Why I'm not allowed to do edging

We've been getting our paint on at DG. Well, I have. It's one of the few things I can do without a lot of help, direction, supervision, etc. What can I say: I'm just not experienced at house construction.

We forced ourselves to choose some of our colors quite a while ago, so that we could paint around the windows and doors so the trim wouldn't have to be masked off when we painted. Great idea. And then as I had time to work, and no other skills, I started to try and finish rooms so we could button things up one by one. Except for the ceiling edge, where the colors need to be cut in.

Living room color. 

Which is why when you walk around the house, it looks like the photo above. I kept thinking that I ought to be able to master this skill, and so working in the guest bath, (in green no less!) with a low, attic-y ceiling (i.e. within reach) I thought I'd be able to give it a try and succeed! I would learn to cut in and our house would stop looking like I was leaving all the hard work for M.

Well, it didn't go so well. I should mention I had an old brush, and thick paint, but still. I was defeated. But then M came home with my new best friend:

Isn't he cute?

My new, shortie, rubber handled best brush ever. He made it possible (though I'm still not good) to do a, well, adequate job. In the hallway where no one will ever look (and where I could easily see what I was doing on a short step ladder). Then I got cocky. I decided to try an area right between the kitchen and diningroom, where the ceiling is higher, and still only on my stepladder.

Poor quality photo, but it drives home the point, eh?

Does this look good to you? No. And of course our neighbor Dan (what are the chances that two of our neighbors are painters?) came over yesterday and walked around and inspected. M told him that cutting in made me cry. Not exactly, but she managed to get him to agree to a day of finish painting for us (all of it!) in trade for a day when she'll help him with some tractor work. A win win!

And so, I may always be a fan of blue tape. From a distance, I got a decent effect (with a half roll of tape or so) in the bathroom.

Guest Bath paint (still incomplete above the tub)

Not bad from a distance, right? (note the color looks a little different in the photo than in person) Maybe Dan will enjoy cutting in around the ceiling over the tub. I couldn't reach there.

BTW, here's the master bedroom color--a deeper version of the Guest bedroom and the downstairs. It's really rich and in person it changes as the light changes throughout the day.

Master bedroom color. Looking out window at front of house.

I still love my little brush and suspect I'll have more opportunities to get to know his style. But for now, I'm more than happy to let Dan take over for me!


P.S. Happy 100th post everyone. I started this blog 3-1/2 years ago when I was getting ready to move from New Jersey, and I wanted to chronicle the trip across country. It turned into our home construction blog a couple years ago, and though I know my fan base is tiny (what are there, 3 or 4 of you now?) it really is a good way for me to track our accomplishments and document the process. Thanks for reading and once in a while asking for more AuntieK. Warms my heart!

New and old

So, I was growing a bit tired of the look of my blog. Gee, if I can't control the construction of my new house, maybe I can control the construction of AuntieK? Hmmm. I'm not entirely satisfied with the results, but I'll keep playing around. I know what I want to do and change, just haven't figured out how to do it yet.

It continues to be hot here. We've had the good fortune to spend part of the last two weekends at Donner Lake. A nice, cooler, escape! And only an hour away!

M's been back on house construction pretty solidly late this week, so photos and updates are forthcoming. I promise!

Tonight we get to hear one of my favorite singer/songwriters live. We're heading up to Grass Valley (about 30 minutes away) to have dinner and see Brandi Carlile. If you don't know her, you should. She's one of my very favorite singers and is an incredible performer, and it's exciting that she's playing so nearby. I owe a huge thank you to my late friend Jeff (I hate that phrase), who introduced me to Brandi. I always think of him when I hear her, and I like to think he'll be there with me tonight. Thank you Jeff--I miss our talks about music and movies and books--mostly I miss you. I always will.

Heat

Our heatwave here in Northern Cali continues. It's been so hot to work in the new house. There's almost always a breeze, but most of our new house faces west, so the sun is pretty searing in the afternoon. We have a couple fans, but no AC installed yet. Obviously, I'm not the one doing most of the work at DG, or the AC would've been installed long ago!

Cabinet installation continues, though slowly. Last Saturday, in order to spend a day out of the heat (and off work, kind of), we went to the mall. We thought sitting in the cool air, watching other people shop sounded perfect. Plus we wanted to look for bedding. We took a spin through Macys, then on our way to the food area (it was lunchtime) we cut through Sears (shortcut!). And for some reason I thought looking at appliances would be a good idea. 5 hours and one lunch break later, we purchased 80% of our appliances! It was one of those, "sale-ends-today:save-more-the-more-you-buy-sales" and so with uncharacteristic lack of deliberation, we shelled out the moola and purchased the refrigerator, washer, dryer, stove, and microwave vent hood. Of course, then we wondered if we'd rushed into it, but got such good deals! 25% off!

We already have re-thought the micro/vent though. Since we have such beautiful back splash tile, we want to show it as much as possible. The micro/vent right above the tall stove (the back panels of stoves have gotten really tall!) left only a thin horizontal reveal of the backsplash. Plus we have a nice, stainless, perfectly good micro. So, we'll cancel that part of the order, and instead buy a plain vent hood. Not the fancy type, but the smaller-than-a-micro type. We'll save a few $$s, get to see more of our pretty back splash, and use the micro we already have (it'll probably go into the island, now).

So, it was worth getting out of the heat, and getting the appliance decisions over (well, mostly, we still have to pick out a dishwasher--just couldn't pull the trigger on that one!). But we never got to sit and watch people! Oh well, progress continues . . .

