Category: Current House

Timber!

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Ben picked up another load of foam insulation.  Just as he came home with it, I went out to the post office.  In the twenty-ish minutes I was gone, Ben did something.

Can you tell?

He cut down (most of) the apple tree.  We had talked about this for a few weeks, not certain when it would happen, but eventually it would.  While we both love trees, heck, Ben planted 17 fruit trees at our last house, this one wasn’t working for us.  First off, it was too close to the house.  Structurally speaking, the roots could damage the foundation.  It also blocked a lot of our view and darkened the kitchen and breakfast nook.  Now we can actually see our back yard from the kitchen.

But the main reason Ben cut it down yesterday afternoon is this:

Hauling bulky insulation to the pool room.  With the first load, Ben and Handy Sammy walked up the stairs, maneuvering around the big rock.  Now that the tree was out-of-the-way, they could easily set the insulation on the landing, and haul it in from there.

Once through the door, the boys loaded it in the pool.

Inside the house, it’s wonderful not having the tree.  From the outside, it looks so bare.

When Ben is ready, he’ll pull the rest of the stump out and we can get to work on the landscaping.

Until then, he’s got several tons of shingles to install.

After we get our hardscaping done, we’ll figure out what plants and trees we want to add for shade and greenery.  We’ve already talked about fruit trees and a pergola for shade.  Despite being a ways off, I’m getting excited.

What are your favorite shade trees?  Do you have landscaping ideas for us?

The Chicago Blues

Published on by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

Knowing we’ll have several rounds of visitors over the summer (and in the next few weeks) we’ve pushed to get more done in the main bathroom.  Despite the vanity needing a few details, I put the first coat of Chicago Blues on.

I love it.  The swatch looked a little nuts, but in the space, it reads as a brighter navy.

A second coat will follow once Ben installs the top trim pieces, but the change and progress is welcome.  You might notice I painted the walls and ceilings.  Well, everything that I could around the patched areas.  In my mood board, I used Stone White from Ben Moore, but it looked too blue in person.  Eventually, I’ll paint the main areas Wood Smoke by Glidden, so I had the paint guy at Home Depot give me a 25% tint to flow with the rest of the house.  I figure getting a first coat on the majority will help.  Then I can prime and paint the patched areas, go over the entire room again for a seamless paint job.

Handy Sammy’s family stopped in to stay with us, so I added a few accessories to pretty it up a bit.

We’ve got more trim work to do, grouting in the shower, and painting, but we do have a functional toilet complete with toilet paper holder.

Fingers crossed Ben has time to grout the shower to get it functional for our guests.

How was your weekend?  Did you do any painting?  Maybe you installed a toilet?  We had fun chatting with family and eating dinner on the deck.

Gimme a Giveaway Winner: Thirty One & A Sampling

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

I’m so happy today is Friday.  Already, it has been one of those mornings.  We’ve got guys on the roof delivering shingles, a dog and two kids who don’t want to listen, and projects to work on.  Hopefully the winner of the Thirty One bag, Lisa P, is having a better day.

We’ve been busy lately.  Two days ago, after sharing this bathroom mood board, I bought a sample can of Ben Moore’s Chicago Blues.

And tested it on parts of the vanity.  I like it.  Now I’ve got to caulk the seams and prod Ben to finish the top part so I can paint everything.

After cleaning out my paint brush, I load up another with polyurethane to coat a left over slab of Bubinga for the entertainment center.

Don’t worry, it won’t be this glossy.  I had finished applying the second coat just before taking this picture.

This is what it really looks like.

We chose a fast drying oil based polyurethane in a satin finish for durability.

On Wednesday night, Ben drove a few hours to pick up another load of insulation.  And he has ordered 200 more sheets, so this is about half of our order.

Eventually Ben will wrap the house with this insulation to make it more energy efficient.  Until then, we’ll have a pool room (and pool) full of foam.

What have you done this week?  Please tell me you’ve got fun plans for the weekend?

Suck it Up

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

Back at our old house, Ben came up with the genius idea to install a central vac system.

I mean, why not?  We had a junky canister vacuum and an unfinished basement.  And it was one of the most practical, daily routine changing things we did.  The first time we toured the mountain house, we got excited the previous owner had already installed one.  Whew, that saved us time, money, and the hassle of buying an interim vacuum.  But did it?  No, the vacuum was too small for the size of the house.  Which meant the suction was lame, especially compared to the over sized vacuum Ben chose for our first house.  Of course we didn’t think to plug the vacuum in the port to check it before we bought the house.  Only after closing did we realize how lame it was and that we’d need to replace it.  To top it off, the vacuum only had low voltage wiring.  No motorized head for easy carpet cleaning.

