It has been a while since I stopped by, so I thought I would pop my head in and say Hello!
Life is going fairly well these days... My wife and I are still building our own home. Hoping to move in three weeks from now if all goes according to plan. This has been many years in the planning and making, so it's hard to believe it's finally coming true.
My wife's birthday was on August 19th, so I did an "Italian" theme dinner for her. I know nothing about Italy, so I'm sure it was really cheesey. I bought one of those screened canopy tents and set it up outside with a small table inside. Hung some little lights and artificial vines, and played a CD of festive Italian music. Then I made a version of Braciola, pepperoni bread, salads, a cheesecake with kiwi and blueberries, and a bottle of Italian Pinot Noir. Kinda corney, but the food turned out good and it made my wife happy. That's what matters most.
Last week we took a "family" getaway to a small cabin near Mount Rainier. A couple of days to relax, eat too much expensive food, and buy a bunch of expensive souveniers. It was nice to have a short break from normal life.
My wife starts a new job today, so she has been a little stressed about that. It's a little scary for her, even though it's basically just a different division of where she had been working. She already knows and has worked with many of the folks there, so hopefully her transition will go smoothly.
Last week or so made 5 years since my wife's "mistake". Hard to believe that much time has passed, and yet it still hurts like it was yesterday. I don't think that pain will ever go away...
The old timers around here will probably remember my constant battle over whether her mistake was an affair or a rape. She could never define it. In recent months, during our very rare discussions of it, my wife has finally started calling it a rape. I basically gave up on categorizing it, so it's a bit comforting to see her come to grips with what happened. A painful step in the healing process I guess.
I recently had one of my "male" moments where I was insecure about manhood and inexperience, and essentially asked her to compare my size with his. Clearly this was a stupid and painful question. Hindsight... It hurt her a lot, but she basically said it wasn't a pleasant experience, and she wasn't even paying attention to remember what he was like. She did make a comment though that "if he was such a stud, why do I want you so much instead of trying to track him down". Relieving in a painful kind of way. Stupidity on my part. Beneficial for me, but not worth the pain to her.
After years of childhood abuse and continuing inappropriate behavior from her father, my wife finally reached a breaking point and cut off contact with her dad. I was proud of her for making that decision, and her sister's have been supportive too. Hopefully it will help her heal. Her mistake is kind of tied in with all of those past experiences, so it's kind of an overall process. Slow going, but I'm happy to see her progress.
Congratulations on your progress with y'all's house. Congrats to your wife for making progress with her relationship with her father. It's always a little sad to hear about someone who decides to break off contact with a family member but I'm happy that she decided to take action. That can be quite healing. Perhaps someday she will feel better able to renew a relationship with her father on her own terms.
I hope things continue to go well for you. You've fought long and hard for a slice of contentment.
Hi Anthony, Good to hear from you. I see that you are still at it. You have the most wonderful ideas for special days. Your wife is a very lucky woman in many ways.
It sounds like she has made a great deal of progress. That has to be so hard for her. But, she is doing it, and that's what is important.
I have those stupid question-moments myself. Oh well, I guess we're only human.
Good news about your house, too. Things are sounding good. Thanks for the postitive update. We could all use some good news around here.
Glad to hear your house is nearly finished. What an accomplishment. Post a photo.
Thanks for the update.
I'm doing ok. After the divorce I downgraded my living space from a house to an apartment, and downgraded my car. Now I'm considering upgrading my apartment a little bit (first floor to second floor with a bit more room), and upgrading my vehicle from a piece of **** to a Toyota Tacoma or Camray.
I started a job in June and am up for a teeny raise. It's going ok but takes a lot of energy.
My son just returned from 2 weeks at Whale Camp and said it was the best two weeks of his life. He saw Fin whales, Northern Right whales, and Humpback whales. They kayaked along the shoreline and seals came up along side them to get a closer look at 'TEENAGERS'.
