New Door, Blue Door

This project was long overdue!  The front door has been sticking out like a sore thumb in the living room.  This weekend we decided to tackle it.  We picked out Sherwin Williams Jetstream...and got the color right on the first try.  I hope that trend continues!

This summer Aaron used wood filler to fill some scratches, to add to the ugliness.  Right before Christmas I sewed a new curtain, the one that came with the house was dirty and cross stitched.

Aaron used an orbital sander for everything but the small curved areas.

Sanded!

I touched up the sanding by hand and then cleaned it.

Then taped the glass and primed it using SW Adhesion Primer.

Ahhh!  It's seriously like a breath of fresh air!

Gross copper doorbell with a bow - you are next!

Love

We finally got some art up in the guest bedroom.  These prints were done by Aaron's sister Anna, each color was screen printed individually and they are gorgeous!  

We got Ikea frames (Ribba) and had mat cut at Affordable Framing - they were fantastic and put it all together perfectly for me - no random dust bits or smudges on the inside!

I'm loving the picture railing too.  It would always take me punching 4 holes in the wall before getting a picture hung in the correct spot.  Now we can move things around whenever we want, wherever we want.

The next thing this room needs are some curtains.  The brown blinds that came with the house are awful.  Then some small lamps and a quilt and it will be done.

San Fran

In September (oops, meant to post this a while back) I flew to SF to visit my good friend Ashlee.  I don't remember many of the details from this trip, but posting something feels better than posting nothing.  I was there for a long weekend, and because she had school on Friday, I spent the day walking around Berkeley where she lives.  

I did some shopping (lots of awesome Buffalo Exchanges!) and walked to the UC Berkeley campus.  I went up into the Campanile, a 307 foot tower housing a full concert carillon.  There are 61 bells, the largest being over 5 tons.  5 tons!  The pictures don't do the size of them justice.  I'm not sure how they even got them up there.  Anyway the cool part is that students learn to play the carillon and do so several times per day.  They played not too long after I was up there, but I was tired and hungry and didn't want to wait.  I did listen while on campus and it sounded beautiful.

The largest bells.

I got lucky, it was an unusually clear day and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The tower from campus.

Day two we walked to the BART station, then went into the city.  This awesome market was on the way.  It had an impressive produce selection.  Potatoes - would you like pink, purple, yellow, white or red?

We started in the Mission to check out the graffiti/murals.  Check out that tooth brush with Ganesh!

Where we went from here exactly is kind of a blur, but I think next we ended up in the Castro?  And somewhere along the way found our way to this cement slide hidden in a neighborhood.  There is a woman who lives next door who frequently comes out to shoo away adults going down the slide.  I was at the top when she came out and didn't know she was there and screamed my way down.  Ah well.  It was surprisingly (scary) steep. 

I don't have many other photos from this day, but we had a fabulous time.  We walked for 10 hours, taking breaks to shop and eat whatever looked good along the way.  Ashlee loves to walk as much as I do, and walk we did.

Our last meal in the city ended up being in China Town.  In a Japanese restaurant.  The kind with the little boats floating by in a tiny lazy river.  We were exhausted by then, and everything was hilarious.  Including the tiny river and the mean Chinese women running the restaurant.

Curious as to if the river had a current, or if the boats were being pulled, Ashlee constructed this teeny paper boat to conduct an experiment.  We were laughing hysterically at our plan and had to wait for just the right time, as we were being watched and the women in the restaurant wouldn't think it was as funny as we did.  Verdict: Current.  And they overcharged us which we didn't figure out until we were a few blocks away.  China Town as a whole?  Not my favorite place.

We stumbled upon Sift.  That whoopie pie was to die for.  The salted caramel rice krispie treat was pretty good too.

Frosting shots?  

My last night we hiked up to a place I can't remember the name of to watch the sun set.  

It was gorgeous.  On the way to the airport we were going to swing by Novella Carpenter's vacant lot in Oakland, buuut we didn't do our research and the address we thought was her house was actually her publisher's address.  Next time...

Color Wheel

Getting ready to paint the front door.  Hopefully it will go smoother than the disastrous fireplace debacle that still needs rectification.  

Clawfoot Tub

We spent this weekend shopping in Portland for house things.  The plan for the downstairs bathroom has always involved a clawfoot tub.  Because it's such a small space, we needed a tiny one.  54 inches to be exact.  Which are harder to come by and always more expensive.  

After seeing what our options were for the last 6 months we purchased this one from Hippo Hardware on Saturday.  We saw it there in December, it was still there this weekend and after all of our research we knew this was a good deal.  We bartered a bit and paying cash helped our cause too.

It is a Sunrise reproduction in excellent condition.  We looked at lots of older tubs, but none were in good shape and a man at Aurora Salvage told us never to refinish the inside of one because it wouldn't last.  Buying one that was already in good shape sounded good to us, and check out those beautiful feet!

After adding up what the components would cost new from Sunrise, we ended up paying a little less than half.  A deal we couldn't pass up!

Springtime Is Knocking on My Door

Oh I have so many things I want to share.  But I've been overwhelmed.  Which leads to no blogging.  The impending spring is STRESSING me out.  It's always a busy time of year, but with all the work on the house I'm feeling anxious about getting the yard drawn up, getting a new fence, moving the bees here before they become active, getting bare root trees in the yard, ideally like this week (except we don't know where they are going, what varieties we are getting or where we are getting them from), getting the raspberries pruned, starting seedlings, putting in raised beds, building bee frames and getting ready for the tiny additions coming in one month!
Even with scaling back my expectations of a garden this year, it still feels like a lot.
I was thinking painting the fireplace would be a quick, satisfying job.  It was neither.  We found a gray we liked for the brick, but painting over the white mantel turned out badly.  I should have known with a paint name like "Raccoon Fur".  Does that not conger up images of a dead, wet raccoon on the side of the road?  The color is actually nice, just not where we put it.  I'm taking a break and waiting for inspiration.
We finished phase II of the electrical work.  The dining and craft rooms still need lights chosen.  Hoping to get up to Portland soon to pick something out.  As Aaron's friend checked out the electrical behind the insulation upstairs (we were not planning on updating this as it was wired in the 70's) and decided we should do it as well.  The wires look like rat's nests.  So that will be the next project.  We moved everything downstairs that we had been storing up there to get ready to pull all the insulation out.  Once that is done we will rewire, reinsulate and sheet rock.  I'm so looking forward to hiring two of those jobs out!  Oh and did I mention Aaron will also be building a rock climbing area in our garage attic?  So many projects, so little time!

Improving

We've been hard at work over here.  Lots of rewiring to get rid of the knob and tube.  We've also added switches and outlets to more convenient places and gotten rid of the ones that didn't make sense. We're turning 2 circuits into 6, which will also be more safe and hopefully help with the flickering lights.  We finished the first circuit no real problems.  The second circuit has proven more difficult with limited access to run wire.  I'm excited to have lights in the kitchen again someday.

A new project means new tools for Aaron, including these extenders for his drill and a Rotozip which I think he is loving.

This little project is up next.  I started cleaning off the soot with soap and water and got quite a bit off, but need to TSP to finish it up for painting.

I painted our bed frame white and decided the night stands needed to be painted too.  My vote was for ombre, but Aaron opted for white.  I'm still leaning towards ombre.  Thoughts?

Yes that lamp needs a new light shade badly...the white is okay.  But I think they need some color.  I do like the crystal knobs however.

Meanwhile we have been plotting for our next big project.  Stay tuned.