Okay. Life as we know it may be getting ready to undergo the ultimate uber-craziness. I have been staying away from teh teevee box (well, except for Keith, Rachel, the Science Channel, and hockey...) for years. Now, in an attempt to recover my sanity, I've been trying to stay away from teh intertoobz. I haven't been terribly successful. But as they say in Zen, chop wood, carry water...so that is what I've been doing - DIY manual labor - soothes the brain and makes the body tired. Good things, both.
I have had an interesting couple of weeks. I live in an 80-year-old bungalow that has good bones but has been neglected in its lifetime, and with some parts buried under fairly icky 50s and 60s remodeling.
We redid the porch this past week - wow, that was fun with the heat index at 112...
New railings, repaired brick columns, new screen door... The dirty white wicker furniture is now painted a deep, rich brown, and I made new cushions (digging through the remnant bin at the fabric store was fun!) All done on the cheap, with sweat equity and a little barter. And two cases of beer!
For my next project...strip about seventeen layers of white paint from the dark oak trim all through the house. That's a lot of paint removal. I calculate it will take about ten months if I do it in small chunks. But a realtor friend says that I could add a substantial amount of value to the house if I do that sort of restoration. And the wood under the layers of nasty paint is beautiful...
I am lucky that our house is in a neighborhood that is still viable (at least right now - who knows for how long) for starter homes for first-time buyers, since I still want to move to cooler climes. Three houses on our block have sold in the past couple of months to young families, and most properties don't stay on the market for long. I'm hoping this continues at least until we find a spot farther north... I still want to move to Maine - even with that nutjob for a governor. It is a foregone conclusion that here in Mississippi we are going to have a (another, worse) nutjob governor, and virtually no Democratic Party to speak of. At least in Maine we know that 61% of the voters didn't vote for their nutjob, and if we move there, at least we might be able to add to the 61% and help things change in that state. (Fingers crossed).
All of these plans assume the world does not explode/implode/collapse. So for now I am just trying to stay informed - and sanding and painting really does help when I begin to feel rather helpless...
Yeah, I know this may be a weird diary for a Block Party, but with all the weirdness and bad news out there, maybe a weird diary is okay.
So, your challenge for the evening's festivity is: Tell me what was your most successful DIY project? Which one was an absolute nightmare? Do you enjoy fixing things and making things, or would you rather someone else do it? Does the sight of a paint bucket or a handsaw cause you to break out in hives?
Or would you rather just ignore everything and grab a cold one and a good book?
What are you DIYing?