He really enjoyed meeting and bonding with the other kids ages 10-17. The massive mud fight they had in the bog helped break the ice. Keep that in mind for future parties. It was the camp counselor's idea!
> You have the most wonderful ideas for special days.
I have no idea where I get these ideas... Several years ago I decided to celebrate my wife's birthday by preparing a "Cajun" theme dinner. Zydeco, fried fish and hushpuppies, the whole bit. It was fun, but I thought it was gonna be a one time deal.
Then we went to Hawaii, and I decided to do a Hawaii theme for her birthday. Now something popped into my head that said "Italian" So, I guess I have a whole theme thing going now... I'm already thinking about German for next year!
WildRice,
> Glad to hear your house is nearly finished.
> What an accomplishment.
Yeah, but we're both nervous about what life will be like once we're finished. We have lived and breathed house for the last two years, so what will we talk about now? I forsee lots of boredom ahead...
> I downgraded my living space
> downgraded my car.
Oh, with us spending so much time on our house, our living space and cars have all downgraded by themselves around here Our home is disgustingly dirty and cluttered, and the cars need lots of little repairs. We just haven't had the time to do anything but build. "Soon" though...
jbean,
> Post some pics!!
Here's a picture of the outside of the house.
Things are really changing quickly on the inside, so I'll have to take some newer interior photo's and post those later.
If you want to see a play-by-play of my tiling work a couple of months ago, check out my topic on the John Bridge forum at:
OMG It kind of looks like mine. Barn Red with Green trim and pine trees all around. I should post a picture so you can see what I mean. Maybe tomorrow.
But, yours is a lot prettier, new and fresh. Beautiful home Anthony.
Ours is actually Behr "Redwood Naturaltone" with Olympic "Tall Evergreen" trim. Oh, and the trees are Douglas Fir.
> a lot prettier, new and fresh.
Unfinished and unliveable with no yard...
WildRice,
> You should be so proud.
Yep, we're rather proud of it, though it is really easy to forget that we designed and built it ourselves. I'm just happy we have lots of pictures to remember all the work it took.
I didn't turn on any lights in the house, so these aren't the greatest pictures, but here's a few of the interior.
This is the kitchen/dining area:
Obviously, the dining table and kitchen counter is filled with building supplies. We're currently working on building the kitchen cabinets, so they don't have shelves or doors yet, I have a few more drawers to build, and all the drawers still need drawer faces. A pantry cabinet will go next to the refrigerator, with another cabinet over the fridge. They're getting their last finish coats before we can install them.
We installed the woodstove a few months ago, but with our hot summer we have only built a couple of fires in it. Very romantic though...
The wood floor is prefinished "Australian Cypress". We were originally planning on vinyl or laminate floors. But, somewhere along the way we decided to splurge on real hardwood floors.
This is the master bedroom:
Not much to see really. We enjoy getting away to mountain cabins once a year or so, and decided to use T&G knotty pine in our master bed and bath. It's our little "getaway cabin" without actually having to get away.
Oh, and that's our pantry cabinet sitting on the sawhorses.
The whole house has T&G cedar on the ceilings.
This is the master bathroom:
We built the cabinet, did all the tile work, etc. The lovely cardboard curtain is my own creation. We couldn't wait to try out the double shower and large soaking tub.
I remember when you posted one of your garage that you had finished! What a long way you have come from that!! It is all very beautiful. What pride you must have in it all.
Could I ask you a question? None of my business, of course but, I still want to ask it.
You always speak of what you do for your wife. The things you make--the romantic meals--decorating the bedroom--all the special things you do. Does she ever do anything like that for you? I sort of remember that one time you said that she wasn't very--how can I put this--"creative" in picking out gifts for you. (I think it was you that wrote that.) But, I don't think I have ever read where you wrote that she did anything special for you like you do for her. It always seems so one sided. Every time you write about the sweet things you do for her I always want to ask you this. I never got up the nerve until now.
Just curious. If I have offended, I will apologize profusely ahead of time. I am extremely sorry.
