Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

One way or another, he’s a liar.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

All hail the time of the bunny!

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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60Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    there are things I’m going to have to do with my house for resale, things I should be doing now, but the thought of having my living space torn up, people in my house all the time, dealing with a contractor…. I don’t even get to the point of fighting out how much it’s going to cost. A house in my neighborhood recently sold as a ‘fixer-upper’ and sometimes I think maybe I don’t have to do that stuff…

  2. 2.

    jacy

    One day you’ll back and laugh and laugh. Of course, you’ll probably be in a body cast, and everything will hurt when you laugh.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    It’s going to be beautiful and you’re going to love it. All of the effort and stress will be worth it.

    It’s like having a baby, except for your vagina doesn’t get torn up and bleed for a month. So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice.

  6. 6.

    Exurban Mom

    @Suzanne: So true! Stitches down there are a special kind of awful. The house is going to be so awesome. We are going to get so many cool stories of cute furballs running through the lovely halls…it will be wonderful.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    except for your vagina doesn’t get torn up and bleed for a month. So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice.

    You don’t actually know that.

    John, you only bought the house in August. You never seriously expected to get everything taken care of to move-in condition in 4-5 months, did you?

  13. 13.

    guachi

    I’ll be dealing with a house renovation starting on Wednesday. Cute little 1941 house.

    So I empathize.

  15. 15.

    dexwood

    A friend who made a nice living renovating old homes was fond of telling people nothing works in an old house like you. He was forever fixing mistakes people made, but his work was excellent.

  16. 16.

    permafrost

    all I can say is if you self-teach and do work yourself you’ll be making phenomenal money tax free.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    All kinds of God-knows-what with mops and mustard could go down between now and Christmas.

    Not forgetting the Subaru In The Field.

    ETA: Curse you, Schrödinger’s Cat @ 12.

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    It took us a month of repairs, tearing out tile floors and carpet, priming and painting to get rid of the cigarette stink and installing hardwood throughout before we could move into our current house, six years ago. It wasn’t near finished, it was just ok to move into.
    The kitchen is finished, the two small bathrooms are finished, we have a deck off the back of the house, everything is done except for the master bath which I would love to gut but we just don’t have the spare cash, so we are living with it.
    I thought we would be here for 20 years, until I hit 80 and he’s 83, but I’m beginning to question that prediction. I’ll be 67 in March and he’ll be 70 and we are both starting to feel the wear and tear on our joints. I just spent two months in physical therapy for my right shoulder for tossing the corner of the bedspread to him.

  21. 21.

    John Weiss

    John Cole,

    You precious little butterfly! Home renovations, like growing old, are not for the faint of heart. Or the poor, for that matter. You gotta sob story? Get a load of mine: antique house in Dallas: 30 years of renovation mostly done by your’s truly. House renovation in Oregon? So far three years and it’s tiny compared to the 2000 fts2 in Dallas, half the size and I can afford to hire it out!

    The only advice I could give to anyone who complicates such a feat: don’t ever live where you’re working. Seems as if on that account that you’re smarter than I was a few decades ago.

    Don’t come cryin’ to me!

  23. 23.

    MomSense

    I’m still looking for a near zero small house plan I can build. Having already experienced the joys of renovation and restoration I might as well try building.

  26. 26.

    permafrost

    I love renovating houses and am looking to stop being in the workforce and to do that for my keep instead.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    @schrodinger’s cat: It took me three months to reach a semblance of completion of unpacking, never mind various fixes to things and so forth. I think I declared “move in” done at roughly the six month mark.

  33. 33.

    Larkspur

    @M. Bouffant: I know, I know. I’m thankful it hasn’t come to that for me: I got lucky and scored a tiny apartment for lower than market rate (three cheers for the Rotary Club that sponsors it) but I’ll never ever own a fixer upper to swear at and call my own. As I said: lucky. It’s a first world sort of luck. Lots of places in the world, there’d be several families living in this apartment.

    Still, I sympathize with renovators. It’s hard work. I just think there should be more pix detailing the horror.

    ETA: looks like I’m another one of those guys. Oops.

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    You were all amped up and ready to go a few weeks ago – what happened? (Other than the election, which has hit everyone like a ton of bricks, and that might be the issue more than the house itself.) It might be normal for doldrums to hit when you’re about halfway done, and you have as much work in front of you as behind you.

    But the house is going to be *wonderful* when you’re done! A true haven for you, your critters, the occasional frat brother, old army buddy, and whoever else you invite to stay over/live there. Your office will be a custom-designed and built tech lair. Your bedroom will – hey, does the master bedroom have a view of anything interesting? I don’t think we actually saw much of the upstairs.

  35. 35.

    InternetDragons

    @Major Major Major Major:

    This made me feel better. Maybe it’ll help you too.
    Apparently Donald Trump is very upset @NBC used an unflattering photo of him.
    Anyway, here’s him and a pelican.
    Please don’t RT.
    pic.twitter.com/6IAaSYKpzc

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @CaseyL:

    when you’re done!

    One is never done. As my grandfather used to say, everyday you should to something to improve your house. That’s why I rent.

  37. 37.

    Larkspur

    Since it’s open threadish – what in the sphincter of hell is happening in Tennessee? Is the whole place burning down? That’s supposed to happen out here in Cali. Tennessee is supposed to have hills and swamps and fireflies in the summer. Is anyone here affected and I’ve missed the reports?

