Thursday, December 13, 2007

Merry Christmas (2007)

If you received my Christmas card and are just a little curious what a grown man is doing in bed with three dolls, click here: Four's Company  (The file is a .pdf, so it will open in Adobe Reader.)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007


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The heck with the house, I have True America on the Internet again. I lost the domain in 2002 or so, and I've pretty much just let the whole thing go away. But, I found a simple way to at least have the content on the web, so here it is. Enjoy the ride!

Friday, August 10, 2007

For all my friends and family, here is my contact information.
Phone: (910) 207-1920
email: markgilchrist@att.blackberry.net
Address: 232 E. College St., Whiteville, NC 28472

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Here's a good one for ya'. I had a heck of a time installing crown molding in my master bath, and on one corner I had a major problem mating the molding to a vertical piece of trim (see below.) I put this dorky looking block between the trim and molding (not shown) and it just looked dumb. But I had to cover the weird seam between the tile and drywall with that trim...





So, after months of whining about it, I tore it all out and started over. It took me weeks, but I think I got it right this time.






"232 E. College Street, it's an education!"

Monday, February 12, 2007

This house, like any other, is really just a series of small and large projects.


I can't tell you how many times I have finished or nearly finished a project, only to tear it out and start all over.


Check out how it's done, on my YouTube video. Visit YouTube and search for "TubeGilchrist."

Sunday, December 24, 2006


Click on this thing for an enlargement - Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR AN ENLARGEMENT


Are you ready for the new, improved tour of December, 2006? Here we go, starting out at the front door. I hired a mason to lay the brick in front of the door, because if I did it myself, it would look terrible. The pillasters are a wood column ripped in half, with capitals that I'll explain later. The arched ceiling and exposed beam are supposed to give you a hint of what awaits inside...



What knocker! Thanks to my friend, David Peters, my guests won't have to use my doorbell, which doesn't work yet, anyway. Isn't it nice?



Let's stop here for a second. My mailperson delivers the mail right here...


There you go, just stuff it right in this box...

Come on in! Careful on that stone foyer. I didn't hire a stonemason and I set the stone myself, so it might not be really smooth...



There's that foyer - you made it across safely - whew! I've kinda gone molding-crazy here, so please excuse the somewhat extravagant displays of wood and gloss white paint. Say, see that pillaster on the left? Let's look closer...




How about that? You swing that thing open and there's your mail! So gosh-darned clever. (I bet my friend John's house doesn't have something like that, you know, to let the mail in and the warm air out...)



There's my living room ceiling again (those who didn't visit the first post, you'll see it again.) The beams are original, and my HVAC system runs down both sides, which is a shame, because I really wanted to put bowling alleys in my attic...



Here is one of the capitals on the two columns in my living room. I needed the columns to pass code, but, yeah, yeah, I didn't need the fancy caps. OK, I splurged, but it worked out well. See, not only do they make the columns look a whole lot better, but since one was broken in shipping, and they just sent me a third without making me ship the (slightly) broken one back, I cut the broken one in half and used it out front. Remember those?



I'm pretty darned proud of these, these - what do you call them? Things that go above windows and doors. Headers, I guess, in a way. Anyway, I got it in my head(er) that I needed these, and ended up making 20 of them. What a job! I'm pleased with the design because I had no idea what I was doing. I just kept figuring and thinking and figuring and came up with this, so you'll see them thoughout the house.



Oh, here's the column thing again. I sure must be pretty proud of them. Jeez...



What's got into me? OK, more of the header things. That ceiling wood is from the local high school stage. I'm going to dance on it someday...





Finally, we're out of the living room! This is a built-in desk and cabinets. It will be just my luck that the person who really wants to buy my house will have a beautiful desk to put right here and he'll tear this one right out of there.



I sure do a lot of looking up around here. That's good, because I don't have much flooring in yet. I think I've explained this in the first post (below) so I'll spare you, this time. I sure wish I had a nicer cover for that recessed light.



There's the window and its header and the tin ceiling, yada, yada, yada...



Well, here's something new. It's my master closet. Elizabeth helped me design this, and I am glad she did, because I would have messed it all up without her. Those shoe cubbies are wide so I can put up to two pair in each, sort of. I bought dozens of those wooden hangers. I guess everyone has to be a fanatic about something, and well, that's my hangup. Oh, that pun hurt.

The nook on the right is where I hang my pants at the end of the day rather than fold or put them on hangers. Elizabeth thought the idea would look cluttered and no one but I would like it, and I bet she's right. So I put a hanging rod at the top of the nook for people to hang those really tall things, on hangers, like normal people do, and they can just ignore the hooks.



This little nook is in the back of the closet, on the wall next to my utility room (pay attention, things are about to get even more confusing.) The hanging rods can fit in any of those four slots up there, so you can put them at various heights. Also, there's a large gap between the back of that cabinet and the wall, so you could hang more of those really tall items back there. I thinks it's kind of, well, ugly, actually.

If you're confused already, good luck, as the next thing is downright mystifying.



This little closet within the closet backs up to my utility room.



Open the doors, and there, you can even see my utility room. Amazing, isn't it? See those bins down there? Here's a closer look...



Yup, the one on the right is for colors and on the left is for whites, because I believe in sorting my laundry -- good boy! Now, let's go into the utility room...



Here we are, on the other side of this over-engineered contraption, in the utility room. You can't really see the clothes bins yet, so...



We'll just pull the hamper toward us, and like magic, all your laundry is in the utility room! I amaze myself.



Take a step back, and here you are. Just look at that, the laundry is right next to the washer -- I'm a laundry-genius!



Just open the door...



And toss the laundry in! Oops, I seem to have mixed my colors with my whites...



Anyway, the wash is done, put it all in the dryer...



And when it's dry, just put the clothes on top of the hamper, in this crazy bin-on-wheels, here. Wait, there's a pair of pants, and we should fold them.



Just pull out the fancy folding table... Well, it's a sliding table, I mean, a folding table that slides -- wait, a table for folding things that you can slide in and out. Whatever.



And fold!



And stack - hey, now I almost enjoy doing laundry!



We're back on the closet side...



Just pull the drawer out...




and out some more. You're ready to go! Wasn't that fun? (the tour, I mean, not the laundry)

Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you survived it - jeez, all this bragging has wore me out...


That's all folks!