Bricks are heavy

for those of you who have been on the Macalester campus on a snowy or rainy day, you have most likely almost broken your neck, slipping on the bricks outside the library. well, they dug them up today. and Allison and i were there to collect. after almost 5 hours, and 3 trips (poor horatio), we have almost 1000 bricks for our soon to be patio. god, I love fortuna.

Famous last words?

some of you may have seen the picture of the (former) pigeon's nest in our gutter. as pigeons are filthy creatures, we purged the gutter of their disgusting nest, and hung some chicken wire in our eaves (that's where they would sneak off to do their nasty pigeon business). well, the pigeons have spoken, my friends. they must have sent out their carrier brothers to spread the word, because our recycling bins have become the target of their fecal terrorism. this is no accident. this is no coincidence. this is war. sadly, it is a war they can not win. for, not only are they too stupid to choose a viable target, but i am just crazy enough to take this to the next level: pellet gun. oh, i'll do it, folks. and while i'm at it, rabbits and squirrels be warned: Montefellow is no place for disease carrying vermin!

When the cat's away...

while i've been soaking up the love of my nephews in Ann Arbor, allison has been as busy as a bee. [tangent: are bees really that much busier than other species?] remember when she ripped out those useless Ikea shelves next to the refrigerator? well, in my absence, she has hung sheet rock. yes, friends, the trash nook is soon complete! are you excited as i am? i hardly think so. because not only has she done a perfect job of sheet-rocking, but she also removed the nasty basement shower! it's amazing what she can achieve without me there to distract her!

that is not to say that i've been sitting on my hands. my sister and i went over to the Motawi Tileworks studio gallery, and perused their selection. holy moly, they have some gorgeous stuff! i'm going back tomorrow to pick up a couple of Dard Hunter Rose tiles for our bathroom project. i only wish we had enough money to do the whole room...and the kitchen, for that matter. if you'd like to send in a donation for such a project, please feel free to contact me for a mailing address.

What could go wrong?

"It's my last day on the force! I can't believe I made it to retirement without getting killed...all I need to do is finish this one shift, and I am home free. [Gunshots] Oh God, I've been shot..."

remember when i blogged about our new sink? we were so close to having a finished bathroom. remember that? well, it was our last day on the force before retirement. you've seen it in the movies so many times. the greeks called it hubris. what could possibly go wrong? when we took the old sink out, we pulled the board off the wall. with the board, came part of the wainscoting. ok, we need to replace that section of wainscoting...but, if we are going to do that, we might as well rip out the nasty boards, which the previous owner passed off as trim. ok, well, maybe we should rip the floor out and do the whole thing properly!

thank god, wiser heads prevailed on the final part, but the "trim" came off and the wainscot came down. after seeing how much it would cost to tile the walls, we've decided to put some new wainscoting up, with proper trim, and tile the backsplash behind the sink. yes, folks, we did pay to have our bathroom walls refinished...but that was the top...and we're talking about the bottom here!

the up side: we get to hone our dry-walling skills in a place that no one will really ever see. besides, once we get our fat check from uncle same next year (thank you president obama!), we can tile the floor and the walls together. this just needs to get us through until then. besides, it will look great. we picked out a nice tile for the backsplash. it's going to class up the place. besides, we don't need your approval! besides besides besides...i'm beside myself with excitement!

DO fence me in!

it's amazing how much impact $5000 worth of of ceder can make. yes, that's right Montefellow fans, we have a fence! it is absolutely gorgeous, and smells divine. we sat out last night and enjoyed our private sanctuary. plus, allison's friend karlyn (a professional gardener) came over to help us plan out the landscaping. i can't wait. i might have to get one of those heat lamps you see at restaurants, so i can enjoy our sweet backyard all year round. of course, check with me in novemember...i'm sure i'll be singing a different tune. for now, though, i'm going to happily live outdoors. maybe i'll convince allison to get a peacock!

Bike storage

i picked up a little floor standing bike rack, for the porch, from Ace Hardware. this thing is a sweet little number. for $30 allison and i can safely lock our bikes on the porch, and easily access them. now, if i could just get my ass out of bed on time, riding to work in the morning would be a breeze!

Further evolution of the bathroom

after sitting in our basement for a few weeks, we brought our new pedestal sink upstairs to install. allison's dad was kind enough to lend us his expertise, and spearhead the project. as is always the case with these projects, it turned out to be much more of a headache than anyone initially estimated. naturally, the panel on the wall, holding up the old sink, was nailed, glued, and screwed into the wall. so, we are going to have to replace the wainscot. which isn't that big of a deal, because the people before us did a crap job anyway. here's a note to homeowners trying to sell: you're better off NOT doing renovation, than doing a half ass hack job. the previous owners probably put in close to 5k "renovating" the house (between the kitchen and the bathroom); almost ALL of which we are slowly undoing. people, spend the money and do it right, or don't do it at all.

of course, the sink was just an aesthetic upgrade. while that was being installed, our friend Dave (with the help of Trevor), fixed two leaks in our hot water pipes. that was a pretty cool project to witness. he actually cut the pipe and installed some new sections. oh, and he also cut the pipes to the random basement shower, so we can haul that piece of junk away. al and i did help a little, but i spent most of the day running out to get tools etc, and smoking a brisket (payment for the hard work put in by others).