AO Eyewear

We were at ReStore for something totally unrelated (vintage wallpaper to put in a frame), but I couldn’t pass up new-in-the-box AO safety glasses, straight out of 1962.  This was one pair out of a hundred, and in the spirit of the season, I’d love to share the awesomeness.   So let me know if [...]

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How to Buy a House on the Toronto Islands

Assuming you’re Canadian and have a half-million dollars to spend without warning, how could you not want to get on the waiting list for a house on the Toronto Islands?
Your first task is to join the list. As the list is capped at five hundred, you have to wait for existing people to drop off. [...]

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Downsizing the Dream Home

Maybe houses in the South don’t really need a fireplace. Interesting article from the WSJ on new demands buyers are making on Giant Corporate Homebuilders – smaller, simpler, cheaper, etc.
Fearful that their market is evaporating, company executives have spent the past few months trying to figure out what buyers are willing to give up, and [...]

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Fallen

Look, Autumn – I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but I concede that you’re aesthetically pleasing.  It doesn’t mean I like winter, though – got it?

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Winterey

I had to wear gloves and a balaclava on my ride to work this morning, and now there’s snow falling outside.  It seems appropriate, then, that we’re mailing in our application for federal weatherization funding tomorrow.  Thanks for the blown-in wall insulation, President Obama!
To Shane (in the comments): You’re right, although technically I owe more [...]

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Streetscape

We live very near a business district.  “Very near,” as in, I can see the stoplight from the porch without leaning over the railing.  There’s  potential for hipness – independent cafes!  used bookstores!  ethnic restaurants!  cool people walking around! – but at the moment, it’s all potential.
At our neighborhood meeting last week, a representative from [...]

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Zoo

There’s a squirrel chirping inside our wall.  Chirping happily away, inside our first-floor wall.  Ugh.
Update: No wait.  There are two, and they’re talking.

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Paul David Plumbing

Christopher over at Shaker Heights Restoration had a terrible experience with Paul David of Paul David’s Plumbing.  I’m linking to it because (1) I’m an empathetic guy and I commiserate, and (2) more links will put his review higher in the Google results.  I think that’s the way Google works anyway – but I don’t [...]

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Up, up and away

The first two weeks of the fall semester always kills me dead, and this term is no exception.  I’ve cut a handful of strips for the basement stairwell wall, but that’s the sum total of the progress I’ve made.  I’ve let the larger houseblogging community down, and I’ll clear the breakfast table at our  next [...]

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Dots and dots

I’m not sure why my daughter isn’t wearing pants in this picture (a power struggle I missed out on?  Lost a bet?), but the rug looks good, eh?  Those curtains, on the other hand -

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