flooring and painting and doors, oh my

We've almost made it through the summer! It's actually been okay without AC because of our daily ritual of opening all of the windows for about an hour each night or early morning to get cool air into the house. The foam core panel construction retains most of the coolness until about 4pm or so. If we manage to get in this routine when we actually start living there again we'll be able to save big bucks on airconditioning, hopefully.

Today I'll be putting on a second coat of paint in my blue bass room. Tomorrow I'll be using that room to paint all of the upstairs doors that we installed this week, and then I'll install the flooring, which means that the painting and flooring in the upstairs will be completely finished! Of course we still have to do the baseboards and window and door trim, but whatever.

In preparation for the flooring in the blue room, Doug had to do a little remedial work on the subfloor to make it perfectly level. He used various pieces of wood that we have around right now to accomplish this and then he sanded it all flat. It was a grueling, tedious, and messy job, but he got it done. I love the fact that he used bead board for part of it. So fancy! But it's all going to be covered up in another day or two.

We hung the mirror in the pink bathroom. It goes pretty well with the lights and the faucet handles.

The electrician was here for a couple weeks installing all of the light fixtures and switches.

Early on in the lighting selection process I had no idea what I liked or wanted. My frame of mind was still in the stage where I was resenting the fact that I had to pick out lights at all. Anyway, I found a couple of bargains that didn't work out where I had originally intended for them to go, so we just put them in the various rooms upstairs. They look slightly on the flamboyant side for their locations, but they were cheap and we already had them.

Above is the green bedroom. The color didn't photograph very well - it's a little bit more of a deeper and clearer green than you see here. It looks really fresh and I liked it so much that I painted our closet below the same color. It looks very different during the day in the two rooms because of the natural light, but I really like it in both of them.

I finally figured out what to do with the gigantic tambour unit we got that was the wrong size for the kitchen. We hung it in the middle of the wall in our closet and we're going to hang double closet rods on either side of it. Doug and Cyndy's clothing will be well separated, which is excellent!

I got a chest of drawers from Ikea to slide in underneath which is just the right size, and I'll be able to close those tambour doors to hide the clutter. And the inside is divided down the middle which wouldn't have worked at all in our kitchen, but now we each have our own compartment for stuff. So we are definitely making lemonade from this situation. The color below is a little distorted - the real green is actually about halfway between this photo and the one above. I never thought I'd end up with such a colorful closet - it's pretty ridiculous, but also ridiculously pretty.

Also this week, Doug installed the front porch railings that I had finished painting a while back. But he didn't install the balls. I'm not posting an outside picture of his beautiful railing work until he gets those balls up.

So there!

Help me decide...blue chimney or yellow chimney?

BEFORE

We had this ugly vent pipe coming up from our microwave/range hood that needed to be covered. Originally we were going to surround it with drywall so it would have been yellow to match the walls. But then I got the bright idea of making a "chimney" for it that could be removed if necessary. I designed it and Doug made out of the beadboard and various mouldings that I had selected. I painted it to match the cabinets and I think it looks nice, but it might look even better if it matched the wall instead. That way there would be a nice horizontal line of color all the way around the tops of the cabinets. What do you think? I can't make up my mind. I guess I could always just paint it and find out. If you feel like it, leave me a comment with your opinion. Thanks!

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER, AS IT IS NOW

AFTER, IF IT WERE CHANGED TO YELLOW
(awesome photoshopping by Gene )

Speaking of nice even horizontal lines at the tops of the cabinets, the always gracious Kathy Schmick at Smoot Lumber came through for us once again. We installed the replacement cabinet for the too tall one that the cabinet company had sent and it looks so much better with the heights matching all the way around the kitchen. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to tell from this picture because we had to take out the refrigerator in preparation for coating the floor with a fancy super-dooper flooring protector called Bona Traffic. And the room is still kind of a mess because we're not finished with everything yet. But it's coming along.....

REPLACEMENT CABINET IN THE CORNER BY THE WINDOW

Oh, and I noticed that my cabinet color is very similar to Julia Child's kitchen cabinets in Julie and Julia, which I saw today. Isn't that nice? Maybe I'll take up French cooking as my next new hobby after I get tired of homebuilding. Oh wait, that's already happened. The cooking's probably also going to have to wait a couple more months.

Faucets!!!

Pat the Plumber came by and worked last week. We now have two sinks and one toilet that we can use. We've probably saved about $40 already from not having to go up to Starbucks to use the bathroom anymore. But now that I've said that, this bathroom reminds me of a peppermint mocha. This is the one where Doug picked out most of the stuff. He selected the cabinets, the countertop, the faucet, and the wall color.







Doug was nuts over these faucets. They are kind of cute. I think they look like airplanes. They are chrome - but the walls are so pink that it makes the faucets look pink too.

Master Bath version

This is a cross section of the upstairs rooms. It looks like a rainbow up there. To balance out all of this color I decided to paint the master bathroom gray.

It's getting there! But I'm hoping that since the weather has started to warm up Doug will start working on the outside of the house and keep at it until it's done. I've got lots of flooring to install and painting left to do while he works outside. Maybe we'll finish our various tasks at the same time. Wish us luck!