Peace out,
aanisah
p.s. I checked out that web site and it was fun to see all your work come together!
> I remember when you posted one of your
> garage that you had finished!
Actually, you can just see the corner of it on the left side of the house photo I posted...
> all the special things you do.
> Does she ever do anything like that for you?
VERY rarely... Granted, I'm a little harder to do surprise things for because I'm not real flexible about what we do or don't do. And, since I work at home I have more opportunities to plan and research. I also already own everything I want and am pretty picky about the tools or whatnot she might want to buy. And, I never really leave the house to do any at-home suprises. Still, it would be nice if she surprised me every once in a while. Even just to bring me home a chocolate bar or call and say she'll take me out to dinner so I don't have to cook. Little stuff like that would mean a lot and not take a lot of time or effort.
Alas, I guess the surprise thing is just my deal. Sometimes I tell myself I'm not gonna bother anymore if she won't, especially when there are times she doesn't even seem to appreciate it. But, I can't help myself... I always put way too much time and effort into these things.
> I never got up the nerve until now.
No need to be nervous, it's no big deal to me.
I'm very touchy feeley, love to kiss/cuddle/make love, love to surprise her with gifts and activities. But, I'm not real social, and tend to be rather self centered.
She's not so cuddly and has a fairly agressive personality, but she's social and seems to care about everyone but herself. She'll "go with the flow" so to speak, which makes it easy for me to plan things.
Opposites attract I guess...
> it was fun to see all your work come together!
It has been a LOT of work, but it all blends into a daily blur. Once a project is finished it's on to the next. I can barely even remember doing all that tile work, even though it was just a couple of months ago. Every step has been exciting though.
I really like how the home blends into its natural environment and how, by using the knotty pine throughout, you've brought the outdoors indoors. Very lovely.
Post some more pictures when you've done furnishing and decorating it. Do you have any ideas on how you'll do so? Colours, fabrics, materials etc.?
That has kind of been our goal. We originally planned on it being a bit more "rustic", but it's pushing a bit more to the "fancy" side as we've kept splurging along the way.
> Colours, fabrics, materials etc.?
Oh, we don't have any money left for decorating...
Actually, our furniture and whatnot will just move from our mobile home to the house. But, it's mostly natural colors too. I have built all of our desks, entertainment centers, bookshelves, etc. so it's all wood look and should blend with the house style just fine.
I keep joking with my wife "I know how to build one thing, a basic box with a face frame. They're just different heights, widths, and depths." Sounds funny, but it's really true. Desks, kitchen cabinets, etc, are all just variations on the same theme.
We just ordered our carpet. A color called "Gypsy Moth". It's kind of a light grey with maybe just a very light hint of reddish brown. We've had something similar in our mobile and have been real happy with it. It's neutral colored, brightens the room a bit, and does a good job of hiding the dirt we have around here. It's fairly close to the color of the painted walls in the pictures I posted, except a bit lighter.
We'll have plenty of time to build or buy new furniture over the coming years...
AUBURN HILLS -- Swarms of leaf-devouring gypsy moth caterpillars are back in Metro Detroit and across the state after a hiatus of several years -- and that means fewer leaves on trees and more aerial spraying to control the pests.
I knew the minute I saw that Gypsy Moth carpet that WR would be the next to post. Too funny.
Redwood Natural Tone huh? Beautiful. What did you use to finish the walls? Did you do all of that yourself - the floors, the walls and the ceilings?
<<"I know how to build one thing, a basic box with a face frame. They're just different heights, widths, and depths.">>
I beg to differ. There are exceptional finish carpenter skills in there. My H can build a basic box but it sure doesn't look like that!
That bathroom is to die for. I did our tile in our master bedroom bath. 4 inch tiles, just the walls around the tub. Never again. I haven't had a chance to look at how you did it but I will in a couple hours. Absolutely beautiful.
