Mr. Raccoon's days are numbered

After two years of Mr. (or Mrs) Raccoon living in the garage and sporadic encounters; I finally broke down and called a professional pest removal company. After a walk through with Bill (the raccoon guy) we discovered that the furry fellow is definitely living in the basement. Lovely . . . as if that basement didn't creep me out enough!

So due to the great weather all weekend I did not have an itching desire to be stuck in the house all day. I decided that I would take on what I thought was an easy task: replacing a kitchen faucet.



Let's just say that it is completed but I lost most of the day. I learned a couple things that should help me in the future



1) Always take on projects during regular business hours of a hardware store because I always forget something or ruin something I have that needs a replacement.



2) Either I don't know what I'm doing (entirely possible) or compression fittings stink. They tell you not to tighten too much but I tighten the crap of them and nothing doing. I ripped one off the pipe and doused myself in tons of water. I felt like Curly from the Three Stooges when they pretend they are plumbers: "A simple job for simple people"!





Off topic but very important is dunkies now has free turbo shots of expresso for your iced coffees. Not sure how long it'll last but I'm all over it. Maybe it will make up for the proposed sales tax hike in Mass. Ugh . . .

For the phone geek in me I have this: if you want to get out of your Verizon Wireless contract Termination Fee free you have until 5/3. They are changing the way they bill their picture messages and you may be able to jump to that Iphone you have been eyeing up all this time . . . or is that just me?

The First Post

I was hesitant to start a blog but i felt it would be a good way to document our attempts to renovate my house. For the past two years my girlfriend and i have lived in an 1868 Colonial that needs updating. Up to now we have only done small tasks like stripping wallpaper and painting.
This past month we were feeling a challenge and decided to rip out the wood paneling and dropped ceiling in the dining room. Our initial plan was to patch the plaster and paint but the damage was more extensive (now i know why the paneling was up in the first place!). So now we are debating whether to repair the plaster or drywall over it. Here are some pics of the worst spots.



















You will notice the holes on the bottom of the left pic; this is where the updated electrical was run across the wall (over the lath!). The right pic is the wall covering the old fireplace that is now attached to the furnace. Since this can of worms has now opened up old knob & tube wiring in the ceiling we have to address that issue first. Hopefully it wont sit like this too long since all the dining room furniture is stacked up in a corner, not fun!

drywall or plaster that is the question. Any thoughts??