Cram Time...

Kevin and I had the kids this weekend, and we totally put them to work. We finished caulking the windows in the living room and bedroom, painted trim, finished painting the dining room, painted the living room and the front entry (we decided to paint in Aurora Brown, the same chocolate color as the upper walls in the library) and I LOVE it! It looks awesome. Started the baseboards in the living room, put up the trim in the bathroom, and even put up the tile backsplash behind the stove!

Finished paint and window trim in the dining room... Just need baseboards (and to refinish the floors, but that can wait).

New paint in the living room, painted window trim and 8" baseboards. (In progress)

Finished!

Aurora Brown in the foyer... Really looks fantastic!

Why dark brown you might ask? Most people would think a light tone in the entry would be best... However this is definitely on purpose. This is a technique that Frank Lloyd Wright used a lot called compression and release. When you first enter a space, if you are compressed first (like in this foyer that has a lower ceiling and is a dark color) then when you are released into the main living room, it is so bright and open, it makes it feel bigger. 

Kevin grouting the tile in the kitchen. 

Finished grout! It's actually a reddish tone that is super close to the red in the dining room. 

More coming soon. Seriously need this caulk to dry faster... 

Eek! Appraiser Coming!!

Yesterday, we got a phone that we have an appraiser coming next Thursday. He's expecting to find a main floor that is completely finished... With three bedrooms and one bathroom.

Um... We turned one bedroom into the library, and got rid of the closet... Not to mention the stairs coming down into the room! So as of right now, we're considered a two bed, one bath! 

Yeah, this was a big fat reality check on how much we have to get done before next Thursday. We will have to put up temporary walls and a door to box up the stairs, and we bought an armoire that will be the closet... And that's just the library... 

We have to finish all the trim and paint throughout the rest of the main floor, and to top it all off, we have to make the kitchen look finished too! So open cupboards it is, but still have to put on the cupboard faces.

Kevin got started on the tile in the kitchen too. Check it out.

Good thing we have the kids this weekend... Lots to paint!!!

New Bones

We've started the slow and painstaking process of reinforcing the roof, and setting up all the attic supports, as designed by our structural engineer. We finally got word from the city that our plans were approved, but now they are asking for elevations before they start the permit process. So... Working on trying to get some elevations (as the structural engineer did not do those for us, as they were apparently not necessary for what he needed to do...)

Anyway... Wanted to share some progress pics. I liked the light in this first pic. :)

You can more clearly see here that we have to "sister-up" a 2x10 next to each 2x4, every 2 feet on center. That's a lot of lumber, and a lot of support, but makes it so we don't need the cross members for support anymore.

Looking better up there already. 

Even got that other exhaust pipe taken down... 

Ok back to work!

Wood and Caulk and Stuff...

Well, it's been a while since my last post, for a couple of reasons... First, Kevin and I both got sick, so really didn't get much more work done... And then I was out of town for a week to visit family in Utah. We're back now, and starting to feel better.

So a week ago, we got a delivery of the last of our I-joists, beams, 2x10's and car decking... All the rest of the structural supports we need to get the attic rolling!!!

This weekend, we've enjoyed watching General Conference and working more on the house. We've been tackling weeds, cleaning, and my particular project has been caulking the trim.

I can't believe the difference it makes. 

Before: 

After:

Can't wait to get them all finished and painted! But here's where Home Depot teaches you some patience... This caulk has to set for seven days before it can be painted. Sheesh. Oh well, it will take me at least that long to get all the trim caulked. 

Lastly, Kevin has started building our upper cabinet boxes. 

Once we get the upper cabinet boxes finished, then we can finally install the tile!!!!  Can't wait!

Front Bedroom Update

Been a while since I checked in... So I wanted to give you a quick update.  The front bedroom has now been painted, and I have to say I'm in LOVE with this color!!  And Kevin put in the can lights too. 

And Kevin got the window trim put up today too!

Doors to be trimmed out tomorrow probably... And hopefully refinishing the floors this week too. 

Pretty big difference on the before and after! 

Oh, and we got the first coat of paint on in the diningroom... And all I can say is wow!! 

Such a fantastic color. Trim around the french doors coming soon too. Looking forward to painting the bathroom and living room. 

That's it for now. More coming soon!!

Wainscoting 101

I mentioned in my previous post that we were thinking of doing some wainscoting in the library... Well, just saying you want to do it and actually figuring out EXACTLY what you want done is an entirely different matter.

How high up the wall do you want it? How thick will the slats be? Where do you center them in the room? How do you handle the corners? Connect pieces at a 45 or 90 degree angles? How do you transition the design to stairs? What kind of chair rail will cap it? Do you build out the baseboard more now that you're adding the wainscoting? Is the back of the wainscoting wood? Just the wall? Or some other material? 

That's just a few of the questions we faced in thinking up our wainscoting. I have always loved the look of it, and knew I wanted it somewhere in my house... But exactly how I wanted it to look was a bit of a challenge.

I went through tons of pics on Pinterest, Houzz and Google images, tried to identify what I really liked and didn't like... And tried to integrate them into a plan that would work for this room...

Here's just a few designs I tested out in PowerPoint so I could work out some of the above questions.

