Window Frame Magic

First of all, don't ask me why the pics are sideways. I tried to rotate them on Photobucket, but it wasn't working, so if it bothers you, just turn your head sidways, or lay your monitor on it's side for the remainder of this post. Okay, well I wasn't kidding when I said that a lot of progress was made over the past few days. Originally, this wall (plaster and wood lath) was taken out because

A Very Ninja Christmas

It's been nice having some of the family over for Christmas, but it's also good that I can rest a little now. I put on about 10 lbs over the past few days from stress-eating. Since most of my family is in Florida or NY (and until now I have lived in a 450 sq foot studio), I would always go there for Xmass. This is the first time I have had people over to my place for the holidays. This is

T Minus...5....4....3...

Okay, so I went to the mall with ToolBelt Diva yesterday and finished Xmass shopping for the relatives coming to visit. I am off from work tomorrow and they should be getting here tomorrow night or sat morning. SO that gives me anywhere from 8-10 hours to finish the floors, and prime the bathroom (I don't think I'll have time to paint it, but it should look like white paint if it's primed). And

Manual Labor: Harder than it looks

Now, I mentioned before that I have a manual flooring nailer. I thought about a pneumatic (air compressor) one, but I bought a manual one for several reasons.When I had done flooring in the past when I was younger, I used a manual one like this. They really didn't have a lot of air-powered tools around 'till recently. So I was more comfortable with it. I didn't want to buy a compressor just to

Tasting the Cake Batter

Since I haven't finished my post with all the cool pics, I'll just show some preview pics so that you can get a general idea of how I've suffered for your amusement.I'll post all the rest of the pics when I finish my other post. So consider this post as the one that is comparable to when your mom lets you lick the cake batter out of the bowl while you wait for the cake to be baked. For those of

Foreshadowing

Okay. So I didn't get as far as I'd like with the hardwood (this sounds like a recurring theme). But I did make some impressive progress. I was going good until I ran out of nails. I'll try to post some pics up tonight. I also have to make a run to Home Depot (which I hate worse than Hades itself) because it's the closest place that would carry nails for my Porta Nailer 401 flooring nailer. The

Ketchup Post

Okay then. A few people have asked me what happened o'er the weekend. So to catchup:When we last left our protagonist, he was planning on making repairs to the ninja fortress for the upcoming visit of Big Bad Ninja Daddy and Evil Ninja Twin Brother (and their respective entourages).Okay, so progress didn't go like I planned. But some positive results were achieved.I made a pilgrimage to tool

Operation Weekend Progress

Okay, so I got a phone call yesterday that my Dad, his GF, my Brother, his wife and 3 kids might be coming to visit me this christmas. Now I usually go where they are (florida) for christmas because:almost all my family is in SoFla so I can kill a bunch of birds* with one stone by killin-errrr, visiting them all at once. it's easier for me to go there than for all them to go come here (

When Good Bomb Threats Go Bad

So I finally figured out how to re-size the pics on my blog. The guy from houseblogs.net told me I should fix them before I was added to their webring because some of them took up the whole screen and made it hard to read. The pics have been bothering me since I set up the blog, but I had no idea how to fix them (I can plumb much better than I can write code). I asked a couple of people last

Token Progress

Okay, so yesterday I planned to do some stuff around the house but vegetated in front of the TV again. I did nail about 5 hardwood floorboards in, just so that I don't feel guilty about doing absolutely nothing. In hindsight, this was probably not the best idea because I still feel guilty. If you're wondering what I feel guilty about, you should know that I was raised catholic so I don't need

Plumbing by Trial and Error

Okay, this was the scene of my latest, and hopefully my last, flood. Some background: the contractor that I fired (Osni) had moved this radiator because the new jacuzzi tub was a couple of inches bigger than the old tub and the radiator, therefore, didn't fit anymore. The joker who moved the radiator used to work for the gas company, and if he can't connect water pipes without leaking, I shudder

I Help the Toolbelt Diva

So because I have so much crap to do at the ninja fortress, I decided to take a break and do something fun...like plastering some walls at Tina's place. I like helping Tina out at her place because 1) the food is better in Bethesda and 2) she thinks I know what I am doing and appreciates the help. This is in sharp contrast to what it's like when I try to help my dad out, who is much more likely

Fun with Plumbing

Okay, so the radiators were disconnected by the contractor, and after I fired him, I installed hardwood floors and reconnected them. Of all my home-improvement skillz, plumbing was probably my least-well developed. Unlike tile or carpentry, I have only seen pipes being soldered, but never actually done them myself until now. Luckily I had my dad, the contractor, in Florida whom I could ask

Pre-Thanksgiving Thoughts

Hmmm, well I got nothing accomplished yesterday. I did work out with [Johnny Vegas]*, but I can't blame my lack of progress on that since most of the days that I accomplish nothing are the result of my watching movies or home-improvement shows. Here are good things about working out with Johnny Vegas*: Even though he's bigger than me, I can usually lift a little more than him, which makes me feel

Welcome

Aloha! Since this is the first post, I should mention that I bought an old (1910) townhome in DC and am going through home improvement hell. I am thinking of starting a blog on it would be a good way to vent my frustations since breaking holes in my newly finished walls would cause more stress than it relieved. I was thinking of calling my blog “the Home Improvement Ninja”. Ninja doesn’t