Pump Jack Set Up

When we freshened up the paint on our Spanish bungalow, all it took was a roller on an extension pole

This project has been much more complicated = labor and time intensive, and thus the "painting" has not yet even begun.  J. promises to add some text to more fully explain these pictures. 

 

 

 

 

 

Color Selection Method

Here's what indecision looks like  :)

 

 

And then finally, we have a winner!

 

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, while a color decision has been made, no actual progress has been, so our house will look like a patchwork quilt for the foreseeable future!

House Paint

Well the summer is almost over, but we are finally getting around to painting the house. We had originally tried to sand the cedar shingles (the house is cedar shakes on the second floor and stucco on the first), but discovered that was just not going to work. The new plan is to paint the first floor, and then pull all the old shingles off (saving any that are still in good condition) and install new shingles pre-painted.

We've decided to use Behr paint (they were having a pretty decent sale over Labor Day) - Shady Willow for the main color, and then Red Bluff and a cream for the trim and accents. Hopefully will look something like this:




This is obviously not our house, but it has some of the same type of elements. Keep your fingers crossed - we're still hoping to get (most of it) done before snow!

We're Back

I know that all of our fans are disappointed that we haven't blogged about our progress in the last several months, but the truth is we are lazy and haven't done anything. That is until recently.

We have 2 major projects going on right now; our master bath addition and we are painting the exterior of the house. Neither is going all that well.

First with the bath. We really haven't gotten that far into it. I was hoping to do all the work myself, but the city will not give us a permit unless we use a licensed plumber and electrician. We called 1 plumber who quoted us $6K for just for the rough in. He had some crazy ideas, like running the drain at a height that would take away any use of the basement. We didn't go with him. The second plumber, Bob Puff, is our favorite. We've used him before and he's fantastic. But, we still haven't made any progress other than jack hammering a hole in our basement floor. Once we tore up the basement floor, Bob noticed that our sewer drain runs right into a tree and we have roots clogging the drain. Also, our main water shut off is basically in the tree. To top it all off, the sewer line and water main are right on top of each other and they run underneath the garage. Bob is afraid to touch either one because if something happens we might have to tear down the garage just to fix it. Now the idea is to re-run the sewer and main to the other side of the street. Don't know how much that is going to cost yet, but I see me hiring a couple of day laborers and digging a very deep trench.

The painting isn't going much better. I bought a Paintshaver which is supposed to make sanding the house really easy. It works really well, if you have siding. We have cedar shakes, so we are stuck using grinder with a sanding attachment. After about 5 or 6 hours of work, I estimate that we have about 5% of the house sanded. Very depressing. So, we are trying to hire someone to come out just sand. I put an add in craigslist, get your mind out of the gutter, for someone to just sand the house. I think I got 50 responses and not a one of them had a real grasp of the job. We finally got a painter to come out and quote us $2500 just to sand. I was hoping for more like $1000. Maybe I can get the day laborers we hire to dig our trench to also sand our house. Then, I can just sit on the porch, drink mojitos and shout words of encouragement at my workers.

As if we didn't have enough work on our hands, Amanda went crazy and bought us a boat. There will be a boat blog coming very soon.

To Tank or Not To Tank

Looks like we are going to need a new water heater sooner rather than later - that decision has pretty much been made for us (a hot shower is a must). The decision we still have to make is whether we should just buy a new traditional water heater to replace our existing unit, or whether we should install a tankless model. Research we've done so far indicates that tankless generally are considered more efficient (and we could get a tax credit!), but there appear to be some concerns about their ability to produce a large amount of hot water over a short period (i.e., reports that you can't shower while running a dishwasher or laundry - but then who does that with a regular hot water heater??) and that the heating element burns out/needs repair relatively quickly, at least in certain models. I am also a little concerned about our ability to install a tankless ourselves, which will require moving some gas lines and adding a new vent. Wondering if anyone we know has personal experience . . .

Living Room Progress Report

Well, there are still some finishing touches to be done, but the living room is pretty much done. Before it was a very dark green. Now, it's a very light gold green - here's the current . . .


We love the paint color and we're very happy now that we've taken out the fireplace insert. Still working on trying to figure out the best placement for the furniture - might have to eventually swap it out for something new, but that's not currently in the budget.




Insert was still there . .


And without the insert!

Belated Happy Holidays

Our first Christmas in our new house was a quiet one, but very enjoyable. As you can see we had snow, which was great, and our front porch works great for Christmas lights.

















We had a fresh cut tree too, we decided to use one from our back yard that we planned to eventually cut down any way. Oh, and we decided to take out the old wood burning fireplace insert - yeah! (It really did not seem to be increasing the heat output anyway. )


















Our street looked really nice for the holidays and the snow helped us meet a few more of our neighbors. Turns our that they all chipped in a few years ago for a snowblower and now take turns clearing everyone's sidewalks - so now we can appreciate the snow even more!



The dogs are really enjoying the snow and the parks looks so pretty.











Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2009!

Very Slow Progress

So I have been very bad about updating, I know, but the truth is we've been moving at a pace at which even snails would scoff and I really wanted to wait until the living room was completely finished to "reveal" it.

Amazingly, although in the past we've managed to do most of a house in a few weeks, we have yet to complete the painting part of the project. I'm going to blame it on the dreaded dark green paint, though it may also have to do with the fact that we are complete procrastinators who only work quickly if given an unmovable deadline. We are probably 95% done - we just have some touch ups to do on the trim and the doors. Dishearteningly, however, we've just read that we should give the paint on our bookshelves a month to "cure." (Anyone have some hard data on this?) Ugh, I so want to unpack the many boxes of books we have littering the living room, kitchen, hallway, but on the other hand, I have experienced peeling paint on book shelves, or items "stuck" to shelves where the paint pulls away when you go to move them. So I am going to do my best to wait the recommended month, but I am not sure I am going to make it. We are also waiting on the delivery of our rug from the cleaners - who knew that would take over two weeks?

We are very happy with the color we chose - Behr "Oat Straw," which is sort of a greenish gold beige? That description might not sound great, but I think it looks very nice up on the wall. Will definitely take a few pictures soon, even if only very small glimpse shots.