Spring

This warm weather is presenting an opportunity to finish the painting work that I didn't quite get to finish last fall. It is basically the portion of the wall under the lower roof over the kitchen.

Photo Shoot

above photos: Teri Maher

Today was our big publicity day, such as it is. Our friend Teri came over to take some pictures of the house with the paint colors in place that she consulted with us about way back last fall. When she first came over there wasn't much for her to work with: unpainted sheetrock and only the vaguest of ideas of what we wanted on our part.

With the house fully painted and mostly complete, visitors often remark on the great colors and we have Teri to thank for this. We knew we wanted to be adventurous, but it was her that got us there.

Teri spent the afternoon here today taking pictures for her website and other publicity as she establishes her interior design company. I helped her by supplying furniture and various objet d'art that I thought might be useful. She has a great sense for this kind of thing and Nancy and I kept going "cool" at the various set ups she created.

Teri has a website which is just getting off the ground and can be found here.

The Basement

This is a protective storage case for our window screens. They've been leaned against a wall for the last year or so and I'm grateful and a little surprised they weren't damaged. I still need to make a door that will finish this little project off

Shelves for paint cans. Turns out I could have made another shelf for big cans

I added a shelf into this shelving unit and I plan to add yet another

With things in reasonable shape upstairs I've taken a deep breath and started work on the basement. In some respects it only makes sense, since it IS a part of the house, but it's a part we've mostly just brought to the most basic point of completion and then ignored. Consequently it's become a bit of a catch-all with no real organization.

My goal now is to relocate the table saw and chop saw down there and establish the basics of a workshop. I'm doing my best to avoid the temptation to just push stuff aside and move them in without any reorganization, so I've been spending time creating shelving for stuff and trying to sort out trash and putting like things together. I've made a bunch of progress. I'd also like to hook up the sink we previously had in the first floor bathroom as a garden/utility sink near the basement door.

Where I find I often get stumped is with wood storage. I try to move scrap wood on to the wooodstove burn pile as readily as I can, but longer stuff that I could use for future projects is harder to manage. How much should I keep? What sizes are best to hold on to? I'm way better at this then I used to be, but I still struggle with it. This evening Nancy had the idea of making hanging racks; I like this idea because it'll limit the amount I can store which will help with accumulation.

Anyway, the goal is to get myself set up with tools and such in the basement and then I'll recommence with woodworking projects.

Loose ends

The toilet paper holder in the upstairs bathroom. The top part is a shelf and the bottom holds about 6 rolls of tp down in the wall cavity

When we installed the sink the spacing of the lights overhead was off (originally based on the assumption of a longer sink) so I had to re-locate the wiring and then patch up the wall

The appraiser for the bank is coming on Thursday and I am tying up the various loose ends that would make the house appear unfinished, such as the t.p. cubbies in the bathroom, the shelf over the closet on the first floor--things that aren't that big to do, but are nonetheless incomplete. The last thing is lights and I put in a big order for lighting parts last week. I'm hoping they'll get here in time that I'll have the lights looking done, even if they're not quite. There are also multiple touch-up spots where we've cut into the sheetrock or done something that now requires a touch up.

Provided I get the stuff I need, I'll be whipping together a bunch of lights before Thursday AM.

Installation to Relaxation

I made a push last week to have the tub installed for the weekend and it happened. Most of the effort was in the multiple coats of primer and then paint on the beadboard before the tub could be placed. The actual installation involved a bunch of plumbing prep and stuff that I had I known way back would have been a bit easier. I'll know for next time.

In any event, late last evening a major emotional and functional moment was reached as I turned on the tap and climbed in. For seven and a half years we've trekked down to my parent's place for baths and showers, which has been really nice to be able to do; it seems that chapter ended with a successful check for leaks and grabbing a towel and some soap.

This is a moment we've been waiting for for a long time!

Away

We left town for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with Nancy's family. To take advantage of this we spent the day and a half before we left applying the polyurethane finish to the windows and doors. This stuff stinks, so we figured we'd get a whole bunch done and then have a few days away from the house allowing for things to air out. We'll have to do another coat or two sometime soon and will probably stay in the yurt to avoid the stink.

While I'm away...

..teaching at Yestermorrow this week, work is continuing.

Nancy has been continuing to paint and Joe is working on finishing up the window trim around the house, and is nearly there. Soon after will follow the installation of the interior doors. Fun.

I spent a little time over the weekend installing bead-board in the second floor bathroom. It goes really quick, but unfortunatly I ran out of time and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back to it until the end of this class.

