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!