Paint: All over but the shouting

Perhaps one more coat of paint is not the most exciting news to report...But it is about as much as we can pull off at the moment and in any case, this particular room was rather cathartic to colorize. We'd had this room hastily painted (along with the bathroom, which is now the only room which still needs color work) right before we moved in. Trouble is, we'd chosen a color which didn't ultimately fit into the whole Monadnock palette like we'd originally thought it would; plus, we didn't realize it was necessary to tell the guys they should paint the ceiling white, assuming that all rooms have white ceilings and so that should go without saying. Oops. So I remember vividly the first night sleeping in this house, in this room, with no drywall except here and in the bathroom, staring up at a ceiling which was as alarmingly yellow as the rest of the place. I'll be honest: Those first fifteen or thirty minutes were the only time since we've moved here when I've been truly scared. What am I doing here? I'm drowning in an ocean of cheap mustard. How the hell is this a home? Then the fear passed and it hasn't come back. Nevertheless, that's why finally getting around to redoing this corner of the castle has been, as I mentioned, cathartic.

My camera still inspires no confidence that it captures colors accurately, but here's a picture of roughly what we're dealing with. The "technical" name of this color is natural wheat, but if I were in charge of naming paints I'd call it coffee ice cream or the color of those shakes they have at Wendy's. Whatever the nomenclature, it's a huge step up from burning migraine yellow or what it might be like in the core of the sun or whatever the fuck it was before.

This marks the end of our painting odyssey...except for the bathroom. Which we're going to wait to play with until we find out just how much more (re)work needs to get done in there. (That's another can of worms for another day.) My original prediction, once we decided to paint by ourselves, was that it would take...some number of weeks longer than if we'd hired out the gig. It's turned into months. But I was talking about this house with some friends the other day and some words of wisdom escaped my lips which I was not prepared for: Projects of this magnitude, you don't plan. They plan you.

A cozy fire and yet more paint

Our first fire...unfinished fireplace be damned. What we'll do with this particular nook of the house is completely unknown, although something has to happen. (Notice the ancient smoke stain from some flue mishap of Sherene's dad's.) Tile it? Paint it? Mantle? Hearth? No clue how this will end up; for now, it's December and high time to light up a fake log.

We did some painting over Thanksgiving break, too. Pictures when the second coat is done, but for now picture the color of one of those chocolate shakes from Wendy's. Remember those? When I cracked open the paint can, I almost couldn't resist grabbing a spoon and tasting it, it reminded me so strongly of those delicious fast-food treats...

Long time no blog (empty backyard)

Owing to the last throes of the legal proceedings which have allowed us to keep the castle in the first place—but which threw one last financial monkey wrench into the works—we've only taken one step in the last several weeks. (Actually this happened over a month ago now. Whew! We need to get back to work on this place.) We finished getting everything torn out of the yard...professionally. No more of this inefficient hacking away with the wrong tools...That was fun and a fine way to start, but now witness the blank slate, wiped clean:

viewed from the NW corner of the lot

...from NE corner...

...from atop the gardeners' ladder, looking NW...

OK, so it's not exactly beautiful...but it's ready for action. What will happen out here?

Not shown: The considerable chunk of the big tree overhanging the roof which the gardeners trimmed back, thankfully. I'm not sure how much less debris we can actually expect to accumulate up there, given how huge she remains...but it's the thought that counts, right?

Grout hits the tile

Did I mention our new dude is fast? He told us he'd be done Monday. Finished in half the time.

Tile hits the floor

I have been eagerly anticipating this day for a while now...The previous post, by the way, featured a shot of this tile on the floor of the tile store. Here it is on our floor, by golly!

The whole job will be done at the end of Monday, barring any unforeseen stuff. This is a new team of contractors, who are so far giving us much less reason to think that the types of unforeseen stuff that plagued our last hired crew are going to continue to crop up.

Next steps are some new appliances, then countertops and cabinets, and a cool "bar" thing in the breakfast room which the new contractor designed (in about 30 seconds—dude is fast). The exact order in which these "chunks" of kitchen will appear is not yet clear, but in the coming weeks and months, the bulk of our penny-saving will be for the kitchen-laundry-breakfast area of the castle. Finally!

Kitchen tile = mission accomplished

We could be slippin' across these gorgeous things in our socks as early as a week or two from now. Another quantum leap after a much-slowed process of door and window restoration and sporadic painting...(Neither of those projects are finished, by the way. These things take as long as they take, it turns out.)

Still paintin'

Yes, there is still paint to get on the walls. Today is a day off of school for me—and I hardly know why. (I think it's because my broke-ass district is doing some "furlough day" or something.) So why not slap a bit more up there?