(and send money)

Laundry Room Picture

It's hard to take a picture of a small room - all of the angles get distorted. Anyway, here's our laundry room so far. Just waiting for that washer and dryer to magically appear. I guess we'll have to buy them first though.

Notice the little 5 gallon hot water heater in the lower left corner. We'll have instant hot water upstairs because Doug hates waiting for the hot water to arrive when he's about to take a shower. I told him that's just how it is when you have a two story house, but he thought this would be better. Hey, it'll heat the laundry water faster too!

And don't forget, we have this thing down in the basement that uses the warm outgoing waste water to preheat the incoming cold water. Wait, does that mean all of our cold water is going to be lukewarm? Will I like that? Will I have to waste energy making ice to cool off the lukewarm cold water? I don't like ice cubes in my water. Well compromise is what it's all about. And I'm good at that.

Anyway, I think Doug did a beautiful job installing the cabinets, countertop and sink, all from Ikea. And the walls are a very pleasant color for peaceful laundry activities. The color is called "Sanctuary."

okay, here are some pictures

Building a house and working on a masters degree do not make for an ideal combination of activities. When they offered me an assistantship last May I told Doug that I couldn't bail on the house - it would need to be finished before I'd go back to school, or take a cruise gig, or go on the road, or anything else that I'd rather be doing. But Doug told me I should take it because there was no way we wouldn't be back in the house by August (last August). I never learn, even though I always sense these things deep down inside.

Anyway, things slowed down a lot last fall because I wasn't over there cracking the whip as much. Doug neglected the outside of the house so we sitll have this nonsense on the back of our house, of which I am very tired.

CLICK THE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE WHAT IRRITATES ME

Okay, enough nagging and griping. I'm just exhausted from taking 10 credits this semester and staying up until 3AM a couple nights each week just to get some painting done. But at least now I'm finished with my recital! As of last week. Next up is the big term paper.

Anyway, here are some pictures:



This is looking down into the basement from the piano room floor which Doug decided to tear out and do over because the floor was not level and it was also kind of bouncy - not a good subfloor situation for a grand piano. It took him a week to fix it and it feels very solid now.

Way back in the summer of 2007 Doug put a deposit on a very unusual looking piece of Cocoa Onyx. We have since learned that onyx is not a practical choice for a bathroom countertop. Next he had his eye on this piece of granite, from Brazil. Our cabinet door is there next to it. I thought hmm, well that's fun... I'll just leave it at that. It's kind of flashy but it would have looked nice with the aqua colored paint I had selected for the walls. Fortunately Doug decided that maybe it was just a little too wild and I was quite relieved when he selected a very tasteful brown and white marble instead. But then he decided that he'd rather have pink walls in there (I'm letting him "design" some aspects of the guest bathroom). So pink it is. The bathroom looks really good, but I haven't had my camera over there when the light's been right to take a picture of it.

This is why I hadn't posted any new pictures after we got our kitchen countertops installed. Not very photogenic, eh?

Our new refrigerator arrived yesterday. It sure is big and white. As you can see, there is an issue with the cabinets that will need to be solved soon. We also recently got our stair railing installed, which you can see in the background. It's really pretty and old-timey.

We'll be putting in subway tiles for the backsplash under the windows and the microwave. Other than that cabinet situation, things are looking good!

This week I painted the laundry room with the paint I had purchased for the guest bathroom before Doug decided he wanted to change it to pink. Anyway the laundry room now looks as good as the bathroom would have. I love the color. We got cabinets, a countertop, and a sink from Ikea for a really good price. It's a very elegant laundry room. The only things it lacks are a washer and dryer.

Tonight I painted the master bathroom. This is really weird but I decided that gray walls would look good in there. There's a lot of white tile and that keeps the gray from looking gloomy. It's very calm and old-fashioned looking. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Meanwhile Doug was downstairs painting the bathroom of his shop. I suggested that he use some leftover yellow paint we had. There was also a half a can of pink paint left over from the guest bathroom. So which color do you suppose he selected for his machine shop bathroom? He's so metro....

A Strange and Disconcertingly Productive Week

Saturday 1/3: The drywall finishers worked for a little while in the morning and said that they need to wait until Monday or Tuesday to do the "final" sanding because the mud needed to dry enough first.

Sunday 1/4: Surprise! They showed up with 5 additional people to completely sand all the walls. I was at my brunch gig and by the time I got there they were gone. Apparently, suddenly, the walls were dry enough a day earlier than inspected, but they showed up before they knew that for sure so who knows.

Doug informed me that they expected to start spraying the primer the next day and we needed to completely vacuum all of the walls and floors to get the house completely free of wallboard dust. So that's what we did from 4:00 pm until 3:00 am. Utterly miserable filthy hellish work.

Monday 1/5: We finished the vacuuming from 6:00 am until 10:00 am. That's right, we only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep. It was not a good day. They put plastic over all of the windows and fixtures and sprayed the upstairs.

