House Progress Photos

So you can see the holes in the floor, but *I* can see the holes in the roof. And what you can’t see about some of the holes in the floor is that they look directly down into the rooms below. All in the name of straightening out the heating system. And yes – that thing on the left side is the “straightened” system. It’s a huge improvement on what was there before.

This is my closet. Or will be some day. Until I knock it out completely and turn it into a much bigger closet. But right now it’s in pieces because there’s some really wacky plumbing going through there. Probably there used to be a sink in the room. Wouldn’t mind still having that, actually. Hmmm…

This used to be a linen closet. Now it’s a closet full of ducts and pipes because I insist on having heat and plumbing in my upper floors. Oh well. Towels can’t possibly take up that much space, right?

This is one of many mystery holes one can find in almost all of my walls. It has to do with the frozen plumbing. I’m much more interested in holes now than surprise leaks later. Also, you may notice that my walls are not ye olde typical drywall. They’re ye older typical plaster. I hope the guys who made these holes know how to fix them.

Sexy new plumbing in our downstairs bathroom.

The corner of this room was overrated anyway.

I have an idea for a kitchen game: THE FLOOR IS LAVA!!! I’ll never get anything cooked if I can only step on parts of the floor with lick’n'stick linoleum tiles, but the good news is, if the floor is LAVA, everything will be cooked all the time.

Also, my kitchen floor has a trap door. Not really. But you could fall through it for sure.

Read Full Post »

Public Restroom Blues

Why must people forget to lock their stall doors in public bathrooms and then look offended when you open the door and find them half-naked? This happens to me all the time, and I don’t understand why.

Sadly, it isn’t uncommon to find a public bathroom where the stall door locks are missing or broken, but isn’t it logical to try and keep the door shut some other way? Lean over and hold it shut with your hand. (Don’t try to do it with a foot… I’ve heard that can have terrible results.)

Even if the door is too far away from the toilet to hold it shut and use the toilet at the same time, I’m convinced there are ways to keep people from opening your stall door. Singing, for example. Loudly. If you’re really desperate for privacy, you may even want to consider singing drunkenly. I don’t know about you, but if I heard drunk singing coming out of a stall, I would steer very clear. In fact, I don’t think I’d use that stall even after it became available.

If your voice (or ego) isn’t up to singing, you could take off one shoe and stick it under the door. If you saw a shoe sitting under a stall door, you’d think twice before using that stall, wouldn’t you? At least peek under to see if there was a foot that belonged to that shoe?

But my final piece of advice is: if you fail to lock your door or can’t lock your door and do nothing to secure your own privacy, don’t look at me like it’s my fault when I open your stall door.

Read Full Post »