Old Stone House

I’ve decided it is time to clean up this website – no, I’m not drastically changing the design. I’m happy enough with the way things look and I’m not going to spend the effort making huge changes when they’re not necessary. Will I update the site? You betcha – This design is going to be 3+ years old soon and I’m tired of it – as well as I’m pretty sure I can improve on it – just like me house.

Anyway, I upgraded the blogging platform, cleaned out some useless plugins and reviewed my unpublished drafts and links list. The link-list has been very poorly maintained. As I use Google reader for all my blog subscriptions, and upload posts to this blog via platforms such as ScribeFire – I rarely visit my own blog – and thus I lost track of the state of my links list. (more agony and joy…)

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you’ll know that we have had a number of issues with ice dams over the last few winters. Our first year in the house we didn’t have and problems, but since then we have had ‘water in the kitchen’ event every winter.

At first we thought the water was the result on backed-up gutters. But judicious cleaning ruled that out. We considered that the terrible soffits might have something to do with our wet walls, but that theory was disproved after replacing all the soffits (reinstating walls etc.) on the ugly addition.

It wasn’t until I ventured onto the roof in the dead of winter with a shovel and crowbar that I discovered a 6″-8″ slab of ice atop the roof… (more agony and joy…)

2008 has been the bastion for economic uncertainty. One year ago people were recording record house sale profits and the economy ‘appeared’ to be steaming along without issue. However as well all know, economic times were not a good as once thought and now North America is gripped by financial instability.

People are losing their houses, their savings, and their hope…

…so does anybody want to talk about poverty? (more agony and joy…)

A long time ago my father taught me that one of the best ‘toolboxes’ is an old drywall compound bucket. My father had a bucket for plumbing, an electrical bucket, a drywalling bucket, and the general use bucket. Simple, sturdy, and free. (more agony and joy…)

I can’t believe it’s been two months since my last post! Where has the time gone?

I’m happy to report that nothing extraordinary has happened since my last writing – and I’m grateful for that! It would seem that our little experiment with the housing market did us a world of good – allowing us to prioritize our needs, be thankful for what we have, and avoid possible economic disaster. (more agony and joy…)