Switch Inside the Bathroom or Outside the Door?
I’ve got eleven pull cord switches sitting in a coffee can in my garage right now. Not installed anywhere. Not waiting for a project. Just sitting there, ceramic and bakelite…
A Mirror in the Bedroom: Superstition Versus Sense
I was on my knees in my own bedroom last Tuesday with a stud finder running along the wall behind where my bed sits, trying to figure out where I…
Sick Day in Bed: Rest or Restless?
I always figured the internet’s advice on being sick was pretty simple. Lie down. Don’t move. Sleep it off like you’re serving a sentence. Google it and you get the…
Bringing Outdoor String Lights Indoors
I counted them last week, mostly out of curiosity and slightly out of dread, and it’s fourteen. Fourteen strands of outdoor string lights currently living in a tote in my…
Any Headboard, Any Bed? Not So Fast
I get called out to fit a headboard onto an existing frame somewhere between ten and fifteen times a year. That’s not a guess, I actually started keeping a rough…
A Fire Pit Inside a Gazebo: Cozy Idea, Careful Answer
Marcus texted me a photo at eight o’clock on a Friday night. New gazebo, cedar posts, asphalt shingle roof he’d put on himself over a long weekend, and sitting dead…
Leaving a Fire Pit Alone for Just a Minute
I built my first fire pit out of an old brake drum I pulled off a customer’s truck, welded three legs on it in about twenty minutes because I was…
Composite Decking and Fire Pits: Melting Is the Worry
I own eleven offcuts of composite decking board right now, sitting in a milk crate in my garage, and every single one of them has some kind of scorch mark,…
Regular Cement in a Fire Pit: Fine Until It Is Not
I own fourteen fire pits at this point, which is a number I only know because I actually sat down one night and counted them off my phone, scrolling back…
Covered Outdoor Furniture With the Cushions Still On
I own seven outdoor furniture covers right now, which is a number I only actually counted while writing this, and counting it made me feel a specific kind of shame.…