Jackhammer

Jack-hammering the basement floor of what will be a new bathroom, to lay the piping. We had to pour a concrete slab in the basement, 1100 sq.ft. because the floor was originally just dirt under the floorboards. But this is the only place where there was already concrete.. and it was too high to lay pipe.

The Dump

I go to the Dump about once a week these days. In the beginning I used to go everyday, twice a day sometimes. In the last 365 days I have gone to dump well over 80 times. El Caballo Blanco, my trusty steed, has hauled over 50 tons of construction debris and refuse to The Dump. We also haul bags and bags of books for donation - please don't tell the powers that be. Here are some hauls I photographed:

Whiteout in DC

So we have had an enormous amount of snow these past few days. Sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning our 50 foot pine tree fell over into the street under the weight of the 20+ inches of snow. RJG’s first reaction: "Uh oh.. all the animals are buried under there" - the dog, the cat and numerous hamsters whose names we have forgotten.


Pater has been mourning the death of the pine tree ad nausea and has grand plans to hoist it back into position with ropes and pulleys. I am glad that the pine went down, it was growing perilously close to the house at an alarming 60-degree angle. This morning, in the midst of an even worse storm, some amazing neon suited men lopped off the top of the pine and other hazardous broken tree limbs. Thank you neon men!

Trees are falling down all over the neighborhood, this one on New Hampshire avenue a few blocks away crushed two cars.

for anyone who has ever dreamt of being Indiana Jones.. or a chimney sweep

Today I had to go into the attic. I hate the attic. I have to find out why the ceiling of the round room keeps leaking. We spent a week taking off "popcorn" a spiky textured plaster applied to walls that was really a la mode in the 80's. We had to heat up the textured compound with a blow torch and scrape it off, then the entire room had to be replastered by hand because it is in the round and had lots of curves. Now there is this leak in this beautifully plastered room. The attic is only 4 1/2 feet high at its highest point. There you can be on all fours, but i have to crawl the entire length of my house on my stomach to get to the leak, where the attic is only 28 inches high. Its dusty. Its gross. I keep getting splinters in my forearms and my knees hurt. There are leaks everywhere. You can see the black water stains on the beams, which is a bad bad sign.

libri coerceo

My dad lives in a sea of books. There are books everywhere. Walls of them line the halls, pile up in the kitchen, on the dining room table and up the staircase. Some rooms are so filled with books that you can't get inside.


While moving thousands and thousands of books to clear space for construction, I have come across some true gems. Here are a few of my favorites:





(not included is the classic “I’m Ok, You’re Ok” which I have lost somewhere in the house and can’t find)