Author Archives: Thor

When the kitchen and bathroom walls were demolished, we found artifacts of their prior remodeling periods.  The previous owners had a terrific sense of style.  Their construction skills were not as strong, but they deliberately left clues for the archeologists … Continue reading →

This Odd House has been standing for over a hundred years.  Its walls have been painted, covered, remodeled, and rearranged.  They hide a history of technology evolution.  As we open them up for this round of renovation, we can piece … Continue reading →

A disturbing episode happened last night.  A neighbor came to the door to say that there was a fire in my driveway, did I know about it?  I was shocked, and rushed out to see that the construction debris, accumulated … Continue reading →

A while back I was suffering from a crippled connection to the internet.  The Comcast technician came to figure it out.  Hours later, after re-wiring from the pole to the basement, bypassing the nest of previous cables and splitters, and … Continue reading →

The Jacuzzi technicians had fixed the leak by converting the drip behind the tub into a drip into the tub.  Now all that was needed was to fix the leaking faucet handles, a task every homeowner has encountered in their … Continue reading →

The drip behind the Jacuzzi had been diagnosed and the remedy required pulling the tub out temporarily to replace some plumbing underneath it.  The spa winterizing season had consumed all available resources from the company that does such work, so … Continue reading →

I had the pleasure recently of installing a new thermostat.  This is not the normal response to installing a control for the unglamorous heating infrastructure of a house.  And I even had some difficulties in getting it up and running.  … Continue reading →

I had previously declared the Jacuzzi tub portion of the renovation to be successful, but the other day I noticed a couple damp spots on the carpet (why does anyone put carpet in a bathroom?)   I thought I had spilled … Continue reading →

I have written about some of the oddities of the wiring before.  I have managed to simplify and “naturalize” (place the fixture where one would expect it) several switches, outlets, and lights, but at the expense of leaving behind scars … Continue reading →