Rather, they resent being sidelined and seek to breach whatever barriers we put in place to keep them out of harm's way. They were especially indignant about the plastic cordone keeping them out of the kitchen, so at their purrsistent insistence I catproofed the area and removed the wall. Once it was down, they asserted authority over their expanded jurisdiction and supervised my every move with their trademark micromanagement style. The next goal was a simple one--prep this little corner of the kitchen so we could bring the fridge in from the unheated, unlit garage. But of course, nothing is ever that simple here. The weirdly angled partition wall had some extraneous framing I had to cut out with

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

It pays to have the right tool. Today I did not have the right tool. My body paid. I hadn't intended to demolish the original chimney base, but it's better gone to make framing and flooring easier and better. But I sure wished I had a rotohammer. I've had "rotohammer" on my shopping list for months, but every time I looked at one I balked at the price . It's not a tool I often use, and I already have a Makita sub-compact that's good for certain applications . But it's rotary only, so it doesn't work with a chisel tip, which is what I needed here. I couldn't find one to rent close by so I went a-knocking at some neighbors. Linda and John across the road regretted they didn't have theirs with them. Al up the hill brewed me a cup of coffee, told me he'd given his away when he left Idaho decades ago. He's been here 34 years, lent me a pointy rockbar . I have similar but with a tamper end. I gave it a go but it hurts when cold steel str

Is this necessary or even effective? Does pumping away 9,000 gallons of stormwater per hour make a difference, or is it instantly replaced via a hydrologic mechanism we don't understand? Are we bailing a boat with a hole in it? It's really hard to tell. We're just starting to get to learn the dynamics of this property. Sarah tested the soil and it drains OK--not great, but not terrible. And in normal times its absorption rate keeps up with the rain. But after a few days of persistent and increasing precip, the ground gets saturated, then add 4 more inches in 48 hours and a shallow pond manifests in our backyard. It's kind of pretty! Better to have too much pure fresh water than not enough. Even after the rain ceases, surface water from the surrounding hills will continue to trickle in, so part of the impetus to use the pump is to get ahead of this latency effect. But does it help? I ran it from 8am-5pm while it rained steadily all day. At times the standing water level

What's the difference between a tool and a machine? A tool is reliably compliant whereas a machine is just waiting to turn on you. We're in the middle of some weather, yard prone to flooding, bought trash pump to keep ahead of the rain. Before the deluge, yard already saturated with this week's steady pour. And more is coming. Will Trashy the trash pump help, or will more water instantly well up to replace what gets pumped out? Running a gas engine to alter the natural order feels perverse and I hope we can evolve a more natural, passive drainage solution. But this is damage control mode to keep water away from the house, so I sold my soul to The Machines. And it didn't stop there! Laundry crisis imminent, hooking up washer and dryer was a priority. I knew the electrical outlets worked, but was the drainpipe still connected? Would the leaky old faucet valves fail? Laundry vent combust? Will the Whirlpools we got free off craigslist even work? Listen for yourself: Actual

Took a break to remind myself of what lured us here in the first place. It's been trebly bleak of late: Sarah out of state, winter's shortest days, and persistent rain. Yesterday afternoon the sun broke through but I had to run an errand. Today, unexpectedly, the sun made an encore cameo and I seized the opportunity to try out the wetsuit Sarah gave me for Christmas. It was smack dab between high high tide (8:25 AM 12.6 feet) and high low tide (2:29 PM 6.8 feet), a good time to get in at the park. The wetsuit fit and kept me warm but my bare hands ached in the 46 degree F water. Floating on my back buoyed by the neoprene, I was able to keep my hands above the surface, like the otters I'm told frequent this inlet. Unlike them, I might invest in gloves. From sunbeams and sparkly water to the damp dirt of crawlspace beneath the bathroom to wrap pipes, emplace ground plastic, and insulate between floor joists. I prefer Rockwool batts because they're easy to install/de-inst

Mine's a tale that can't be told My freedom I hold dear How years ago in days of old When magic filled the air T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor... - Led Zeppelin (with a nod to Tolkien) Disclaimer: I'm not advocating below method, but it is what I did. We don't know the full history of this house, but it's obvious it was built in at least two distinct phases. The older part started as a basic cabin--heavy beams set on blocks with an open crawlspace. That is to say, it did not start with a proper foundation. At some later date, the gaps between the blocks were filled in with loose rocks, possibly to keep larger critters out. At least that's my best guess. (Another possibility is that when the pipes burst (two owners ago), it washed away the mortar from between the stones, but that seems less likely.) Two thirds of the house is a later addition set on a proper perimeter foundation. But the original part is more of a self-supporting box set on a handful o