HOT.

Brooke here. Me: Get out. Dogs: Hot. Me:  I know the last time you went to the bathroom.  You’re due.  Go. Dogs: We’re good.  Ask us again around midnight.  Maybe one or two in the morning.  It’ll be cool then. Me: Out. Dogs: This linoleum?  This linoleum I’m lying on?  It is awesome. Me: OUT. […]

Holes in Story Detected, Proceed to Hall of Records

Brooke here: In between the renovations, I’ve been keeping a notebook of the various sundries that have popped up in conversation regarding the house.  The inconsistencies are pretty glaring, especially when they show up in writing; I mentioned a while back how everyone swears up and down the Jarrells had this house custom-built, but that […]

Planters!

Brooke here: The pool is aaaalmost done.  We’ve (well, Brown, since these things weigh about 150lbs each) positioned the concrete planters from the last post along the two far sides of the pool.  The planters have been filled with some disgustingly cheap annuals. Why the far side of the pool, you ask?  And what’s that […]

Thou Shalt Be CLEAN!

Brooke here: Pool and fence projects are coming along well.  I’ve actually been swimming in the pool, although mostly to haul a sump down to the bottom to blow the pipes clean (perhaps a mistake: it was fresh water and the pool company had overshocked it with chlorine, so I spent the rest of the […]

Ow.

Brooke here: Sorry for the silence.  I screwed up my hands but good over the weekend; they are slowly on the mend. I blame the ivy.  There is simply too much of it.  And I’ve learned there once was some sort of brick or poured clay patio under the area where the Vestigial Lawn will […]

An Email from Dante

Brooke here.  My friend Dante was in Ireland this past week and she sent me this email: Re: Your Ivy Problem. Could be worse. ps. Ireland is awesome. pps. If you like castles. ppps. Which I do.

Projects, with the… and the…

Brooke here: June was the most expensive month of my entire life.  At no fewer than three points did I write a check, pause, and think “This is the largest check I’ve ever written.”  All planned-for expenses, mind, but the first two times this happened I sort of curled up in a chair with a […]

The Vestigial Lawn

Brooke here: There are the beginnings of a lawn.  Wait, no, that’s not important.  Let me rephrase… there is now an area where there is no ivy. At one point, the space between the house and the pool was a lawn.  It really couldn’t have been anything but, as the ivy doesn’t have a firm […]