what is and is not love

for no one (or welcome to the new age)

On a cold night in the twelfth month of the two-thousand and fifteenth year of our Lord, armed with nothing but his tone-deaf acoustic six-string, American treasure - singer-songwriter-noisemaker - Joel Rockey entered Space Station Caleb (the current ramshackle recording facility employed by The Mustard Room Sound Recordings) with the intention of recording tracks for a handful of new original compositions. However, in a twist of creative defiance, he let the tape machine roll as he instead plowed through an assortment of songs written by other people. No one else was present. No one cared. And yet here it is forever documented in this collection of zeros and ones for no one to listen to ever. Welcome to the new age, nerds.

a little bit off the top (slow and steady wins the race)

The monstrous maple who once encroached upon our roof and sprinkled our gutters with tiny helicopters has been scalped significantly. The results are startling. We thought it the perfect opportunity to compare the current street view with one from last summer.

Whoa.

Carry on.

here's what i think

An old friend reached out to me to ask if he could commission a drawing. He gave me these words:

"A bad mother funkin blues man! 

Thinking of a blues guitar player on a strat. 

What do you think?"

This dude measures 22x15 inches. He was signed and sent to the northeast side of Indy to live on someone else's wall. This was fun. Anyone else want to commission a drawing?

Holla.

holey dryer exhaust, batman

When renovating a home, sometimes one must make a four inch wide hole clean through an exterior wall for the purpose of venting one's dryer. This is just the way it is. Sooner or later, the time comes when cutting that hole just cannot be put off any longer.  You've got to hoist that monstrous ladder, crawl to the top rung and awkwardly handle sharp power tools at dangerous altitudes. But don't worry because if you measure and cut correctly, and if you're a little bit lucky, you just might be able to fit a dryer vent through that hole which can actually function to divert from your home the exhausted hot air that will soon be drying your recently laundered socks and undergarments. 

Here's a peek at the soon-to-be laundry nook in our soon-to-be family bathroom...

Things are looking right nice up there, folks! 

More on that bathroom very soon.

After attempting to install a less expensive aluminum dryer vent that fell apart several times, we returned to our local hardware retailer to exchange it for the more sleek, pricey, structurally sound model. As difficult as this decision was we were ultimately quite satisfied with the results. Sometimes, if you want a project done right, you got to spend them dollars. Amiright?

Ta-da!

Finally, as promised...

Batman.

So hawt.

the summer collection

Oh. Hello there, you. Can we all agree that it's been far too long since we caught up on things? I know, i know... it's been a super busy summer that was cut too short by the ensuing school year that just so happens to start up for our family in JULY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ! ! !

No matter. We had a great summer full of hanging out with super rad people and equally rad kids at Camp Olivet for two weeks. We cranked out a few hundred t-shirts for friends and neighbors. We got to spend some serious chill time hanging with the folks in the Smoky Mountains and riding roller coasters on the island of kings with some old buds. 

Needless to say, we found a few minutes here and there to knock out a few projects and start a few more at the Rockey homestead. One such project included employing a jackhammer to slice and dice several obtrusive concrete shapes around the house. There are still a few jagged chunks available to anyone interested.

All of this was in preparation for starting some long overdue landscaping. We decided on an oversized dirt mound that can double as a place for the neighborhood kids to play king of the hill. The neighbors all think that it's super great and much better than boring old shrubs and flowers and whatnot. Also, it keeps the kids off the street. Until one of them goes rolling down the dirt mound, past the sidewalk, and then into the actual street. It's a work in progress, gang.

On a serious tip, bros, we've been dumping that dirt all around the foundation and planting live, green things in the front yard. Having live, green things around is important. It's really starting to look like a place where actual human people live. MJ is very happy about this development. Me too.

Finally, we've put off rerouting our plumbing to the second floor through a PEX manifold system until we could get someone with more plumbing-type know-how to lend us a helping hand. Time's up, helping-handy-type-peoples. We had to roll up our sleeves and take matters into our own pseudo-handy hands. More specifically, we had to take a sharp tool and cut the main supply lines for our hot and cold water (which both just so happened to be PEX due to previous plumbing repairs) in order to direct those lines upstairs while maintaining our current lines until we renovate our kitchen and first floor bathroom. 

Got it? It's cool if not.

My first reaction after cutting the main line was most definitely terror as i was certain that i had made a huge mistake and gotten in way over my head.

Then, we made all the necessary connections, turned the water main back on, and stood amazed at the fact that nothing seemed to be leaking... yet.

Hooray for us. Here's a wide shot of our current setup...

Fascinating, aye?

Maybe soon we'll have some bath renovation pics to reveal.

Yes. Let's definitely do this again sometime soon.

Thanks, you.

this is not my beautiful house

The day after having our gutter boards repaired and all new gutters and downspouts installed at our home, we checked in on ye olde google mapping page on the web known world wide. We proceeded to dangle and drop some poor faceless figure in front of our home granting us access to his visual perspective. It's rather perplexing when you consider the absence of any visible ocular organs.

But i digress...

This is how our blessed beast appeared the last time google and her legions of photographing minions paraded through our neighborhood.

And now, here is an updated street view for google maps to use...

Let it rain.

Soon, we shall scape the land! 

Soon we shall scalp the maple!