Posts from January 2011
bailey’s got a new pair of shoes!
Not much to report from the home front, we just got back from a long ski weekend in eastern Washington and I’m doing my best to keep my eyes open. We’ve got a few updates to share on the barn doors, but in the meantime, I’ll leave you with this:
Last year, he cut his paw on some ice so we invested in a pair of doggie booties (what can we say, he’s an urban dog). He didn’t know what to think and spent the first couple of minutes prancing around in the snow. It was hysterical. Fortunately, he got used to them pretty quick and despite our skepticism, they stayed on for the whole 5 mile trek.
homies!
Kyle just informed me that there are only about 7 hours left to make your nominations for The Homies on Apartment Therapy, so scoot on over! (This year is a bit different in that you list your nominations in the comments section, title followed by URL.)
There are a handful of noms for ol’ chezerbey, so big thanks to those who threw our name in the hat. The Homies are also a great resource for finding new blogs, in fact, it’s probably where I first discovered about 75% of my Google Reader line-up. Because y’know…when we’re not doing stuff on our own house, we’re reading about what you’re doing to yours.
mid-january progress
January is tough. It’s rainy and gray and unfortunately, home remodeling doesn’t really kick the winter blues like a trip to Hawaii would. But we’ve pulled on our work pants once again, making a little progress and crossing things off the list.
The barn door track is painted and installed! We contemplated keeping the galvanized finish (which Kyle had actually cleaned up a bit), but decided instead to paint it with the same automotive primer that was used on the loft ladder. We chose stainless steel lag screws for the fasteners and left them unpainted since the paint would be scratched if we ever needed to undo or adjust them. (The shiny orb above is our door bell.)
It only took four months after painting the main floor to muster the motivation, but I finally did it. Two coats, six hours of painting. I know, but there are a lot of corners, weird angles, and compromised head clearance (not to mention the challenges of white-on-white). It was not fun. Even you crazy people who like to paint would not like this.
Here’s a view looking the opposite direction showing the loft ladder in place. And no, the centerline of the ladder/light is not the same as the roof ridge. Even though we typically try to force our house into submission, when you’re working within an existing structure there is only so much wiggle room.
Hello down there! (The ladder treads are off and in the basement waiting to be finished.)
For the loft lighting, we chose a single wall sconce with a solid shade that would primarily provide light for people going up and down the ladder in the middle of the night (that’s why the switch is near the floor). This light is similar to the kitchen wall lights, although Resolute changed the design of the escutcheon plate and I now love this fixture even more. For the rest of the space, we’ll probably have a small table lamp on the opposite wall.
In addition to some finish electrical work, our last step is to select and install the flooring. Although we’re generally anti-carpet, it makes a lot of sense for this space. 1) It’s a dog-free (therefore, dog hair-free) zone. 2) The plywood subfloor isn’t smooth enough for a glue-down material and we really don’t want to mess with self-leveling compound again. 3) It’s supposed to be a cozy space and carpet is a good solution for that.
Our first thought was to go with Flor carpet tiles. Flor is a great company that makes attractive and responsible products and we’ve been happy with the tiles in our mudroom. So we ordered a bunch of samples and then narrowed it down to these three:
The two on the left are both from the “Love Ewe” line and are super soft. The one on the right is “Well Suited” and also comes in the gray color. You know I can’t get too crazy with color, so I thought it would be best to steer towards the neutral options and then do bolder colors for less permanent things. The first one is $7.43/SF while the latter is $4.46/SF. Of course I liked the more expensive one the best, but talked myself into the herringbone-esque pattern (which is pretty soft to the touch too).
So I took some measurements of the space, drafted it up in cad and laid out a grid of tiles (roughly 19″x19″ each) to see how many we would need. Then I did the math. Then I rechecked my math. Even with the cheaper tile and a 20% “designer” discount, it would still cost about $700 to carpet the space. That’s really way more than we wanted to spend for a room that we just kinda “threw in” after we started this project. I mean, $700 is a weekend in Palm Springs (always dangerous to compare remodeling costs to travel costs, but that’s where my mind is these days!). So we’re back to the drawing board in a sense and are now looking at getting a remnant from a roll of carpet, trying to spend about half of the Flor price. We’ll see.
When we finished the mudroom almost a year ago, we installed two Bach coat hooks to the left of the door. Not wanting the space to feel too cluttered, we thought we could get by with one double hook per person. Well, that didn’t work out. So we finally got around to ordering and installing two more hooks on the opposite side of the door. Much better!
Our big plans to build a custom storage bench were derailed by the Big Project of 2010. So we moved our IKEA Molger bench in as a temporary solution (it was originally bought for our old bathroom). But now, we kinda like it. Except for that basket. I know, it’s very un-Zerbey. We inherited it from somewhere and oddly enough it’s the only container we have that fits in the space (we use it to hold gloves, scarves, etc.). I’ve been on the hunt for something to replace it but no luck yet. So I don’t know…maybe the Molger bench could get tweaked? Did you see what Dan did with his?
So there’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to. Kyle’s also been working on a steel and wood handrail for the basement stair and the first frame for the barn doors. Bang, bang bang…weld, weld, weld.
modern undercabinet lighting
Last weekend we completed the final to-do on the kitchen – installing the undercabinet lighting. We wanted something minimal, yet effective. Luckily, we found both these things in an LED system from ET2 Contemporary Lighting.
Techy! Commonly referred to as LED tape, this thin strip has an adhesive backing so installation is literally peel and stick. The trickiest part was designing the system. Power comes up from the panel in the basement through the wall and into a small transformer in the cabinet above the range hood. From there, connector cords go through holes drilled in the side wall of each flanking upper cabinet and down through the faux chase space that we created using the IKEA blue-gray panel remnants (as seen in this older photo below):
The connector cord then comes down through the bottom of the cabinet and plugs into the LED strip via a small 4-way connector. ET2 sells black metal valances but (shocker) we decided to DIY our own. So Kyle bought simple aluminum angles and built our own version that wraps along the front and exposed edge at the range. (It’s fastened to the cabinet with a few screws. We also applied a thin bead of caulk between the two surfaces to prevent light leakage.)
Next, we adhered the strip (and connector piece shown below)…
…and attached the connector cord (photo below was taken before we pulled the cord tight and secured it with a couple electrical staples).
We wanted the light (and valance) to be recessed from the face of the cabinet, but out far enough that the light wouldn’t cast a shadow on the steel ledge.
Not only do they provide additional task lighting, but they also serve as a subtle night-light of sorts.
It’s a small detail but we’re pleased with the results. More importantly, this was the last light fixture to be installed. Our house had 3 ceiling fixtures when we moved in, now we have mood lighting. Love that modern technology.
this and that
This weekend was pretty low-key for us – lots of driving around, buying supplies and finalizing the design for the barn doors. There was also some quality TV time…we just finished season two of Mad Men and its got us thinking about some Sterling & Cooper-esque door colors for chezerbey.
Other things:
1. Bailey McZerbey is a weird dog. But I think he likes the new doorstop! (Yeah, that’s his AKC registered name – we hybridized our last names for him.)
2. Our house was featured on Houzz on Friday! See the tour here.
3. I finally signed up for Twitter…although, I haven’t tweeted yet. But I will! If you’d like to “follow” us, go here or click on the fancy button in the sidebar. It’s going to be riveting…in 140 words or less. (I also added a “tweet this to your tweeps” button at the bottom of each post.)
