Search Results for: back door
basement progress: framing
Despite our secret hopes, the basement fairy did not wave her magic wand while we were basking in the glow of our new front yard.
Blah.
I know it will be great to have it done (or at least partially done), but there is not a lot of motivation for this project right now (besides zerbebe’s impending birth). So before we dive into a rather lackluster progress report, here’s an updated floor plan that shows the new and improved design [click to enlarge]:
Our main goal for the half basement (which is only about 385 SF) was to have a space that could serve as a guest/tv room and maybe a future kid’s bedroom. This room will be directly under the nursery and about the same size. We debated whether or not the space should be open to the adjacent stair area (and thus feel more connected to the rest of the house), but decided that we needed more flexibility since the room would serve multiple purposes. Our compromise is to install a 36″ sliding pocket door so that it could be open for casual use but easily closed off.
The rest of the space will be divided between a second bathroom, laundry room and a small unfinished space that will provide some storage and access to our crawl space. While the second bathroom is not a current necessity, we decided that as our family grows it will be nice to have and add considerable value to our home (most homes in our neighborhood seem to be 2 br/1bath). As Bailey gets older (something I don’t even want to think about!) it will also be nice to have a tub that he (and small kiddos) can more easily get in and out of.
The laundry room is fairly straight-forward and as we showed you in this post, the new appliances, cabinet, sink and countertop are already in place. On the opposite wall, we saved space for a small chest freezer. We have a rather compact 24″ fridge/freezer combo in our kitchen and while it works for us now, we know we might outgrow it in the future. Since we don’t use the freezer portion on a regular basis (it’s mostly nuts, ice cream and frozen waffles), the thought is to keep a chest freezer in the basement and buy a full-height fridge for the kitchen. While we don’t have any plans to buy a new fridge right away, we did go ahead and buy the freezer. Out of necessity you see…
Kyle just got back from a long weekend of deep-sea fishing off the coast of British Columbia (courtesy of a generous client) and this was his bounty:
King salmon, halibut and some lingcod. (They had it cleaned, filleted, packaged and flash frozen before the long drive back.) Even though we’ve been in Seattle for eight years now, we still haven’t gotten used to the luxury that is fresh fish so a sight like this has us a little giddy. The animals are equally excited and after a dinner of broiled salmon tonight, Bailey showed his gratitude by pre-rinsing plates as I loaded them into the dishwasher. [Psst…we’re always experimenting with different ways to prepare fish, so if you have any favorite recipes I’m all ears.] In addition to fish storage, the new freezer should also come in handy for all those nesting-induced meals I plan to make next month. Yup.
Oh right, the basement. You again.
A few years ago Kyle and I got a great deal on some windows that were leftover from a local school project. Most of them were long and skinny, but we made them work in our mudroom and in the “slot” window in the dining area. Since then, we’ve had one remaining window hanging out in the basement with no home. Until now.
At first I was hesitant about adding a window to the front of the house, but after realizing that our new plants would soon screen it from the street, I was on board.
Kyle’s like a window-installing wizard now. The whole operation took a couple hours max and I didn’t even have to lift a finger.
Even though the walls and ceiling are still dark, the extra window does wonders for the space and makes it feel much less basement-y. I can’t wait to see what a good dousing of white paint will do.
The downspout had to be relocated, but no big deal. (It used to come straight down from the porch eave above, but now jogs in and down before reconnecting to the existing inlet).
Like this:
In addition to the window install (which you’ll notice was done before the landscaping crew arrived), framing is underway in the bedroom. Kyle’s been gone the last two weekends so the space hasn’t seen a lot of love (hence this less than epic progress update), but I did manage to snap a few photos the other day:
Our concrete foundation wall (which extends up to the underside of the window in the photo above) needed to be furred out so we could insulate and have a space to run electrical. Although we could have extended this framing all the way to the ceiling, we decided to stop it at the top of the foundation wall (where it switches to original framed wall). This will make the space feel just a smidge bigger and provides a storage or display ledge around the two outside walls. The ledge is primed MDF that we’ll caulk and paint white.
Garden view!
Here’s a shot looking back towards the crawl. We decided it would be weird to have crawl space access from this room so the plan is to frame it in and close it off (after we get the new bathtub out of course).
Because our house is 102 years-old and not perfect, Kyle had to do some shimming in order for the future drywall to be straight and plumb. Sometimes I am in awe of the patience he has to work through things like this.
