Summer tasks wrap-up

At the beginning of the summer, we made a list. We kept adding to it. And we did knock a number of items off the list.

Here's the list, crossing off the tasks that were completed:

Pull carpet off front stairs
Repaint stairs (interior)
Repaint lower half of DR
Paint front hall + upstairs hall
Refinish front hall window
Powerwash front walk
Put #s on front walk stairs
Fix kitchen porch - wash, paint, new stairs
New light in front hall and front porch
Paint Beechnut#2's room
Paint Master BR Hall
fix hole in downstairs Bathroom
Paint exterior trim
Prune Cherry tree
Get rid of toddler climber in the back yard
Get rid of old patio table and chairs
Call to get kitchen sink fixed
Get rid of treadmill
Get gutters on the kitchen porch
Fix gutter on back of house
Paint screened porch exterior wall
Paint trim of deck
get rid of old maple stump
Call Bartlett tree service
Motorcycle sold/plates returned
Replace playroom light switch
new outlets in Beechnut#2's room

Number 14

 

One of the things on the list was to hang the house numbers on our front porch. We went to LA in Feb and I found these numbers at Liz's Antique Hardware, which is a really fun store.

I thought it would be cool to have them on the stairs, but they were too tall, so it went above. And Jeff power-washed the moss off the front walk. 2 items checked off!

The Summer List

June seemed quiet, but it was a month of planning, door shopping, family, end-of-school, and making a list. Above is a photo of the current list of things to do this summer. It has big projects and little jobs and we're trying to knock it out between trips to the beach and vacations.

I'll post pictures soon of some of the improvements, but I didn't want you to think we were doing nothing over here!

Where's that sound coming from?

When we had the kitchen gutted, Jeff made sure to run speaker wire into the ceiling so we could have surround sound some day in the future when we could afford new speakers.

When I was out doing the weekly shopping, Jeff decided that day had arrived and he ran out, bought speakers, and then called to inform me he was about to drill holes in the ceiling, since he didn't remember where he had left the wire. (Really? Why would he make that call?)

I was a little nervous arriving home, I was certain it would be a disaster, but he found it on the first try!

The rectangles are the new speakers, on either end of the island

 
And now, we have music wherever we go. Well, at least while we're in the kitchen.

Mud Room

Our house is missing a foyer. No mudroom, no coatroom, no "keep the detritus contained" room.
We are sick of tripping over the pile of shoes that accumulate, even though we have a nice shoe rack, and we determined we needed a mudroom. Looking to the walk-out (or in our case, walk-in) basement, we found a place to build a mud room.

The goals are simple:
1. Look stunning
2. While containing all our clutter

Here's where I looked for inspiration.

I like the varying heights of the shelves, good for the vertically-challenged in our house:

The retractable closeline in this photo is brilliant. Perfect for snowpants and mittens after sledding or raincoats after playing in the monsoon:

I like the upper cabinets here to keep everything out of sight. Since our basement has a low ceiling, this is out, but I can still dream...
This is pretty much what I want to end up with:
An open locker for everyone with a bench for sitting while you slip on your shoes, and an open hole for the inevitable pile of shoes. All this while looking good!
All photos from BHG.com

Front Door

I have been thinking a lot about a different front door. This is the current state of affairs.

Close-up on the 3-over-3 door. Notice the extra molding around the entry. Between that and the placement of the non-working door bell, I feel confident the front door was once much larger.



I think I want an elegant double tombstone door, like these pretties from my neighborhood.

I like this front porch too and the bright red color:

These people have a breeze-way entrance that caught our eye, for the kitchen entrance:

Another contrasting color on the door:



I'm not a huge fan of this colonial-style door on this house. This green house is right next door to the yellow house above.The colonial door on this house seems to work with the front porch:
I'm going to use this as an excuse to visit Brimfield and the salvage yards, this gives a little bit of focus to feeling like a kid in a candy shop at the flea markets this summer!

2009 New Years Resolution - Add-Ons

My goals are a little different the then ones previously stated, more project based. Yes, I know II've lost 4 months from the timeline.

• Convert "Cold Room" to a Mudroom
  We have coats, shoes, boots, gloves, etc strewn about a small area at the top of the basement stairs that is driving me nuts. We insulated the "Cold Room", that's how it is labeled on the fuse box. All future home buyers check the fuse box names. That may warn you about what you are getting into. Without insulation, the room is now a steady 60 degrees; before it was a crisp 48. I think some lockers would do the trick to organize the previously mentioned coats, shoes, boots, gloves, etc, as well as control the recycle center in the basement that has a tendency to claim extra turf.
• Build Beechnut #2 a bookcase
  The amount of supplies needed to take a child from 6 month to potty trained age is amazing. We'll design this bookcase to hold actual books for that glorious day when there are no diapers in the house.
  
• Patch floor between DR and LR where the Termites ate.
  Those wood chomping bugs decided that eating 4 feet of support wasn't enough and managed to get some of the floor above it. The repair job in the basement made the floor less squishy, but it needs help.
• Covert odd DR closet to (wet)Bar / Crystal cabinet.
  
• If we win a big scratch-off lottery: Open up the wall between the LR and the Front stairs. Our front hall could be amazing if we did this. The front hall is currently the coldest part of the house, so any chance to insulate something, I'm in.
  

Happy (belated) New Year!

2009 Home Resolutions

Happy New Year!
Its time to plan the projects and goals for SOABT for the new year. Since we are still paying off the kitchen, all plans for 2009 need to contribute directly to the value of our home and should have some urgency associated with it. For instance, we need to replace the rotting floor on our front entry porch before the mail man falls through it.

So, without additional hemming and hawing, here is the list of home-improvement projects/things I'd like to accomplish in 2009.

