Category Archives: Living

Living — stories and opinions

My builders grade house before pictures

Posted on by October 13, 2014avatar
TheDIYGirl.com

I moved to northeast Florida to a new construction home. Big change from the foreclosure fixer upper I came from, but not any less work. I went into this knowing it’s not a perfect house. It’s seriously lacking in storage – of any kind. I’m going to be on a mission to utilize every square inch of useable space since I’m downsizing big time. The house is also builders grade, builders grade, builders grade. I’m not knocking it – it provided me a home in the price range I could afford – but sometimes builders grade isn’t great quality and it tends … Read more…

Moving and Mourning

Posted on by March 4, 2014avatar
Moving and Mourning - The DIY Girl

Moving I’m in a bit of an odd place here. I’m finally moving from a foreclosure DIY project house in an area I have not liked the entire year I’ve been here to a brand spanking new house in area I hope I will adore. The DIY Girl in a new house??? After 17 years in a three-story monster on a heavily wooded lot and the last year in a foreclosure badly in need of work and updates I feel like I’m due for an easier home. Hopefully home repairs will be few and far between for a while, but … Read more…

Refrigerator repair – DIY or not?

Posted on by May 29, 2015avatar
Refrigerator repair - DIY or not? The DIY Girl

This Sunday I returned from a nine-day camping trip to find a totally dead refrigerator. In fact, the inside of the refrigerator was much warmer than the house since I’d turned the heat way down. Apparently the fans and other parts heat things up when the compressor stops cooling. Oh joy. It must have died several days before because everything was completely thawed and stinky and all the food was a total loss. The good news? It was a terrific opportunity to clean the fridge and freezer since it wasn’t cold and full of food 😉 Trying to look on … Read more…

Hey Honey, could you take care of this?

Posted on by November 2, 2013avatar
Hey Honey, could you take care of this? - The DIY Girl

I do pretty good on my own. I devise ways to move things that are too heavy for me. I use penetrating oil to loosen a bolt that I can’t budge for the life of me. I keep a fairly good sense of humor about taking care of problems/disaster/repairs by myself. But every once in while I hit the wall. I did that today. I’ve come to realize it’s not the degree of difficulty or the lack of upper body strength, or just not being big enough or strong enough in general — it’s the grossness value. That’s what stops … Read more…

Treating eczema

Posted on by July 7, 2015avatar

I have no idea what brought it on since it’s usually stress related, but recently on a Thursday night I rubbed the back of my thigh and felt bumps — lots of them. From there it rapidly spread to the back of my neck and shoulders, up across my butt, then started creeping down my arms and legs and all over my mid-section. It was even on my scalp and a little of my forehead. Whether you call it eczema or atopic dermatitis I was having a major outbreak and it sucked and I needed a good way of treating eczema. … Read more…

Confessions of a Pinterest Addict

Posted on by September 10, 2013avatar
Confessions of a Pinterest Addict - The DIY Girl

I tried Facebook and other than seeing pictures of the family I just couldn’t get into it. I tried Twitter and felt it was an incredible interruption for which I wasn’t garnering a whole lot of useful information. I rate myself pretty much a failure at social media — it just doesn’t seem to be how my brain and personality work. Enter Pinterest. I had heard of it, but never really examined the site. I was researching ideas for mu DIY projects realized I was running into a lot of images from Pinterest that would link to the original blog … Read more…

Basement flooding – surprises inside surprises

Posted on by September 10, 2013avatar

  Our are had what I would call almost monsoonal rains yesterday. I watched from the window in dismay as the gutters on both the front and the back of the house overflowed and were washing out maple seeds. I was aware the gutters would need to be cleaned in the fall. I didn’t think about cleaning them recently, especially since the roofers had cleaned them out when they did the roof in March. First surprise The basement floor of this house is half finished out and half garage. Late in the morning there was a lull in the storms … Read more…

Non-DIY — new roof

Posted on by September 10, 2013avatar
Non-DIY - new roof TheDIYGirl.com

I don’t do roofs. I don’t even want to get on roofs. I can’t believe roofers do roofs. They have my respect for being tough enough to work at heights in temperature extremes year after year. They are made of far tougher stuff than I am. Weather delays I knew the roof was long past needing replacement when I bought this foreclosure, but have been waiting for it to stop raining and get warm enough to put a new one on. It was supposed to be upper 40’s today (only hit 35) and in the 60’s for the next three … Read more…

Unpacking kitchen and painting prep

Posted on by September 10, 2013avatar

Unpacking finally.. and partially. I decided since the cabinet frames were painted and I was hitting a brick wall on finding 1/4″ MDF at a lumber yard that would cut it into 3″ strips so I could update the cabinet doors that I should go ahead and unpack some boxes so I could cook more. Unpacking the boxes would also make it easier for me to get to the walls to remove the remaining chair rail, repair the drywall, and paint the walls. You can see the chair rail running along the wall behind the microwave. Besides, it was a … Read more…