At first, it wasn’t too bad.  Then we started living there and Jack flopped all over the rugs, matting dog hair in.  I wish I would have taken a picture of that, but trust me, it wasn’t pretty.  We knew we had to do something sooner than later.  Ben did his research and found a good deal on a vacuum that seemed to kick serious butt and could suck your socks off.  It’s called, the Killer Whale, but we’ll refer to it as Willy (you know, Free Willy).

Before Ben could install Willy, he had to run a new outlet because a regular outlet doesn’t work.  In the few weeks we’ve had Willy, he has gotten quite the workout.

It has so much more power than the old one.  By the way, we’re keeping the old vac to use if/when we build a shop at the edge of the driveway.  This vacuum is in the same place as the old one, the garage.

My opinion?  Willy, together with the rug attachment, cleans like the Moby Dickens.  Get it?  The vacuum nickname is killer whale and Moby Dick was a killer whale (in the literal sense).  And the vacuum cleans like the dickens.  Our rugs have never been cleaner since bringing them in the house.

Oh, and it’s not loud because the motorized parts are in the garage.  Yay for making my life a little easier.  No more dusting, just add a small brush and I can zoom over table tops and baseboard.

Because this post was word heavy, I decided to add a few photos I took of last night’s sunset.

A storm rolled in, showering the mountains in the distance.  Clouds covered the city greenery, but the sun gleamed against the dry fields at the edge of town.  We got a peek of a rainbow, too.

Yep, we’re still smitten with the mountain house views.  Seeing the weather changes from a distance is a nice reward for all the work we have to do here.

The Moody Blues

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

As we inch toward a completed bathroom, I’m planning the finishing touches.  Finding a clearance shower curtain changed my whole vision, in a good way.

1.  Originally, I thought we’d use a bluish-green paint color (like Dragonfly) for the vanity, but I remembered I had a blue shower curtain (number 10) and I switched gears.  Now I’m considering using Chicago Blues on the leggy vanity and Stone White for the upper part of the walls.  Admittedly, the blue looks crazy on a flat surface in bright light, but in the dark bathroom, on the vertical surfaces of the vanity, it reads more as a navy blue.  While navy blues look black.

2.  Warm gray one foot by two foot tiles with pearl gray grout on the floor should help the floors look cleaner.

3.  For a cohesive look, we used the same tiles in a lighter color for the shower surround, taking it up to the ceiling.  We’ll add white grout for a seamless look.

4.  Cleaning sinks isn’t my favorite task, so we chose a streamlined porcelain sink and sleek chrome faucet.  The eight inch wide-spread faucet makes cleaning between the handles easy, too.

5.  Two industrial style pendants hang over the vanity, adding much-needed light and allow a wider mirror.

6.  Because we liked the sink faucet, we chose a matching tub faucet.

7.  The great toilet paper debate doesn’t have to happen with this simple holder, placed vertically.

8.  In our last house, we used towel bars to hang our wet towels.  Folding the towels to look pretty didn’t allow proper drying, so we’re skipping the bars and using double hooks instead.  Medium gray towels are perfect for daily use and a coral ribbon loop adds color and prevents the towels from falling off the hook.

9.  Lacking drawers in the vanity means we need a practical storage solution for our toiletries.  This lazy Susan utensil caddy should do the trick, while bringing in a pop of our accent color, coral.

10.  Bring on the coral accents.  A plastic cup is great for the boys.

11.  This is the shower curtain that started it all.  Actually, we used it as a tablecloth for Thanksgiving, will add pattern and color.

12.  Monograms and pretty blue, sign me up.  These little trays are on clearance, so get one while you can.

I’m still figuring out artwork and I’m sure plans will change over time.  Maybe a few gold accents will find their way into the room?  This is a departure from our favorite blue and green combo, but I like where we’re headed.  Coral doesn’t pop up all over our house, so it’s a fun accent color and balances the boyish blue.

Have you been working on a mood board lately?  Figuring out the finishing touches for a room?  Have you ever used a clearance item as your inspiration?  Or switched plans half way through?