1. Refinance our mortgage. We're taking advantage of the falling interest rates to refinance. We're paying points upfront for a lower rate, but we plan to break-even in 2 years. Since we have no plans to move out of our house in the next 5 years (or ever), its a good way for us to take advantage of the chaos in the housing market. We had a 30-year fixed mortgage to begin with, now we're getting a lower rate on a new 30-year. It will save us substantial money over the long run in the event we stay in our house for 30 more years.

2. Fix the aforementioned front porch before it gets worse. This will provide a learning experience since the posts holding up the roof will also need to be replaced.

3. Research the house with the historical commission to see what the original front door looked like. We currently have a replacement that I'm positive does not resemble the original door. If I know what I'm looking for, then I have a reason to shop the salvage yards.

4. Add some molding upgrades to the dining room. The current chair rail is about 4 inches too low and my chairs leave marks on the walls. We'd also like to add some picture-frame molding to justify Jeff's purchase of a compound miter saw.

5. Reclaim the front lawn. There's got to be a way to get rid of crab grass without paying a fortune to one of those companies that spray your lawn with chemicals.

6. While we're talking about the front yard, get the dying maple tree taken down before it crashes into the house, causing a re-prioritization of resolutions.

I think 6 resolutions are enough for any year. As we all know, when planning any project, its wise to allow room for contingencies, so I'm keeping the list short in case something comes up. Plus, this leaves room for the unexpected projects that really keep things interesting.

Preparing for Winter

List of projects to be done to prepare for winter:

1. Unhook and drain rain barrel
2. Remove air conditioner from BN-1's room. (Not sure why we even bothered since she was scared of the noise and preferred the suffocating heat to the A/C's hum.)
3. Find someone to remove the leaves
4. Put the basement de-humidifier away
5. Cover the hydrangea to give it a fighting chance of living through the winter
6. Clean up the garage so we can park in it again. It's filled with leftover kitchen-building materials.
7. Make sure all the storms are closed
8. Make sure all the radiator vents are open

Home Cure

Landing area, After & Before
Originally uploaded by screwtop

I bought the Apartment Therapy book last year, right before the holidays with grand plans to get the house in order before my family came for Christmas.
Needless to say, one should never take on an 8-week home exorcism before the holidays. My efforts were defeated by the evil demon Clutter shortly before Thanksgiving, around Week 4. (The book warned me about this, so its not their fault. I didn't listen to their advice about when to start).

The photo above shows the After/Before (before shot is on the right) shots of the alcove where we usually pause, take off our shoes, coats, and drop our bags before we enter the kitchen.

We added a shoe rack and tried to be more diligent about getting the junk out of this area. The shoe rack was built using the tutorial on Not Martha, and I love it. It was really easy to put together, and if that window wasn't there, we'd have the racks going up as high as I can reach.

I have been thinking about this book again, and trying to use the lessons on clutter-control regarding building a "landing strip" near our kitchen. We desperately need a place to store the mail, a place to file, and a desk for the computer.

Something like this photo from Pottery Barn looks like it would solve all our problems, well, except for the price tag.


I plan to (make Jeff) move some furniture this weekend to see what we can salvage from our current belongings to create an "Oasis of Organization" in the kitchen. I'll post photos after the weekend.

Garden in the shade

A consequence of living in the shade of a huge Copper Beech tree is the lack of lawn. Or more correctly, the lack of available nutrients/water/sunlight to grow any sort of lawn. The tree sucks up all the water and the dirt we have is just plain dusty. We did make an "effort" to add organic material back to the soil this year by not raking up our leaves last fall, so that might help this season.

After several years of trying to grow grass in the back yard, we have decided to give up, and start a new plan. I noticed this article on Apartment Therapy about growing moss and I think the new plans for the backyard are going to include a flagstone patio surrounded by moss and a play area for the kid(s) covered in playground mulch.

I wouldn't mind the backyard to look like this:



Moss seems pretty simple to plant. You just need to get some, grind it up in the blender, and add either beer or buttermilk to make a slurry, then spread it around wherever you want the moss to grow. I love the idea of gardening by blender. If it turns out that I can't grow glorified mold in my back yard, perhaps we should just mulch the entire backyard and call it a day.

Installed water barrel

water barrel
Originally uploaded by screwtop

Some might think this is a little strange, but for Mother's Day a few years ago, I received a rain barrel. I'm sure not all new moms get excited about this kind of thing, but I'm not really a flowers and candy type of mom. This lovely rain barrel then spent over 2 years gathering rain on its own while it sat near the downspout. Every time it rained I would grumble about the "free" water we were missing out on. Jeff finally hooked it up for me this past weekend once I dug the "diverter" out of the basement.

Its supposed to rain tonight, so I have big plans of watering my flower beds (pictures to come after the weeds are pulled) this weekend with water captured from the roof.

If nothing else, this removes a tenured item from the to-do list!

Gross Negligence

As we turned our eyes to the kitchen we neglected a very important member of our family, The Deck.

Alas, we were saved by the arrival of my parents, who's primary intention was to visit with the eldest grandchild. However, my father is an expert power washer operator and unable to resist the call.

My father removed several layers of "grossness" under the watchful eye of my mother, who made sure he didn't get to close with the sprayer and "raise the grain". If he had she would have "raised the hell". 2 hours later, everything that was within reach of the hose had been power washed. It looks AMAZING!

However, they were not done. A few text messages, initiated by my Father, while I was in a meeting and my father was off to Lowes to get some mildew killer/remover/preventer stuff.

So I'd like to give a huge "THANK YOU" to my folks who have saved us countless hours of washing and explaining to the 3.5 year old why she can't be on the deck. We've also been able to spread out "Temp Kitchen" out onto the clean deck.

Next Steps, protect it.