b.rox

My parents are coming down for a visit, so we are frantically preparing the household for their arrival. Time to put away the illegal drugs and semi-automatic weapons, the seditious literature and satanic rock music — at least for a while.

photo by gurke
We also have to conceal the extensive subterranean dungeon we installed during our [...]

Yesterday seemed to be getting off to a good start. I’d set my sights on completing a project that I’ve been postponing and procrastinating on for over a year and a half. Nineteen months actually. That’s when Xy smashed a window out in our kitchen with her bare hand, in a blind drunken rage.

I’m just [...]

So you thought Story #28 was the final chapter in our renovation saga? Not quite. Check today’s Times-Picayune for installment #29, the final final chapter. Check the online version for cute pix by Kathy Anderson.

Today her umbilical stump fell off. To celebrate, we made a pilgrimage to Bayou St. John.

She’s definitely growing. Her loose folds of skin are filling in with baby fat. Xy has been breastfeeding, and the results can be seen daily. Funny, by sheer coincidence we watched The Life of Mammals just before the birth. Mammals [...]

A causal chain:

c-section => constipation => clogged commode

Good thing we have our second toilet running.
Very happy that Xy’s plumbing is working though.
Update: After letting the clog soak in the water for a few hours, I was able to successfully plunge and clear the line.

I finally got the set of old Bakelite push-button switchplates I ordered from eBay.

Our friends DJ and Daisy and Anna and Lili came over, and we spent the day moving furniture from room to room.
My office has moved in to the front room which had been serving as our “living room” (such a strange name for a room!) since our lower floor was flooded. Our bedroom has moved [...]

Wow. Chcek out the cover of the today’s Inside Out, the Times-Picayune’s weekly home and garden supplement. There’s a picture of Kilowatt Rising rocking our house party, and sure enough there’s Michael Homan (with unbroken clavicle) continuing his sinister project of confusing himself with me. Open it up and we’re in the center spread with [...]

This story in the paper made me feel ever-so-slightly vindicated about our decision to renovate.

A new study of home prices around the New Orleans area shows that buyers rewarded sellers who gambled and rebuilt in devastated areas like Lakeview, eastern New Orleans and Chalmette. Renovated homes in those areas recovered much of their pre-storm value [...]

I rented a buffing machine to clean our tile floor. It cleaned up OK, I guess, except for a powdery white residue everywhere. I thought this might be efflorescence, but upon further investigation I decided it’s probably just dirt, specifically drywall dust.
As I was carrying the buffing machine back out to the car, I twisted [...]

One feature that attracted us to buy our house was the beautiful terra cotta tile on the floor downstairs. People often ask if we installed it ourselves, but the previous owners get the credit for that.
Alas, the old floor ain’t what it used to be.

It sat under brackish water for a couple of weeks back [...]

We got our “gold letter” from the Road Home today.
The letter states that we did not qualify for any compensation. Or, as they so cleverly phrase it, “your compensation grant was zero.”
This is because they estimate our damage at $34,050.53. Our insurance company paid us $82,294.03. Both these figures are stated in the letter.
Couple interesting [...]

What have I been doing over the holiday break? Painting. Every day. Yes, even on Christmas. I’ve finished painting the walls of our living room. I painted the balusters (banisters if you prefer) which took three days, because I did three coats of two different colors. I’ve been painting the wall above the mantel gold, [...]

I almost forgot — the 27th story on our renovation appeared in today’s paper, with a cool picture of yours truly working on the staircase. It’s nice to have a picture of me actually working for a change instead of just standing in front of someone else’s work with a cheesy grin.

Xy and I had our initial appointment with the Road Home program this morning. Yes, that’s right, initial. We’re only just now getting started. For once this tardiness cannot be blamed on governmental ineptitude or bureaucratic bungling. It’s our fault. We’ve dragged out feet and postponed this because we don’t really expect to get any [...]

I put a second coat of varnish on the stairs today. I should say a big “thank you” to Celcus and Jedd who gave me good advice last time I wrote about this. I’ve been following that advice, sanding and steel wooling and restaining over the last couple weeks. The second coat did indeed go [...]

We finally got our new washer and dryer hooked up and situated properly, and last night I did our first load of laundry at home for over two years.

Our old dishwasher was crapping out on us, so we also got a new one of those. Splurged a bit and got a fancy one with a [...]

We’ve had a sheet of plastic at the top of our stairwell for two years. It provided a physical and psychological barrier to the lower half of our house, the half that was ruined in the flood of ought-five. For many long months I’ve looked forward to the day when that plastic sheeting would come [...]

After joking about how my brain was melted from the varnish fumes Saturday night, I started to feel like maybe it was no joke. I got the chills and had weird, feverish dreams all night. Sunday I was not up to snuff. No appetite. I put in some more hours varnishing, but I just didn’t [...]

The fumes from varnish are even more intoxicating than those from stain. Or maybe it’s the cumulative effect. Anyway, my brain may be melted, but I made good progress today and yesterday. I’m using a heavy-duty marine varnish that shouldn’t require a second coat. I think I’ll be able to finish varnishing tomorrow.