McCLOSKEY CORNER

Our little barn swallows have gotten big. So big, in fact, that they’ve left the nest. Here they are yesterday; this morning, they were...

Just as one project wraps up… another begins. We lucked into nearly enough bamboo flooring for upstairs. Our neighbors are having their...

We’re still putting the house back together after the tiling. In the meantime, we bring you birds! Our purple martin house has even more...

Setting the tile. The messy work of grouting the tile. We’re almost there.

When we went by to check the progress of the tile installation at lunch, it looked fantastic. Unfortunately, the 1′ by 2′ tile was...

After five long years of living with carpet and tile we never liked, we are finally redoing our floors. Out with beige on beige, out with...

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve posted. Timothy and I took some time off from home improvement projects to plan our Hawaiian wedding,...

At the Mueller Plant Fest in early April, we bought a purple martin house that had been donated to raise funds for the Friends of the...

It’s been a long time since we’ve posted, and the weather has turned from snowy winter to beautiful spring. Over the winter, with the...

Timothy and I learned two lessons the hard way this weekend. The first lesson: Listen when your builder tells you to redo the clear coat...

In her office, my Grandma Pauline had two mid-century Danish rolling chairs, one brown and the other green. The green chair matched her...

Six weeks ago, while I was in Houston at my agency’s annual conference and unable to object, Timothy started digging a trench in the side...

With Mueller homes so cozy, our clay soil has a hard time absorbing water after a storm. Soil between adjacent houses slopes toward the...

A couple of weekends ago, Timothy and I finally got around to a project we’ve been meaning to do since we moved into the house. We epoxy...

Towards the end of February, there were a couple of small snowstorms in Austin – not enough to stick, of course. Recently, though, the...

We’ve been in the house for nearly two years now, yet we’ve never had a housewarming party. This Sunday, we threw a Super Bowl party...

Our net meter isn’t quite to zero yet, but on a good day, we’re making more than we consume:

Our solar array passed inspection on the first try last Wednesday, and today Austin Energy installed our solar photovoltaic meter and net...

On Wednesday and Thursday, the final elements of our solar system were installed. The completed system was tested and briefly produced...

It’s miserably rainy outside. The crew showed up this morning, got some work done, then decided they need to hold off until tomorrow....