update 2010

although my blogging has slowed considerably (okay - come to a complete halt), our work on the house has certainly not stopped. and although there have been a measly 4 posts since may of 2009, when i look back at photos from last spring, i am reminded of all we have this year that we didn't last year.

- a deck

- a finished master bath

- a completely renovated hall bath

- trim and paint in several rooms

- a full grown dog (who i still call my puppy)

- curtains up in the living room (sorry, no pics... yet)

and the most recent work: the exterior of our little house.

to give you an overall sense of how it will look in the end, here is a site plan.

first up was the front porch. i decided i wanted the option to add rails to the porch, so the aluminum columns that were merely leftovers from the gross vinyl column were not going to work. (there wasn't a way to gracefully add railing to 4" round aluminum columns... or not that i liked.) so we went the simplest route possible: 4x4 pressure treated columns. then we moved forward with the plans to add new wide sitting stairs and a planter box to announce the entry a little more. the planter box has been a huge hit with friends and neighbors. so i think it was a good choice...

here are the photos of the work to the front of the house.

we used what we could afford.... re-dried treated decking boards. robby ripped them down to give the square edge (no rounded edges on a modern planter box). and we had to go through and hand pick boards to get grain that i was happy with. (it was a struggle at first to convince robby that this was necessary, but in the end he agrees it looks a lot better)

from there we turned our attention to the backyard. the attempt to plant grass last year on the hill that divided our yard failed. (the incline was too steep with a puppy that likes to run laps in our yard) so we cut the hillside and robby built a retaining wall out of 6x6 heavy timbers. (yes, it is true, he can build just about anything and make it look good) we then seeded the yard (again) and this time have had more success than last year. spring is really not the time to try and grow grass, but i think we will be able to make it through the summer with what we have and then seed again in the fall.

voila.... beautiful green yard! and please check out the shrubs along the fence... notice how much bigger they are this year than just one year ago. (and since this photo was taken they are probably two times bigger)

new rhododendron planted along the other fence.

next up we've got our first ever vegetable garden, along with the beginning of a new fence along the south side of the house with a gravel pathway.

the vegetable garden as of May 5th.

the beginning of the fence - which will match the planter box in its design - and the new pathway which will eventually get pavers.

the pathway continues around to the back of the house.

the view from the back looking to the front.

and the vegetable garden as of today... may 23rd. and check out the hydrangea! it was TINY last year.

SO, as you can see, we have actually been very busy... just all on the exterior. the house needed major help in the curb appeal category, and hopefully we are getting there. in a few years when everything has finally grown and gotten full i think it will be a lovely house and yard from front to back. here's a nice reminder of what it was on april 1, 2008. and the photo below from april 17, 2010.

bathroom

just in case there is anyone out there reading this blog anymore, i thought i would post before and after hall bath photos. quite an improvement i think.

here is the after:

and here is the before:

here is a detail of the light fixture. i really like it. i think it goes well with the retro floor.

slip sliding away

i know i have abandoned this blog. it is not my intention because we are still working hard on the house. but life as an architect + photographer has gotten hectic lately. i've got a few shots from late april/early may of the bathroom work. that bathroom is done now, and also has once coat of paint, but i don't have photos yet. also, here's one shot of the living room with some paint on the walls finally... it still needs touch ups, and we're far from finished with the paint rollers, but it's a start. more to come... 

first the bathroom. IKEA sink that i love. and the toto toilet is like the one in our master bath. 

robby with his winter beard working on grout. 

and the fixtures in place. i know, i'm a dork. 

and here's the living room. one dark grey wall. it turned out bluer than i thought it would - the color is steel wool from benjamin moore. i like it, though... i think. the green in the nook is still the test swatch. but it will be that color, more or less. the rest of the walls are a faint grey... mostly white, but up against the few places where we have trim painted you can see the difference. 

maybe you can tell the color of the walls a little better in this shot of the kitchen... up against the white cabinets and countertops. it's subtle. 

that's it for now. one day i'll have it all done done and get some final shots up. but we've got a lot of painting to do before that. 

the final lap....

well folks, it seems we're on the final lap of this race: the hall bath. i left you with demo, now i bring you tile. floor tile at least. here we go...

black hexagonal tile. it's something i've been dreaming of for a long time. i don't know why i love it so much, but i do. and now i have it. first sheet going in. it was harder than it looks, but as always robby rocked through it. 

it's the small things people... like arranging the cut tiles by size. (largest to smallest)

grout night.... there was literally a funnel cloud overhead. seriously: a tornado warning. funnel cloud spotted near our house. and robby just ignored it. 

and a backyard update... grass is growing! 

and the other things we finally got planted are flourishing as well. we love the fig tree our dear friend dawn gave us. it only took 9 months to get it in the ground, but it's alive! 

and new plants along the side of the house... 

we're alllllmost there. soon enough we will be. we can see the finish line very clearly! 

yard time!

so we spent this past weekend working our tails off in the yard... moving mulch, moving rocks, finding snakes (4 of them!), making new beds, planting new plants, seeding and fertilizing... i could keep going. it was very rewarding to start to see it all come together. there is still more to do (and a vegetable garden to plant- fingers crossed) but we feel like we've made some real progress. 

i'll start with some shock and awe... the yard one year ago (horrifying as it was):

and the yard as of this past sunday:

obviously some of the improvement comes from our neighbor building a big fence (i guess she didn't like the view... i can't blame her until recently). but we've worked hard to get all those gross weeds out and to start planting things that will grow and look great in the years to come. 

now we'll go backwards... 

final deck photos. robby has officially decided our deck has a very "zen" feel to it. i think it's because the deck, the house, and the oak tree have a lovely little conversation occurring. they all work together to create this awesome outdoor room without there being any walls. so i tried to capture more of this feeling, but i have to say - you just have to come experience it in person. (that is an open invitation)

now we move to the front of the house. robby took out the old nasty ceiling fan and put in a new light from (you guessed it) IKEA. $30 goes a long way there. (personal disclaimer: this light isn't made for outdoor use, but our porch is covered, so we'll be fine). he also finished removing the old railing and plastic column covers to reveal the aluminum underneath. we've gotten some positive feedback on those, so they're here to stay for a while. 

here is a random shot inside from the front door looking back. i had a wide angle lens and i think my sister asked for this shot last july (sorry for the delay), and i had just cleaned so things were relatively tidy... still no paint on the walls. still no personal photos or items out. and still no built-ins in the living room. all in due time. 

okay, and here is the finale for the back yard. i'll have to post front yard photos once i take some. so along the fence we planted forsythia and lilac. we finally got our fig tree in the ground. and i divided some of my hostas from the front yard and brought them to fill in around the hydrangea. i also bought pink hypoestes to fill in, too. sadly those are just annuals, though. 

here are my peonies that i am SO excited about (if i can keep boone from killing them). 6 buds total, so i'm hoping to get at least one nice flower arrangement from them. 

more shrubs we bought for around other parts of the house. soft touch hollies and golden leaf cyprus. both will add year round color to some parts of the house that just need to be covered up. 

robby throwing down wheat straw on the grass seed... fingers crossed we get some grass!

and my very special lily-of-the-valley. this came from my mom, which came from my grandmother's, which i believe came from my great-grandmother's garden. i have 5 blooms and lots of healthy leaves so it's life here in well rooted, i hope. 

and a shot i stole of robby all dirty and sweaty on saturday. i bet anyone out there who did yard work this weekend knows the look on his face.