Tag: home improvement

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Living Spaces Real Estate

Home Siting

I love books more than most people, and I’m one of those old-fashioned types who think digital formats will never be better than the classic tome. But, in some circumstances, the Internet is preferable to any book.

One such instance is when you need quick advice on a fix or repair in your home. Short of having on hand a nice, extensive reference book, the Internet’s got it over books. With Web sites like DoItYourself.com, where you can get tips on just about any home-improvement subject you can think of, not to mention interior-design and landscaping suggestions, the Internet’s the first place you want to look. From how to install a sprinkler system to refinancing your home, DoItYourself.com can get you plugged in.

When judging blogs and Web sites, in some cases, it’s more important to look at quality of content rather than quantity. HomeImprovementBlog.net is a case in point. This site has only been around since 2006, so the archives aren’t extensive, and the site does suffer from some broken links. Yet, the topics are plainly written and informative without an overuse of jargon. Best of all may be the site’s pool of blogs. Each blogger is supposed to only write on topics they have expertise in, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be exposed to a writer overreaching what they know. Also, since the site has so many bloggers contributing, there’s frequently fresh material. Altogether, HomeImprovementBlog.net takes advantage of the communal upside of blogging: different voices with different, valid things to say, all under one shingle.

One of the interesting Web movements in the last few years has been houseblogs — blogs where homeowners document their struggles and successes in renovating an old home — and one of the most interesting houseblogs out there is HouseInProgress.net. The site is run by Aaron and Jeannie, a couple from Chicago who, in 2003, bought a 1914 bungalow in need of restoration and stuffed full of accumulated odds and ends. (Many of the things they found are for sale on the site’s virtual estate sale.) Aaron and Jeannie have kept a daily diary of their frustrations with the house, what they’ve done to it, what they’ve found, and their answers to the questions they get from the site’s fans from around the world. It’s worth frequent visits.

Another very good houseblog is PetchHouse.blogspot.com, an account of a renovation of a Victorian home in California. The blog includes such fascinating (and funny) subjects as the owner comparing 1895 building materials to today’s, extensive deconstruction/reconstruction projects, and getting the house named to a local list of historical places (and with lots of pictures throughout). It’s hard not to learn something when you read it. ■ — GA

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Living Spaces Real Estate

In Focus

FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I suspect he never had to remove a stripped bibb seat.

When my wife and I bought our house, we inherited a leaky shower faucet. Moreover, this wasn’t the steady drips of a faucet fudging on the details. This was the insistent flow of an army on the march accompanied by the high-pitch hellhound whine of a valve not tightly stanched somewhere behind the bathroom tile.

After putting it off for four months, I got right on the task of fixing the problem. At all costs, I wanted to avoid paying a plumber to do the fix. So I brushed up on shower-faucet lingo online and ran to my local hardware store to buy a new stem set.

After much experimentation, false starts, and trips back to the hardware store to buy socket wrenches or O-rings, I decided to replace everything, all the way to the bibb seat at the back of the faucet contraption. Of course, for that I needed a bibb-seat tool. Tapering or non-tapering? I made an uneducated guess.

The cold-water-side bibb seat came out like it was greased with honey, but it came out. The hot-water seat, however, felt like it was greased with the Ural Mountains. It was going nowhere, and worse, I was starting to strip the seat’s brass grip with the steel of the seat tool. Things were getting desperate. Every time I tried, I stripped the bibb seat more. I was starting to get the Fear, and it was looking like I needed professional help — at least a plumber for the short-term.

I tried one last time: I hammered the bibb-seat tool in, pushed with all my might, and turned. And the bibb seat came loose.

Twenty minutes later, everything was reassembled and the water turned back on, and the leak could be counted in the past. A week later, a sink faucet began dripping.

To spiders, being abducted by aliens, and the little girl from The Ring: Please add the newest entry on my list of fears — a leaky faucet.

greg@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

In Focus

When my wife and I used to daydream about having our own place, sometimes our wishful thoughts involved having an aquarium. But not just any aquarium: a big, wall-length sucker stocked full of petite darting wonders so crazily colored they look made-up. It would be a melting pot of South Pacific sea life, right in our own home. We wouldn’t even need a TV anymore, so tied up would we be in the little fish-world soap-opera panorama playing out in our living room.

