We've been quite busy, and I'll post some documentation soon.
Showing posts with label finishes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finishes. Show all posts
Monday, January 23, 2012
Changes
The home improvement bug sunk its fangs into me HARD at the beginning of the year, so we have changes afoot. Here's a sneak peek:
We've been quite busy, and I'll post some documentation soon.
We've been quite busy, and I'll post some documentation soon.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Cedar siding
We knew when we agreed to this design that our cedar siding would take some upkeep if we wanted to retain its color. Without a yearly coat of sealant, the wood will fade and eventually gray, and we want to keep it looking fresh as long as possible.
Even though the cedar was sealed with two spray coats before it was installed, we could tell that it needed a refresh after the winter weather and Utah sun.
It took both of us about eight hours total to seal, with the majority of that time spent maneuvering very tall and heavy ladders.
We love the red look and can tell that the wood was due for a fresh coat -- it nearly glows now. So even though it will be kind of a pain, we'll spend the time once a year to re-seal the wood.
(Also, we were sitting in church a little while ago and noticed this Bible verse from 1 Kings 6:9: "So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar." We had a good laugh.)
Even though the cedar was sealed with two spray coats before it was installed, we could tell that it needed a refresh after the winter weather and Utah sun.
It took both of us about eight hours total to seal, with the majority of that time spent maneuvering very tall and heavy ladders.
We love the red look and can tell that the wood was due for a fresh coat -- it nearly glows now. So even though it will be kind of a pain, we'll spend the time once a year to re-seal the wood.
(Also, we were sitting in church a little while ago and noticed this Bible verse from 1 Kings 6:9: "So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar." We had a good laugh.)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Barter
What do you do when you're flat broke but have an enormous living room wall that cries for art?
You barter away an old red couch...
...call your friends over for an evening of watching you bicker over leveling a huge sheet of painted Tyvek...
...watch your husband do death-defying stunts 13 feet off the ground...
...and replace the old couch with one you've spent two years saving for! (Found here.)
Many, many thanks to our generous friend and artist Benjamin Wiemeyer for taking pity on us and doing the barter. We love the painting and the view from the sidewalk:
(And so does the neighbor kid who just rode past and shouted, "I love your painting!")
You barter away an old red couch...
...call your friends over for an evening of watching you bicker over leveling a huge sheet of painted Tyvek...
...watch your husband do death-defying stunts 13 feet off the ground...
...and replace the old couch with one you've spent two years saving for! (Found here.)
Many, many thanks to our generous friend and artist Benjamin Wiemeyer for taking pity on us and doing the barter. We love the painting and the view from the sidewalk:
(And so does the neighbor kid who just rode past and shouted, "I love your painting!")
Friday, May 7, 2010
Last weekend
To thumb our noses at the rain last weekend and take advantage of some momentum in the house work, we pushed through a couple of indoor projects: sealing the stairs, finishing a scrap of baseboard, and sealing a small patch of concrete we missed the first time around.
There's nothing inherently difficult or time-consuming about these tasks. They're just a pain to do. Which is really the only reason that we hadn't done them before.
The stairs, all taped and ready for sealer:
Detail on the taping we had to do to protect the wall, facilitated by tiny gaps between the edge of the concrete treads and the wall.
The stairs now have a slight sheen on them, and we're glad to have them sealed. Now we can stop worrying about long-term dirt problems on them. But you still can't wear shoes in our house.
Our fridge saga -- our current fridge was the third one purchased -- left us with a weird patch of unsealed concrete floor right in front of the fridge, which happens to be the spot where we most often spill stuff. Dur. It is now sealed. The baseboard on the left side of the photo was also a lingering patch job from the fridge saga; it's now sanded, caulked, painted, and looking pretty again.
Tai has been working on our sprinkler system this week all by himself. Launching pipes into the street by turning on the water cut-off all by himself. Exploding muddy, capped lines onto his face all by himself. It's been an exciting week. We'll keep you posted.
There's nothing inherently difficult or time-consuming about these tasks. They're just a pain to do. Which is really the only reason that we hadn't done them before.
The stairs, all taped and ready for sealer:
Detail on the taping we had to do to protect the wall, facilitated by tiny gaps between the edge of the concrete treads and the wall.
The stairs now have a slight sheen on them, and we're glad to have them sealed. Now we can stop worrying about long-term dirt problems on them. But you still can't wear shoes in our house.
Our fridge saga -- our current fridge was the third one purchased -- left us with a weird patch of unsealed concrete floor right in front of the fridge, which happens to be the spot where we most often spill stuff. Dur. It is now sealed. The baseboard on the left side of the photo was also a lingering patch job from the fridge saga; it's now sanded, caulked, painted, and looking pretty again.
