CHEZERBEY

birds on a wire

Although we finished the bedroom and bathroom nearly a year ago, we had yet to add any type of artwork or decoration. This was partly a factor of time, but we were also stumped as to what should go in the spaces.  We’ve also found that it’s hard to add finishing touches when other areas of the house still need so much help (yellow laminate with gold flecks, I’m talking to you). However, in a recent spurt of creativity and a desire to fully complete a couple of rooms we have undertaken not one but two art projects. First up, the bedroom.

We liked some of the black bird silhouette wall stickers that we’ve seen around (birds on a wire, birds on twigs, etc.), but soon discovered that we weren’t too crazy about the $100+ price tag. So, we decided to DIY it. We started thinking about alternatives and last weekend I went to a local craft/fabric store and came back with some dark brown felt and jute twine for a hefty $6.

The twine would serve as the “wires”. We used our trusty laser level to ensure everything would be straight.

We fastened the twine with nails at the corners and ends and used small silver pins at intervals in between.

We then made bird silhouette templates and traced them on to dark brown felt. [This shot was taken while standing in the kitchen, so we made sure that the birds would be visible from outside the bedroom.]

The birds adhere to the wall with just the smallest amount of double stick tape, so they can be moved around without damaging the paint.

The “wires” on the left side of the room extend out and up as in a perspective drawing.

We chose to end the twine at the window edge, knotting the ends so they wouldn’t unravel.

Composition is everything after all – we placed the main pair of birds at a third point along the headboard wall.

An older image of the wardrobe as a reminder of what happens on the other side of the room.

We also thought the birds would complement our “thicket” duvet cover. We think these details add a softness and texture to the space without being too feminine.

We’re still tweaking the final placement, but we’re happy with the way it turned out. We cut all four birds from one sheet of felt so all in all the project was about $3 worth of materials!

This week we hope to finish up the bathroom art project. Stay tuned…

kitchen design

There is nothing quite like the construction phase of a project. Spaces are either created or revitalized and it changes how you go about your daily life. [We still get excited pulling into the driveway and seeing the revamped exterior.] However, after a long stretch of construction work, there is nothing quite like going back to the drawing board. Literally.

Design is fun, especially when you are both architects and it’s your own home. And designing one’s kitchen is perhaps one of the most complex and interesting challenges of a remodel. During our initial design phase, we allocated about a 10′ x 11′ space for the kitchen. To maximize efficiency and connection to a larger great room, we chose an L-shaped layout with a center island. It was also important to maintain a visual connection to the backyard. Because of budget constraints, we are considering using IKEA for most of the cabinets. Right now, we’re looking at the ABSTRAKT line which comes in a few high gloss finishes [modern aesthetic and easy to clean!]. After deciding on the basic configurations, we went to work determining where everything would go and that things we used on a daily basis would be within easy reach. [click on images to enlarge]

 

Here’s a reminder of what the plan view will look like.  Because it will be open to the rest of the house, it is important to make sure that everything has its own spot and therefore reduce the amount of countertop clutter. We also want the space to be very functional and durable. The jury is still out on the cork flooring but we certainly love the feeling underfoot as well as the color. 

The south wall will be the main storage area. We won’t have the luxury of a walk-in pantry, so we’ll use a pull-out tall cabinet in addition to the storage space in the island for all of our food items.  The pantry cabinet and all the lowers will probably be a high gloss gray-blue finish. The uppers will be a combination of horizontal cabinets with high gloss white doors and open wood shelving for dishes, wine bottles and cookbooks. We’ve been thinking about a steel ledge mounted to the back splash for spices. We’re still undecided on what the back splash should be but are leaning towards some type of solid surface (rather than tile). The dropped beam at the ceiling is needed because this is where the wall between the back porch and current kitchen is. Even though it sacrifices some storage space, we like the idea of not extending the upper cabinets to the ceiling. We feel that this allows the components to read as a cohesive assembly rather than boxes stuck to the wall.

The sink will go in front of the large picture window [installed this summer] and the space below will hold containers for compost, recycling and trash. A lazy susan in the corner will become storage for pots, pans and bowls.

 

The island will serve as a secondary pantry of sorts. One sidewall will have open shelving to hide a microwave and Bailey’s food and water bowls. The bottom left drawer will hold dog food to make feeding time a bit easier and avoid the big plastic container that we currently have. The countertop will be some type of heavy-duty butcher block and will serve as the main work surface. This is something that we definitely do NOT have in our current space.

