Scenes from our house painting (exterior)

We painted the house this summer, did I mention that? I could swear I wrote a post about it but when I tried to find it, I couldn't.



Anyway, here's a photo of the house in the beginning of the summer:

As you can see, the paint was starting to peel. The sides were in much worse shape, trust me.

Sean and Steve did the majority of the painting and had a little accident we refer to as "the caulking incident." It was the time they caulked the whole front of the house with non-paintable caulk and had to go over the entire thing again with paintable caulk. Yeah, it was awesome.


It's also the reason we ended up painting our house white. Because it was the only color that didn't show the caulking mistake. Because the caulk is clear. Because when we tried to paint over it with green the paint beaded up and ran away. Oops.





Anyway, it turns out we really loved the white. It opens up the whole back yard and we'll add some splashes of color to the door and window trim this Spring. We're also going to get a new fence in the backyard and I will (finally) hang up my window boxes.


Oh, and we're going to paint the cement porch--any color or paint suggestions?

Dreamy interiors

I'm inspired by Andrea Scher's photo challenge at Shutter Sisters:

I am manifesting a home. A dreamy house right here in my neighborhood... I
have a detailed list of all the things our ideal place would have, and gorgeous
light is one of them.

[...] This week's challenge is to show us your dreamy interior, or perhaps
its an image of someone else's you can link to.

Krisatomic did a similiar "inspiration" post a few weeks back and I found it lovely to step into her collection.

I regret that not all of my photos have the appropriate name/credit attached to them, so many were right-clicked and saved as I browsed the web. Nevertheless, enjoy:

"For Jane" originally uploaded by yvestown.

Lovely attic room with a great cottage feel.

Love the open shelves in this kitchen.

Another open shelf and a great half door!

So many Buffalo homes have towers like this...

The mini-gallery looks cool.

Scandanavian flavor + colors + playfulness = charming

Who wouldn't want a cup of tea here?

Another dreamy attic space.

Scenes from my kitchen, sunspot edition

I looked at this picture tonight while trying to find another photo on my Flickr stream. Even though I'm enjoying the snow right now, I thought this summer scene in the kitchen was sweet.

As promised: scenes from my "new" office

New floors, bright space.

Finally got around to hanging some stuff up.

Scenes from my office and bathroom makeover...

So my months of obsessing over all-white interiors led me to two simultaneous projects over Labor Day weekend: new (old) floors in the office and a brighter, whiter bathroom.

In the office, like every other room in the house except the kitchen and bathroom, there was ugly, black indoor/outdoor carpet. I'd like to take it all up eventually and decided to use my office--the only room with carpet not connected to another room with carpet--as a test run: how long would it take? would it be messy? what was underneath?

Formerly white and minimally damaged floors were underneath. Plus lots of staples, glue & insulation, and tack boards. Ripping up the carpet and insulation was easy enough. We hauled five four-foot pieces out in about a half-hour. The messy (and dusty and tedious and long) part had to do with pulling up the staples and tack board.



I wore this cool mask to protect me from allergens.

At the same time, we taped off the bathroom and began painting the walls and ceiling white. Previously, they were a light tan--for a bathroom with no window, it was too dark and dank. The splash-back (is that what you call it) area behind the sink and toilet was a yellow-ish color. I painted it and the woodwork a light grey.



After all the staples were pried and the tack board in the garbage, I scrubbed the floor with a mild detergent and let it dry overnight. I then collapsed into bed.

The next morning, I set to work painting the floor. We used one container of Dutch Boy's Latex Enamel. It went on smooth and thick and thus far, there have been zero scuff marks left behind. It was too expensive either--I think $28 with a mail-in rebate.

The first coat going on! And speaking of coats...



The bathroom took three coats of white. Sigh.

At this point I need to thank my mother who helped me throughout the weekend and especially in the bathroom. She OWNED the bathroom, she ROCKED the bathroom. She also got all mom on me and took charge of the carpet removal--just the kind of leadership I needed.

On Monday, Labor Day, she and my brother stopped by the house to pick up my mom's supplies. This is how they found me: a wreck. The floor's second coat of paint had dried and I barely had enough energy to drag the IKEA chair into the office and fix myself a cup of tea. I forgot how exhausting a renovation project really is.

More photos of the finished (and put back together) office and bathroom soon. For now, more photos of the improvement project can be found here.

Oh, and I won't be doing the rest of the floors for awhile. Maybe never!

Scenes from this summer's CSA share

The first week's share. Check out the garlic scapes!

Baby beets and my new tablecloth (found at a garage sale!)

Sean models this lovely little squash.

A window in...

I made lentil soup for dinner tonight--it's still cool enough for it to make sense--and wrote a letter to a friend while it bubbled on the stove. I got up occasionally to stir the pot and add a little more black pepper, a little more thyme.

