Downstairs painting is coming along nicely! Yesterday the tinted primer went on…
And today the first coat went on…
Actually, it’s still going on right now. It’s so strange to have someone painting for me. This is usually my job. But look how much quicker its going!
Not only are David and Joe outside putting up siding, but there are two other crews working inside. That makes this the biggest remodel population our house has seen yet!
The plumber is here working in the dark…
His partner in crime is on the right, happily breathing the dust being made by the guy on the left…
Yep, the paint crew is here to prep the walls for painting…
I can’t believe they’re not stumbling over each other down there. Go, team, fight!
The boys are out in the freezing cold today nailing up the siding…
Details later. Thanks, Joe!
So I showed you colors for downstairs yesterday. What I didn’t mention is that I’ve been obsessing over this Mustard Olive shade for a few years. Something about it resonates with me right now….
Most of the time it looks olive, as above. In the sun, it tends more toward mustard…
Either way. I dig it. The downstairs won’t get much, if any, direct light, so the paint should read as olive.
I’ve been stockpiling images I as color inspiration for a few years and I noticed I’ve bookmarked this color A LOT — like this image that’s been sitting on my desktop since last summer. There’s the color, fourth color chip down…
hue patina | design-seeds.com
And this:
seville cushion by michelle mason | notonthehighstreet.com
And this:
hand-tufted lovebirds rug by thomas paul | outblush.com
See how great it looks with bluish grey and white and dark brown on the far right there…
midbec striped wallpaper | trendenser.se
Love these linen pillows — these are from a few years ago, so don’t bother to hunt for them…
dwell studio paloma pillow in saffron | absolutematerialist.com
This color has been popping up more recently in House Beautiful’s Green Issue, March ’12. How about this bedroom?
chicago townhouse bedroom by alessandra-branca | housebeautiful.com
Not my style, but I lurve the color!
It’s taken a few days to switch over, but I have now made the full switch from Mountain Time…
… to Remodel Time:
Yep, we got plastered. Completely plastered. And now it’s time for the cherry on top: paint!
First, the bathroom. We carried the tiles over to Benjamin Moore and matched up a white to coordinate…
As you can see, the white tile isn’t a crisp white, it has a lot of grey in it. So we opted for a white with soft grey undertones: Classic Grey in Natura Zero VOC, Eggshell Finish. On top is Ann Sacks Texere in Dove, 12″ x 24″ plank tiles — for the floor. On bottom is Ann Sacks Savoy Stacked Brick Mosaic in Chalk, 5/8″ x 1-7/8″ — for the walls.
Had to choose grout for the tile too…
The only other real “color” in the bathroom will be the walnut built-ins. Spa-like but modern and spare.
Unlike the upstairs which is really all about the view, the downstairs is darker, with fewer windows. Because this will be the cushy, flop-on-the-couch entertainment area, I want it to accentuate the coziness, so white didn’t make sense.
I also want to bring some of the outside in so that it’s not so starkly different from the upstairs. Therefore, natural, neutral colors. This is what will go on the walls…
I know, I know, Mustard Olive looks like an “off” color, doesn’t it? But because it’s a shade of green with a lot of gold in it, it’s warm without being too dark. There’s not a whole lot of natural light down there, so it won’t read as bright most of the day.
It will look good next to our dark walnut built-ins and the cork that will be on the floors and ceiling (we kept that pale to bounce more light around)…
You’re still not convinced? I could tell. Here it is against more stuff. I like how it looks with grey…
That’s Cavern Blackbird wallpaper in Kraft (yes, same paper I put up before), the charcoal wool of our Libre sectional, and one of the pillows we like to plump up while watching AdventureTime.
Don’t worry, when it’s all said and done it will look great. Or else.
Back to work!
So David and Joe have been getting the un-sided end of the house ready to close up while the plasterers finish up downstairs. David can update us on the proceedings thus far.
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Now that the siding is all stained and had a chance to dry, we can get ready to install it. First up: flashing the sides and tops of the door and window openings.
Here, a side piece was carefully mitered onto the existing sill flashing that went in when the window was installed…
Next, the side flashing got nailed to the house and then taped to the house wrap. The joint between it and the sill flashing, as well as the joint between it and the window frame, will be caulked with the same low-VOC grey caulk we used between the windows and the house…
The top flashing rests on the two side pieces of flashing and was also mitered. It extends up through a slit in the house wrap and was nailed in place…
The corner junction of the top and side flashings was taped and then the house wrap taped down to the top flashing. The goal is to shed water out as it goes down, never allowing it entry to the house.