The green room was already almost finished, just had to polish off the second coat that had remained incomplete because we'd run out of paint. And...first coat in the living room is done and drying. It's the same color as the dining room, but it doesn't look like it yet.

Name that tree, cont'd

Acacia melanoxylon! Also known as the Australian Blackwood.

As I suspected, it spreads underground through its root system, in addition to dropping those little seed pods all over the place. They are considered invasive around here, but it turns out their wood is also useful for tons of stuff, including guitar-making. Hmm...

Stalking: it's what cats do...

This cat hangs around our street all the time, wandering hither and thither. Also hangs out in our backyard under the big tree sometimes. No idea whether male or female—Time to decide on a name for it. "Big-Nose"?

Open yard...

Feel the space! Breathe the air! Walk around! It may not look like much, but it's at least not full of trash any more! Is my enthusiasm about the expanded dimensions of space here getting through clearly enough? Is it?

Green room underway

Can't get a good picture of what this color looks like on the walls...suffice it to say, it looks niccccce. (Got another coat to do later, though.)

What with the backyard cleanout and the new color up, it's been a pretty good weekend for Castle Monadnock.

Guts and glory, cont'd

Trash hauling begins! This was a step we'd been eagerly looking forward to making, but unsure about when exactly the proper moment to take it out might present itself. Halleluiah, the day has arrived. On Monday, we'll have a backyard.

Still to come this weekend: green room?

Back to work

With school back on, progress has slowed considerably. Last weekend, just did barely enough taping and cutting to prepare for more colors, which I'm only getting to on this luxurious three-day.

As usual, the colors coming off my iPhone camera are completely unreliable and in any case this is only a first coat, still wet and glistening...but at least it's another piece-o-progress! If I can get this dried and then do the last coat later tonight, I'll be well satisfied.

Its Gonna Be Bamboo

Charlie and I have decided to go with bamboo flooring for the house. Initially we wanted rosewood or oak but the beauty and value of bamboo cannot be beaten. We save $2000 with this choice—installation will be limited to the living room, dining room, and hallway. Kitchen tile is still up in the air.

Angel before and during...("after" still to come)

Angel window, August 30, 2009

Painted angel, August 27, 2010

And to put it in perspective: Tomorrow's our third wedding anniversary. I love Renie!

Now let's paint s'more.

Window restoration progress

The angel window is underway. Blue masking tape and cheap newsprint bathes the living room in a stained-glass lighting effect, which I find kind of amusing...

Bohemian Rhapsody

Five rooms to go. Guest room # 1: French Lavender, Guest room #2/office: Russian Sage, Master bedroom (a repaint): Natural Wheat, Bathroom (a repaint) : Fairfax

It won't be boring - we can promise you that.

Its About Quality Of Life

This is what I'm going to do with the space in the back - there are two rooms. This one's mine and the other belongs to Charles. I know I can't afford to have as much glass and wood back as in this picture, but it represents the overall vibe I am going for. What I most look forward to is hanging out with my homies or just chillin' back there during holidays and after work. I've earned it. Creating a tub room is not as arduous as it sounds - we've got a new contractor (yay!) - he'll have to insert plumbing from the house to the in-law, rebuild the roof, and walls. Not sure which tub I'm going to go with yet - any suggestions are welcomed. This room along with a red wood deck built to the right of the tub room will be completed no later than June 2011 - just in time for summer! I promise not to waste too much water.

Beyond ceilings

Eagerly Anticipating

This fridge that will arrive at Monadnock in the next couple of months. Inspired by Amy Crawford's cutie pie fridge -its stainless steel with french doors and a bottom freezer.

Our Final Choice

Our final choice for granite in the kitchen and breakfast nook is Granite Expo's "Black Galaxy". Black goes with everything, plus it can also take lots of wear and tear without looking busted. Ideally,we would get this stone without bullnose edges but I'm willing to go with this one even if we can't. All appliances will be stainless steel.

More night-time rollin'

Renie works best after dark.

Two rooms, one coat each.

Windows and pre-kitchen

First week of school almost over...No work done recently on the painting, tho' that is about to change. Meanwhile, window restoration continues apace:

About to start taping ceilings so while I'm off preaching at the masses, Renie can do the kitchen walls.

Which reminds me: The bottom picture in the previous post wins. No Ikea for us! And here's a sample of the counters:

Featuring shimmery shininess that sparkles in the light!

Which kitchen plan ends up the more prescient?

The one I tried most valiantly, most geekily, to work up on the IKEA kitchen-planning web app? The one you can boot up in-store and show them exactly where you want your Bløöp—on top of your Sketå and next to the third Lampke on the left:

Or the one made by the guy who just came over to place a bid on some work—who's designed tons of kitchens before and memorizes his plans as he writes them? He sketched this, tore it out and handed it to me for keeps, telling me that he's got hundreds of kitchen plans stored in his mind and no longer needed the written reminder:

Time'll tell.

