Replacing an Eyesore with an Oddity

Another weekend another home improvement adventure. This one was a biggie that included a gaping hole right in the brick, a sledgehammer, two-by-fours and some decorative tile.

So how did this…



Become this?



Let me tell you. And I will answer an even more pressing question: Why the hell did we do that?

When we bought this fixer-upper, it came with a newly installed central air conditioner. But it also had a big, ugly, rusting, 30-year-old wall unit that sat right above the only place where our TV could go. It was by far Leah’s least favorite feature and that meant it was doomed.

But then came the question of what we could put in its place. A window right above the TV would look silly. We contemplated just having glass blocks on one side and drywall on another, but that would just confuse people. We could have patched it with more brick, but there was no way we could match brick color or the mortar, so it would always just look like a patch.

We went with what we knew — tile. The idea was to have a decorative panel and then buy a couple items for the garden to make our tile patch seem less weird.

First we had to remove the air conditioner, which took hacksawing a few screws, prying out a couple brick anchors and beating the hell out of it with the sledge. Finally we could just pull out the guts.



Then we had to make a two-by-four frame for the drywall inside and the cement board outside.



After that, the biggest problem was deciding on the tile. We wanted something decorative but not too out-there. Here is what Leah picked:


I don’t know if I’ve ever seen people tile the outside of their house before, so maybe we swapped an eyesore for an oddity. But it still feels like an improvement and it allows us to finally finish the living room walls. Leah holds out hope that where once there was an air conditioner, one day there will be a flat-panel TV.