What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[s1mplehumar]

For realz noise, why you have all those boxes?

FROWN: In-laws just left and of course they trashed the house while they were visiting. I will spend hours cleaning.

DOUBLE FROWN: My parents are coming tomorrow and staying for awhile. So much for my vacation!

What the freak?! They chucked beer bottles at the wall and punched through the drywall? At least that's the impression I got from "trashed."

@ Luke: Your home is lovely.

[BoneSnapDeez]

For realz noise, why you have all those boxes?

FROWN: In-laws just left and of course they trashed the house while they were visiting. I will spend hours cleaning.

DOUBLE FROWN: My parents are coming tomorrow and staying for awhile. So much for my vacation!

What the freak?! They chucked beer bottles at the wall and punched through the drywall? At least that's the impression I got from "trashed."

Haha, it's not that bad... but my in-laws are incredibly messy people. They were only here three nights, but there's newspapers and mail envelopes all over the floor, days worth of dishes piled up in the sink, other dishes (clean ones?) left lying on the floor, random clothing left behind, etc... It's a mess.

The problem is that they actually own this house and my wife and I rent from them. So it's hard for me to find a way to say "hey stop trashing the house that you own!"...

The house that they actually live in (about three hours away) is disgusting. It makes my skin crawl: mold in many places, bathroom tiles rotting away, a kitchen that looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the Reagan administration (everything is sticky and coated in grime)... It's terrible and makes me feel physically ill with my allergies and whatnot.

It's quite bizarre as we're not talking about people who are impoverished, mentally unbalanced, etc... These people are both very well-educated and make good money. I don't get it.

[Luke]

@ Luke: Your home is lovely.

Thanks Duder!

Just worked on the back yard today as well. Refilled the bird feeders, planted a few more flowers, cleaned the bird bath, and added hanging flower baskets.



The deck I want to demolish:



A view of most of the back yard:



Blooming flowers near the shed, aka Luke's Laboratory:



Still, the work never ends.

[mjmjr25]

Nice place, for sure.

But how much work can that deck be? In my experience, a patio is going to be more work than a deck - I've had both. Deck, next to zero maintenance where as the patio was constant trouble w/subtle shifting or weeds still managing to penetrate the weed-guard and grout. Additionally, to replace a cracked decking board is easy - replacing a cracked brick is much more intensive...assuming you can find a matching color years later.

With that said, juding by size and height of that deck, it's possible they didn't even use a ledger board - so that should come down in a couple hours. Can re-use the wood to build a skywalk to Mr. Awesomes place.

[Stark]

Nice place, for sure.

But how much work can that deck be? In my experience, a patio is going to be more work than a deck - I've had both. Deck, next to zero maintenance where as the patio was constant trouble w/subtle shifting or weeds still managing to penetrate the weed-guard and grout. Additionally, to replace a cracked decking board is easy - replacing a cracked brick is much more intensive...assuming you can find a matching color years later.

With that said, juding by size and height of that deck, it's possible they didn't even use a ledger board - so that should come down in a couple hours. Can re-use the wood to build a skywalk to Mr. Awesomes place.

You could use that TREX stuff to and build a new deck, that stuff is sweet (but expensive). Love the look of a paver patio though. You'll have to take pics of the project and let us see!

[noiseredux]

Luke, did you ever have Mr Awesome over for a BBQ?

[mjmjr25]

Luke, did you ever have Mr Awesome over for a BBQ?

Dunno, maybe June? I'm thinking....Father's Day!

[Luke]

Luke, did you ever have Mr Awesome over for a BBQ?

My neighbor is a retired architect who designed his own house and he invited a few neighbors over a couple of weeks ago for lunch. He is in his late seventies, and over lunch our conversation somehow went to the Vietnam war to Marijuana. He went on to say how he never smoked pot until in his late 40's, because of "stupid damned hippies", and how he regretted not smoking earlier in his life.

Then he pulled me aside and asked if I could "score him a bag". He is awesome indeed.

@mjmjr25: I just don't care for the deck. It splinters, and staining it every year gets tiring. If I have a solid concrete foundation, and then lay the bricks, I'll have no worries about settling and weeds. It's pricey, but it's guaranteed.

Then again, I'll probably move into a bigger place when the wife pushes a little one out (to be so quaint).

[Opa Opa]

[img]**house**[/img]

Very pretty. If you don't mind my asking, is that a real chimney?

[BoringSupreez]

Hey Luke, how about giving us a picture of that dog I can see part of in the first two pictures?