Outside Christmas Lights

Posted by James on November 28, 2011
Posted in: Christmas, New Home. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

We wanted to take the outside Christmas lights that we did last year a little bit further this year, well, actually, higher.  Jamie climbed onto the roof with a tape measure and took exact measurements so that Elliot’s could cut light strands in just the lengths that we needed to trim the roofline. Remember that we had our electricians install outlets under the eaves on each side of the house last January? Well….. this was why.

 

BA-BAM!!!! I Know! Doesn’t it look great?

The orange front door doesn’t even bother me. Last year, just for Christmas, Jamie painted the front door red (Martha Stewart – Vermillion, to be precise) …This year, we liked the fresh orange so much that we didn’t want to touch it. Now that doesn’t mean that next year it won’t be red again…..

 

Here’s a close up of the cow skull over the pine cone wreath…Pretty sure that our neighbors hate it …But I L.O.V.E.  it!

I’m not a big fan of silk garland ….so I doubled it up to look thicker. Once we twisted  in 3 different lights  ( clear B-lights, white C-7s, and red cranberry lights) and added all the pinecones and berries…I hardly even see it.  A few years ago, while we were in Birmingham, I started collecting huge pinecones in the parking lot of our hotel. I had so many that we had to buy a duffel bag at Kmart to check all the pinecones on our flight back…….True Story ….”cough” ,”possible hoarder”,”cough”!

The C-7 lights have punched tin star-shaped reflectors on them…..

I think they are from the 60’s….. mostly find them on eBay…I’ve honestly never seen anyone else use them , So I just think they are coolness. They make the  C-7s in the garland and bushes glow even brighter….and slighlty “star-shaped”.

 

The Big Ornament Wreath

Posted by James on November 27, 2011
Posted in: Christmas, New Home. Tagged: , , , . 4 Comments

About 20 years ago, I bought a small bag of vintage ornaments at a thrift store for about 4 dollars. They were hand painted Polish ornaments with poinsettias, and snowy log cabins. I was fascinated by how beautifully aged they were, the way the colors had speckled and faded to look almost like old metal. These first few really got the ball rolling with my old ornament obsession and every time I would see Polish, Czech, German, and even American Shiney Brites for a buck or 2 each…I’d buy them. I’m not just limited to November/December shopping either because I find them cheaper throughout the rest of the year…in junk shops, thrift stores, flea markets and even antique malls. So every year when I pull the tubs out of the attic, it’s Christmas all over again discovering all the new treasures that I had purchased and stashed through-out the year.

 I start with a 3 foot chicken wire wreath that I’ve wired over an old mirror. It’s wrapped with thin silk garland and about 100 b-lights (just for glow). I painstakingly hook each individual ornament into the chicken wire, starting at the bottom, until the whole thing is one giant packed ornament wreath…..Takes about a half a day.

Hiding the Trash

Posted by James on November 13, 2011
Posted in: New Home. 2 Comments

So my Sunday morning started just the way most of my Sunday mornings start…..

“Get up, we’re going to Home Depot”

I had casually mentioned that I wish we didn’t have to see our trash cans next to the house, and how nice it would be if they were hidden behind the fence in the alley. But that part of the yard has a severe slope…..we had been using it to store all the boulders, bricks, and chunks of cement we find while working in the yard…..and at that angle they would just constantly roll into the alley…..

Jamie had been pondering just how to keep our trash cans on the slopy part  behind the fence all night, and was ready first thing in the morning to put his plan into effect. He started by leveling the ground, the best he could…then building a little retainer with 6 feet of a pressure treated 4x6x8 and driving rebar in front to keep it put.  The 2 feet he cut off the 4x6x8 went onto the side.  Then he put brick pavers on the newly leveled ground and filled in around them with pea gravel.  Finally he screwed a 1×6 in front to cap the whole thing and hold the pavers in place…

No more looking at the trash cans from the house…..and this project only took 3 trips to Home Depot.

Plumbing Pipe Firewood Holder

Posted by James on November 6, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 132 Comments

A few months ago, I saw these little gems in a catalog…

But the prices were unbelievable….

One of my favorite restaurants here in Oak Cliff uses wall-mounted plumbing pipe as “log wranglers” and I comment about how much I like them every time we eat there. I have used plumbing pipe to make shelves and curtain rods before , so I knew that I could make something of a hybrid between these and the ones at Eno’s.

I started by making a box of layered 2x4s , and a 1×4 pine trim on the outside layer…

Flip flops are the required footwear for working with power tools….

The base has to be pretty substantial to hold the weight of all those logs…..so at least 3 layers, screwed together with drywall screws…..

I topped the frame with a plywood sheet cut to 18×28…….and nailed it in with brads…then gave it a quick sand to even out all the edges…..

I used a Minwax water based walnut stain ….so easy , just rub it on with a clean cloth..dries in about 2 hours. I gave it 2 coats….the more coats , the darker the finish. This stain is perfect for something that will take the abuse that this piece will…

Here’s what it looked like after it dried…..