On one of these trips to the stove, I looked out the window near the sink and spotted three girls tiptoeing across the roof of their back porch. They were covered, from head scarves to long dresses touching their toes, in beautiful flowing fabric that played with the wind quite well. They soon saw me through the window and started waving excitedly. It was very sweet, the whole scene.

And now, my lentil soup recipe (it's all improvised):

1 tbsp butter
2 medium red onions
2 medium sized potatoes
one bag dry lentils
4-6 cups of water (you pick thickness)
3 celery stalks
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup brown sugar
about 1 tbsp hot sauce (or a couple dashes of cayenne)
black pepper and salt to taste
2 tbsp thyme
dash cinnamon

Cook onions and potatoes in butter in soup pot until onions are soft. Add water, lentils, black pepper, and salt and boil for 30 minutes or until lentils are softened up. Add carrots, celery, brown sugar, hot sauce, and rest of spices. Cook until desired consistency and adjust spices accordingly. Enjoy over brown rice or with a piece of whole wheat bread.

Spring lilacs

Spring has come to our backyard: lilacs everywhere! The white and light purple are technically from my neighbors yard (shhhh) and the dark purple from a potted lilac tree my Dad and Terrie gave me at the housewarming last May. Plans are underway for its permanent home by the porch.

One year as a homeowner, this friday

This Friday marks the one year anniversary of our closing, otherwise known as The Day My Hand Fell Off From Signing So Many Papers. Hurrah!

I thought I'd do a little retrospective and include never-before-seen-on-the-internet photographs of the house. The scenes and spaces may look familiar but I've a soft spot for the kind of light you get with film, especially with a well-used and known camera (click the photos for bigger versions).

Another telephone wire and sky shot, this one taken from the kitchen window.

This year we've made the following repairs/improvements to the houses: new porch roof, new siding on the back of the house, two new furnaces, one new boiler, some chimney work, a new back door, a new drop ceiling in the rented house, multiple toilet repairs, new paint throughout both houses, electrical work, security lighting, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

We survived two incidents of overflowing toilets and crumbled ceilings (including one tonight!), a couple flooded basements, mice infestation, broken toilets, clogged tubs and sinks, and lengthy discussions with CitiMortgage customer service reps.

My office with nice light. Still messy, as always.

Steve and I have both been through job changes and most recently an intra-house move/rearrange. Our mortgage payment--taxes escrowed--has changed three times, and will hopefully stay static for a while. Friends moved in to the apartment next door and a vacant house across the street was bought at the City's IN-REM auction.

Also, I planted tulip bulbs.

Color links

I meant to include these in my post but here are some links I recently found related to homes and choosing colors:

• Houseblogs.net has a great slideshow of 15 entries on colors from its member sites, some of which I'll list individually here.
• An interview by Lsaspacey of SHELTER with an owner of a colorful and beautiful house (includes pictures).
• Yvestown blog follows a woman who lives in a white-walled confectionery palace--I love it!
• This new discovery, Door Sixteen, has inspired me.
• I'm not the only one with an obsession with white walls.

Intense colors WHOA!

Stairwell of an Israeli house profiled in the New York Times this week.

Having lived in a multi-colored, high-intensity house for almost a year now, I have to say that it's a mixed bag.

On the pro side, photographs taken in our house are always lively and engaging (I'm biased, of course) and first-time visitors to the house usually offer positive feedback. One otherwise laconic friend recently stated, "These are the colors I'd paint my house if I had the balls." Awesome, thanks!

On the con, it's a little dizzying to go from intense red to intense surfer blue in just two steps. And there's something about the bright colors that makes the space feel cluttered to me, even if it's really not. To the contrary, the two most muted (and cluttered) rooms--my bedroom and my office--are often my refuge from the intensity. They both seem to me clean, and airy.

Since Steve and Sara moved downstairs--we need an entry about that, I know--I've been contemplating future changes to the space. I'm drawn to all-white walls or at the very least some more neutral palettes. Thoughts?

Updates, all shapes and sizes

1) Two more regular characters have been added to the homestead scene, namely Sean and Sara. They both came off adventures of their own--Sara in the political world of Iowa, Sean on the coast of Kenya.

Over the past few weeks, Sara and Steve moved to our downstairs apartment and painted it fun colors, in the tradition of our fun house:

2) I started work at City Hall, heading up a Councilmember's office. I am learning more about the Inspections department and housing court than I ever imagined possible. Good stuff.

3) Been cold and snowy around these parts lately, producing crisp views like this one:

4) Mortgage company is still a jerkfest.

5) Our next door neighbors moved out (sadness) but our tenants have a new baby (happiness).

Quick hit

Found this great gallery of decorating ideas via KRISATOMIC: LivingEtc. I'm a big fan of the sections on "Walls," as I have a ridiculous amount of photos to put up. Great ideas.

From the safety of my winter hibernation...