Tuesday 1/6: Doug went over to the house early. I was attempting to sleep in and get an actual 7 hours (which I didn't) when Doug suddenly came home and woke me up with the news that we needed to buy the finish colors as soon as possible. Um, I thought I was going to be doing that painting, but whatever.

I wasn't really quite ready to make a final decision - I hadn't even been given a deadline. I was kind of freaking out about having to make such important decisions in such a hurry. Doug was in on the color selection process so it became a little more involved and complicated, but we picked what we thought were some decent colors. We knew a couple of the colors were a little over the top, but in our sleep-deprived state we were feeling a little adventurous.

Wednesday 1/7: They started painting the living/dining room. My first reaction to the color in there was a mixture of horror and glee. I think Doug thought the color was a little too crazy, but he was willing to wait to pass judgement. The kitchen was being painted a color called silver gray and I immediately didn't like it, but didn't say anything. Doug seemed to like it okay. I was embarrassed that I picked such an ugly color which had looked so nice on the paint chip. We had the hallway paint but they didn't get to that, fortunately.

It was raining like crazy and all of the windows had plastic over them. The lighting was a couple of flourescent strips so it was really dingy. The living room color which I had been admiring for months on the paint chip looked super hideous in this light and the kitchen looked even worse.

By the end of the day, after everyone had left, I finally voiced my displeasure about the colors, which looked absolutely horrible together, and also the way in which I'd been forced to select them. I've done a lot of painting, and I'm picky about colors, so I usually buy just a pint, see how it looks, and then adjust accordingly before I commit to a couple gallons. And I do one room at a time.

When I told Doug I wanted to repaint he was not too happy about that. I showed him the colors I was thinking about and he agreed that they looked better. I told him that I wanted to paint the rest of the house later because railroading me now would only lead to additional regrettable choices. Then I told him I wanted to get rid of the kitchen color ASAP and he said his usual "I think we should wait." "For what?" I wondered. Anyway Wednesday was a horrible day that did not conclude in a satisfactory manner.

Thursday, 1/8: Doug woke me up and said he'd decided (overnight, apparently) that his choice of eggshell for the finish was a mistake and that I should hurry up and buy a new kitchen color and change the hall color too if I wanted to. Even though we had already bought 4 gallons of eggshell finish paint for the hall, he wanted to replace it with flat.

I am not a morning person so I usually gear my brain up for the next day before I fall asleep so that I won't have to think too hard the next morning. So it doesn't always work so well for me to be awakened with the announcement of an exciting new change of plans. But today, after I recovered from my disbelief, everything worked out great.

I decided, since I suddenly had a choice again, to use the new color in both the kitchen and the stairwell. It's a creamy light slightly greenish yellow and it looks lovely. It also seems to have calmed down and beautified the sort of chartreuse color of the living room. It looks amazing in the sunlight. And if it looks too weird after we move in I'll change it to something more sedate but so far I like it more each time I see it. The hall and stairwell color is definitely a keeper.

Tommorrow we look at countertop materials and in the afternoon we are going to start installing our kitchen cabinets. I'm so excited!

So far, our wall color scheme seems to be heading in the direction of greenish-yellow (celery-ish), and various shades of blue and purple. I'm not going to decide on any of the bathroom colors until after the tile is in.

These are the two brightest/deepest colors we will be using. In these photos they don't look as bright as they really are.

I'll be smiling in this room from now until we come to our senses and repaint it - but maybe we won't come to our senses. Why start now?

This dark purple tones down the eastern light in the morning, is quite vibrant during the day, and is an excellent sleeping color at night.

disappearing carpenters

While Doug was waiting for the carpenters to come back to finish the steps, he did a bunch of miscellaneous things, like framing the attic floor and some doorways, more window installation, and installing a patio door into the porch. That is when he fell and CRACKED ONE OF HIS RIBS.

We had such a fantastic experience with the kitchen designer that we decided to get some advice from a lighting designer as well. We have mixed feelings about that experience. We did learn a lot, but it was expensive and more complicated than it needed to be. I wish we had researched it more and figured it all out on our own. But we did get detailed lighting diagrams done for the electrician who was due to start work this month.

I spent a lot of time this month sanding and painting a bunch of doors. These doors all have multiple window panes in them. It was a real pain to paint these doors, but they look really nice. Except that the front door color is not exactly what I had in mind – it’s what Doug had in mind. Maybe I’ll be able to do something about that later, like the next time Doug goes out on tour. The door is very pretty, but maybe just a little too pretty for our particular neighborhood.

Next we had to pick out and buy all of our plumbing stuff so that the plumber could do the proper rough-ins. I hate picking stuff out – it is so hard to decide what will look the best in all of those rooms that don’t even exist yet.

I got awesome deep bathtubs and beautiful medicine cabinets. Oh, and my kitchen sink is named “Orca" - not by me, but by the manufacturer. Doug selected some pretty cool looking faucets and a really girly sink for the powder room. If I can stand what he likes, I let him pick stuff out. I still don’t know about that door color though.

The pretty sink that Doug picked out



This door certainly is purple