I flipped it over and bolted on casters to the bottom with 2 inch lag screws…course I drilled pilot holes first…

Now that I had my base, all we had to do was build the plumbing pipe frame…

I laid all the plumbing pieces out on the floor of  Home-Depot…and took this shot to remember the configuration…All the pipes are 3/4 inch diameter; anything smaller just seemed to thin to hold all the fire wood. We bought : 4 – 60 ” pipes, 4 – 5 ” pipes, 1 – 18″ pipe. 4 elbows, 2 tees, and 4 floor flanges.

For some reason, the flanges only come galvanized, and not black…so I sprayed them with a quick shot of 99 cent black spray paint….I always have a few cans …..(for black spray paint emergencies)

Spray the Flanges Black with 99 Cent Black Sparay Paint

Once our pipe fixture was screwed together we bolted it to the base with 2 inch lag screws…it now looks exactly like this……

diy-rolling-log-holder-made-from-plumbing-pipes

I am absolutely thrilled with the final results…not really that much cheaper than the original ( 60 bucks for 5 foot pipes, 60 bucks for 4 casters….etc). But we made it ourselves…..and in just one afternoon. I think it took longer to carry all the firewood into the house to load the thing……..

Harley Davidson Joins the Family

Posted by James on October 22, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , , , . 7 Comments

Today is the one year anniversary of Harley Coming home with us.

About a year ago we started searching for a dog. And not just any dog would do, but one with plenty of personality. A dog that just fit “us”.

After countless internet searches, and a fruitless afternoon with the North Texas Doberman Rescue….I found a post for a Female Doberman, Harley Davidson, that needed a home. Right away, her name struck a chord with me….But female? Never even considered a female… I poked my head in Jamies office, where he was typing away, and asked…”Would you consider a girl dog?”

“I don’t care….I just want a dog”….was the reply.

So I sent an email asking if she was still available to meet. But we weren’t the only ones interested in her. Apparently, she had about 6 other people ahead of us wanting to adopt her. Sara, the coordinator for North Texas Animal Rescue, asked me to send a longer email explaining a little bit about who we were and our experience with Dobermans….

Here is that email,

 

Hi Sara,Thanks for responding so quickly,

I had a Doberman for almost 11 years. Faust was a Warlock who grew to almost 130 intimidating pounds, but never knew that he wasn’t a lap dog. People would cross to the other side of the street at the sight of him when we were walking, but he would climb into bed with me and cry during thunderstorms. I got him from a breeder when he was just 8 weeks old, so we were together almost his entire life, and a quarter of mine. He was intelligent, protective, and loved everyone he met with the same sloppy gentle enthusiasm. Faust died last year after a battle with stomach cancer. He was, without a doubt, the best friend I ever had……

My partner and I are both mature (read: in our 40’s), have stable careers, and have been together about 4 years. We bought a new house 7 months ago and have been waiting until we were settled to find a dog to complete our family. Jamie, my partner, works from home and is here all day long.

I know that Dobermans can be large breeds, and have a large amount of energy. Having raised and trained a puppy, I can understand that they might be a bit much for some people to handle. We want to open our home to a Doberman that needs one. We would love to meet Harley and see if she is the right fit for our family. This is a big decision, and not one that I would ever rush into. Jamie doesn’t care what kind of dog we get; we both have big hearts and plenty of love to share with any new addition………..

But there will always be a special place in my heart for big loving Dobermans.

We both look forward to an opportunity to meet her,

Sincerely,

James Angus

After that email…Sara said that we went to the top of the list…

2 days later we went to “just meet” her ……The minute we saw her, with one floppy ear and one that sticks straight up, we knew that she was the perfect dog for us.

Our Entryway

Posted by James on October 12, 2011
Posted in: New Home. 1 Comment

First impressions are crucial.

The first impression walking into this house was a little dreary. There were odd little pony walls separating the entry from the dining area (We use it as a living room). And for some-odd reason the floor was the weird green-gold broken marble mosaic…Very 1973. Did I mention the sad little plastic lamp hanging from the yellow ceiling? And just what was up with a closet that was only 22 inches wide?

These things had to be solved, and solved fast.

Jamie thought I was kidding when I picked up a sledge-hammer and crow-bar at the Home Depot……He didn’t want to change a thing…But I was determined to take those weird little walls down.

It was Jamie who took the first swing with the sledge-hammer…While I was at work..I came home to find one wall missing.  Then we went at the other one . A few sheets of drywall later..Another box of (almost the same color) parquet……The plastic light fixture was replaced with 2 new recessed cans. Oh, and a couple of rolls of cork that I found on Amazon..The kind that teachers use in classrooms.

And our entry looks more like this…..

