Ever wondered what the inside of our garage looks like? Not as good as the Vince Hanneman’s creation, that’s for sure.
cathedral of junk
September 27th, 2012back in the bathroom
September 23rd, 2012On Friday, RI Glass delivered and installed the shower glass and mirror for the downstairs bathroom…
The bathroom mirror was installed atop an electronic mirror defogger. It has a heating element to keep the area above the future vanity from fogging up when you take a shower. That’s my clever boy for ya…
The oval hole in the glass at top is where the lit shaving mirror will go. Below that will be a regular electrical outlet…
Nice, clean aluminum edge divides the glass from the tile…
I think I posted this once before, but here’s a reminder of what this wall will eventually look like…
At the risk of being repetitive, let me remind you of this:
A walnut box/countertop will be open on the end next to the toilet, so we can stash magazines and toilet paper rolls. (No toilet paper holder like in the drawing.) A walnut shelf will stretch from under the sink to the corner of the room where it becomes a bench. Behind the bench is a floor-to-ceiling wall of walnut with a few hooks up high for hanging clothes.
Over on the opposite wall, the shower got its new frameless shower glass. Hard to get a decent shot in this small bathroom but you can see it’s finally looking like a bathroom!
The shower base still needs to be topped by a teak slatted shower tray. Actual shower hardware not installed yet.
As always, tried to keep it fairly minimal in here, which is why we went with a frameless design. The metal bar is bolted to the header to keep the heavy sliding door setup sturdy. Closeup of the hardware at the top…
Closeup of the sliding door track at bottom…
The fixed glass is silicone-mounted right to the tile…
Finger-pull on the sliding glass door. No handle to extend into the skinny room! Have I mentioned lately how much I love this tile?
The plumber comes next week to make the shower a working thing and install the wall-hung toilet. Woohoo!
cantilever is so happening!
September 18th, 2012This is it. The rotting deck is rebuilt, the house has been prepped and waiting for the steel for the last month, and now comes the big climax. That cantilever we started talking about in May is on, baby!
Before David explains, let me remind you of this…
That’s the drawing our engineer provided (click to biggify it) as a way for us to remove the posts and cantilever the deck. To recap a previous post:
- Two steel brackets (or cups) will tie all the wood together at the outside corners of the deck.
- Two long steel straps bolted to each framing member they cross will support the outside corners by spreading the load across the sides of the house.
So, can I introduce you to the steel?
Steel, reader.
Reader, steel…
Now that the niceties are out of the way, take it, David!
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Rhode Island Welding custom-made the steel our engineer specified for us (complete with pre-drilled holes as you can see above), and last week Joe and I installed it.
First, we drew exactly where the steel brackets (or cups) would fit into the existing deck structure…
Then we put up a story pole — the 1”x1” stick that Joe’s about to put a screw next to — that would serve as our marker for the proper height of the deck structure once the posts were cut away.
Here’s Joe cutting the 4” x 6” post so that we could jack the deck up slightly — we want the deck to settle back down to its original height after we set it on the steel. The bottom of the story pole is taped to the concrete footing with blue tape…
After that, installation went fairly quickly.
Once in, the steel cup catches the bottom of the deck and the strap transmits the load up and spreads it across the house framing…
32 galvanized bolts, each ⅜” diameter by 4” long, hold it all together across each framing member as planned…
This week, Joe and I will take out the remnants of the posts and the deck will be fully cantilevered as originally intended!
this week’s urban wildlife
September 14th, 2012
the front hill, 9 wks later
September 6th, 2012It’s been a little more than two months since the front slope got planted. Here’s what it looked like at the end of June (click to biggify)…
And here’s what it looks like at the beginning of September…
Not bad, I suppose. I haven’t lost any plants yet, so that’s a plus. Off to a decent start — must constantly remind myself to be patient — but still needs a year or two to grow in completely and begin to resemble a meadow. Next year it will look fabulous. The third year, golden.
Want a closer inspection? Rollover the images for deets…
Remember this shot from back in June?
That Caesalpinia gilliesii (Yellow Bird of Paradise) has come a long way. She’s now taller than I am!
