Exterior colors start to pop

The lines of cottage blue run around the house with a boldness that is both cheerful and sophisticated.

We went from one-dimensional pillars to two, with the addition of a second color. They may be calling out for a third dimension, but, for now our focus is elsewhere. Gradually building the color scheme seems to be the best way to approach the Queen Anne. The porch ceiling and soffit have come alive with layers of color helping the stark porch gain some depth and coziness.

Kitchen details

Stove hood and cabinets are set in place.

We wanted to balance the horizontal lines of the window and cabinets with the horizontal break provided by the hood and back splash that will be white subway tile. The high ceilings provide such a broad canvas we decided to place the hood 30 inches from the stove to give a feeling of connectedness.

The top cabinets will be visually connected to the ceiling with a crown molding that will run the full perimeter of the kitchen. I am concerned about abandoning the picture rail, but at this point, we think it will be too busy for the kitchen. We will pick it up in the dining room and master bedroom.  The "cap" created by taking the ceiling color down to the picture rail brings the ceiling down to a more "human level". Which, theoretically makes a room more comfortable.  Picture rails are also very handy for hanging pictures. No more nails in the walls. In our case, we have lots and lots of electrical and plumbing running vertically through our walls, so every nail represents a risk of puncturing a critical artery.

Lights and fans

During the year between breaking ground and getting permission to build, we had lots of time to consider what kind of lighting we wanted. Our desert climate drove us to consider ceiling fans as a priority over hanging ceiling lighting.

You will note that we did use a period hanging light over the prep sink and will put Art Deco Pan Lights in the bay windows (not yet hung) to match the original Pan Light hanging in the dining room. We minimized the clutter over the dining table and the island areas by using a 1890 fan design, called the "propeller fan" appropriately named for the two-blade design.  Turns out the two blade design is the most efficient way to move air. So we got an old look with a contemporary focus on function/efficiency.

Triple vision.... Three identical ceiling fans will keep us cool, save energy and create a sense of continuity throughout the open space.

Weighted work light over the prep sink will give some "weight" to this open space.

We chose oil-rubbed bronze for the window hardware and lighting while using antique brass for the doors latches and knobs. Both metal tones seem to blend and stand out against the white background. The wall will be a gray-green with a tone similar to the living room.

Plynths, rosettes and moldings

As a wise painter once said, "just like a woman doesn't really need lipstick, a house doesn't really need trimmings, but they sure can enhance the image when you add a little dressing-up".

5-inch trim for the dining room to hall passage. Unpainted, you can see the different elements. Once it is painted it will dissolve into one frame.

Plinth, base molding and side side trim all have to be mitered to form the corner.

The 5-inch rosettes form a mirror image in the upper corner. The great craftsmanship that has gone into making these corners perfect will live with the house forever.

Original rosettes are returned to the house in the most conspicuous spots. These two sets of original plinths and rosettes will welcome visitors coming in the front door. You see more original wood in the background on the side entrance.  Our goal was to keep everything consistently old from the front entrance. The white painted pieces are old, the gray primed pieces are new wood milled by a local carpenter who specializes in matching original moldings.

Switches and outlets

No photos since nothing really looks different. Switches and outlets are all about function and what a difference it makes when you can dump the extension cords and flip a switch!

Two days of tedious connecting has brought us into the light.

Access to the house

Side entry has been partially demolished leaving 3 1/2 steps and a temporary board.

A painters scaffold is providing temporary access to the back porch. We all use the two entrances with care.

Kitchen cabinet lowers are set in place

We set the appliances in to allow for the template for the quartz counters.

Prep sink will be in the center opposite the island.

Stove and farmhouse sink are set in place.

Dishwasher and trash/recycle/composter drawer is in place.

Exterior clean-up

As the inside continues to progress, we get started removing some of the debris and dirt from the yard.

Window color is up, along with the cottage blue on the moldings.

Back slab gets a gray finishing layer along with sealer. We decided a solid background would make the colorful umbrellas and cushions pop.

Porch paint detail is bringing out the design elements.

Lots of progress

Work is going smoothly both inside and out.

We duplicate the original fame pattern for the windows.

Reflections of large rosettes and small rosettes in the master bathroom. The pocket door is the last one to be prepped.

Small rosettes are placed in the laundry area, seems unbalanced, seem will remove and order more large rosettes. Lots of doing and undoing.

106 degrees

Progress on the inside. Air conditioning is still keeping us cool.

Kitchen cabinets are going in.

"Side board" with prep sink is taking shape. On the left will be the wine cooler and microwave. On the right, near the back door, will be the broom closet.

Washer and dryer are put side-by-side so the pocket door will close.

Bathroom framing is taking shape.

Partial patio progress

The stain went into the prepared cement with great vigor.  The intensity of the colors was probably more than I had wanted. Not sure of the next steps, will sleep on it and see what I can to to get the rest of the slab looking tolerable. I amusing several different techniques to try to get clean lines. So far, none have been successful.

Experimental projects in the back yard

I have been researching the idea of staining our blah back slab for many weeks.  Finally, the times is right and I launch into the unknown.

Slab staining is described as a "DIY" project. I am not sure that is entirely accurate. The prepping sequence is intense and requires a power sprayer and lots of patience. After removing all of the stuff we have been storing on the slab, then removing the leaves that blow in all day and night. I did a thorough power spray cleaning, then applied a green gel to etch the concrete.   After the gel coat and another power spray, the cement section is really porous and ready to accept stain.

I wanted to reflect the colors and design of our Victorian doors, so I marked out a pattern that loosely recreates the back door. I put bright blue in the corners hoping to brighten up the area and bring the bright blue color from the interior door to the outside. My spray technique was totally amateur. I got over-spray on the grass, on the unpainted areas and it is pretty much a mess.

