Home Improvement

One day while on a trail run, I spotted a bunch of junk on the side of the dirt road I was on. So naturally, I investigated. There were boards with peeling paint -- bright colors, red, gold and lime green -- and a few palm fronds. It looked as if someone had disassembled a kitschy roadside taco stand. I wanted to bring it home, but I had too much stuff in the car, and it was getting late and really cold. All I wanted to do was take a hot shower and then cozy up to the fire; however, the fire was not to be. The day before I had the chimney inspector guy come out to clean and inspect, and he gave me a list of reasons precisely $2050 long why I should not attempt to build a fire.

Anyway, a few days later, I came back to the junk pile with Subaru and sidekick, and we salvaged the painted boards. A few table saw swipes later, I had an amped-up headboard for the downstairs guest suite.



And if that wasn't enough, this weekend was a rare 3-day weekend for me, and instead of using the extra day to freelance, or make an impromptu trip to another state, I tiled my bathroom floor, with mosaic riverstone.


I still need to seal the grout -- and then of course install new baseboard, do some touch-up paint, and oh yeah, put the toilet back. But for this being my first-ever tile job, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I already have the accessories all imagined! Haha...

It's nice to finally get to a place in my home improvement where it's fun visual stuff, as opposed to, say, getting rid of dead rodents.