two amazing images

This first one, which is right around the corner from our house, pretty much speaks for itself.

This second one didn't turn out too well in the picture, but I still have to post it.  It's an ad that came in the South Philly review for Glock Day!  According to one of the little bubbles, "Members can win a Glock just by walking in the door."  To which there is only one appropriate response: AWESOME.

Mmm, tasty

These are just a few of the items I pulled out of the basement ceiling a few weeks ago. There are probably a hundred more where they came from, so if anyone does found art with rusty nails, let me know and I'll get them to you.

odd jobs

When the drywall first went up, this is what the doorbell looked like.

Now it's got a nice cover.

Also, the holes in the bathroom ceiling (from removing the high hats) have been patched and spackled.

And resident handyman Dennis patched a few holes in the floor.  I guess these holes were for the cable, but there isn't a very good explanation of why they had to be so big.

Nothing as exciting as paint or fixtures, but these things do have to get done.  

A South Philly favorite done right in South Jersey

We didn't make it to Mercy Street this weekend.  Greg is nursing a sore throat and I'm working on end-of-the-semester papers.  However, we did make it out for a stroll to the Water Ice Factory, which is just a few blocks away.  Water ice is a local delicacy, not to be confused with slushees, sno-cones, or Italian Ice.  It's frozen yet creamy in texture, and in my opinion, tastes best in some kind of tropical fruit flavor, like mango or coconut.  Looks like we'll have to do the hard work of testing all the options in our new neighborhood.

The bathroom sink

We continue to find new problems that have to be taken care of.  The good news is, we are running out of rooms to discover problems in!  Hopefully the bathroom will be the last, because at this point, we've rewired every other room and torn down the walls in every other room.  The bathroom and kitchen both looked like they had been redone in the last few years, but we're coming to realize that only means that the coverup of faulty wiring and electrical hazards was more recent.  

For some reason, the bathroom has a ton of lighting fixtures.  A three-bulb fixture over the sink, 5 high-hats in the regular ceiling, a fixture over the tub, and another high hat over the shower.  Roger had been working with the electrical in the kitchen and bathroom, but couldn't figure out the wiring in the bathroom because of how shoddily the previous owners had done things.  So, he made the executive decision that he didn't want us to live in a house that could explode at any moment and decided to put some holes in the ceiling and redo things.  Frankly, we think it was the right decision.

Apologies

APRIL FOOL'S DAY, EVERYBODY.

Goodbye to Mercy Street

A few days ago, Greg and I got a call from a local South Philly developer.  It turns out they are interested in razing the rowhomes on our street and putting up an apartment building.  We talked to a lawyer and there is not much we can do to resist.  They are giving us quite a bit more than we paid, which is nice, but it is also bittersweet because we have put our blood, sweat and tears into that house.  

So, thanks for reading, and hopefully before too long we'll find something else.