This project won’t actually happen until next spring, but as we’ve learned, you can never be too prepared. Besides, it gives us something to look forward to as we prepare meals on our 24″x18″ of functional counter space.

We’ll still be working with limited space and a limited budget, but we think the layout will fulfill our main goals and create a functional and playful cooking space. As things progress, we’ll do more posts on specific materials and color palettes.

progress report

I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was daylight savings time, or the rain, or the fact that we’ve spent the last EIGHT months immersed in the exterior project…but we have lost almost all motivation to finish the inside of the front porch. We had set a reasonable goal of completing it by Thanksgiving, but now even that seems unlikely. Even though it’s a small space, we still have to go through all of the same steps, which means a lot of stop.go.stop.go with all the various dry times for spackle, caulk, primer and paint. And there is a lot of trim work to do…which is fussy and not that rewarding. There’s also no looming deadline hanging over our heads. [This time last year, we were frantically trying to finish the bathroom and complete 3 (of 9) architect registration exams before Christmas.]

So we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, let’s see exactly where we’re at in this whole remodel thing.

In the design section we show “before” and “after” floor plans but the reality is, we’re currently somewhere in between the two. So we put together a hybrid set of plans to give an idea of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. [click on images to enlarge.]

 

The first major interior alterations started in 2008. By the end of that year, we had a new bathroom and bedroom. 2009 has been focused mostly on the exterior, though we will [soon] be finishing our mudroom/entry space. We also have a few spaces “in transition”. When the bathroom was moved over, we used part of the old bathroom as a mudroom – or, to be fancy, we also called it the “bathroom ante room” (since you had to go through it to get to the new bathroom). This summer we closed in the back porch and relocated the back door. The old back porch and old bathroom-turned-mudroom now serves as one big mudroom/storage space.

In 2008, we also gutted our basement and created a “short basement” where our crawl space used to be. We also replaced our old tank water heater with a tankless version that is mounted on the outside of the house. The gigantic furnace that used to sit in the middle of the basement was replaced with a new high efficiency gas furnace that fits perfectly in the short basement. Initially, we thought that our small basement would just be for storage, laundry and mechanical equipment, but with a little creative thinking we now we have a virtual clean slate to work with! 

So, everything except the bedroom, bathroom and front porch will be next year’s project. Daunting? Not really. I think we’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons during our previous projects and have also been able to plan ahead. For instance, when the furnace was installed they stubbed out for the new gas range and the duct work and registers were located with the remodel in mind. When we re-did the plumbing we made sure that the new kitchen lines would easily tie in to the existing system and all the windows have been replaced. There will also be a demo party. Oh yes. So hopefully, this time next year we can post a current plan that looks something close to the “future” plan (we probably won’t get to the basement till 2011). Of course, we don’t currently own about half the furniture shown in that plan (we’ve been coveting Eames plywood chairs for the living room), so we may be embracing a very minimalist look for awhile.

Besides finishing the porch (we will, we will!), we’ll be spending the next several months finalizing the details and construction schedule for the next big project. Stay tuned for deep thoughts on kitchen cabinets, flooring options, and lots of sliding doors.

 

things are looking up

The porch ceiling is up! We chose to go with vertical grain fir tongue and groove boards. Now, we’re not typically ones to geek out on grain patterns, but these boards are. gorgeous.  We still need to apply the finish, but wanted to get them up so we could continue trimming out the rest of the space.

Kyle uses a crowbar and wood block to cinch up the boards, then blind nails them in place.

The old porch had a dropped ceiling, so next we need to go in and add the missing siding at the gable end and install the light.

The new light matches the one on the exterior, and we’ve ordered a frosted glass globe to replace the clear one for more diffuse light.

We finished this just in time for our trick-or-treaters on Saturday. (Interestingly enough, we did get more kids this year. Maybe the house was too scary in years past? Or maybe they just assumed we’d have lame candy?)

We’ve also officially entered the dark season here in Seattle, which means the sun has already gone down by the time we get home in the evenings and motivation is hard to come by. We have a loose goal to have the porch done by Thanksgiving, so the next few weeks will entail a lot of trimming, spackling, priming and painting. But at least we’ll be indoors, with artificial light.

 

 

special feature

Check it…the chezerbey porch project is a featured story over at houseblogs.net! Houseblogs is an online community of people sharing their own home improvement stories (because really, when you’re not spending time on your own remodel, you might as well read about someone else’s!).

Thanks to the folks at houseblogs for highlighting our blog!