Now that the snow is flying, I am content to sit by my window sipping coffee, knitting hats, and thinking about all the things I'll do around the house come Spring. These daydreams include what has become a staple of all my fantasies: the illusion of more time.

This summer, for example, I constantly claimed that post-campaign I'd have more time. Now it's post-February I'll have more time. This spring--I claim again--I'll have more time. It's not likely that I'll have more free time at all. In fact, it's likely that I'll be up to my waist in local and presidential campaigning.

Still, one can fantasize and fantasize I will:

• Get Your Garden On with Gayla Trail, a workshop held in Toronto this April with the author of You Grow Girl. She's an urban garden goddess.
• Food not Lawns: My little patch of grass has such potential, at least from the perch of my warm window seat.
• The removal of this monstrosity. Steve and his pops did put a nice, new door on the outside to keep the heat from pouring into the kitchen of our tenant but it's likely we'll scrap and rebuild the whole thing. And I'll help, I swear.
• Paint the downstairs, including the room that STILL has painter's tape around the windows. This could happen sooner than the Spring, I know, but the fumes. The fumes!

Scenes from Talent Nite!

Last Sunday, our house hosted its 1st annual Talent Nite. It was awesome. What was intended as a small, neighborly event quickly grew into a larger showcase so if you couldn't/didn't come this year, be on the lookout next time!

In preparation for the event, a stage was constructed Sunday afternoon. Steve and our long-term house guest/friend Harrison were subject to my insane hostess cleaning mania--another sign of my lovely mom's influence!--but they forgave me when they saw that I bought gummy bears for snacks.

The winners of each category, as seen above, were as follows:

1. BEST USE OF BODY PART BELOW WAIST - Kevin, "Amazing Moves"

2. MOST HILARIOUS - Jack, "Dino"

3. BEAUTIFULEST - Whitney & Steve, "Tonal Poem with Interpretive Dance"

4. MOST LIKELY TO GET YOU ARRESTED IF DONE IN PUBLIC - Jack, "Dino"

5. BEST USE OF MICAELA - a tie between Erin & Zoe, "Mind reading" and Liz, "Pageant Rules"

6) CLEARLY SPENT TIME REHEARSING - Anthony, "Mayor meets Motley"

7) POOR PILGRIM PITY PRIZE - Jewel, "A Night Without Armor"

8) BEST - Jack, "Dino"

All pictures can be found here: TALENT NITE set on Flickr.

My mother's daughter

Yesterday, with help from our house-guest and friend Harrison, I rearranged the two common areas in our upstairs apartment (read: the living quarters).

We'd had the bookshelves and two chairs in a room that's really more conducive to couches and coziness, and the couch and comfy chair in a space that's kind of an entrance room. I hatched the plan to switch them a couple weeks ago and finally got around to it yesterday.

IT IS AWESOME.

As both Steve and Harrison have pointed out, I have completed my transformation and am officially--as if there were every any doubt--my mother's daughter. You might remember from my tales of our painting party how my mother repeated her love for the color of the walls no less than a thousand times. Well, as I sat on the couch yesterday, surveying the rooms post-rearrange, I kept repeating over and over, "I love this, this looks soooo much better." And on and on.

To top it all off, as I was planting bulbs in my front yard today, my friend Micaela told me that since I'd bought a house I turned into a "granny." I suppose she was referring to my gardening, and my tapered sweatpants, pink gardening gloves, giant fleece jacket, and sensible sneakers. And maybe the fact that they all went out last night and I stayed in to knit and catch up on some much needed sleep.

So maybe buying a house does change you but I want to go on the record with this: I was definitely an early-to-bed girl before the house, as well as a knitter, a secret-lover-of-decorating, and my mother's daughter.

Anyway, pictures soon!

Scenes from last week...

Before he left for Kenya, my boyfriend was basically staying with us. Below is a Sunday morning breakfast I made, isn't it cute?

Also, check out scary Steve in the camo poncho my dad lent to Sean for his trip. He didn't end up using it though because he wants to try to blend in or at least pass for Canadian--sorry Dad!

Doesn't he look like a wax figure?

Faded

Look at how much the paint in my office has faded since March:

It's kind of unbelievable, right? I don't remember the color ever being that bright but apparently it was. I didn't spend much time in the office until recently because it was full of junk and boxes and crap.

Actually, it's still full of junk, boxes, and crap but I've shoved most of it into the closet! Hurrah!

Anyway, we used high-quality (read: expensive) paint but I guess the morning sunshine is too bright. The only thing that annoys me really is that I can't take rearrange the photos on the wall without it looking weird. Oh well, I'll take weird walls over a dark room anyday.

Now, if only the sun could tone down our electric-blue living room...

Sky plus wires

It may be obvious that I'm obsessed with the view from our kitchen window, in part because it looks over the neighbor's garden but also because makes one of my favorite combinations: sky plus wires.

Here are some recent shots from the kitchen: