one more coat...

the painters showed up today and got another coat of paint on the house and almost finished everything. there are some pieces that we will still need to replace altogether eventually, but for now they are staying. the main siding color dried a little lighter than we had hoped so for the final coat we are thinking we'll have them darken it up a bit. here are a few pics to show where we're at. 

we still aren't quite sure what we're going to do for the columns on the front porch. we discovered that underneath the nasty vinyl columns are round aluminum posts.(you can see one peeking out in the photo below on the right) they really don't quite fit in (like a few other things in/on this house), but we might leave them there for a little while and see what we think. who knows... 

  

the side facing bill's house looks the nicest (below, right)... of course that it is the side most other people will never see. sigh. 

  

best shots to see the color combo. the new front gutters will match these... once we save the money to get them. 

   

interior progress... the cabinet and counter in the built in space in the dining room. still deciding on shelves or art to go above...? and maybe some color... (i'm planning to paint over my christmas vacation)

 

and the details of the way we decide to finish off the shower wall in the master bath. i had been trying to figure this out forever and had toyed with the idea of ipe or teak wrapping over the wall, but my old boss brett threw out the idea of the same solid surface material that we had used for the countertops... and we went with it. it looks good, i think. thanks brett...

  

moonlight gray

that's the color of the grout for the floor tile. it looks sookie sookie sweet!

the tiling continues...

as you can see below we went with the running bond for the wall tile. it is much more forgiving for first time tilers. it's looking good... robby's working hard. although if you could hear the sounds he is  making right now as he apparently forces the preformed shower niche into it's place, you would think the house is going to fall down. yeesh.

   

time for tile

so we're finally moving on the master bathroom tile work. it took a long time and a couple of decision changes (by me) to get the tile ordered. robby rocked and rolled through the backer board friday night and yesterday got the floor done except for a couple of tricky cut pieces around the flange for the toilet. it looks awesome... for a first time tile layer i think he did a fabulous job. and he was lucky that i was out of the house all day on photo shoots so i wasn't there to pester him. 

here are photos to get you up to speed. i have a super wide angle lens right now for some photo sessions i'm doing, so i'm taking advantage of it in the house...

backer board as of yesterday morning.

  

i missed the entire day of tiling... here is the tile man himself laying of the last few pieces...

i showed up just in time... ha ha.

the bathroom in the morning light...

  

detail of the floor tile... if you know me and how much i love gray, you know why i picked this tile.

laying out the wall tile on the floor... trying to decide on either a running bond (right - traditional "subway") or a stack bond...

  

detail of each... 

  

a couple of shots of the morning light in the house... and yes, our house is a disaster still. one day there will be no construction dust and boxes. 

  

robby is working on the wall tile as i type... so you'll get to see soon which pattern we picked. exciting stuff!

long time, no post

where did the month of october go? let's see... robby is now, Robby Blyth, LEED AP (go robby! LEED certified), i attended 4 weddings (3 to photograph, 1 to drink all the champagne), and well, then there was that election. it was a crazy month. 

but we're back, and we're busy. we've made several small improvements since the last post. photos below to tell you what...

here is the front of the house last saturday... robby had done some repair work to the front where some of the old wood siding was rotten. the painters came that day and put their first coat of peel bond on... it is tinted the color the paint will be so we can get an idea of if we'll like the color or not...

and here it is with the peel bond. it rained here yesterday morning so they couldn't come prime it all. but it already looks better. the foundation will be a dark charcoal gray. white trim. i can't wait to get it finished!

the metal fabricator came on friday and installed the gutters on the back of the house... the rain collection box is bigger than i thought it would be, but necessary for the amount of rain coming off the house at that point. 

close up of the gutters...

here you can also see the big old aqua-hut is gone.... the plumbers installed the new Renai tankless water heater this week... it is much more energy efficient so it should save us some money. and it looks A LOT better!

inside we're making progress, too. robby is finishing up the windows in the kitchen, instead of standard trim detail we decided to go back and let the sheetrock die into the glass giving a cleaner look. robby is so handy... he can do it all. 

a close up of the work on the windows... just the first coat. still needs sanding and more mud...

i love the close proximity of the work in the kitchen to the morning coffee... just a little sheetrock in the coffee. 

we also got the can lights over the bar installed. i LOVE them. 

and robby installed the pendant over the kitchen sink. we like it a lot, too... and once we get a 40W bulb for it, it will be even better. 

and this weekend was landscape palooza... we bought some new plants at the farmer's market and are making new beds here and there to make the backyard look a little better. 

gutters on the other side of the house and a new bed up against the house for hydrangeas... my favorite. 

4 white camellias that will one day get big and provide a little barrier between us and the neighbors. 

here's how close we are to the neighbor...

and robby made and installed doors on the shed... very handy and now a secure place to store the tools. 

and one last little fun shot... looking out over our neighbor's yard it's hard to tell what year this is.... sort of a timeless little neighborhood we're in. we're loving our first fall in our house.