CHEZERBEY

nubbly shag

I’ve been coveting the Coqo rug from Anthropologie for some time now (see it in this post from last June) but sadly, they no longer carry it in yellow. Crossing my fingers that it was just a temporary shortage, I waited patiently but to no avail. My eyes then strayed to this Angela Adams design, but too expensive. I also considered this fun geometric option from DwellStudio, but with so many flat surfaces in the house, we wanted something with a bit more texture.

Then, some friends of ours came across this great deal on a wool shag rug and we were overcome with textile envy! So we bought one too. (Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?) The 5×8 rug is from Overstock and at $240 it’s about half the price we’ve seen at other stores (it also comes in 8×10 and other colors). The color isn’t exactly yellow…but it definitely has a tan to ochre feel depending on the light.  Plus, since we might do some crazy colors with the barn doors, we thought it was ok to tone back on the rug. 

We’re loving the nubbly texture – it’s like a foot massage just walking on it.

Even if the coffee table does cover a large portion of it, it really does help to differentiate the “living area” from the rest of the space.

So much for trying to get Bailey to pose with the new rug. [FYI, I was warned in the Overstock reviews, but this rug does shed for the first several weeks. For better or worse, the fibers look exactly like Bailey’s fur. Awesome.]

[P.S. – in other floor covering news, the loft is getting Flor’d…more soon!]

02.02.11

The content of this post is so random that I couldn’t think of a good title. It’s been a busy week and we have done absolutely nothing on the house. In fact, we’re taking a hiatus from working on weeknights – let’s call it a return to normalcy.

Here’s what we have been doing/thinking:

1. I recently started blogging over at Apartment Therapy’s Re-Nest! Over the last several years I’ve been focusing more and more on the intersection of sustainability and residential design and I’m really excited to be sharing ideas and info on Re-Nest. I’ll be writing about chezerbey from time to time and when I do, I’ll be sure to let you know. Today I posted about the Rolling Huts – the tiny cabins in Eastern Washington where we stayed last weekend. Not only do I think they’re smokin’ hot (the materials, the composition!), but I love that the design is based on a creative solution to meet a zoning code requirement (hint: the site is zoned for an RV park).

And if you’re in the market for a small, energy-efficient refrigerator, there’s a post for that too. (I even compiled the kWh/year usage!)

One thing we have accomplished this week – the completion of Mad Men: Season 3 (OMG that finale!). As mentioned in an older post, we’re totally coveting the show’s full height doors in muted blues and teals. In fact, it got us thinking about our barn doors…

We thought we’d start with a legit source – the above colors are part of the Herman Miller Eames line. They seem a little brighter on-screen than in real life, but we’re thinking that the barn doors could be a good way to add color without a long-term commitment (i.e. – we could always repaint them). We haven’t decided if all of the doors should be the same color or if we should vary them. We’re guessing it will have to be a “try it and see” process. Oh, and the barn doors themselves? Well, we completely redesigned them. Again. (Design is definitely a non-linear process!) But that’s another post, a post that will likely include the word “saga” in the title.

Last but not least, Seattle is wooing us with more free trees. And this time, they’re not just going to gift us the tree, but they’re going to plant it, water it and prune it! On Monday, we came home to a flag in our yard and the below flyer on our door. Turns out, Seattle is targeting certain sections of neighborhoods that are a little, “sparse” when it comes to street trees. Homeowners have always been allowed to plant in the strip between the sidewalk and street (which is outside the property line), so long as the trees weren’t too big or crazy.  And since we have a proven track record when it comes to plant life, we’re happy to let someone else do the job. So now we just have to decide what we want. We can pick from the four listed below (we only get one tree since we already have a Dogwood on the other side). We’re leaning towards the Serviceberry, but the polls are still open.

Really, I think the city is just tempting us to start landscaping our front yard. (Nice touch with the randomly placed purple butterfly by the way.) So what are you guys working on? Are we the only ones not surrounded in two feet of snow? I can’t believe how much snow Oklahoma got…that never happened the 24 years I lived there.

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.