The indignity of D.I.Y. ;All of the Kings Horses, and All of the Kings Men

A new American tradition?

We have a long standing tradition of Doing It Ourselves here... and we rarely think twice about the entire complexities of most projects. As such the end-game is usually an after-thought - Yes i can disconnect and remove the tub, but where does it go when it's out? And worse than that, what path does it travel on the way out of the house? Skilled and practiced tradesmen draw upon their years of experience to help predict the pitfalls and challenges of the w0rst case scenarios, we rely on overwhelming optimism and ignorance.

So, buoyed by the confidence of ignorance we tore into the removal of the old bathtub in the down stairs Laundry room.The tub is actually a claw foot free standing tub cleverly obscured by hideous tile work.

And utterly confusing framing (that's a bottle wire tied to the framing as found supporting the tub surround??)

Was the tile chosen to match the tub or the tub painted to match the tile? Ahhh the mysteries of the chicken or the egg...

We've removed some bulky items in the past and what we've learned so far is that everything is a wheel. With that mindset we walked the tub out of the house end over end over end....
... All went well until, tired and irritable we made the quick decision to try to move the grill out of the way by moving it up a set of stairs. Normally not a big deal for the back yard weber but this is no ordinary grill. It is a large, grey, egg-shaped ceramic grill/ smoker made by Primo Kamado out of Georgia. It weighs over a hundred pounds and stands as the most shiny example of how we can't ever seem to do anything "normal" (as defined by my sister). Why buy the cheap indestructable weber when you can tip-toe arround this awkward ceramic behemoth? Well as anyone who's been over for dinner can attest, i've built a rather obsessive and unhealthy relationship with this grill and together we've slowly and steadily been leading a trail of converts like some kind of back yard Pied Piper of bbq -though i suppose the true pied piper of back yard bbq forgoes the flute for something a bit more rubust . Three steps up and the grill, like some Humpty-Dumpty doppelganger tipped and shattered on the concrete in an instant.

A trajedy in one act


moment of silence

Well, at least the tub is out.

The indignity of D.I.Y.; The road to antique

the thrill of the chase

As we now festoon the house in finished materials we've envisioned regular trips along the grand shopping avenues in search of authentic hardware and antique fixtures... In reality it's more like internet shopping the CB2 clearance bin. These "finishing touches" can quickly become the budget busters so we do try to stretch the budget by re-purposing something used. However, used means old, old leads to vintage and pretty soon vintage becomes this. So we were very excited to find some "old" lamps for sale in a tent on the sidewalk in New York back in February. It's been my assumption that if something is for sale in a building that can be rolled up and taken home then there is a good chance it's stolen and likely priced below market value. All these fixtures needed was a new bracket and they'd be perfect. And all it takes is 3 months of metal shop work to turn a table lamp into a wall sconce.