So we dreamed big — nothing wrong with that. What we got, though, instead of the super-cool fish tank, was a koi pond full of leaves.

The folks who lived in our home prior to us had a pond installed sometime in the last couple years. The pond was actually quite attractive when we first viewed the home, late summer last year — landscaped all around with lots of large rocks, pieces of driftwood, and creeping plants. In the pond were live water lilies and anacharis and even fish! Several big goldfish, a school of little goldfish, and even a Kohaku koi (that last is up for debate) were in the pond.

So, we bought the house. Not because of the pond, mind you, but it certainly didn’t present a stumbling block. Once we took possession, I immediately began actively not dealing with the pond. By the time we moved in, it was almost autumn, and getting hands-on with the pond seemed like more of a spring thing. Besides, the fish seemed fine, and I would surely only screw that up by trying anything.

You live and learn. Fall happened, and the trees in our backyard did what comes natural, dropping leaves like gravity got increased tenfold. You know how they do. Bad news, though: Apparently in the pond with the anacharis and suspected Kohaku is some kind of leaf-attraction device. I’m pretty sure every leaf in the tri-state area loaned their leaves to my pond.

So that’s why a few weekends ago, I found myself leaning over the pond, up to my elbows in the water, fishing leaves out with my hands, pulling them carefully because I didn’t want to catch any fish. It was nasty business. This is what you get when you don’t cover your pond in the fall. I worked about two hours and didn’t get halfway done.

And I loved every minute of it. It was exciting to see the fish hearty and hale even though the pond froze over a few times during the winter, and nothing could take away from the fact that I wasn’t just cleaning out some dirty pond, I was cleaning out my dirty pond.

Home ownership, if it teaches you nothing else, instructs you on the rewards of being a little bold. You’ll no doubt do things you never thought you’d have to do, and not all of it seems fun on the surface. But don’t be too shy (I can’t bring myself to say “coy”) because, as they say, “El riesgo siempre vive.”

But I’ll be covering the pond this fall.

Greg Akers

greg@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

In Focus

What does it mean to be “new and improved”?

It’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot lately in regard to the publication you hold in your hands right now, the Memphis Flyer‘s Living Spaces. You may notice a few things different about this issue, including new features and sections, making this issue a veritable “new and improved” version of Living Spaces.

But if that phrase isn’t a lie, it’s also only a half-truth. Because, with Living Spaces, we’ve tried to be “new and improved” with every issue. Memphis’ real estate market and skyline is ever-changing. The furnishings, décor, and decorator businesses in town are continually tapping into or leading the way on new trends and new ways to express old ideas. Technology improvements are altering the way we construct, improve, and find happiness in our homes. Memphis is in a constant state of aspiring to be “new and improved,” and if we didn’t reflect that in Living Spaces, we’d get left behind soon enough.

With Living Spaces, we strive to be at the leading edge of “new and improved” every month, bringing you not just the latest in real estate market news and ways to make the most of your condo or home lifestyle, as we always have done, but also to report on innovations, new products, and new strategies used by local businesses and our neighbors to help make Memphis “new and improved.”

That’s reflected in new features such as Neighborhood Network (p. 4), where the focus will be on community and neighborhood news and how individuals, private groups, and public administrations are doing their part to make the Mid-South a better place.

It’s reflected in User Friendly, where a product is rigorously tested to see if it’s everything it claims to be and to report on any problems we experience with it. This month is the Dyson DC14 vacuum cleaner. Does it make your floors and furniture look new and improved? Check out page 6 for the answer.

It’s also reflected in Fine Print, a review of books pertaining to home and garden — real estate, home improvement, decoration, or related fields. There are a lot of books out there claiming to have all the secrets. We’ll try to pull the weeds out and find the good ones.

Our goal is to help you make the most of your own living space, to make it each day a new and improved version of the day before. We’d love your help, of course: If you’ve got any tips, news or events, suggestions, or comments, please let us know at LivingSpaces@memphisflyer.com.

Greg Akers

greg@memphisflyer.com