Series: First Austin Reno

This will be the ongoing chronology, and hopefully successful story of the renovation of the Austin, Texas house we are purchasing in May 2013. The adventure part of this purchase is two fold. We bought this place “as is”, sight unseen from an investor that held it as a rental property for the past five years. This…

Today we have the landscaper, the wiring guys, a contractor for the kitchen lights and the washing machine, and the candlestick maker just for kicks. Here’s our yard this morning when the landscaper started. Aside from this look being a great start to a haunted house for Halloween, we can’t see the front of the…

As it turns out, there was a house behind all those trees and bushes. Before: After: Yay! Then the landscaper, who is awesome, gave me a quote for dirt, grass, and sprinkler repair. With the money we spent on all the materials for hardwood floors this morning, I barfed a little, then agreed to the…

There isn’t enough on my plate, so I started this bit of fun a couple days ago. The top of this banister will (eventually) be stained to match the hardwood floors we ordered today in a dark coffee color. The spindles will remain white. I found an inspirational blog where someone posted they completed this…

It’s not the public service announcement many of us grew with, but the lack of these guys’ presence holds equal weight with me right now. My wiring guy and general contractor are MIA … again. I am not naive enough to expect punctuality from contractors, but I’d be happy if they showed up at some…

The handy man, let’s call him Fixy Not Really, has made it a habit of starting multiple projects and finishing none. The latest 2 projects are the kitchen recessed lights and our washing machine repair. Both began this past Wednesday. True to form, neither are complete. My washing machine is in thousand sad little pieces,…