re:ferendum

hooray for photoshop! let's hear your votes on these paint schemes...
now down to three options:

renwick olive - bronze windows:


renwick olive - red windows:



connected gray - bronze windows:
out

connected gray - red windows:


brown siding - bronze windows:
out

brown siding - red/orange windows:
out

here are some of the photos i've been using for inspiration - from bunnymendelbaum and the houseblogs flickr pool...









who knew this would be such a difficult decision??!!

re:visit

we had our first overnight guests this weekend for easter (anthony's parents), so we worked to make the house as comfortable as a house can be without any interior doors...

using some of our construction paraphernalia for decor -




some of our recent ikea purchases -




the new kitchen was in full effect for easter dinner (setting off the smoke detectors on preheating the oven for the first time - that was fun).




love this view through the dining room -


we got the pantry functional just in time for the first big meal too -


anthony's parents brought down this very cool vintage radio that was in their attic -


love it! as far as house projects go, anthony framed the deck last weekend, so next up are decking and stairs...


and we put up yet another paint sample - renwick olive - bottom center of the window.


and the close up - renwick olive above the avocado. i'll have to try another photo at a different time of day, maybe. what do all you avocado lovers think of renwick olive? its more earthy, i think. not as punchy. avocado on the entire house might be too much green.


i'm happy to hear any comments or recommendations you may have!

re:vel (updated)

it's a happy day! the appliances arrived on friday and countertops were installed this morning! they're perfect - i loooove them!

they will complete installation tomorrow - any white splotches you see in the pics are epoxy that they use for adhesive and also to fill marks, so they'll sand that down tomorrow, install the 4" backsplash, install the undermount sink and drill a hole for the faucet, and then seal the countertops. yay!















now updated with more pics!









and more pics - we're totally functional now!





we just need to put the doors on the sink base, and the filler pieces in the corners of the upper cabinets. and hang our pantry shelves so we have a place to put our food...

so now we can scratch a few things off our obnoxious list!

re:plication?

a fellow renovator in asheville sent me this photo...



this house looks a lot like ours in that it's just a big rectangular box with a front porch, and they have the horizontal trim band dividing the top and bottom of the house, but used the same paint color top & bottom. and they have the dark windows that i like. this color looks kinda like the name-i-couldn't-remember brown we have a sample of in the photo below. maybe we could go in this direction for our paint scheme...

re:paint

we have gotten quotes (within $750 of each other) from two different painters for the exterior of our house, which we're hoping to get started on at the end of this month. they will strip/scrape/sand as necessary (not down to bare wood), prime, caulk and paint - one coat of primer and two coats of finish. the quotes were good and both painters come highly recommended, and we're excited to get the house painted - and not worry every time it rains about our siding & trim & new windows.

our problem is deciding what color to paint the house! right now it looks like we're going for the camouflage look...



from upper left, the colors are by sherwin williams: connected gray, svelte sage, avocado (off historic preservation palette), ancient marble, and some brown color i forgot the name of (also off the historic preservation palette). the two trim colors are alabaster and classic white (the creamier color on the right). the window is painted urbane bronze on the left and the bottom right corner is also alabaster.



originally we were thinking a two tone (top half of house painted a different color from bottom half, since we have the trim band that divides the house) - connected gray on top and svelte sage on the bottom with cream trim and bronze windows. we put those samples up and it turns out to look almost exactly like our neighbor's house. so we negated those colors. so we're testing some more colors, but not sure about these either...

avocado w/ classic white (cream) trim & urbane bronze windows:


ancient marble w/ alabaster trim & windows:

(need a 2nd coat of alabaster to make it look whiter like photo above)

we tried out the ancient marble because we thought about repainting the house white, but the four houses across the street are white, and our neighbor's neighbor's house is white also, so we didn't want to go white. ancient marble is a couple shades off of white, but the white (alabaster) trim still pops against it.

the avocado comes off sherwin williams historic preservation palette, and the chip looks olive, especially against other greens, but it looks really green on the house! it's a very cool/funky color, which i like, but i worry that it might be a bit much on the entire house.

so, we're confounded. what color to paint the house? do we do a two-tone? try more samples? any thoughts/opinions/inspiration pics would be greatly appreciated!

re:ciprocate

this weekend we commenced work on the new deck in the backyard, off the family room. anthony dug some holes and put some gravel in the bottom, and we mixed some concrete to pour some footings.






and, for the past several weeks, our friend dave has been working on a new front door for us to replace our cheap hollow-core aluminum front door. he and anthony fit in a few hours working on it here and there, and anthony helps out as best he can, but dave's doing a really nice thing for us.


the door is mahogany with a single panel on the bottom, and the top will have 3 lites of glass to match our windows. it should be ready to be hung in a few weeks or so.


it's great having friends who are handy (or woodworkers, in dave's case) and who are also doing renovation projects, so we can take turns working on each others' houses. dave recently finished building a garage and is getting ready to start an addition on his house. we'll be paying him back for our door soon enough... :)

re:quisition

the stone installers made a template of our counters this week, and the appliances are ordered. we're hoping for counter installation on the 17th. update: the appliances are scheduled for delivery on the 14th!

here are the appliances again:


microwave/hood combo:

unfortunately anthony wouldn't let me spend a couple hundred more on the sleek fully stainless steel dishwasher with hidden controls, so here's the compromise dishwasher -


again, hooray for architects' discounts! here are the stainless steel sink and faucet (also in stainless steel as opposed to chrome) we got as well:





stay tuned for our kitchen to come together!

re:splendent

and the winner is....



colorado gold vein! (this is our actual slab!) it's stunning! i am absolutely giddy over the deal i just got, but don't want to jinx it so i'll spill the details after this puppy is installed.

funny thing - i got pricing on several different varieties of white marble from four different local dealers/installers, and in every case the domestic varieties were more expensive than the international varieties (imported from italy & greece). how does that happen?

anyway...i can't stop looking at this picture. it's dreamy...


not-so-dreamy update:
apparently that slab above had some "unsightly scratches" so now this is our slab:


not quite as nice, but still pretty.


update #2:
they ordered that dreamy first slab before they found out about the marks in it, and couldn't cancel so it arrived in charleston today. i went to check it out - and i'm working on trying to embrace imperfection, so i approved the slab. most of the marks will diminish with the honing process, and they said they'll work to locate them where they'll be minimally noticeable. they said they could rush another slab from atlanta, and their supplier sent pictures of two others for me to choose from, but none were as soft and pretty as the first one. so, we're back to that, and i'm ok with a few minimal scratches. it's going to happen eventually anyway.

as far as the deal, we're under contract and we've paid our deposit so they can't take it away from me now. ;) the two other quotes i got for colorado gold vein were for $135/sf and $6400 installed (we have about 42sf total counting the backsplash). in other words, it wasn't even an option - i was going to go with the carrara or alabama white - until we got our 4th quote. the installer we went with quoted all of the marbles below (except statuary) at the same price - and it's less than half of those first two quotes. yay for architects discounts!