We recently took a trip out west to some mountains that are slightly (~5x) taller than the Catskills to hang with our peoples that we have not seen since pre-pandemic times. Here are some snaps. Jakejake.news/
Category Archives: General
Recap of the Year 2020 in Jake’s iPhone Photos
This year was a lot different for pretty much every human on the planet, including me. As a result, the difference in this year’s photo recap, vs those from past years is pretty stark, starting around March. In keeping with tradition, I dumped all of the photos from my phone that were taken this year […]
Bathroom Reveal (Partial!)
As you may have noticed by now, we are working on the bathroom (heck, all of the house), in various stages because working full-time and remodeling full-time is not quite possible. The first half of the bathroom looks like a half, but remodel-wise is closer to 75%. Anyway, it means we are on the home […]
Spotlight replacement/Ik*a hack
The main living room in the house came with some spotlights that were falling apart. The paint was literally peeling from the fixtures. One of them had come disconnected from the base plate. Most of the potential replacements that we liked were around $100 per fixture (some of them way more). It seemed silly to […]
Stuff We Made Out of the Old Deck Pt. 2
When we first moved in and built the fire pit up past one of the old logging trail roads on the property, we decided on a spot that happened to be directly in front of an only slightly sloped area set perfectly between two trees. It sits right where the hill takes a sharp turn […]
Downstairs Bathroom Demolition Part II
One thing that I have learned as Britt and I are going through this process, is that it’s hard to do good work and also have good content. When I get into a groove during a project, the last thing that I want to do is take off my gloves and try to get some […]
Stuff we made out of the old deck Pt. I
There are certain parts of the house that we knew upon first sight that we would need to replace. The floors that had carpet, for example, needed to go immediately. The deck that someone had haphazardly slapped onto the front of the house was not great, for sure. But we were thinking that it was […]
The ‘Owl’s Nest’
The house sits in (or near) the footprint of a gargantuan former hotel that was aptly titled “The Grand Hotel.” The hotel opened in 1881 and closed in 1964*. The story is actually pretty fascinating (to me anyway), and the Middletown Historical Society has published a whitepaper-style outline of its history over here. The reason for […]