In any event things are moving along.

Onwards...

Painting the bathroom floor

The boiler at work heating up the house via the radiant system for the first time

Today Joe continued work on the window returns, which is coming along, while I was busy painting in advance of his work. Meanwhile Felton was back to do some finish electrical work. This is very exciting for us as it means we'll have working outlets around the house and a few lights here and there to turn on. Of course this also means we have to make decisions about light fixtures and all that, but its great to see all this stuff coming together.

We also fired up the radiant heat for the first time today. Stuff like that sort of seems like a bit of a miracle; you put all this pipe in, you have a boiler installed and then you do nothing for a couple of months when it starts to get a little chilly in the house and you hook up a thermostat and signal the boiler to start doing its thing. On the one hand its what's supposed to happen and all, but on the other hand it is like "Wow, you just push a button and like that the house starts to heat up. Cool!"

For extracurricular fun I continued painting this evening and gave the second floor bathroom its first coat of blue floor paint. Both Nance and I dig it and are feeling ongoing happiness at having Teri's help working out all the color choices. The house is anything but boring when it comes to color, and that's what we were shooting for.

Tomorrow I go back over the mountain for another load of lumber for window trim and the bead board that will go around the bottom of the bathroom walls. I'll also be looking for a large stone hearth to put the woodstove on.

Fall Colors

Nancy went at it today with painting. We are trying to stay ahead of the window trim installation, so she worked in the office first and then upstairs in the bedroom rolling on the color, and covered a lot of ground, or should I say wall.

Meanwhile I got to work on putting down the floor in the second floor bathroom. It took a little time mapping the layout so that when the floor is continued in the rest of the area around the bathroom it all finishes off like we want it to.

Paint, steps, and cabinets

I was away this weekend on a brief trip out west, which left me a little groggy this morning, but I am beginning work on our kitchen cabinetry project, which means at this juncture finalizing our plan.

Nancy spent some time over the weekend trying out test colors around the house. They need a rolled-on second coat before we can really say much, but we're making progress.

Joe is nearing completion of steps to the porch and a stair/landing unit at the west end doorway. It is my expectation that we'll eventually redo the stairs and steps in stone, but for now we need to get something in place, so we're doing a sort of acceptable-but-not-fancy solution for now.

Color

Teri and Nance working through ideas

Detail of the intersection of the second floor bath and the ceiling

The trim work complete

Designing and building a house may seem like an endless array of complex challenges to figure out, but today our friend Teri came over to help us work out some of the truly hard problems: colors and tile choices. Yes, we can layout a stair case, figure out intersecting roofs, install siding at 28 feet off the ground, but for the really hard stuff you gotta choose what color you are going to paint the place.

Both Nance and I have had this general sense that we're interested in playing it up a bit inside, but neither of us has had a clear vision when it comes to picking paint. Enter Teri. She's been really helpful in making suggestions and sort of conceptualizing the whole thing. There is no one answer but its great to have someone coming up with possibilities and then building on choices as things move along.

We find ourselves continually drawn to green in one shade or another, so at times we've tried to consciously veer away, but sometimes you just have to give in to what draws you, so most of our second floor will be done around a green theme, while the second floor bathroom will be a blue zone with an orange bathtub. I'm psyched about that.

We came up with a plan for the various spaces downstairs centered around more earthy browns, yellows and deep maroon-red. I think it'll all be really cool. We also (finally) nailed down a decision about the mudroom/kitchen floor: purple Vermont slate in a cool varied pattern.

The one area we talked a bunch about but need to do some more work on is the first floor bathroom. There will be tile, but what tile and how much needs to be worked out.

Speaking of color, I finished the second floor bathroom window casing and Nance has given it it's second coat of paint, so next up is the floor. That'll be really exciting.

Joe is working on some last exterior projects, namely stairs and steps to the porch and coming out of the west end doorway. They look really good.

Weekend Project

Nance painting the second floor bathroom blue

The clawfoot tub. Working on removing the rust on the interior and will soon scrape and repaint the exterior

Various tub and sink parts I need to sort through

Nancy and I each spent time this weekend working in the second floor bathroom; she on painting and I on fabricating the window returns and sill. We are trying to complete the bathroom as a stand alone project in our spare time, outside of our broader work plan, so we'll be able to use it sooner rather then later and it'll be out of the way of other work.

We plan to have bead-board wainscotting up the wall to just below the eaves so Nancy is only painting down to where the beadboard will come up and meet the painted sheetrock.