  40. 40.

    demz taters

    I’m just wondering how these Trump-fellating contractors are going to fare when people like me decide not to do the kitchen renovation because our livelihood is under attack. I was looking at $10-15K in home repairs this year but not now due to being in an industry that won’t fare well under his administration. Hopefully those coal and steel jobs make up the difference.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @satby: Do you view the place you live as “permanent?” I saw my current place as temporary, so art hasn’t been hung – I have been here for five years. Attitude matters.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    As part of the research for my novel, I’m reading Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope, which is about the years she spent in the US in the late 1820s and early 1830s. She did not like us, and I’m sorry to say that I wince at the truth of many of her complaints almost 200 years later.

    Interesting one I just ran across: her complaint about how electioneering and political campaigning ran year-round without a break.

  46. 46.

    Mary G

    @Gin & Tonic: This is the truth we didn’t tell you. With pretty much any house, but especially one that old, there’s always something that needs doing. You just hope to keep up with what needs to be done and learn to live with not being able to do what you want to have done.

    I did say it would cost a lot more than you were told.

  48. 48.

    fuckwit

    @M. Bouffant: It’s true. It’s a lot harder than home ownership, even fixer-upper ownership.

    First off, couch surfing. No privacy. Not knowing when you’ll be where and for how long.

    Then sleeping in your car, getting rousted out by cops, getting ripped off by tweakers.

    Then shelters, having your shit stolen, getting diseases.

    Then on the street. Fucking nightmare existence. Skip this step completely if you can.

    If you get lucky and have some capital, you can get an RV of some kind. Then you have all the hassles of fixer-upper home ownership, plus all the hassles of living on the street (cops hassling you, criminals stealing your shit). At least you have some privacy and mobility though.

    We are living in Troll’s America now. The homelessness problem will become epidemic. Plus people dying left and right of treatable diseases after they lose Obamacare. Crime’s been going down over the decades, but expect it to tick up.

    An old-house renovation is a joyful problem to have. Revel in it. Because you can.

  49. 49.

    M. Bouffant

    @fuckwit: I’ve been homeless. Slept under playground equipment in the city park behind the West L.A. Federal Bldg. for months.

    And as soon as Social Security, Medicare & Section Eight housing subsidies are eliminated by the incoming admin.. I fully expect to be homeless again.

    Gawd, DAMN America!!!

  54. 54.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: morning Omnes… yes and no. It’s the last house I’ll ever buy, but I hope (or may have to) live abroad somewhere cheap for a couple of years when I really retire, so this will become a rental for income. It may be the only way I get healthcare if the shitgibbon and granny-starver have their way with us.
    My wall art is still all in the garage, so you may be on to something there about my state of mind though.?

  56. 56.

    J R in WV

    @opiejeanne:

    Yeah, I’m 65 and MRs J is 68 nearly 69. She always says “They’ll carry me out of this place on a slab!” about our house, where we’ve been for 22 years, since we finished the build.

    But we’ve both had joint replacements, we’re 20 miles from town, and there’s a big old stone stairway up to the front door, which is a little bit tippy in places, as natural stone isn’t always completely flat. Going to town 2 days a week for PT for Mrs. J’s second new knee, which makes her legs way better than new – the knees were both worn and congenitally wrong, repaired by a brilliant and creative surgeon.

    So I dunno, as long as we can stand to travel, it’s all good. But once that’s winding down, maybe we’ll need to either hire a live-in helper or move to an assisted living center, of which there are good ones, with good food. But so much less privacy!

  57. 57.

    agorabum

    Home rennovation is actually toughest when it gets near the end; you’ve been working on if for a long time and all the money has been sunk into it, but it still isn’t finished.
    There’s a natural period of resentment against the house for needing the rennovations, but once everything is finally done, you find peace. So light is at the end of the tunnel.

  58. 58.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I’m going to say this like it’s easy. It’s not. But I’m still going to say it.

    You don’t have control over the renovations. So every moment you spend worrying about it is a drain on your resources.

    So: you should just decide to stop worrying, and *bam*, problem solved, right? :-). No… but if you realize “this is pointless, I’m going to go listen to some music that used to make my parents tell me to TURN THAT AWFUL NOISE DOWN! only even LOUDER than when I made them yell (but I’ll sit further away, because I’m getting old and I value my hearing now that I’m starting to notice it’s not quite as good) and play some stupid video game to distract myself…” that can be a very good thing. And sometimes it works.

    You could also write about what an asshole Trump is, because X, Y, and Z. That might not be relaxing, but you won’t run out of material.

  59. 59.

    JustRuss

    I’m 20 years into our renovation, no end in sight. It’s mostly little stuff now, but 10 years ago we ripped a couple of exterior walls out of the living room and tore the kitchen apart…and ripped up most of the flooring. So that was fun. I know saying “Don’t stress” doesn’t help but, seriously, don’t. Shit’s gonna happen, some of it will be expensive, just be glad there are people you can pay to the things you can’t/won’t deal with, and that your dad is there for you.

    Also, “It’s only money” is a good mantra.

  60. 60.

    mr_gravity

    I bought a “fixer-upper” in 2001. I expect to have the bathroom finished in the next couple of years.

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