Dahlias and driving

After last year, I vowed I would not have a vegetable garden at DG again until I lived there. It's difficult to keep up with it when I have to drive 10-15 minutes, after work, every couple days. But then M set up a better watering system than last year's (mostly hand watering) system. So I gave in and started tomatoes in my windowsill in March. Or maybe April. But most of my seedlings didn't make it once transplanted them so I supplemented with purchased transplants. But there's something wrong with my beds--the tomatoes aren't thriving (again) and the peppers are tiny. The squash (the only vegetable planted directly in the ground) is exploding. So it's been a mixed bag. I love that it waters itself (thanks M!) but I can tell my beds need some serious work. Maybe when we live there, next year, it'll be better.

In addition to the veggie garden, we put in a mini-orchard (I can't remember whether I wrote about it here or not) last spring. We did major irrigation to make it successful (absolutely NO hand watering for this!), and it really has been. We put in 2 peaches (one grafted with 3 types), one apricot and one pear that were all new (used a nursery gift cert from last year's birthday). Then we transplanted 3 plums from MK (where we live now--ok, by transplant, I mean M dug them up, we moved them from one house to the other, and one went into the ground. All three were all small, and the other two are still in pots).

All this was added to our already-at-DG fig trees (2), Persimmon (we call him Percy) and Apple Tree (we call her Jane Appel--if you know Stanford basketball, it might ring a bell). But most high maintenance of all has been the Orange (Monsier L'Orange--what can I say, we like naming things!). He was given to us by a friend/neighbor of my moms about 2 years ago. He'd lived most of his life in a small, wooden pot, on her backyard, covered patio. He was difficult to move, completely root bound (like, really, no dirt at all) and kind of stunted when he came to DG to live. We placed him near the garden, hand watered him, and hoped for the best. He bloomed. He got new growth, then he went on strike. He got too hot. He got way too cold. He started losing leaves furiously. He was exposed to freezing temps. So we talked to the nursery fellow (very helpful and reassuring) and he told us how to best transplant him in the ground, and we did, when we put in the orchard. Then he lost more leaves. All of them in fact. We waited. We hoped, and miraculously, he overcame his shock and sprouted all new leaves. We rejoiced. Then it got hot here, and his leaves curled. He didn't drop any, but it was like he was hibernating. Then, just 2 weeks ago, he made a mad effort of putting on new growth. He's got at least 6" of new, tender, green growth. We're so proud of him. Now if we can just coax him to bloom so someday we get oranges!

Oh, but I meant to write about dahlias (I get excited about Monsier L'Orange and his growth!). The other major addition to the back yard (remember we're on 1/2 acre, and it not landscaped, so we're trying to define some areas) was M's dahlia garden. We saw beautiful ones in Petaluma last year, so M used her Christmas money to buy tubers, and we planted 70 of them. We were so proud. She's never grown flowers before. She rigged up the irrigation, so again, no hand watering. Then along came Dahlia Dan. He's one of our neighbors who just moved back to the neighborhood. He now has a dahlia garden. But he has over 200. Made what seemed like a really big accomplishment (to us) seem so small. But, for a first-time dahlia gardener, M is doing great. They're a riot of color now. They love this heat we're having.

Here's a bouquet M brought home to me today:

And here's my very favorite one, also just picked today. This one is at least 10 inches across:

With all the irrigation we do, I'm dreading the water bill. But how can you not want to grow something so beautiful!

Happy Weekend everyone. I get a day off Monday!

Trim update

We haven't done much (well, anything really) to DG since late last week as we've been working on another house project (it's a long story, but are about to be finished--and it's a good thing, we're both TIRED). So since I have had requests (yes, there are a couple of you fans (can I call you fans?) who read my blog (thank you!) and who've requested more house photos and more updates! You guys rock.

So, the downstairs window trim is nearly complete. Remember when I was painting, but not worrying about the whole walls, but doing a margin around all the windows and doors (what? I didn't actually write about that but meant to? Shame), well this is why: NO TAPING OFF THE TRIM TO PAINT THE WALLS. Brilliant idea on M's part. The only hitch was picking paint colors before flooring, furniture, etc etc is even in or finalized. But it was a great idea. Look how pretty:

My office (facing street) after windows and drywall, before trim and paint

Office window trim, being finished

Finished office window trim. We needed all 4 of our hands to move this into place

Office window trim, in position.

Well, I thought I had a finalized photo of the office window with the face trim, but they're so dark you can't see what they are. Will have to post one later.

In the meantime, here's a sampling of other downstairs windows. You get the gist. Looks pretty, right?

Living room, facing side yard

Living room, next to slider, facing back yard

Living room, facing side yard

Living room, facing side yard another angle

Kinda like Christmas

Can you guess what these are?

That's right--the kitchen cabinets! They even came early! It's been about 10 days since they arrived, and they're all moved inside (a good thing since we've had one freakishly unusual Summer thunderstorm!), unwrapped, and are about 70% installed! M and her dad whipped that much out in one day. Wow. I love them. I can't wait to unpack all that crap stuff that's still in my mom's garage (3+years now--oh the shame!) and see what to keep, what stays, and to get it all organized!

We took the day off (from all construction/home improvement projects) Sunday and went to Alameda to the big monthly flea market there. So fun. Found a couple things (a depression glass pitcher--a good buy) and a small retro light fixture (maybe for the laundry room?). But the score of the day came later, in Oakland where we went to a crazy antique store (a house with several outbuildings that makes you feel like you're peering into a hoarders stash). We got two bargain dressers that we'll turn into vanities for the master bathroom. We've been searching for something new that would work and had pretty much struck out on anything affordable. I'll post before pix another day so that we can see how they look now and then what they'll look like later. It was a fun (but exhausting) day.