Home & Living Blog Posts

When we moved to Maine in November of 2013, one of my very first tasks was to install a pellet stove in the house. Within a few days of arriving, I did that. While the pellet stove performed well, that first winter was rough. The house came with existing oil heat that worked in tandem […]

I have no idea how I pulled this off. I’m not a plumber or a carpenter or an electrician. I am, however, a Gaulard and this is what Gaulards do. They figure things out until there’s nothing left to figure out. About a month ago, I made up a saying. It goes like this: You […]

I happen to be in the middle of a bathroom remodel project. I guess I shouldn’t really call it a “remodel.” While the bathroom certainly is getting remodeled, this project isn’t something I actually wanted to get into and to be honest, it’s taken me just about five years to get around to finishing it. […]

This was a very exciting project for me. I’ve had a bathroom that I gutted about five years ago, sitting here doing a whole lot of nothing. It’s been waiting for me to get up off my bum to put things back together. If you don’t remember, years ago, we had an extremely cold winter […]

Do you remember the time I told you that I had to do some concrete cutting at the back of our house? If not, you can read the post where I describe the process I undertook here. Basically, the person who built this house poured the concrete pool deck right up against the pine board […]

I just went downstairs to visit my freshly encapsulated crawl space and was shocked. I was shocked by the absence of smell. Have you ever smelled a crawl space that hasn’t been encapsulated? If you have or if you’re living above one, you surely know what I’m talking about. It’s like smelling dirt. Ugly, wet […]

Did you know that basement crawlspaces were a “thing”? They are. There are people around this world who deal exclusively with them and there are websites dedicated completely to them. I should know. I just ordered some specialized tape from one of these websites. Crawlspaces are a hot topic on Youtube as well because they […]

I am so excited today. I’ve been talking about having some sort of new heater installed in the house for the longest time and I finally bit the bullet and tackled the project. I almost didn’t do it, but about a month ago, I was at a friend’s house and he showed me his beautiful […]

I believe the job of filling the basement crawlspace in with dirt has officially begun. The hot and humid air has left the building and in its place is much cooler air that’s conducive to hard labor. My body reacts well to cool air. I can think better, fight better and actually get things done. […]

Yesterday was one very annoying day. We lost power and for approximately 20 hours, we sat here twiddling our thumbs. So here’s how it went. It poured outside during Friday evening. It rained so hard that I could here the sheets of water hitting the roof. I took at look at the weather forecast to […]