• Before and After Crappy House Tour

    October 3, 2020 / 25 Comments

    Happy Blothday to Me!

    On October 3, 2013, my blog was born. It’s my blog’s 7th birthday! Can you believe it? My, how time flies… In this post, we’ll take a tour of My Crappy House with some shocking before and after photos to celebrate seven years of blogging.

    Also on October 3, in 19-BLEEEEEP, I was born. Here’s a picture of me to celebrate. Guys! It’s my Blothday!

    Yep, that’s really me. I’ve heard there’s not much left for an unborn baby to do in the last month but to pack on the pounds. I guess I really enjoyed my mom’s accommodations (accommommadations?) because I tried to add an extra month to my stay. You know, late checkout. So, on the day I was born, I was already three weeks old and needed a haircut. I weighed ten pounds and twelve ounces.

    Sorry, Mommy.

    But enough about me. It’s blog day! Let’s look at some crappy before and afters, shall we?

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  • Magically Floating Shelves

    September 28, 2020 / 18 Comments

    What Sorcery is This?

    Having been well established in My Crappy House for many years, surrounded by all of my many crappy possessions, you would think that it would have been a challenge making room for Schmoo when he moved in with me. It wasn’t. Lucky for me, he wasn’t attached to much of his stuff. Just his clothes, tools, a few manscaping products, some books, and a handful of treasures.

    This post is about the treasures.

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  • How Can We Get Some Backyard Privacy?

    September 21, 2020 / 25 Comments

    Privacy, Please

    When I first moved into My Crappy House in 2011, my neighbors, both to my right and to my left, were drummers who liked to practice outdoors in their respective backyards. Seriously. What are the freaking odds? Eventually, it got too cold outside to play. Then, finally, mercifully, they both moved away. Ahh, peace…

    But not for long.

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  • Building a Shadowbox for an Heirloom

    August 23, 2020 / 35 Comments
    Shadowbox for heirloom

    Procrastination is in My Blood.

    You’re in the right place. I’m going to show you how I built a shadowbox for an heirloom, but first, I want to tell you a little bit about my grandma. Please indulge me. She passed away when I was only four years old. I only have fuzzy, unfocused (aka misty, watercolor) memories of her that I’m not even sure are real.

    Me and my grandma on my 4th birthday

    Still, from all I’ve been told, I feel like she and I are kindred spirits. My creativity comes from her, as does my propensity for procrastination…

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  • Painting Old Cedar Shingle Siding

    February 1, 2020 / 32 Comments

    My Painted House Part II

    Last time on My Crappy House, we primed the front to get ready for painting the old cedar shingle siding. I don’t know about you, but when I’m working on a project on my crappy house and looking for inspiration, I tend to notice everyone else’s crappy houses. OK, most of them aren’t so crappy, but some of them totally are…

    Ugly multi-colored house
    (Note to self: Garden Dinosaur)
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  • My Painted House Part I

    November 1, 2019 / 15 Comments

    BOO! It’s me! Scary, right? I bet you didn’t expect to be scared the day after Halloween… I’m just full of surprises. (Like this post, coming out of, like, nowhere a mere quarter of a year since my last one…) So, Halloween was yesterday and that got me to thinking about scary stuff. Like how scary my front yard has looked for the last 8 years.

    Not quite as bad as this…

    But still pretty scary.

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  • Curb Appeal

    June 30, 2019 / 14 Comments

    Let’s start by getting it out of the way. You know… that business where I apologize for how long it’s taken me to post and then I promise that I’ll do better and then you forgive me, knowing that I probably won’t do better, but you love me so much that you’re willing to stick with me no matter what? Yeah, you know. So…

    I’m sorry. I’ll do better. Forgive me? Yeah, you do… Friends forever!

    And now that we have that unpleasantness out of the way, let’s catch up, shall we? It’s been a while… (Because of course it has!)

    When we last did the blog thing, I told you all about installing vinyl siding on my crappy house. (Read about it here if you missed it.) Schmoopy and I killed that project, but if you remember, I told you I left Schmoo to work alone while I moved to the front of the house to focus on a mysterious project by myself.

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