12.22.2008

re:cession

merry christmas!

so, i suppose my lack of posts over the last 2+ months indicates that we haven't done much on the house front. it's a recession, ya'll! we're supposed to be saving up for the next big thing - namely the stair & loft railing or the master bathroom, but between weddings, the holidays and the occasional $200 used-furniture purchase, we're getting nowhere.

so, to satiate your need for pics, i'll post our holiday decorations and furniture finds!

this is a simple holiday wreath i made with our christmas tree clippings and a few glass ball ornaments -



we have some modern christmas decorations in our modern living room -





and our traditional christmas tree is in the den -


we put up some of anthony's sketches from italy in the dining room, along with a few other frames with just placeholders so far -


table found at an antique shop ($190) being used as a kitchen 'island' -


dresser found thru craigslist ($40) and chair found at an antique shop ($70) in one of the guest rooms -


bedside table found thru craigslist ($15), currently being used as a side table in our den -


i hope in the spring we can make some progress on our other major house projects. in the meantime, we should be painting the window sashes on the interior and continuing with baseboards and door/window casings....

10.05.2008

re:ception

we invited all of our friends over last night to show them how far we've come in the last year. we had this slideshow projected onto a wall...




anthony worked very hard on getting as many casings and baseboards as possible installed before the party. it's looking great!






we're looking forward to getting the rest of the 'to do' list knocked out before the 'two years later' party next fall!

9.28.2008

re:trim

i'm back! the work on the house the past few weeks hasn't been blog-worthy, but we're having a 'one year later' party next weekend, and in an effort not to disappoint the people who've never been here and may come expecting the house to be finished, we buckled down this weekend to make some more progress.

i lost the battle for wood trim, so anthony and david got some baseboard and casings cut out of mdf on saturday morning and anthony and i primed them in the afternoon...





the reason i wanted to avoid mdf - fearing it would look plastic because it's so smooth - turned out to be the opposite of the actual problem with using mdf - that is, the cut edges end up being kind of "fuzzy," even with sanding. so, we put two coats of primer on the cut sides, and we'll try a very fine sanding before the two finish coats of paint.

the baseboards are 6 1/2" high, and we'll add a quarter round on the top for an extra bead of detail (as well as the quarter round or shoe mould at the floor). we went with 4 1/2" wide door and window casings and routered the edges, and we also have 1 1/4" thick plinthe blocks at the bottom of the door casings. i think the simplicity of the trim complements the style of the house.

we've just begun the trimwork, but it makes such a difference already!




i'm also trying to get on the window & door painting train - but it's hard to find the motivation. it's such a tedious and repetitive task, and there is soooo much of it to do. but i got a little bit of taping done this weekend -


so, little by little the house is starting to look like a home...

9.07.2008

re:charge

hanna ended up being a non-event and ike is staying its westerly course, so so far so good as far as hurricane season goes.

we're on a brief hiatus from the major house projects - currently in save-up mode. next on the list is the stair & loft railing, and then hopefully the master bathroom, although anthony wants to start working on the trim. we're having a bit of a disagreement about the material for the trim - he wants mdf while i want paint-grade wood. i think once we paint mdf, it will end up looking plastic because it's so flat and smooth. thoughts?

in the meantime, while we build up the bankroll, we will try to move forward on things like painting the windows. but it occurred to me that i forgot to share pics of the shed with its new door, so enjoy!



8.19.2008

re:visit

it's time for another round of before and after shots. i want to put these side-by-side, so they're going to be smaller than usual...















































(okay, so i guess the horizontal photos won't go side by side, even in the smaller size. boo.)