So that’s where we’re at. We’re keeping the next two weekends open to work on the house and hopefully make lots of progress before our schedules get too crazy. But it’s cool – I’ve already talked to zerbebe and asked her not to come till we’re done. I didn’t get a clear response but I think I felt a nod. Or maybe it was a butt. At any rate, at least it’s the solstice and we’re working with maximum daylight on our side. In fact, Kyle’s outside cutting lumber right now and I bet he has no idea it’s 9:30.
3 days of magic: front yard reveal
It’s been a while since we had a good old-fashioned project reveal, don’t you think? Our front yard has been in a sad state for several years now, so we made it a top priority for 2012. In April we took the first step and hired a landscape architect. Then when made a few tweaks to the design and got bids from three installers. After selecting JP Landscape Services (based out of Duvall, WA) we eagerly waited for the magic to happen. They originally thought the job would take 4-5 days to complete, but with a last-minute delayed start on another project they were able to double-up up their crew at chezerbey. Best of all, what would have taken us at least two months of nights and weekends (not counting all the frustrated sighs and dirt-kicking) took the professionals 3 days. THREE DAYS. But before we show you the money shots (and there’s a lot), let’s get a glimpse of how it all went down:
Day One:
Work started last Wednesday morning, but while waiting for the crew to arrive Kyle was able to snap these “before” shots for a little context.
Weedapalooza? Check.
Sidewalk to nowhere? Why not?
Day Two:
On the first day the crew scraped the site clean, regraded, took away extra dirt (can you believe we still had extra after all the foundation work from last summer?) and set the salvaged pavers. Here’s what it looked like on a rainy Thursday morning before I left for work:
Truthfully, even this prep work was very exciting. It was also reassuring to see that the installers seemed to know what they were doing and weren’t cutting any corners.
We mostly let the crew come up with the paver pattern for the south side and think they did a great job! They had to compensate for a slight slope from one end to the other, but walking across the final placement it was impossible to tell.
While we were at work, the crew spent the rest of Thursday bringing in new compost and amending it into the existing soil (for a total depth of 4″-6″). By the end of the day they had also sourced most of the plants and delivered them to the house. There were a few varieties that weren’t available at the time so we did some last-minute scrambling to find replacements.
I didn’t have a chance to take photos on Friday morning, but the changes were less drastic than the previous day. Or maybe I was just thinking ahead to the surprise that would await us that evening.
Day Three:
Friday was spent installing all of the plants and the final 2″ of mulch. After work that day, I met Kyle at the hospital for a pre-birth tour that I scheduled weeks ago. While it was certainly worthwhile, we both made a beeline for the exit as soon as it was over. The yard awaited!
Oh. Well, hello there.
[We didn’t have enough salvaged concrete for the front strip, so we picked up these 2’x2′ pavers for about $15/each.]
For those with a good eye, that is indeed a new (though yet-to-be trimmed out) window. Although it makes a world of difference in the basement, it does look a little goofy from the outside. But good news – it no longer matters because we now have a screen of nature in front! Oh, and gas meter – no one will even remember where you are this time next year. Grow plants, grow!
Have I mentioned that we decided to make Felix a part-time outdoor cat? No longer limited to running the diagonal length of the house, he seems happier, has more of an appetite and is not nearly as snarky as he used to be. A win-win for all.
Overall, we are THRILLED with the results. There are still a few missing plants (some groundcovers and herbs) that need to be added and of course everything will fill in as it matures, but the current density is plenty to be excited about. We were also pleasantly surprised with just how well the salvaged pavers turned out. [Score one for the planet and our checking account!] Although there are still a few loose ends to tie up, the guys did a great job with both the install and clean-up and we would definitely recommend them to anyone in the area.
While you’re at it, you should hire our landscape architect too (Mark Garff at The Watershed Company) – he was involved throughout the installation process and helped us make last-minute decisions when certain varieties were out of stock. Kyle and I debated how modern to go with the landscaping, but in the end we feel like Mark struck a good balance that shares our design approach with the outside of the house. Although we took more freedoms on the interior of the house (and will probably do the same for the backyard), we decided to be more subtle in the front. This was driven mostly by budget (no sense in changing the basic 1910 form of the house just for the hell of it), but it was also a personal design challenge. Now that the front is really, truly done (hallelujah!) we’re confident that it is entirely possible to make a 102 year-old home feel modern, efficient and clean while fitting in with the existing neighborhood and being responsive to our climate. Not to be all self-congratulatory, but for us, this is what good design is all about.