Yeah, we have those around here too. The state/county puts up little trap things around the area to keep track of where they are so they can keep them under control. We got a chuckle that our carpet color is named after a critter that is out to destroy the trees around us. But hey, it's just a name...
Teri,
> What did you use to finish the walls?
We sprayed the stain on the outside of the house, if that's what you're asking.
As for the interior wall colors:
Living/Kitchen/Dining/Master Closet all have Glidden "Indian Painting" color.
The main bath is Olympic "Cavern Moss", a shade of green.
Our daughter chose Behr "Estate Vineyard" for her bedroom. It's a really dark burgundy color. Makes the room really dark, and shows dirt easily, but it's what she wanted...
My office is painted in a two tone scheme with Olympic "Thyme Green" on the majority of the wall. There's a three foot band around the bottom of the wall that is painted with Olympic "Oregon Trail". It's a dark brown and is my poor-man approach to wainscoting. I'll be adding a wood trim around the room where the two colors meet. These colors make the office kind of dark too, but it looks very office like. Someday I may splurge and build actual wood panel wainscoting in there.
> Did you do all of that yourself
We have done EVERYTHING ourselves.
Excavation, foundation, framing, roofing, doors and windows, plumbing, electrical, insulation, sheetrock, T&G paneling, flooring, cabinets, tiling, etc.
Some things like plumbing and electrical I mostly did alone, because she didn't have a clue what I was doing. But, my wife helped build forms and pour concrete, nailed down most of the subfloor, helped tilt up walls, nailed most of the roofing shingles on, pulled electrical cables, did much of the insulation, installed and taped much of the sheetrock, cut ALL of the ceiling boards, did most of the tile grouting, etc. She has worked her pretty little butt off on this house.
Some jobs, like tilting up the walls, I couldn't have done without her. One section of our house has roof trusses, but the truss company couldn't get the truck down to our house. So, we had to hand carry 21 trusses about 150' down to the house, lift them up onto the walls, then I would hold them in place while my wife nailed everything off.
It has taken two years of our lives, but it has all been out of pocket, so we'll have no mortgage when we're done!
> There are exceptional finish carpenter skills
It's all in the tools... Make a few cuts, nail or screw things together, and it practically builds itself...
> That bathroom is to die for.
It was quite a job. Two months of full-time work if I remember correctly.
Like most steps of our construction, we only get good at it when the task is completed.
Pat
> I am glad your wife is finally dealing
> with all the past hurt
> The wood walls in your bathroom and bedroom.
> They look like they have a finish on them.
Oh, those... That's Olympic Oil Based Interior Satin Polyurethane. One coat on the pine walls, two coats on the cedar ceilings and cedar trim. We've gone through gallons and gallons of the stuff.
All of our cabinets are built of birch plywood, with pine boards anywhere it will show. Minwax wood conditioner, Minwax "Windsor Oak" stain, and two coats of the satin poly again.
If it ain't painted or prefinished, we poly it!
> have the patience of a saint
I'm no saint, but I'm certainly patient. Slow, methodical, slug like... Little bit each day, and you can see the result. LOTS and LOTS of research and study. I didn't just "know" this stuff, I had to learn every step along the way. I've got a bookshelf full of books that I study over and over before each project, even if I've done it many times before.
> so cool that you both did this together.
It has really been something that has brought us together. A common goal and a future to work towards. It really held us together during some of the harder times... Contrary to what you normally hear, we have never had an argument over house stuff in the entire two years of work! We're a good team on projects like this.
> Know anything about deck finishing?
Don't use Behr deck stain! I did, regretted it. I was really happy with their siding stain, but the deck stain just smears on the surface and doesn't look very even. I would never use it again.
I hear Thompsons is pretty bad too. Cabet or Sikkens are supposed to be good, but I couldn't find them locally.
I've used Olympic stains in the past and have been happy with them, but you have to redo them every couple of years or so.
We clean our decks every year with a broom and a bucket of water with bleach and laundry soap. The pollen and molds from the trees around here make the decks slick as snot.