I should have used more protective drop clothes and used lighter coats of this dark stain.

The back door pattern with the blue corners.

I decided to put a bright orange down the center and I used gray-green for the side lights. Not at all sure this was a good choice. It got very thick and pooling in places  and very light in other places. My hand pump sprayer is the worst. My professional painter gave me some advice, a bit too late for this part of the project. Our spa should cover most of my first mistakes.

Mistakes along the way...

The stacked washer dryer work as they should, but they are too big to fit in our little space.  Our beautiful pocket door can't open and we are looking for solutions to this and a few other problems.

The stacking brackets require the dryer to sit back about 5 inches, this forces the washer to sit forward about 5 inches and causes it to block the door. Don't be fooled by the washer measure. If you are planning to stack them, you will need more space than you think. We will try side-by-side and give up our charging station and pet food area, but it is a disappointment. Seems that this should be mentioned as an issue when you order a stack-able set. For the moment, we are enjoying doing laundry in our cool house, We will tackle this problem later.

July 10 brings 106 degree heat and air conditioning!!

July 3-7 has been our hardest week since the project began. Heat reaching well over 100 degrees every day,  along with the overwhelming smell of the vanish on the new floors and the removal of the protective barrier between us and the construction, it feels intolerable. We went to the coast for the weekend and could hardly face the house on Monday.

When the guys came to hook up the air conditioning, we nearly cried. By the afternoon, we were cool for the first time this summer.  No more afternoon trips to the movie theater to keep cool.

It is amazing how much more energy we have when the house is cool.


Late entry.....

The air conditioner only lasted 2 days. Yuck!  The hook-up was done incorrectly, the pump for condensations was not plugged in.  They sent out a repair person and we were back in the cool for two more hours.

Then everything came to a stop again!  Luckily, we had the repair technician's personal cell phone number and called him back.

This time he found a frozen condenser and a disconnected fan system. He got it all connected "correctly", never sure what that means, but the air has been humming along for three days now. 

Exterior progress

We reluctantly decide not to include the red accent on the vents. Our painter encourages us to stick to the classic four colors and use the red as an accent in other ways. We decide he is probably right. The sequence is dark blue for the crown molding, gray-green for the face boards and creamy yellow for the soffits. This repeating pattern will be the primary rythm for the exterior.

Primed and ready to go, the creamy yellow will be our base color.

The upper dormer is finished with the same sequence.

Staining the floors

We compare stains, some seem too brown, some seem too pink! Looking from the dining room side the natural light makes it look too blond, looking from the living room side, it looks too dark.

Finally, a perfect match.

Once the selection is made, the first layer of stain is applied.

It has a dull finish as it dries.

After the second coat, it has a bright reflective shine, the final varnish will be satin. We will delay the final step until after the kitchen and paint has been completed. 

It's laundry time!

Even more than a kitchen sink, we have missed our washer/dryer. Dragging our dirty clothes to and from our neighbors, relatives and anyone else who will let us use their washer, has become a royal pain.

Today, the washer and dryer were dragged from the garage, unwrapped and carefully moved over the wood floor to stack in the laundry room.

They are beautiful we immediately started running laundry, loads and loads.

 

Priming the exterior

Prepping and priming are, by far, the most important elements when creating a lasting wood slat paint job.  The optimal sequence is: sand, clean, prime, caulk, paint. Some painters like to caulk first, but the caulking will fail unless it is secured to a layer of primer.

The beauty of primer is that it creates a blank palette.  We are using the original five colors to repaint the house. Call it lazy, but it is very hard to get a balance of color, texture, intensity and tradition so we will happily build on the work of the prior artist. We are substituting pure white with Swiss Coffee since it doesn't create the glare and gives a warmer glow.

The red triangular vent is under much discussion. Our painter is not a fan, but I like the spot of color. The color sequence will be; Dark blue, gray green, creamy yellow, repeat. The yard is still a disaster, but the house is starting to resemble a home.

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The plinths

It seems that every day I am looking up new words. Today the word is "plinth". Turns out, I have many plinths in my house and it is a feature that we will mimic throughout the new construction. The plinth is the square block of wood positioned at the base of the door frame which should be thicker, wider and bigger than any other frame piece. Ours look like this.

The size of this plinth is deceptive. It appears to be in line with the other fame elements, but in fact, it is larger and thicker. Only 1/8th inch, but many of our measures didn't take this into account. There are plinths at every door way and opening, so the 1/8th inches are starting to add up.

We salvaged 8 plinth blocks from the original house, but now we are recreating the remaining 25 from scratch. They have two pieces, one that closely resembles the "base board curl" as I call it, and the other that is just a rectangular block. How hard could this be?  We have plenty of baseboards, thanks to our contractor who always over orders these specialty items. (He is way too familiar with the 'not enough curls' problem). He will "rip" the curls away from the baseboards to use on the plinths. If you are not familiar with "ripping", it just means a length-wise cut through a long board. Making a long thin piece.

Salvaged plinth on left, small scale plinth on right.

Full baseboard on left, ripped "curl" on right.

To complicate things a bit, we have two sizes of framing we are using. 5-inch is the original size and used throughout the original house. 3-inch is the size we are using when the 5-inch won't fit. 

Narrow spot between laundry room and bedroom will not be wide enough for the 5-inch plinths.

The original builders avoided small wall spaces like this.  Every door and window in the original house has plenty of room for at least a 5-inch wood molding surround. I am not sure if it is our modern building genius or just our desire to maximize access to small spaces that results in over 7 doorway locations that are too small for the 5-inch moldings.