Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
This was the thing that officially blew up my schedule and budget. When I bought the house the bathroom was cheaply built and a little small and awkward, but really not bad for a house this size. The plan, of course, was to keep it. At least for a little while. But this bathroom was…
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Finding other things to do last Saturday so I could wait for the paint sale wasn’t much of a problem. One annoying job that’s been looming over me for a while was that grout haze gunking up my bathroom floor. About a year ago. I hired people to tile my bathroom floor. They effed up,…
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Yes, it’s already over. If you remember, I ended year 1 with the house torn apart. Most of the functional things were in, but most of the visible things that make the house look good were not. I wrote 3 posts last year to commemorate the paper anniversary. This year the anniversary should be cotton, but…
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I’ve decided to move the end of summer back to sometime in the past week. It’s been warm and that lines up the change in seasons with big shifts in my house. This shift feels like a bit of a cleanse, as the piles of junk and mess are starting to shrink. Everything about how…
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I wanted to be different than my parents. I said I wouldn’t give my life over to keeping a perfect house like theirs. I said buying a small rowhouse with no land would accomplish this. I said I was going to decorate differently than my mom. Maybe I will. But the most deep rooted, primal…
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I was going to tell you about the goals I’ve set for May. But before I got to that I had some complaining to do, and this post is so massively long already that I’ll leave you with this. Rest assured, in spite of all this aggravation and snark, I do see a path forward.…
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The title references a city ordinance cracking down on blight by requiring owners of vacant properties on occupied blocks to install doors and windows and make them look occupied. More info here if you’re interested. I’m a big fan. I love it that the city is doing something effective to prevent vacant properties from being…
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I’ve been waiting a really long time to say that! But I’m going to wait one more paragraph because I also want to talk about the washing machine. My stairs are really, really narrow, particularly heading down to the basement because the foundation walls are rubble stone and much thicker than the brick that was…
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