They make deck "reconditioners", but I've never used them. Just bleach and water, and maybe take the sander to an area that is really rough. Pressure washer works good too, but you have to let it dry thoroughly, and be careful not to gouge the wood.
Other than than, I just slop the stain on with a brush... It ain't rocket science, and you'll have to redo it in a few years anyway, unless you choose a colored composite decking.
The problem is that I don't have an 'insert object' button on my editor window. H says we probably need to get the WYS/WYG Editor. So, how do I get that?
I CAN however get into chat now. Cool That happened after he upgraded some things on the 'puter.
Aha! Interior Satin Polyurethane. I'll have to copy this down for future reference.
God, it brings back memories of the constant sanding and varnishing of my dad's sailboat.
Birch PLYWOOD? No way! I never would have guessed.
My deck has become a nightmare. The first time I used a clear Olympic something to preserve the appearance of the Redwood. I didn't like the look. It really held up great though. This year would make 3 yrs for that and it was in great shape. But oh no. I had to redo a section of it last year so that I could stain it to match the house. I did the stripper and the conditioner and the Stain (got it on there good and thick) and then a final sealer coat. 6 weeks, 4 hrs per day and I only got a small section done.
Oh yes. And they were Behr products. This summer it started peeling. Talk about MAD. The only place it's not peeling is where part of the pool cover had protected it from the snow. A guy at the hardware store told me that I put the stain on too thick. He said to barely cover it.
We used the Behr stain on the house and it is holding up just fine.
So, you just use bleach and water and restain it? No tedious hours of stipping solutions to take off the old finish? No pretreatment to prepare it to take the stain?
One of the cabins we visit used clear Varathane on their walls, the stuff they make for hardwood floors. Basic satin poly was cheaper, so we went with that. It's not like it'll be experiencing lots of wear or anything. Mostly just to help if we need to clean the walls.
> brings back memories of the constant sanding
We didn't sand any of the T&G pine or cedar boards we used. They come planed which was smooth enough for us. We bought #3 lumber from a place a couple hundred miles up north, so there was lots of waste. But, we saved over $2000 on the total lumber cost doing it this way, and we've got a good cord or two of firewood leftover from the scraps.
We originally weren't going to poly the cedar because we wanted the fresh cedar smell. But, I wiped a few scrap boards with poly to get my wife's opinion, and that was that... Looks won out over fragrance... I'll just make up cedar sprays from distalled water and cedar essential oils.
> Birch PLYWOOD? No way! I never would have guessed.
Yep, it's cheap (if $50 a sheet is cheap), comes in big sheets, and is dimensionally stable. It's only used for the basic structure though, anything that shows from the outside is made from #2 pine. I'm actually making the panels for all the cabinet doors out of our left over T&G pine boards. Rip off the tongues and grooves, edge glue them, run 'em through the planer, and they make nice panels at virtually no additional cost.
> 6 weeks, 4 hrs per day
Wow! That must be one big deck. I usually spend a few hours cleaning the deck one day, and a few hours putting the stain on a different day. Our decks are 8x10 and 5x5. The new house has a 6x24 deck for the front porch.
> Behr products. This summer it started peeling.
That's what I'm afraid of... Even though the can said "penetrating stain", I didn't see much penetration. Seemed more like a film on the wood. If it starts peeling I'll probably have to sand the whole works off, or else just replace the decking.
> I put the stain on too thick.
Possible. The can says to apply one coat only, so a thick coat probably probably be like multiple coats.
> Behr stain on the house is holding up just fine.
We used the Behr semi-opaque stain on the garage and three years later is still looks as good as when we did it. So, I used it for the house too. That's why I was so shocked by the way their deck stain went on.
> No tedious hours of stipping solutions to take off
> the old finish?
Nope, at least not with the Olympic stain. It generally wears down to nearly bare wood after a few years anyway. Bleach and laundry soap seem to do a good job of cleaning out the "gunk" and lightening the wood up for new stain. Works for us, your mileage may vary...