Painting update, mostly ceilings

It seems absurd, but it's true: Tomorrow is my first day of the 2010-2011 school year. So things are going to slow down for me considerably when it comes to the painting routines. Renie's got a few weeks of sanctuary left and she'll be holding it down with the rollers while I'm typing up syllabi...



Music: Rollin' Blues, by John Lee Hooker

By the way, the nasty kitchen ceiling vent in this video was clogged up with plenty of seed-pods from the big tree out back (who still needs a name). I thought it was a mighty cool Darwinian trick that a tree could sneak its DNA all the way into our kitchen. Through the roof, the ceiling, and everything! Talk about a will to survive.

Bigger test patches

Bigger test patches tonight, with colors we're now pretty sure we're runnin' with...Pretty sure!

Lavender for the corner room...

Burnt-orange-brickiness for kitchen/nook.

Let the paint begin (and open the windows)

Three or four ceilings cut, and dining room ceiling done, first-coat-wise. Still some light left; can I at least get to the smaller breakfast room before dark?



Music: Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Take the Coltrane

Priming pop quiz: how many coats?

Guy in the hardware store said we'd only need one coat of primer. Carpenter (who also does painting) tells us we should do two. We're doing two. So it's time to rinse and repeat up in here! Should be able to manage another coat before I go back to work; I'm doing cutting and ceilings and Renie's doing the walls. Accept sudden but small setback, roll up sleeves, and continue.

Meanwhile, window sill trimming and door restoration is under way! As usual, our hired nailgun-slinger is putting together some fine craftsmanship.

All together now: What are we doin'?

Block party!

National Night Out, August 3, 2010. Met some lovely folks and even had an old friend and former colleague of mine who lives with her husband up the road come down for a spell. Nice evening! ("Damn balloons" notwithstanding.)

New windows, old windows

Still no moldings/sills, and not all
new windows are popped into place,
but here's progress at least...

And speaking of guts...

This is why you do the floors last...

...So that if a ginormous puddle of primer appears down there somehow, you can just dip your roller and keep it movin'.

Priming update

Sherene's doing this night owl thing of priming after dark, now that I'm starting to shift more school-planning back into the hours of the day. So it's a little hard to say how many days of priming we're up to exactly...

If all goes to plan, those windows you see should start getting popped into walls next week, with restorations happening soon thereafter. Then: paint!

Priming, day three (after a day off)

Ceilings, touching up uneven patches in the hallway + front of house. Sherene already started in one of the back rooms. The score, roughly: five rooms down (counting hallway and laundry room as one space), three to go. I'd guess two days of priming work left. Which means, once the windows are replaced/restored, two coats of paint oughta take the two of us ten days? We're going to need to get a couple cases of beer and some friends over.

Update, 6pm: Did two closets today, too!

Priming, day two

Not sure how thrilling it is to make movies like this every day, when the process is basically: Turn up stereo, dip roller, slap on primer, repeat. In any case, here's what today looked like:



Doing the math: Two days of primer = Four rooms and a hallway, no ceilings. I assume that however long the priming ends up taking, painting will take twice as long—two coats, right?

Eight brand new windows showed up today, finally. (They'd been on order for weeks.) They'll get popped in next week, after which point we should be able to start painting on top of this primer. Although after all the time we've spent living with raw drywall around, even primer looks nice.

Priming, day one

Haven't done any painting in at least four years, so we have to shake some rust off. But once you get the hang, there's nothing to it. We were going to pay somebody else to do this?

It's especially easy because the house is still so damn raw. No dropcloths needed! (Yet.)



Music: The Heptones, Do Good to Everyone

The "angel window"

This is the one we call the "angel window," for its funky shape. Picture a glowing human figure, cloaked in robes with long wizardy sleeves draping down and arms extended as if to say, "Peace be unto thee, my children"...See it? See it?

It really extends all the way to the floor, which is quite something if you ask me. In the short run, I'm thinking some indoor cacti can go in front of this window, perhaps on a table or perhaps not. (In the long run, I'm talkinbout a baby grand piano, baby.) The wood that frames it needs some sanding, repainting, etc. Its restoration is one of the next steps, because we want to get that out of the way before too much painting gets going. (And more on that process soon. Tomorrow, if we get off our asses like we plan to.)

Here is the single pane of glass that needs replacing, along with a view of our gorgeous front yard, or at least a patch of it:

There are four other outsized windows in the house that will be kept and restored, but they are all rectangles. None of them are angels like this one...