Often times in life, good things are born from seemingly bad situations. And so it goes for homeownership too. We recently had some roofing repairs done to our Spanish tile roof. When the roofers began to tackle a leak around our chimney, I heard the dreaded words you never want to hear from your roofer, “Marc, I think you might want to come up here and take a look at this.” Up the ladder I went, and there to greet me were several gaping cracks in our vintage 1936 brick and stucco chimney. I’m no mason, but I knew it was bad. In fact, I had pretended not to notice them from ground level in the past, but now that I was up close, it looked like the top of our chimney was just about to split in two or three pieces before crumbling down. [click to continue…]
Architecture
Yearning for a high-end look in your home, but finding yourself a little short on funds? Marble, granite, tile, crown molding and other types of high-end building materials may be just a phone call away for a fraction of the retail cost. Contact local builders, cabinetmakers, tile and countertop installers, to see what treasures they might be sitting on. [click to continue…]
Okay, so some of you may have read the first installment of this article “Mud ‘n Tape For the Last Time With Faux Beam Work,” and here’s the wrap up. As you can see from the pictures, the project still isn’t totally finished. Paint, hardwood floors, new doors, finished closets, etc. are still to come, but the beam work is up. (And c’mon ladies, what girl doesn’t dream of a Bosch Double Compound Miter Saw as the focal point of the master bedroom?) [click to continue…]
Repaired cracks before sanding
If any of you are as sick as I am of dealing with stress cracks, mudding/taping over and over again, and worse yet, repainting every few years, then this may be a solution for you. Stress cracks in sheetrock (which is what we’re dealing with in our second story bedrooms), or other building materials don’t necessarily indicate a structural issue. As is my case, they may be a recurring problem due to high winds and the natural, resulting movement of the structure. That doesn’t mean I have to like having to touch up and repair on a regular basis. I’ve had it, so my answer to the problem is faux beam work. [click to continue…]
You’ve heard of food porn. You’ve heard of house porn. And we presume you know of porn porn (and if not, we can’t imagine how incredibly confusing this entire intro must be to you. That, and really? REALLY? You don’t know what porn is? What Internet are you using?). But now we’d like to bring something to your attention that you might not have heard of before: stair porn. Really. [click to continue…]