The crazy looking blooms, whose scent on a warm evening remind me of Indian food, are generally swarming with bumbles. But I shot this right after a big rain and the bees were nowhere to be seen…
For those who care to obsess, you can find my entire front hill plant menu here.
bucolics anonymous
September 5th, 2012The hiatus is over. Just got back from a relaxing, summer’s-last-gasp escape to upstate New York, where reliable wifi is rare, the views stretch on into eternity, the sun is toasty and the crisp alpine air is heavily scented with spruce…
Lake Placid is… well, as you can clearly see, placid.
There was lots of this…
And this…
And since these are the Adirondacks, there was plenty of this (as one might expect)…
Everything here is rustic, hewn from logs by hearty mountain men. Even the butter…
So now it’s back to the remodel, back to our urban mess, back to life. But not before we take just a moment to listen to the Log Song…
updates to the yard
August 27th, 2012At the end of last week, our friends at Land Design Associates called to say they had two empty days in their schedule and they could tackle a few projects we’ve had waiting for them. This time around: paths!
Out back we started with this, knowing that eventually we’d add steps the same rice stone we’ve used elsewhere:
And now we have this:
My goal was to finish containing the slope — which we started when we put in the posts around the planting beds last fall — and slow the rain runoff and erosion. This should finally do it!
Can I get a hell yeah for no more slipping and sliding down the hill + no more mud tracked into the house?! Hell yeah!
Out front, we envisioned adding stepping stones here:
And now we have this:
Pleased to inform you that the stepping stones are Bambino-approved…
Wow, that looks so… grown-up. So there you go. Inside the house may be a mess but outside the paths are done!
butt-thra babies!
August 25th, 2012You’ll never guess what Bix and I discovered this weekend! Butt-thra, our monarch butterfly, had babies!
Here it is just 20 days later and the eggs that she laid on our butterfly weed have already hatched and grown. I had no idea it all happened so quickly!
After I spotted the one above, I came across a few more babies a little while later…
What you don’t see is a tiny caterpillar who hasn’t made its way into view yet. So four babies counted so far!
From what I’ve learned, there are three generations of monarchs during the warm season. The last generation — the one born in August-September — is the one that makes the 2,000 mile flight to Mexico. That makes these fellas future travelers.
Isn’t that exciting?
the not so big wallpaper reveal
August 20th, 2012It may seem like I’ve been on vacation but no. August projects have just been slow to pick up momentum. However, this week it looks like I’ll have new things to show you.
The first: the wallpaper is up!
Shall I get right to it? Remodel detritus blocking the full view, sorry I can’t get a better shot. As always, click to biggify…
So there you have it. A black and white photo mural from SurfaceView — Brushwood, from Ella Doran’s Trees and Leaves collection. It unites my split personalities, organic and modern. Dramatic without being overwhelming. Can’t wait to see this with the TV on the wall and furniture in the room.
I selected the linen texture to keep it from being too flat and reflective…
Mmmm, nubbly. Looks great closeup…
Soon I’ll have more to show you downstairs. Keep your pants on!
getting ready for steel
August 9th, 2012David and Joe have been prepping for the installation of the steel that will cantilever our deck. For the last few days, they’ve been removing the siding on the forward third of the house. David reports: “You can see that the original construction paper didn’t keep out moisture very well. The nails heads all show rust trails…”
“Above, you can see on the lower right where the deck structure was repaired with pressure treated plywood in the ’80s. However, the object should have been to keep water out, not make a structure that could survive moisture penetration.”
Look what Joe found etched underneath the siding…
Nice.
More from David: “Cutting the aluminum nails they used to install the siding in ’72 turned out to be easer than punching them in. I have a lot of respect for the carpenters that used these soft nails!”
Once the boards were off, the boys added house wrap to keep water out temporarily — eventually all the walls will receive 3″ of foam insulation like the deck-end of the house did…
With that done, attention turned to the inner walls of the deck…
Now that the new LVL beams are in, the deck is rebuilt and the wall height raised to code, the siding that goes on the inner walls can go up. David and Joe began staining it dark to match the siding below the deck…
Looks to me like they’ll be busy…
The saga continues… but not today. Today the boys are taking a break.