But back to the yard. This evening was warm and sunny so Kyle and I sat out on the stoop with pints of ice cream taking it all in and marveling at what could be accomplished in just three short days:
I confess that I still don’t know the names of all the plants (Latin or English), but I’m determined to learn. After all, we’ll be spending a lot of time together this summer.
zerbebe nursery: fabric, accessories and baby photos
Wow, I never thought picking out fabric would be so hard. Disappointed with the selection at my local fabric stores, I went back online last weekend and scoured the interwebs, pinning ideas as I went. After revisiting the yellow and white chevron fabric that I had in our initial design board and this post, I discovered that the pattern was also available in coral and white. I’ve always been resistant to pink (maybe because I look terrible in that color?), but coral is sorta like pink’s more sophisticated cousin and a color we talked about using from the get-go (Kyle actually suggested painting the two big sliding doors coral, to which I said “hell no”). To be honest, despite that ambiguous reference in our design boards, I didn’t really have a plan for how we would incorporate a more feminine color in the space. So at the last-minute I decided to get all crazy and order the coral chevron fabric.
The fabric came from Texas Susannie’s, an online shop that was recommended by a few readers and had the best pricing I could find. The fabric is a heavier weight, so I think it will work well for the wardrobe curtains. Curious to see how it would match with the wall color, I took it out of the packaging and awkwardly hoisted it up over the wardrobe.
I held my breath as I stepped back to evaluate, but y’know…I actually really like it. It’s fun and girly but also modern and hey – there is a PATTERN in our house. This is progress!
About 20 minutes later, as Kyle was coming up from the basement I called him in for his opinion. His response: “oh yeah, already saw your tweet”. Trumped by social media yet again!
After the mutual thumbs-up, I cut the fabric into 3 equal lengths then washed and dried it to take care of any unwanted shrinkage. Next weekend, I sew. (I purchased an IKEA KVARTAL curtain track and coordinating RIKTIG gathering tape that will be sewn to the top of the curtain panels.)
For the roman shades, I bought some dark blue-gray felt, but wasn’t really feeling it. On my trip to IKEA last weekend, I picked up some simple blue-gray curtains that are a nearly perfect match to the wall color. I’ve got some ideas on how I can convert them to roman shades, possibly using the same hardware from our IKEA shades that we bought 8 years ago.
Before the big concrete pour last weekend, I drove down to South Seattle to pick up the glider and ottoman (which we ordered through Land of Nod). We went with the charcoal color which I thought might clash with the walls but now think it works just fine. The chair is really comfortable and I’m glad Kyle talked me into the matching ottoman (which also glides). In fact, I’ve already spent a few early mornings in that chair, thinking about how our lives are going to change in just 8 short weeks (+/-)…and wondering if we are really going to finish all these projects in time.
The floor lamp is IKEA (purchased last year), but previously had a larger diameter brown shade. I wanted something visually lighter so picked up this one at my favorite Swedish superstore. It’s a bit smaller than the one intended for it, but the scale feels appropriate for the space. The little side table was my very first IKEA purchase (ordered over the phone and shipped freight because the closest IKEA to Oklahoma was in Chicago) and has probably lived in every room of our house by now. It will eventually get replaced with the bench/cubby that Kyle is going to build.
I’ve also been collecting a few things for the walls and future shelving. It may not all make sense just yet…but it will (I hope!). In the realm of “artwork”, we’ve also been talking about framing a few baby photos of us for the space. It’s not the most original idea, but I think it would be fun to see how she resembles us as a newborn and as she gets older.
When Kyle and I were planning our wedding, we had our parents send us baby/kid photos that we used as table centerpieces (after converting them to sepia tone to keep things classy of course) and later put into a photo album for our parents. Since Kyle is only two years older than me and we both grew up in Oklahoma, it was fun to see the parallels in our childhoods and pair similar photos together. For this round, I asked Kyle’s mom to send us some more baby pictures of him. I spent some time this weekend scanning, photoshopping and analyzing. I’m not sure which ones we’ll go with yet, but it’s been fun to imagine what zerbebe will look like:
We both started out as fairly normal looking babies. I think Kyle might be wearing a baby leisure suit here?
As we got a little older our personalities started to come out. (Most of Kyle’s shirt was cropped out of the photo, but I’m guessing it says, “move over world, here I come”. His mom had a good sense of humor.)
