Building Blogs

Plus, he said he doubts a therapist would know much about plumbing, so instead he turns to his blog to vent, rant or rave. A recent rave concerned a new power drill he bought -- "24 volts, baby," he wrote. A rant concerned a home improvement supply store that he often leaves empty-handed.

Peter said he is careful not to post when he is too frustrated. When a project overwhelms him, he will leave the house. New posts typically occur in the mornings, though he said he sometimes thinks for hours about what he will write.

Amanda and Aaron Forster will often go right for the blog when a day's work is done. Ordering a pizza and having a beer during the process probably helps relieve a little of the stress, too.

"Usually, I'll either be covered in dust from working or I'll take a shower and put on my pajamas," Amanda Forster said. "I think if you'll look back through the archives, you'll see where we're frustrated."

After living for a few years in a new but shoddily constructed townhouse that seemed to be crumbling around them, the Forsters in 2004 found a three-bedroom brick duplex that seemed a perfect fit. When they moved in, they already knew about some electrical issues found during a home inspection. Then other problems came out of the, well, woodwork.

Their first posting, in July 2005, was a laundry list of things they had to deal with, and then a disclaimer:

"We're not complaining about the work that we have to do on the house -- we've gotten way past that and have learned to take this stuff in stride," Amanda Forster wrote.

Now, the irony of the couple's Elm Street address matching that of a series of 1980s horror flicks does not seem lost on the couple.

"It's like every time we take something off, we find something new to fix," Amanda Forster said, standing in a kitchen full of new appliances as her husband leaned against a counter. "Most of the appliances died right after we moved in. We didn't know anything about working on a house."

Luckily for them, there is an expanding Internet community out there with a wide range of experience -- from novice to professional. Houseblogs.net has registered more than 230 bloggers all working toward the same goal; a discussion forum has just been added there. The Home Improvement Ninja and Nightmare on Elm Street are both Houseblogs members, though there are likely hundreds of other such sites out there that have not registered.

The Chicago husband-and-wife team behind Houseblogs started the site in January 2005 as a way to swap stories and tips with other renovators. Their personal blog, House in Progress, which outlines their efforts to renovate a 1914 Craftsman bungalow, counts as many as 63,000 unique visitors per month.

Local bloggers haven't reached that level of popularity yet, but they do have some faithful readers. For example, Peter's rant about the home improvement supply store generated 10 responses.