That piece of pressure-treated wood with the big bolt in it and the nice piece of flashing under make up the the deck ledger…
The ledger board had to go in before the siding, but that story deserves a post all its own. Here’s a sneak peek of the newly stained siding installed around the big downstairs window…
Hot. Love how clean it looks — no more clunky trim! Don’t worry, the blue strip above the siding is just the blue of the overhead tarp captured in the shiny new flashing.
Welcome back to GadgetTime with David! In today’s installment, he shows us how to avoid what could be a big project.
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This looks like a regular light switch…
But underneath it hides a secret: It’s actually a wireless switch that can be added anywhere you want to control a light but don’t want to go to the trouble or expense of running wires in the walls. Take a peek under the faceplate…
Just replace an existing switch with this special receiver switch and Bob’s your uncle…
In my case, I wanted to be able to switch the garage lights on and off when coming and going via the roll-up doors, but the only switch was across the garage by the door into the house. After installation, the two switches are now about 18′ apart with lots of metal stuff between them. I had to unwrap that black wire that loops around the toggle above (it’s an antenna) in order for them to communicate better. That little switch to the right of the toggle turns the receiver on and off, if for some reason you don’t want the remote switch to control the light.
The receiver and remote switch are available as a set, and additional remote switches and outlets are available. There are several channels to choose from (my switches both use channel E) — you can use accessories on the same channel and control them all with one switch or choose different channels to control several things independently in the same room.
This one is a Zenith model 6133. It works with fluorescent tube lights but not with compact fluorescents, not sure why. It does buzz a bit (maybe that will go away over time). A pretty cool system that only took 15 minutes to install vs. an hour or two of cutting drying, running wires inside the wall and then patching the drywall. You know I love that.
Literally. Flying. Before I go any further, let me note that February 1 was the one-year anniversary of the permit that gave us the green light on our remodel…
We’re running out of window space.
So, about the dust. Two crews working today. David and Joe are prepping for the install of the deck ledger board…
That should be done sometime after lunch and perhaps the siding will start to go up? Drilling holes through the insulation and into the wood behind it is definitely dusty.
Now that the walls are closed up downstairs, a plastering crew is busy making them look absolutely impeccable. Installing corner bead, taping, lathering on the drywall compound…
Oh, and sanding. Dusty.
More on the progress of both crews later.
No wasting time here. Now that a color decision is made, the deck-end of the house where the siding was removed can finally get closed up and the tarp can come down…
As mentioned, the redwood that was on this inset was removed so the new windows and slider could get installed. Eventually, that painted redwood will be planed clean and added to the outer envelope of the house — later in the year.
The new cedar for the deck-end inset…
… got a healthy coat of stain yesterday, front and back, by David and Joe.
It’s winter — too cold outside for the stain to dry. So the stain had to be applied indoors. The vapors were wicked awful, even with respirators on and all the windows and doors open…
After a night of airing out on the drying rack David whipped up, the siding should be dry now. The stench isn’t so bad today.
Next up: the new siding goes on the house. Then we get to live with a temporarily odd sage-green and grayish black color combo until the rest of the siding gets tackled. Yay!
… as opposed to my remedial colored-pencil approach to trying different colors on the exterior of our house? Of course there are other ways. There are a number of software choices out there, but not all of them are good and they’re not all designed for the basic homeowner.
The one that seemed to have the best reviews was Benjamin Moore’s Personal Color Viewer (PCV3), available for Mac or PC….
At $10, it seemed like something worth trying, so I did. It’s Adobe-based software so it’s not particularly stupid-proof if you’re new to Adobe. Out of curiosity, I tried it out a couple of different ways.
First, I uploaded an architectural rendering and played with that…
Hard to tell what’s going on by looking at a rendering, it turns out.
So then I uploaded a photo and played with that, too. Here’s one somewhat sloppy example…
The software comes loaded with BM’s color palettes, but it’s laborious to experiment with colors — I tried to find the right gold-green but it literally takes FOREVER to change what you’ve done. The navigation is horrendous. I say this as someone who’s in the business of helping to make things online more user friendly.
I do like being able to see what colors on the exterior look like in the context of the houses around ours. But overall, I think my results were hardly worth the time I had to spend trying to compare different shades on the areas I masked out.
Bottom line on the Personal Color Viewer: If you have hours and hours to waste, go for it.
If you’re in a hurry, whip out the colored pencils.