People also frequently ask us if we think she’ll be a redhead. I think the chances are pretty slim, especially since I am the only one in my family. Being realistic about genetics and not wanting to get my hopes up, I’ve been imagining that she’d have dark hair like Kyle’s, but now I’m thinking she might start out blond. As for eyes, mine are green and Kyle’s blue so who knows how that will shake out.
Maybe we were typical babies, but we actually seem to have similar features here. Is baby Kyle not the cutest? You want to pinch those little cheeks, don’t you?
I love the foreshadowing in this one – Kyle moving dirt around and me in my “house wrecker” t-shirt (though taken in a completely literal sense of course – as in, actually tearing apart our house).
We also went out in costume from time to time. This is one of my favorite photos of Kyle. Most adorable little brown bear ever.
Finally, we seem to have developed a certain sense of style early on. Kyle in his rainbow belt, me in my patchwork pants.
One thing’s for sure, our kid is going to have some crazy and out-of-control hair. I can’t wait.
basement progress: concrete pour
I really hope this is our last post about concrete.
Yeah, I suppose there’s the initial thrill of the pour (or “placement” if you want to be all technically correct) – working against the clock, crossing your fingers that everything goes according to your carefully laid plan. But really, it’s just a lot of work and it’s messy.
So let’s begin.
We stayed up late on Friday night doing final preparations for our Saturday morning pour. Because we couldn’t waterproof under our existing slab, we opted to put down a plastic vapor barrier between the old and new concrete. Kyle also ran a string line around the perimeter to use as a guide for how far we should pour.
Next, Kyle installed the rebar and welded wire mesh for the bathroom slab, with a series of 2×6 planks to walk across during the pour. (The new concrete in the bedroom was just to level things out and didn’t require reinforcement.) He also made a frame out of pressure-treated lumber to box out around the future bathtub so we’d have some wiggle room with the actual drain installation.
Our friends Chris and Julie offered to help out on Saturday and were at our house at 8:30 a.m. to make the trip to the rental place where we’d be procuring our “mud”. About 30 minutes later, Kyle called to tell me that the rental place had lost power temporarily and thus there was no concrete. So he came home and we waited…for about five hours.
Fortunately for us, Chris was also working on his house that day and was able to shuffle his schedule and come back to help in the afternoon. By 2:00 or so, all systems were a-go.
We rented a metal concrete chute that went from the concrete mixer in the driveway, through the window and down into the basement. We hung the low end with a loop of plumber’s strapping fastened to the joists.
The initial idea was to fill 5-gallon buckets and then transfer them to the two slabs…
In the end though, we reconfigured the chute so it dumped straight into the bedroom slab area and then later repositioned it for the bathroom pour.
We started out with a 3/4 yard of concrete that came pre-mixed in this cute little trailer. There’s a small door at the back that opens up and allows concrete to pass through with a little human guidance from our friend. Once the wet concrete arrived there was no time (or clean enough hands) for photographing, so you’ll just have to pretend. The mix didn’t flow quite how we hoped, so we came up with a method where Chris would push it down about 1/3 of the way with a trenching shovel and then Kyle and I would pull the remainder down the chute before spreading it across the space.
The boys were way too dirty to take photos, but I did manage to snap this one with my iPhone during a quick break (31 weeks!). There was no way I was fitting into my normal paint-splattered work jeans, so out came the ol’ track pants tucked into black rubber boots. Stylish!
After the trailer was empty, Chris and Kyle got to work spreading and leveling out the wet mix and I was able to peel off my gloves and take some action shots.
Wet concrete has to be worked into place and we found that metal rakes were the most effective.
When the concrete was fairly level and even, the boys troweled the mud for a smooth surface. To better distribute their weight and keep from sinking in, they knelt on pieces of leftover rigid foam as they worked their way across the space.
We picked up another 3/8 yard for the bathroom slab and repeated the same process, only this time we relied more on filling and dumping buckets since the chute wasn’t long enough to reach across the basement (no heavy lifting for me, I filled the buckets and Kyle dumped them).
We had a little bit of concrete leftover, so we filled in the area around the sewage ejector pump (the cardboard tube you see below acts as a form that is later removed after the concrete cures).
Done! (This photo was taken Saturday afternoon and by that evening it was cured enough to walk on.)
As Kyle and Chris finished up and returned the equipment, I rinsed all of the tools, buckets, boots and gloves before the concrete had a chance to harden.
