Exterior Paint is Done (almost)

It always seems like we go for a long time and nothing much happens on the house and then suddenly there's a flurry of activity.  That's what happened last week.  The exterior was painted--yippee!! We think the colors came out great.  The trim is Sherwin Williams, "Superior Bronze".  Steve took the color from some of the bricks.  As you can tell in this picture we still need gutters and probably shutters.  There's a "ghost" of the old shutters on the upstairs window.  Shutters might give the house a more finished look, too.

The body of the addition is painted Sherwin Williams "Universal Khaki" which is on the same stick in the paint deck as one of my favs, "Relaxed Khaki".  I learned of these colors at a class I took on home staging.  The instructor said they go great with 1980's hardwood floors--not too yellow, not too gray.  I think they look good inside and outside.

On Saturday, we cleaned up the yard--FINALLY!! We've had the worse case of bad Feng Shui.

                                                                           

                                                                         Before:

After:

Here's the yard now:

We hired some men to move the magnolia tree from the side of the house where it was just trashed. 

 I hope it lives.

They also cleaned out the garage--mostly.  We just about filled up a small dumpster.

I feel so much better, now.

Inside, the trim carpenter has almost finished the trim and re-installing the old doors.

He's putting the original corner cabinets from the old breakfast room in the dining room.

This afternoon he was putting the final touches on--I'll post pictures later.

Check back in a day or two for more progress.
Patti

Time to Catch UP!

A whole lot has happened since my last post so here's the quick update:

-we parted ways with our general contractor (that's another story in itself that I won't go into here)

-we went on vacation and saw tar balls wash up on the sandy white beaches of Tops'l near Destin Florida.

Our counter tops were installed before we left for vacation--as in the day before we left.

We found the countertops on line from a company in Marietta, GA.

Turns out it was TOPSOUTH--going by another name online.  We were shocked and delighted when we drove up to the showroom.  This is the company that installed the Corian in our old house.  They were fabulous 10 years ago with the Corian and we think they'll be just as good this time around.

We went with two different counters in the kitchen.  On the perimeter cabinets we chose a black granite that has white specks in it called Nero Africano.  The surface has been "leathered".  It's a matt finish with a lot of texture.  Hopefully this will eliminate the finger prints of polished black and water spots of honed black.  Judging by the dust on them right now, I'd say we picked well.  Not much is showing up. 

On the island we chose white Carrara marble--I had to sign a disclosure that says I realize that marble stains, scratches and generally goes to pot in the kitchen.  I don't care. I love it.

I went to the factory to approve the layout.  The guy who laid out the template positioned it so that the vein would run across the island--so cool, I'd never approved the layout before.  I've never had an island either.

(Remember my old kitchen? the weak link in an otherwise great house.)

Steve and I are just as happy as can be with the counter tops.

 I'll get back to you about using Carrara Marble on the island.

later,

Patti

New Kitchen Cabinets

The new cabinets came on  Friday and Steve installed them over Memorial Day Weekend.

Here's the staging area.  By the time I thought to take pictures, he'd already put in several cabinets.  At first there were a lot more boxes.

 In case you're wondering: the red thing on the tripod is a laser level that shoots a level beam of light on the wall.  It's a miracle tool for installing cabinets.

If  you look carefully you can see our stainless apron sink under the window.  I'm so worried about scratches that I covered it with a foam sheet. Hopefully, after a year or so I'll feel better and can uncover it. 

This is how it really looks.  It's so cool!

There's a drain rack that goes in the bottom. 

The white thing inside is the styrofoam packing material--ignore it.

The upper cabinets went in next then the island.

Steve designed the island to hold the microwave.  It'll go in the big square opening to the left of the plastic.  (Again, I covered the island with plastic to protect it.) We don't know if we'll like having the microwave below the counter, but we do think it'll look better.  I'll have to get back to you on that design choice.

The empty square bottom cabinet thing on the right of this picture is where the "Beverage Cooler" will go.

It's our compromise.  I finally got Steve to dump the old beer fridge by agreeing on a new snazzy beverage center setup.

On the other side of the island, across from the dishwasher is a bank of drawers.  I'm thinking of storing our plates and bowls there.  Ikea has a rack with dowels that hold the dishes in place in a drawer.  We'll see.

Here it is all cleaned up.

The rep from TopSouth is coming today for the "Pre-template" appointment.  The countertops should be in on the 10th.

We close on our temporary house tomorrow and move out the next two days.  We can't move in to this Morningside house for a couple more weeks--minimum. 

This is where things get interesting.

Patti

The Dove Cote

After only a month...the gable vents arrived. These are triangular shaped vents that go in the gable peaks to vent the attic. The have screen wire mesh on the back to keep out the critters while allowing the hot air to escape.

Only one tiny problem...the one for the back of the house won't fit.  There's a huge triple LVL (builder speak for the mother of all support beams) that ends at the gable.  So how do we vent that part of the attic and what do we put on the outside? 

With a bit of head scratching and mumbling I came up with an idea.  We put a fake DOVE COTE in the gable and add vents to the roof.  No one can see the vents and the dove cote will be easy and will fit.

I found some examples on Google Images.

This is the real deal.

The Wentworth-Gardner Outbuilding with Dove-Cote. Portsmouth, New Hampshire

...2-story framed outbuilding, one end of which served the household as a dove-cote, a place for doves to roost that could occasionally provide food for the table.

Originally the internal walls of the dove cote were lined with nesting boxes. These were removed. Each hole had a separate box, probably with a door through which the dove or squab could be removed from its nest.

Here's how modern architects have incorporated the dove cote. 

Of course these are totally decorative and not intended for birds to roost in.

Here's a great house in Buckhead with a small dove cote.

This image is from Things that Inspire.  Check it out.

This is the guest house with a dove cote.

By the way.. I LOVE this house and yard.  It was featured in Southern Living in 2007 and I think it was on the garden tour a few years ago. Maybe I've looked at the pictures in Southern Living so many times I only think I've been here.  This was another inspiration for our old pool.

Here's how our Dovecote came out.

What do you think?

Patti