I dug back through our photo archive and pulled out a few more pics to share.
Here's my wife and I pouring the foundation walls:
My wife nailing down the subfloor. Ain't I just like a man?
"Heavy? It's just a little wall babe..."
"OK, OK... It's a LITTLE heavy..."
Time to put some roof trusses up.
"Uh, Honey... Can you try and hurry... My arms are falling asleep"
"Uh, Babe... You do remember you're afraid of heights, right?" She had a lot of fun nailing the shingles on.
Here was our original "Splurge" item. That living room window was quite a job to trim out. Had to bend wood, cut out arc's, etc. Tricky, tricky...
Here's a few for Teri... This was the first cabinet I built for our bath.
Here's the cabinet I built for our master bath. The counter really is green (Formica's "New Leaves" pattern).
And finally, here's the built-in dresser I made for our master closet. It took a while to build and install those 12 drawers. Thought that was crazy till I had to build 15 more for the kitchen cabinets!
Ok, thank you Tom for coming to my rescue. For anyone else having a problem with this, it is a simple matter of using Internet Explorer as opposed to Netscape. Easy.
Now remember, our house is a 'work in progress'. Still a lot to do. Not new and fresh like Anthony's but still I love it. Actually, the large side of the house is new, well, 10 yrs old anyway.
The silver part of the roof and the chimney are going to be replaced in the Spring. Don't know if you can see the river along the back but that is what I love most about this place. And the decks are all in back.
Anthony, when you are done with your house, come over and rebuild my bathrooms cabinets.
Your wife on that roof. NO WAY. Not me. No way, shape or form.
Now I have heard that if you can build a dresser, you can build anything. Those are supposed to be done by a craftsman. That is what you have become. Absolutely beautiful.
Love those windows. You had to bend the wood? Come on. Just a basic box builder? No way. Definately a craftsman.
I will try to find a picture of what this house looked like when the second half was being added.
She did most of the shingling on the main part of the house. It's about 5/12 on the front side and 6/12 in back. Pretty comfortable to stand and walk around on, and the roof there is "only" 10 feet off the ground. As long as she stayed away from the edges, she did great.
She wanted no part of the 9/12 roof on the side. It's steeper and about 14 feet off the ground, so it's quite scary. I had to attach foot boards to the roof just to keep tools, shingles, and myself from just sliding off! That was a job I was more than happy to be done with...
> if you can build a dresser, you can build anything.
> Those are supposed to be done by a craftsman.
> That is what you have become.
Craftsman, eh? If you say so... The dresser was a bit more difficult to build because it had to fit within the three walls of the niche. That meant lots of scribing to conform the framework to the irregularities of the wall. It was a lot of work, but it turned out nice and should offer lots of storage space.
> You had to bend the wood?
The inside arch of the window curves, obviously. So, I had to plane a couple of 1x6's down to about 1/4" so they would "bend" into a half circle in the window frame. I had to work really slow, as the board was under a lot of tension and made "cracking" noises as it was going up. I kept expecting the boards to snap completely in half, but everything went in perfectly. Not something I would want to do a lot of, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.
Thought I would share a couple more pictures of our work in progress... The pantry and refrigerator cabinets are now in place, and the drawers are finished. Still working on the cabinet doors and a few shelves still need to go in.
I don't know if it's the lighting or our camera, but the colors are kind of off in these pictures.
Wow, beautiful! Keep these coming. I need a distraction from A hell.
By the way, in answer to your questions, I am in Idaho. You look like Oregon or Washington. The highest part of our roof is 33ft. The siding on our house, I could do without. H's choice. I would prefer commercial siding. But, compromise you know.
I love looking at your pictures and hearing about the progress. There is such a good feeling from doing it yourself. It's a great boost for self-esteem. (when it turns out right)And yours is definately turning out right!