So what started out as a morning project turned into an all-day affair but we’re just relieved to be done (and incredibly grateful to have had some help!). Kyle did some framing and picked up more supplies yesterday, but today has been largely unproductive. And we’re ok with that. Next weekend.
file cabinet
With about two months left to bake, I really wasn’t expecting any celebration or big to-do for Mother’s Day this year. I mean, I’m all for thoughtful actions and nice gestures, but I hate the idea of forced consumerism, especially when you’re sorta pushing the bounds of eligibility as it is. So I didn’t bring it up with Kyle but his co-workers and friends certainly did, reminding him that he absolutely had to get something for his baby-mama-to-be.
So, he got me a file cabinet.
Just kidding. He actually got me a gorgeous new orchid for the Boskke planter in the living room (the first one is still alive but just dormant) and a super cute card from Bailey and Felix.
Ok, I was actually only half kidding about the file cabinet. Moping about a dismal experience with Craigslist, I scored this $10 file cabinet a while back after receiving a tip from a reader (thank you!) about the University of Washington’s surplus store. Since then, it’s been hanging out in the carport in various levels of completion, until yesterday when Kyle finished her up and let me loose into organization bliss.
[Apologies for the crappy before photos, apparently I don’t know how to deal with the sun when it makes a surprise visit.] A giant warehouse with all sorts of office supplies, furniture and other random stuff, the surplus store is open every Tuesday afternoon to the public. It’s also not far from my office so for a few weeks in a row I went during lunch to scope things out, crossing my fingers for a sweet deal. While they consistently had 30-40 four-drawer cabinets, the two-drawers were virtually nonexistent. On my third or fourth attempt I finally saw this guy. It was dirty and ugly, but I could tell it was well-made and just needed a little TLC. And for $10 I figured I could always resale it if things didn’t work out between us.
The first thing we did was haul it onto the back deck where we pulled out the drawers and hangers and hosed everything down and removed any stickers or grubby remains.
Next, Kyle transferred it to the carport where he gave it several coats of our favorite automotive primer (the same thing we used for the sliding door track, loft ladder, side table and loft desk brackets). I really did consider doing some type of bright color instead, but we couldn’t agree on anything so safe-gray it was. Whatever, gray is the new black.
The primer (in “hot rod gray”) has a matte surface that is easily scratchable so he used several coats of a clear finish as a final step.
My original intention was for the file cabinet to fit underneath the desktop, but turns out most standard file cabinets are too tall for a 30″ desk height. Doh.
So for now she sits in the corner, all by her lonesome. She looks sexy though, huh?
At first I wanted to paint all the hardware the same gray color, but I now think the original silver color is a nice touch. [The locking mechanism at the top was all mangled so Kyle just took it out.]
I started organizing files back in January when we first had the idea to turn the loft into an office/studio space, so everything was more or less ready for its new home. We’re using the top drawer for personal files and the bottom drawer for house-related paperwork. This is the result of some serious purging and it feels good to finally have everything in one place. [We sold our old (and much larger) IKEA file cabinet on Craigslist in under 30 minutes.] As you can see, the cabinet is incredibly sturdy and doesn’t topple over when the top drawer is fully extended. Always a good thing.
I couldn’t justify buying pretty new files, so I reused ones that we’ve had for years. But don’t kid yourself, I totally made new file tabs. And I didn’t just hand write them. No, no, no – I made a template in InDesign, filled in all the text, printed them on a sheet of 8.5×11 paper and then carefully cut each one using a straight edge and an Exacto knife. Ack! I am such an architect and such a NERD!
The bottom drawer is not as pretty, but holds all of our remodel-related files. [I organized everything into categories like “electrical”, “furnishings”, “plumbing”, “sketches”, etc.] I originally considered putting together a giant homeowner’s manual of sorts, but soon realized that even after purging we had way too much to fit into a 3-ring binder.
So if you’re taking on a full-fledged remodel, I highly recommend some kind of system for organizing all the pamphlets, manuals and info sheets that you’ll inevitably collect along the way. After all, the key to a successful DIY is often directly linked to maintaining sanity (which is directly linked to being able to find stuff when you need it). Words to live by folks, trust me.
And that’s the story of our new file cabinet. The studio loft is now fully functional but will continue to evolve over time and maybe someday it will be accessorized enough for a proper reveal. In fact, as I sit here and type I’m staring at a rectangle on the wall made from blue painter’s tape. Several weeks ago Kyle had the notion to add a window out the gable end (if we did, we’d likely have a peek-a-boo view of the Olympics). It’s low on the priority list, but you know he’s not going to just let the idea go. =)
