50 Shades of Grey

When I first painted my bathroom, I painted it WAY too fast. "Hurry up! It will be so much easier to paint before we put the bathtub in..in five minutes." True, it was much easier when the room was empty. But I did such a bad job that it has literally driven me crazy every time I get in the shower and look at the wall in front of me.
So - on a whim.. yesterday - I decided to bite the bullet and repaint the bathroom. Trouble was, I didn't have any paint, and I didn't have any desire to buy any more. So, I turned to my trusty sample paints...all 10 of them. Pour into a bucket, shake and stir, and throw it up on the wall.
I figured if I liked all the colors individually, I'd like the end product..and I'm actually really pleased with the results.
Pictures to follow :)

Paint, painty paintpaintpaint

So, we got a TON of (but not all of the) exterior painting done this weekend!
It's going to look especially impressive if I show an old 'Before' picture, though :) 

Who could forget my old garage? ;)

Working our way up the front of the house.
The color is 'Slate' from Restoration Hardware, mixed by Sherwin-Williams

I was lucky enough to have several friends and family stop by Saturday and Sunday to help out.
They're the best :)

Many hands make light work...or so the saying goes.

Two days, two coats.
Boom.

Touching up to do here and there...but an enormous amount of work has been done!

Happy 100th!

For my 100^th post, I have for you (drum roll) MORE WINDOWS! J Specifically, the LAST windows of this renovation – the tall, skinny bay windows in the living room. A pretty fitting 100th post celebration, I'd say!

Before: single pane replacement windows that had some small issues. 

We had a lot of fresh air flowing through the house Sunday afternoon!

First window: DONE! This one took the longest - after we had a system worked out, the other two took no time at all!

Not too shabby!

All I have to say is: thank you baby Jesus for friends and family. I wouldn’t have any of this without them!

We'll trim around the new windows, install the stained glass window above the bay, set my new/old porch columns, and finish up the siding! It's almost too easy...

Home Sweet Home :S

Destruction at the homestead again, gang.

This is what we started with..

We’re at the point, now, where everything has lined up just right for the siding project to continue on the front of the house. I’ve spoken with a couple contractors who are going to help us out in a few areas (namely, flashing around the foundation and the soffit) and we are off and running..again.

When I say “things have lined up,” I really mean it. Everything is kind of happening all at once..AGAIN. My cement contractor came and tore out the rest of the sidewalk and lower steps so we can replace those, the lumber yard delivered my siding, lumber, and house wrap, and we’ve started tearing into the old siding.

The neighbors have had a major roofing project on their hands. Meanwhile, I had a contractor measuring the siding..

..and working on concrete. The City was also there mowing the lot next door. Lots of noise all at once!

Needless to say, the house is looking…really nice from the street.

No mo' sidewalk!

While my favorite cement guy was there, I asked him to scrape the rocks out from around the front of the house for me.
..I hate shoveling rock..

My contractor should be coming by in the next couple days to take care of the flashing and soffit, then we can start looking into framing the new windows and trimming them out. Then it’s just siding, siding, and more siding..with a little gray paint thrown in for good measure.

....pretty..

Stay tuned!

Paint, paint, paint....and ice cream :)

Friday over my lunch break, I decided to go have a gallon of paint mixed up for testing purposes. I can’t decide on a paint color based on a two inch square, so I buy samples and throw them up on the walls in various spots to see how I like the color and how it reacts to light at different times of day. I did this inside, but now we’re getting close to outside paint time…so here we go..

The exterior trim will be the same off-white/cream color as my interior trim.
The doors will be shiny black to match the inside as well.

Worried isn’t the right word, but I was..concerned about the color I wanted to paint my exterior siding. I have been thinking about grays for a long time and wanted something a little darker. Gray, to me, is hard because it can tint several different colors while still being gray. Since my roof is a pretty specific color, I wanted to make sure my siding wasn’t going to have a purple, pink, green, or blueish tint to it…I just want gray.

I used a little cutting from a piece of paper my friend Brooke had – I took that to the hardware store, and they matched it exactly using their computer system. I then painted a couple sample spots around the house making sure I hit all four sides and any area that had a different exposure to the sun.

I finally ordered the rest of the siding for the front of the house! More to come..

I know I like the color. It’s definitely gray..no tint. I’m just not sure it’s THE color I want. Maybe just a hair too dark? The only reason I say that is because of the color of the shingles – I think the house might look too monolithic if the siding matches the roof that closely. Thoughts?

I'm thinking a lighter gray color for the garage door - what do you think?

Thursday night, I was clearing the garden and making things look a little better there when I decided I should probably harvest some of my basil for pesto to store in the freezer. When I lived at home with my former “roommates,” my mom-roommate and I would do this. I’ve seen a lot of people online freezing pesto in ice cube trays – when you need some, pop one out and go – and that’s really handy. I don’t have a spare tray at the moment, so I just use a little plastic container. This way I can have garden-fresh pesto all year long!

I had also read about people making ice cream with one ingredient. Apparently if you went to summer camp you know what this is about. For me, however, it was mind blowing..so I had to try it.

The one ingredient is banana. You cut up a couple ripe bananas into medium-sized chunks and freeze them solid. Then, throw the frozen chunks into the food processor and you’ve got ice cream!

I was skeptical initially, but damnit if it doesn’t work. And damnit if it wasn’t AWESOME! There’s enough fat in the banana to give it a smooth consistency, and the flavor is great – truly authentic banana flavor. I’m not even crazy about banana flavor, but this was great!

Three bananas were enough for two modest size servings. I ate the first right away and saved the second in the freezer to see how it would store…would it turn black overnight if it had already been pureed? No need for worry: I’m happy to report, it was just as good the next day!

Kitchen Cabinets

We’ve been working on a pretty big project for the last few weeks. Actually, we’ve been actively working on it for the last week and a half or so.  The rest has been mostly mental work..strategy and such. We made big progress this weekend, though!

The big project I’m referring to is cabinetry. Kitchen cabinetry. We’ve been pretty methodical about it, and we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel! In all honesty, I don’t think it’s taken a terribly long time given the number of steps it takes to convert a sheet of material into the container I trust to hold my food, but Dad has been worrying about this for a while. This project is kind of his baby and he doesn’t want to mess it up.

Understandably so.

In the past, he worked with a custom cabinet maker on the side, so he’s got an idea of how it should work. That said, when he worked for this guy, Dad didn’t draw up the plans or install the cabinets once they were finished. So..he’s worried.

I’m not. We’ll be fine. We’re taking our time for a reason. The old ‘measure twice, cut once’ thing? We’re doing that, and usually having a conversation about each cut before, during, and after making it. If the cabinets are messed up, it’s our fault..not his. I suppose another good thing about building your own cabinets is that if they don’t fit you can make one that does. But what a pain that would be..

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our organized chaos in the garage. The cabinets in these pictures are the base units – since these shots were taken, those have all been primed and painted with a sprayer and stored in the enclosed porch until we’re ready for them. In the meantime, we’ve cut, primed and painted the pieces for the upper cabinets and should start assembling those in the next few days, or as his work schedule allows.

As I said, organized chaos.

Base cabinet boxes assembled, working on their face frames.

Cabinet with face frame. This will have a swing door..I think this size cabinet goes on either side of the oven.

Sanding the face frame for the cabinets with drawers. Very cool!

We’ll hang the uppers first, and then set the base cabinets – they’re easier to install that way. Once everything is set, we can measure for cabinet doors and counter tops, which I look forward to learning how to make out of concrete J

Wish us luck!