Yeppers!!!!! Way More Much Better……

Before We Lived Here

Posted by James on October 9, 2011
Posted in: Before We Lived Here, New Home. Tagged: . 1 Comment

We first saw this house on Trulia about a week before we saw it in person. We were pretty interested right away…and quickly added it to the 40 houses we planned on seeing the first day out. (Yeah, Right…like that was gunna happen all in one day) We loved the size of the open kitchen/living room, the large backyard with 2 car garage in the back of the house, and the “described-as” chef’s kitchen.  I think this was the 10th house we saw that Saturday in February…….and we went back later that day to see it again. We Knew…we just knew. Anyhoo…here are the original pictures from that Trulia listing…..

Guest Bathroom

Notice how there are no pictures of the master bathroom, for obvious reasons. We’ve come a long way since these photos were taken about a year and a half ago.

An Open Letter to a Thief……

Posted by James on October 8, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Leave a comment

Dear Sir, or even possibly Madam(although I don’t think a woman could lift it alone),

Maybe you are going through hard times, and the only way that you can feed your family is stealing.  It must be incredibly difficult to come home every night (after a long day of  standing on a street corner) and face your hungry family with only $3.00 in your pocket. I would imagine that your days start at about 5 am so that you can hit the recycling bins looking for cans that you can sell,  or be one of the first in the social services line for food stamps or rent assistance. Maybe your are about to lose your home because you are so behind in you mortgage, you haven’t had a job in over 16 months,  and you’re not sure where your family will live. Your sister and her kids have already taken in your cousin’s family, and wheelchair-bound father……and she only has 2 bedrooms. It must be incredibly difficult  imagining your family homeless, and living under an overpass on the highway. I can only empathize your  frustration, as you drive through middle-class neighborhoods looking for discarded metals that you can resell, and you see how fancy other people live .

” These people have everything so easy,” you think to yourself…..”with thier 15 year-old unairconditioned trucks, color televisions, and windows with intact, undamaged mini blinds”.

” There is no way that these people would ever have to save any of their hard-earned money for frivolous appliances,” you grumble to yourself.

 “I’ll bet they just go to a fancy-shamcy store like Home Depot and buy a $150 air compressor on a whim…hardly any thought to it all.”

“It is their own fault for taunting me with the alley-aimed  garage door open at 3 in the afternoon…and that shinney, year-old air compressor just beckoning to me from the very back of that jam-packed , yet still very well-organized, garage.” You imagine the tear-soaked faces of your starving children….and you go for it…

“Those Bourgeoisie Bastards will never miss it ! They have everything so easy”, “Just look at that lawn mower that propels itself”. You explode with emotion, because they have so much…and you , so little.

“I can pawn this for $30 , and we can all eat at McDonald’s for the whole week”, you shake with excitement,  imagining filling your children’s little bellies with cheeseburgers.

“I know that my Lord will forgive me on judgement day”, you think;  it’s not that you wanted to take our air-compressor……but you HAD to.

Maybe, just maybe, this is how it all played out……..or maybe you’re just a piece of crap who steals from other people………

Texas State Fair 2011

Posted by James on October 5, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

The last week of September is the start the State Fair of Texas, and I haven’t missed going to one for the past 15 years now. After we have spent all day gorging ourselves on deep-fried PB&Js, jalapeno-cheese corny dogs, roasted corn, and warmish beer…. we head to the very back of the midway to ride the Crazy Mouse. It’s a rickety, colorful small-ish roller coaster that has been in the same place for as long as I can remember. When I was a teen, I had the energy to try all the swirly mechanical amusements, but now that I’m older, this is the only one that I can stomach. It’s also the only one at the fair where they take a digital picture just as the car drops. I ALWAYS buy this picture……I love the sheer joy that we undoubtedly seem to have on our faces just as we fall 4 stories…..and how we look sick and excited at the same time.

Usually it is near dusk by the time we have headed to the Crazy Mouse and the early October sunset streaks the sky with orange and pink behind us. Other times it is at night and the colors seem unnaturally bright from the carnival lights all around. This picture is right in between both of those moments…..

When you come in the front door of our house, the wall immediately on the left is covered in photos (vacations, old family pictures……and several of these roller coaster images……)

I can hear the laughter every time I look at them.

The Ceramic Doberman

Posted by James on October 5, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

Occasionally I see something in a junk shop that I have to have…even though I have no place/need for it . ( see compulsive organized-hoarder ) This guy was one of those things.

I know!! Isn’t he just crazy cool? Not really sure why I would need a 3 foot tall ceramic Doberman when we have the real thing constantly demanding our attention already….but I just did.

Dig these crazy demon eyes …that I am hoping someone customized him with…..

All those little chips make him pretty spooky as well. Unfortunately, he has a small hole in his belly right next to his male genitalia.

No worries, pretty sure that is why he was so cheap. I just hot-glued a piece of cardboard behind the hole and then filled it in with spackle from a squeeze tube. A quick sand, and he was ready to go. It was actually the same process as patching a hole in the wall…..and I have done quite a few of those in the past year.

I always keep black spray paint in the house for emergency black spray paint situations….and TA DA!!!

Something about the matt black and those pointy ears that reminds me of Batman. Not quite sure what we will do with him….except tie a bow tie around his neck……for fancy occasions.