Renovation: Now it looks like a house.

What did I post last on this? Oh yes. That gorgeous Tyvek exterior. Ahem.

Let's move on.

We have siding now. We choose tight-knot cedar with a bleaching oil application, one of the good recommendations from our contractor (as opposed to a good bunch of stuff that...ugh. I don't need to get into all that now). Here is our "address" side of the house. Note that we plan on (eventually) power-washing the paint off the brick chimney to match the extension.


Ok, if you moved left from the photo above, you get this view (below)...ultimately the entrance to what will be our front porch. The deck--what's left of it--is coming down.



Keep going around to the back of the house and this is behind our new dining room, with the french doors. When these pictures were taken, we were planning a brick patio. Now we have it ...but you'll have to wait for an updated set of shots to see it. You can see all our skylights from this angle.


Here is the driveway side of the house (to the right, around the corner of the first photo). No garage doors yet. (Still! Next week, we think.)


Here is an interior shot of what the old "sunroom" area looks like now that the renovation is relatively complete inside. This is the block of windows to the left on the photo above.


Next week, after a little painting and additions, I hope to post the whole exterior set. Interior...well, we're working on that.

Renovation: What is going on now?

Well, it's been pretty rainy so that slowed down the momentum on the siding a bit. Understandable. With that said, though, the guys are here, working outside in full rain gear.

There's another one here too, I think working on our basement stairwell, which I'll confirm in about 10 minutes. What needs to be done in the basement stairwell, you ask? Well, the sheetrock subs didn't finish it. Now, we don't have a finished basement or anything (give us another six years on that...we need a little recuperation time), but we were told it was part of the estimate. We gave our contractors a final check for the sheetrockers and asked them to make sure everything was done prior to giving it to them, and, well...I don't know what happened, but our basement stairwell was missing a piece of wall and never taped/finished/sanded, we had a wall in our foyer that wasn't taped, and we had a few areas that were never addressed and should have been (holes etc).

So now they are doing the stairwell, gratis. Thank God they took responsibility for something.

You have to appreciate the fact that I'm breastfeeding and I've got people knocking on my door, allowing themselves in. Kind of mandatory to keep a blanket handy for coverage when necessary.

Anyhow...what else. We've ordered our bar top for the kitchen island. Gosh, I can't wait to get this finished. We're going to use cherry butcher block, 1 1/2" thick. Big fan of Lumber Liquidators, if you are renovating...check them out. Good prices. Also ifloor.com...we got our cork floors from them.

Rain stopped, siding work is back on again. I wonder how far they'll get today. I have to say I just love the fact that all of our neighbors have complemented us on it. No one else's house around here has anything like it, so it's going to stick out a little bit. But now with everyone's feedback, I am doubly happy we made the decision we did. It looks kind of New England-y. (Pictures coming, I swear.)

I've put some thought against the backsplash...rather than going red, I think we're leaning toward a lighter color now. Maybe cream colored subway tiles, done in a herringbone pattern. But with a red grout. Would that look weird? I want to get red into it but I do want it to brighten up the dark woods a bit. I'll try to post a pic of the kitchen so I can get some feedback. (I'll take a pic once it's a little neater than it is right now.)

Renovation: Siding!

Very exciting! We have our first piece of siding nailed to our house (actually...I hear banging...perhaps two or three pieces by now). Of course, they are starting in the back of the house. I was kind of hoping the front would get done first so our neighbors can finally get rid of their lovely views of Tyvek...but, no matter. What's another week or so when it's been like that for six months, anyhow?

We decided on cedar slatboard for the house. When we moved in in 2002, we had a vinyl-sided house (ick). I know that it has its benefits, but personally, I felt like I was sitting next to a plastic house when we hung out on our deck. With plastic "shutters". I don't understand shutters that don't actually work and are simply affixed to houses for a certain look. (See the faux-shutter look. See, those shutters can't clearly cover those windows...so why are they there?)

C agreed, so it had to go.

We're using a bleaching oil on the cedar to "pre-weather" it until it weathers to gray on its own. Will post photos as soon as we get a bit more up.