Welcome and please come in!

The new front door is installed! This is a huge improvement over the old door that was drafty, sagging, and never opened when the weather was humid.

It took years of planning and research. I really wanted a double door, but finally had to admit it wouldn't work, the space was too small. 

This door is a generous consolation prize. In addition to being 2 inches thick, it's 42 inches wide and almost 8 feet tall. So instead of 2 small doors, I have one massive door!

In the end, I'm very happy with it. Just waiting for a nice big knocker (go ahead and giggle)!

New front door, in progress!

Front door being installed. It's only taken 3 years to find the right one!

Updated garage

Although we have lived in the house for over 8 years, we just now realized we had 2 different garage doors.

Now we have 2 new doors, equipped with garage openers and keyless entry!

We painted the garage Benjamin Moore Steel Wool. 

It's a big improvement.

Back deck

We "cut twice and measured once" a few times, but managed to piece together a cover for the hole in the deck

Then the rest of the deck was powerwashed and you can't even tell where we made the changes! Ha! No one will notice the mismatched seams and different pattern by next year when the new wood has aged.

Now that its done, we can use this part of the deck again. Until the mosquitoes come along, then I'm going back into the screened section.

The back deck wreck

This tree and this deck are the reason we own this house. When Jeff saw it online, he begged me to go look at the house even though it was so far away from our city life. We bought the house and the 200 year old Copper Beech tree came with it.

We learned these trees are very susceptible to drought, one of which we had a few years ago and it stressed the tree. So, we took care of the tree and also removed some of the decking that was choking the tree.

Then we had a nice deck with a huge hole in it.

Once the tree rebounded, we started to think about the best way to replace the deck. You can see the way the boards are warped where the tree;s growth has pushed the planks.

We are going to carefully replace the boards in a way that will make it easier to adjust when the tree grows.

But we aren't going to fully rebuild the deck this year, I'm sure in a few years we will have to revisit this, as you can see the tree is totally touching and growing over parts of the deck beams.

Summer of the Exterior: New windows

We are making lots of changes to the exterior of the house this summer. The first big project is replacing the bay window in the family room with 2 double-hung windows.

The bay was a more recent addition to the house, and isn't a style consistent with the exterior. Plus, it is very drafty.

Here's the view from the exterior. Removing the bay will also gain a few inches of space on our side patio, off of the kitchen. The slider to the left is also coming out, details coming in a later post.

The goal is to add some energy efficiency and make the side patio usable as a place to sit and watch the neighbors walk by.

Like the back of my hand...

We've lived in this house for over 8 years and just realized the garage has 2 different doors. Good thing we are calling 2013 the "Year of the Exterior".

After: Master Bath

I realized I never shared the real "After" photos of the bathroom.
I wanted a 1920's feel and Shelly Van Rozeboom helped make my vision come to life. I love the antique brass medicine cabinets, lights, faucets, and cabinet hardware.

Here's what you see from the hall/closet area. The toilet is behind the wall to the right.

Double vanity! Antique brass campaign style pulls and handles, and brass faucets. The vanity has tons of storage. We each have 8 drawers and a cabinet. Most of Jeff's drawers are empty.

We went with rectangular sinks and faucets with the cross-handles. the medicine cabinets are HUGE. We each have 2 sconces giving plenty of light.

We added an outlet to the inside of the cabinets to keep things like hair-dryers, razors, and toothbrushes out of sight.

The wall tile was simple subway tiles, with a thin black pencil line, and a beautiful piece of tile trim at the top. I think that's my favorite part.

The floors have radiant heating (which is truly luxurious right now in winter) under the carerra marble tiles.

And, last but not least, the SHOWER! Here is where we really went nuts. We have a pretty carerra basket-weave tile with a border on the floor and white subway tile around the entire area. We went with the usual wall-mounted shower head, then added 2 body sprays, a waterfall on the ceiling, and a hand-held. We also upgraded the glass to starfire glass so it wouldn't have a blue/green tint. I wanted the tile to look white. There is a little seat/shelf in the corner too.

The walls are painted BM Stonington Gray.

It was a rough summer filled with construction, but it was worth it.