Tai has been working on our sprinkler system this week all by himself. Launching pipes into the street by turning on the water cut-off all by himself. Exploding muddy, capped lines onto his face all by himself. It's been an exciting week. We'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The latest punch list
We love our house. Not a day goes by without us thinking about the morning light in our living room, the functionality of the garage, the ideal entertaining space that is our living-dining-kitchen space, our great exterior design, the tranquility of our bedroom...we love it.
That said, it's not perfect. During the design and building process, I guess I imagined that once we moved in the house-building fairy would appear and magically make everything complete and perfect with a wave of her sparkly wand. She hasn't shown up yet, so in the meantime, this is what we're thinking about completing or improving in the next little while:
• landscaping
• house numbers
• fence with neighbors to the south
• cabinet and storage configuration in laundry nook
• office configuration
You've read about our landscape plans. It looks like we're tentatively planning on mimicking this design for the fence:
Tai's been drawing up plans to make it two-sided and to take into account the fall in elevation between the east side and west side of our south property line. I'm really excited, though -- I think it's going to look great.
When we first moved in, a fence was in a top-tier priority, but in recent weeks it had slipped a bit. It bumped back up when the neighbors expressed interest in a fence, which means that we're going to be putting off some other optional upgrades in order to work with the neighbors. A couple of things that are slipping are window coverings, more plants for the yard, a speedier timeline for the landscaping, and office furnishings.
This is what our office looks like at the moment:
Lovely, huh? The un-interesting story for this room is that we thought we had a design we liked for a built-in desktop and shelving, then we decided we didn't. We also decided against doing anything from Ikea in this room -- our kitchen is Ikea by choice, our bookcases upstairs are Ikea by necessity, our wardrobes and bathrooms cabinets are Ikea by expediency, and we just don't want any more Ikea. Back to square one.
One of the smaller tasks we face is the positioning and installation of our permanent house numbers. In order to get our occupancy permit this fall, Tai spray pained some stencil numbers and tacked them up to our front post. After touring a Geoff Tice remodel, Tai spotted this line of numbers and found out they're offered at a very reasonable price at Lowe's:
So the 1, 3, 4, and 2 have been sitting on our kitchen counter for a week or so awaiting installation on our exterior concrete wall. Tai even make a trek to Harbor Freight for a hammer-action drill to tackle the concrete. Current thinking about placement puts them horizontally, off center (to the left), just below the canopy frame.
The last thing I wanted to share is that we are highly amused by the slow drive-bys. Watching the parade of gawkers outside our front windows has become a weekend past time -- keep 'em coming!
That said, it's not perfect. During the design and building process, I guess I imagined that once we moved in the house-building fairy would appear and magically make everything complete and perfect with a wave of her sparkly wand. She hasn't shown up yet, so in the meantime, this is what we're thinking about completing or improving in the next little while:
• landscaping
• house numbers
• fence with neighbors to the south
• cabinet and storage configuration in laundry nook
• office configuration
You've read about our landscape plans. It looks like we're tentatively planning on mimicking this design for the fence:
Tai's been drawing up plans to make it two-sided and to take into account the fall in elevation between the east side and west side of our south property line. I'm really excited, though -- I think it's going to look great.
When we first moved in, a fence was in a top-tier priority, but in recent weeks it had slipped a bit. It bumped back up when the neighbors expressed interest in a fence, which means that we're going to be putting off some other optional upgrades in order to work with the neighbors. A couple of things that are slipping are window coverings, more plants for the yard, a speedier timeline for the landscaping, and office furnishings.
This is what our office looks like at the moment:
Lovely, huh? The un-interesting story for this room is that we thought we had a design we liked for a built-in desktop and shelving, then we decided we didn't. We also decided against doing anything from Ikea in this room -- our kitchen is Ikea by choice, our bookcases upstairs are Ikea by necessity, our wardrobes and bathrooms cabinets are Ikea by expediency, and we just don't want any more Ikea. Back to square one.
One of the smaller tasks we face is the positioning and installation of our permanent house numbers. In order to get our occupancy permit this fall, Tai spray pained some stencil numbers and tacked them up to our front post. After touring a Geoff Tice remodel, Tai spotted this line of numbers and found out they're offered at a very reasonable price at Lowe's:
So the 1, 3, 4, and 2 have been sitting on our kitchen counter for a week or so awaiting installation on our exterior concrete wall. Tai even make a trek to Harbor Freight for a hammer-action drill to tackle the concrete. Current thinking about placement puts them horizontally, off center (to the left), just below the canopy frame.
The last thing I wanted to share is that we are highly amused by the slow drive-bys. Watching the parade of gawkers outside our front windows has become a weekend past time -- keep 'em coming!
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