I also spent some time on the clawfoot bathtub, since we'll be needing this soon enough in the bathroom. I acquired this tub about 9 or 10 years ago from an old colleague in Boston. At the time I was just excited because it held the potential for some far off "someday" dream of having a house in which to use this tub. Now is that time. There are some rust-stained areas that I've been avoiding dealing with because I've been afraid that whatever it is that can take off the rust is also going to remove the enameled surface of the tub, but today I bit the bullet and went for it. I was able to remove a bunch of the rust but after a while decided to let it rest for a bit and go back for another round sometime soon. An inspection later on seemed to indicate that the enamel seems to be okay. Phew.

Another project coming up is working out the various tub faucets and drains. I have a bucket of parts that came with the tub, but I'm not sure that what we need is there. I need to sort through this and figure out what we are going to do.

Window returns and trim

Step one: Shimming the opening

Step two: installing the sill and returns

The second floor ceiling being primed

This is a photo of the trim detail at my sister's house which I installed a few years ago. I was just copying what was in place in the rest of the house, but I like the way it looks and will try it out here on our windows

Today I dived into finishing the first window. This means shaping the sill and fitting the top and side returns after having shimmed the rough opening to square and level. With some cautious steps it went pretty well and seems pretty satisfying so far, although it is still just roughed in and will need some sanding and finishing before it all gets nailed down for good.

Joe has been working steadily away at the priming and has nearly given the entire second floor its first coat of white.

Weekend Catch-Up

This picture shows the detail that we worked out running under the roof overhang. I'm wondering if maybe we should paint it some slightly different color to call it out a little or just leave it as it is

Adam stuck around for some more work on Saturday morning and we pretty much wrapped up the west end of the house. The rest of the weekend consisted of caulking, priming, and painting in order to be able to have the staging freed up for more clapboarding tomorrow morning. Nancy and I also painted some more clapboard in order to be well stocked for the next few day's work.

Today I gave the sunburst it's final coat of paint as a honey bee warmed herself in the morning sun.

Sunburst switcheroo

Joe, putting drip-edge on the shelf detail over the door

Yesterday's version of the sunburst colors

Today's rendition

( l to r:) Hear no Evil, see no Evil, and speak no Evil

The siding at the end of today's work

Yesterday when I painted the sunburst I started with yellow and then did a band or orange up from one side and over to the other. It looked cool and every thing when it was done, but both Nancy and I thought that the yellow staring band kinda blended into the cream colored trim, so today I repainted it starting with orange. We all agree it looks much better. What do you think?

Joe and Adam have been making good progress on the west wall and are now above the windows and doors, which slow the process down. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be pretty close to done on this section of the house. Its been great having Adam here in addition to Joe.

How its working this week

Adam is back this week, and he and Joe are working together as a team to continue putting up the siding. My job has been to work around them getting all the pieces of trim and such in place so that they can work without any big stops to take care of details.

Getting the door trim in place was part of this work, and today I painted the gable end triangle of the south wall in order to free up the staging so that it will be available for Joe and Adam tomorrow. They've started on the west wall and it looks like they'll need the staging pretty quick.

The very last bit of painting I did today was to paint alternate rays of the sunburst. Joe has this groovy orange cycling shirt which I spied as a good candidate for the right orange, so I borrowed the shirt and took it down to the paint store and tried to match up the color. I think it worked out pretty nice.

Paint colors

Our color scheme in action

Clapboards are going up on the south side of the house

The house whose color scheme we copied

Nancy and I did a lot of work trying to work out the paint colors for the house last fall before we put in the order for our windows, wanting them to all work as a unit. In the end we ended up finding a house in the next town whose colors we admired and ended up meeting the owners who lent us some of their paint. We just used what they had already worked out.

Colors are hard to figure out, at least for me. I know what I like when I see it, but I have a hard time seeing a color in my mind's eye before and knowing that its what I want.

We completed the clapboarding up the back of the north wall but before we took down all the scaffolding we wanted to get the triangular area of the gable end completely painted so we won't have to go back up there until the next time we need to paint, which will hopefully be a good number of years.

For the record we are technically staining the house rather then painting. I'm not quite sure of the difference, but when it comes to having to repaint using stain means we won't have to scrape first; we'll just be able to go over what's there. The downside of stain is that it needs to be recoated sooner then paint would. I hate scraping but enjoy painting, so the trade-offs seem fine to me.

If you are curious our exterior colors are:

Trim: Benjamin Moore "Mascarpone" semi-gloss
Clapboards: Benjamin Moore "Tree Moss" flat
Window frames and roof: Black