So, our house development reports have been delayed since the urgent need came to go out and fight the hate and discrimination that exists in our state government and the current national political environment. You would think that in 2011, we could get beyond all of this and get on with caring for all of humanity instead of just a few (what WOULD Jesus do??). I will stop there with all of that for now and get you caught up on the last 3 weeks since my last post (but don't think for one minute you won't see/hear more from me on fighting for what I believe is just and fair).
We have been working on some little project every day to get the inside of the house finished. We figure if we keep doing this, we may be finished with this project in early 2012! :o)
Here are the photos that tell the story:
After trying at least 6 colors, we FINALLY decided on a color for the new dining room. We have been working with a retro line of craftsman bungalow colors. The base color is 'bamboo reed', a very pleasing green/earth color. We will trim the room in a buttery Craft White.
So, because we love to paint and then re-paint walls :o) we have now changed the entry wall color because this no longer goes with the new dining room color. Here is the old color:
.........and here is the new color, Pompei Orange. More of a terra cotta color.
Our next project was to build a bench seat with coat hooks for the entry nook just inside the front door. Sort of like a mini mud room. Here, I am building the base frame for the seat.
....putting together the seat framing.
If it can hold me, it can hold anyone.
Installing the birch plywood backing and clear pine trim.
Rowan wanted to help, so I taught her how to use the mitre saw to chop the 1x4 pine trim boards. Being a math nerd, she makes the most perfect measurements and cuts. Another reason she is a keeper. :o)
We are building the seat in the craftsman style, so there is lots of simple decorative trim to the piece. Here I am using construction adhesive to stick the decorative trim pieces to the ply backing. Once they went up with adhesive, they were also nailed down.
We pre-primed the trim pieces before we installed them.
Here is the finished piece. A perfect addition to the space and will provide an important function.
Here is the view with the front door.
The next BIG thing we added to the house was this FANTASTIC dining room table. Believe it or not, a friend who was here for our friend Sally's birthday party told us he had the perfect table for our new style in the house. He told us not to go buy anything else until we came over to look at it. He said he helped build the table years ago and would give us the table if we liked it. So, we went to have a look and almost passed out when we saw it. It is in the classic Green & Green craftsman style. Built out of solid mahogany with amazing detail. We brought the piece home and it is just a FABULOUS addition to the house. We are so grateful to Charlie and Sandy for this amazing gift.
Here is a photo of the table with the new lights Rowan hung (she is also an electrician on top of everything else!). The lights are hammered copper and bronze.
Our first dinner at the new table. We sort of feel like an old royal couple sitting at either end of a really long table in an old stone castle (well, sort of).
.........and of course Lulu had to be present at the table too!
If you have been following the blog over the winter, you know that we have had unusual snow this year. Well, now we are having a CRAZY early tornado season. In the early morning hours of Feb. 28 (about 3:30am) the tornado warning sirens went off. We could hear the extreme thunder, lightening, rain and strong winds. That episode passed and there was calm for about 30 minutes. Then, suddenly out of nowhere there came a huge wind and more thunder and heavy rain. We heard a HUGE crash and the house shook. I leapt out of bed and Rowan looked at me with wide eyes and we both thought that something bad had just happened. I went to the guest room to look out the window and I was looking into the middle of a TREE!!!. SHIT! A huge silver maple tree from the other side of our neighbors yard had just come down in the wind and landed against the side of our house. Our neighbors shed was half crushed and one side of the tree was resting on their roof, just over their bedroom. Rowan and I sprang into action and got dressed to run over to see if they were OK. It was pouring rain and thunder and lightening was everywhere. As I went through the tree to our neighbors window to yell at them, I didn't yet have the nerve to look at our house to see if there was a hole in our new roof. Ugh!
Our neighbors were OK (thank god!) and our house was OK too. The tree was resting on top of our AC (it is OK too) and the very top of it was resting against the side of the house. We and our neighbors are soooo lucky to come through this OK. If our house was one foot closer to the neighbors, it could have been a very different story. Whew! I hope this isn't a sign of a hard spring for us.
The view out of our window when daylight came.
View from our neighbors yard looking toward our house.
We escaped damage by the skin of our chinny-chin-chin!
Coming next, a long over due food posting. We have been cooking now that we have our kitchen back :o)......................
