Lest you think Renee's job consists of endless hours in the stuffy Museum setting...here she is trapesing aroung the forest with artist Mark Dion looking for specimens!

To get a feel for how we are living, here is a picture of Camp Devine. The table in the foreground is made from "reclaimed material". The table base is the old laundry chute and the table top is an old shed door from a demolished house a few doors down. The Pacific Mobile trailer is the current Master Suite containing our bed, clothes, couch, and desk. To the left is our outdoor kitchen which we can move under the carport when it rains. Unfortunately the blue trim on the trailer doesn't match the blue walls of the honey bucket. Oil cloth table covers courtesy Archie McPhee novelty store.

Project complete!

The decision was made to use the most expedient method of getting the pipe on the ground. I labeled the method "controlled drop" when I sold it to Renee. Basically I pushed it toward a vacant part of the yard and hoped it wouldn't take out the garage on the way down.

A soil pipe cutter makes easy work of chopping up these old pipes. I have the bottom clamped in place after making the first cut...while I try to figure out how to get the whole thing down without killing myself.

The small piping was cut away and then I started on the tall cast iron vent stack.

Saturday's project was removing the exterior plumbing from the back of the house in preparation for new siding wich may start next week. You can see the plumbing on the back of the house in this photo.

Bathroom

We keep plugging away at the downstairs bathroom while trying to keep other things going as well. The next big event will hopefully be removing the siding, sheathing the house with plywood, installing windows, then new siding.

-Brian

The next thing to fit is the marble threshold and then grout and caulk.

The shampoo garage "feature"!

Here is the finished tile but without the grout...that is tomorrow.

The first wall comes out OK.

We start with a dry layout to see how things are lining up.

The shower backsplash is ready for tile.

Tiles installed...

Here is the layout - then we transfer the pieces to the location.

The tile for the shower presents some difficulties but they are no match for Renee. We should be able to grout this in the next day or so and then move to the tile shower surrounds. Then all we need is the wainscoting, paint, and some plumbing.

Bogging?

Still trying to figure out this blogging thing...don't know if this is the best way to keep everyone up-to-date on the house - I'm showing Renee how to do this incase I can't...she is sending me up to the roof to remove the chimney top.

Sunny Saturday

We started the day with breakfast from the BBQ and then went shopping for paint and molding for the bathroom. Today's list is - install wainscotting, remove chimney, and paint, bathroom.

Sounds a bit agressive - probably won't finish...

The Feast!!

A lovely backyard garden.

Breakfast from our outdoor Kitchen!

Grout...yum!

A few days later we managed to do the grout.

There are still some fiddly bits around the corners of the shower base.

Fortunately these things come in sheets and only the pattern needs to be installed as individual tiles.

We spent more time layout the tile than it took to actually install the tile.

The floor is ready for tile.

A lot of mud and fairing went into this room.

Lots of crazy angles on this drywall job.

First Saturday of the Blog

I'm not sold on the whole blogging thing but I'll try it as a way to keep photos and progress on the house updated and available - we're not trying to change the world with our blog - just the house.

-Brian