Looks like a pretty area, is that in the northern part of the state? We went through the Cour de' Lane (spelling?) area several years ago and it was beautiful. All I remember of the sourthern corner of the state are potato fields...
> You look like Oregon or Washington.
SW Washington state, down near Portland, Oregon.
> The highest part of our roof is 33ft.
Yep, that's up there... I think the highest peak of our roof is about 18 feet, give or take a foot or two. That's about the highest I can reach with my big extension ladder. Plenty high enough for me...
> The siding on our house, I could do without.
> H's choice. I would prefer commercial siding.
Really? I think it's beautiful. Real rustic.
If I "had" to pick another siding, I would probably go with a cedar lap siding. Of course, log siding looks nice too, but it's extremely expensive.
I just don't want anything like vinyl siding that makes our home look like a typical suburban house...
> I love looking at your pictures
I'll try to post a few more as things progress. The cabinet doors are taking a lot of time and work. Lots of cutting, planing, and clamping. I'll be pulling the first doors out of the clamps today, and putting the second batch in. Then there's more router work, sanding, and a few days of putting the finish on. The drawers were a cinch compared to the doors...
Portland? My son lives there. I was just up there visiting a few weeks ago. It's beautiful there. So green everywhere.
I am S ID. An hour above Boise. Boise is kind of deserty but above are mountains.
Sounds like you've become a pro a the drawers. It is so hard to get those things to line up straight. Sitting right on the river, we are on sand. The house is always shifting. So the doors and the cupboards are always moving. It's weird. I had a guy come out and rework the doors because they were sticking so badly we could hardly get out. H could have done it but I didn't complain enough apparently. So the man 'fixed' them to where 'I' could open them easily. Well, now they are sticking again. H said it would happen. But they are still better than they were.
My kitchen cabinets are sticking again, too. We bought ours from Home Depot. I love them. I just adjusted them again a few months ago and now THEY are not closing right. It's because the house shifts. What a pain.
Siding...I guess I'm weird. I prefer a big city house in the woods with a cottage garden and a golf course lawn. This WAS a cabin and I've done everything I can to make it a house. Told H, I'm NOT living in a 'cabin.' A least not a rustic one. But I do like it. I think he prefers the rustic cabin look. I think we compromised pretty well though.
You mentioned how building your house pulled and your W closer rather than apart. I have had a lot of fun with this house. Making plans and changing them. Watching it grow. It is OUR house. We are kind of bonded to it. It's US.
My wife always jokes with me about a drawer I built for a small project in High School. There wasn't a parallel line in the whole thing. But, it still fit into the opening, so I was proud of that little drawer.
Naturally, my wife gave me a skeptical smile when I told her that I would have to build over 30 drawers for our house!
> rework the doors because they were sticking so badly
Funny story... The front door of our mobile home gave us problems for years. It would swell shut in the winter, and the screen door would swing past the stops in the summer. Twice a year I would have to readjust the door to get it to close and lock properly.
Eventually the cheap exterior trim started rotting, and when I went to replace it I discovered why we had so many problems with the door. There were no nails or screws holding the door in place, it was just caulked to the siding! This allowed the wood to warp and bend severely as the weather changed. Once I replaced the trim and shimmed and nailed the jambs properly, we haven't had a problem since.
> I prefer a big city house in the woods
See... I just don't get that. People around here seem to have that same way of thinking. The way I see it, if you want a city house, live in the city... Why move to the country, cut down all the trees, and make it look like a city lot? There's plenty of those in the city already.
We moved out here about 13 years ago to "Get away from it all". My aunt was a realtor at the time and warned us not to buy property here because "we would never be able to sell it". 13 years later, they are building homes across the road that cost 1.25 million dollars each! Expensive gated "estates" have taken over the area. So much for getting away from it all.
But, we've planted our roots here and will do our best to maintain our country nature and privacy. I suspect we'll actually have to start building fences in the coming years so we don't have to look at the neighbors mini-mansions.
It was nice to have a short break from normal life.
