House 173

As a reminder, when I started the back stoop, which seems like forever ago, it looked like this:
So it was time.  At the end of the last post, the stoop was looking like: It was getting there.  Really, all I had to do was paint, but if you know me - I......hate.....painting!  Stain on the floorboards and two coats of B-I-N primer, and two coats of paint later, here it was (of course Linus supervised throughout): Oh, just a quick step backward - here's the stoop without the doors.  As you can see the mower and some other things are stored below: What you can't see here is that the storage runs the entire length of the back porch, more storage is always good!  Anyway, I showed you in the first post about the stoop that I had built the doors, so all that was left was to paint them (of course - ugh) and hang them.   Aaahhhhhh, so much better - or was it?  The pad outside the stoop looked like, well Ma will be reading this so - it looked like (insert your own word).  I hate when y…

For years I've been saying 173 was living on borrowed time with the hot water heater.  I mean, if you looked at it you'd think it was fairly new - but no:
This fine piece of equipment was installed in 1994.. Yesterday she finally gave out.  After my shower I went down to the laundry room for something and I saw the water on the floor and realized this was the day.   I was able to get a plumber pretty quickly, so a few hours later:
Same manufacturer but what's the odds this one will last as long?  And you know how one thing leads to another?  Well, I thought I might as well change the kitchen faucet (this I did myself),  Here's the most boring picture ever taken - the old faucet: Believe-it-or-not, this simple job took several hours and three trips to the hardware store.  When I first installed the new faucet, I used the old supply hoses.  Big mistake, they leaked terrible...must have been all the torque applied to loosen them.  I shouldn't have tried to cheap out …

Creative Post name huh?  A couple weeks ago I made a minor moderation to the front stoop, so you might think that prompted this most recent project.  Nope.  This project has been planned since last year, just finally reached it on the (in my head) priority list.  So, let's go!

As is my mantra throughout this blog, I didn't take many "before" pictures when 173 was first purchased.  The closest I have for the back stoop is a series of "first time around" shots from 1991:




I think that was toward the end of the "beige" years, and I also think that was when we were changing 173 from the white-and-green theme to white-and-brown.  I think.  Either way, we were pretty pleased with the look at the time.  If you look closely in the back by the old fence, you can see the remnants of the  old wooden wheelbarrow that came with the house.  Obviously the last picture there was in the fall, and we had bought a bale of hay and pumpkins for that fall-feeling.  Good…