We decided to put Micah board as our backing... Simple, cheep, and smooth... And it worked just fine... Only issue really came down to the fact that this is a really old house and not only are the walls a little crazy (not 100% flat or straight) but the floor also slopes... So... Instead of trying to make everything exactly level (which didn't look right in the room for how skiwampus it actually is (how the heck do you spell that anyway??)) so we decided to "Do as the Greeks do" and *please the eye*.

The Greeks (if you didn't know this already) were master builders. But they didn't build everything perfect. They built them to LOOK perfect... which is entirely different. For example, the columns along the front of the Parthenon don't actually all stand perfectly straight up... This is because when you stand and look at it from the front, perspective would naturally make the columns near the ends look as if they were tipping outward, even if they were perfectly vertical... So... to heck with perspective, let's make it look perfect, and tilt the columns near the outside towards the middle so they look right. ;-) LOL! (Don't believe me? Look it up!) That's just one of the many architectural tricks that they did on many of their buildings. 

Anyway, back to our small library (which is far from a Greek temple)... We had to just kind of eyeball where the chair rail would look flat... Even though it turns out there's nearly a 3/4" difference from one side of the room to the other!!

Still, I think it's turned out pretty amazing. Not 100% finished (as we still have to clean up and paint all the trim, and sand and refinish the floors... Oh, and paint the ceiling, and get rid of the creepy dangling lightbulb...) but the room is nearly there!!!

What do you think?? I just LOVE how the color of the floor looks with the colors of the walls! Sooo didn't even think about it till after we'd painted... Lol! Pulled back the plastic to "holy cow, forgot about the floor color, and it totally matches!"  Unfortunately we'll lose that color when we sand the floors... So decision time again, stain them dark again, or let them age naturally? I'm impatient and I want to stain them back to this color... Kevin wants to let them age naturally. Hogwash!

And I honestly did not think about this till the room was nearly finished... But the kitchen tile matches these colors too!!! :)

Having too much fun. TTFN! 

Paint!!!

I love paint. Seriously, I know I'm an artist and all, but painting rooms has always been one of my favorite things... (right there with demolition.) :)

So I took some time, did some research and we're going all out on the paint. And I'm talking Sherwin Williamsa Historical Collection Craftsman original color scheme... The good stuff. Here's what we've picked:

Classic Light Buff - SW 0050

Frostwork - SW 0059
Festoon Aqua - SW 0019
Buckman Binding - SW 0036
Roycroft Copper Red - SW 2839
Aurora Brown - SW 2837

(We got sample quarts of everything first to check them out in the house and see how we liked them. I definitely recommend doing this so you have the opportunity to change your mind if you need to.)

The living room will be Buckman Binding, a soft, light, neutral tan type color. Then the dining room will be Roycroft Copper Red, a rich, deep coppery/brick red, and one of the darkest in the house, but in reality, there's very little wall space left, so I think we can get away with it. All the trim will be the Classic Light Buff (in Semi Gloss). The Library will be very unique... We will be building wainscoting to frame up the room and make it look more formal.

It'll look something like this: (I mocked this up quick in PowerPoint.) 

The top color will be Aurora Brown, a rich, warm, chocolatey color. Then the back of the wainscoting will be Buckman Binding (the same soft light tan as the living room) and the classic buff white as the trim. I think the tri-color combination will really pop!! 

Kevin already started on the upper part of the library walls. 

The bedrooms (front and back and eventually upstairs) will be Festoon Aqua, a soft sea foam blue-green. And lastly the bathroom will be Frostwork, an icy blue-green. All the wall paint will be satin, all the trim will be semi-gloss, and all the ceilings will be flat white (and some semi-gloss for the bathroom). 

The kitchen... Well, let's be honest, once the new cabinets are in, and the new backsplash tile, there won't be much wall left to paint!! So, it will likely also be Buckman Binding, keep it soft and neutral to not distract from the cupboards. If we decide there's enough there to paint, I might go with a soft summery yellow tone... But we already have a lot of colors going on, so I don't want to overdo it. 

I get goosebumps just thinking about it! Can't wait to get painting!!!

I've had lots of friends and family say they'd like to come help paint... So if you're serious about it, here's our schedule for the next few days:

* Wednesday (today): front bedroom (sanding, and second coat of mud rolled on); paint ceiling in the office. Begin building wainscoting in library, and install window and door trim.

* Thursday: prime walls and ceilings in front bedroom; install window and door trim and baseboard moldings in front bedroom.

* Friday: paint front bedroom walls and ceilings, caulk all trim.

* Saturday: first coat trim paint, move furniture out of back bedroom and paint back bedroom

* Sunday: try to take the day off and relax, but will likely end up doing something... Homework? 

* Monday: move furniture out of living room, paint living room and dining room. 

* Tuesday: Bathroom. (Prime ceiling, first coat on walls)

* Wednesday: Bathroompaint ceiling, second coat on walls

* Thursday: decide on what to paint front entry... Paint it...

* Friday: paint front door (Roycroft Copper Red)

* Saturday: catch up on anything that got missed, and Clean, Clean, Clean!

* Sunday: sit back, relax, and enjoy having the first floor almost finished!!

Let us know if you want to come help! The more hands we have, the faster it will go!