Friday 25 October 2013

Opinion Poll: Library

While we complete the drywall, still chuckin' around the wallpaper schematic... and running out of time to order & install! Feelin' the white rabbit vibe over here. Needless to say, we've gone from black to blue to orange with our colourway... a little throwback from the audience would be helpful. What say you? A stunner with rich orange wallpaper (Pomegranate), or the adorable Abigail Edwards black & white with the orange punch of colour in a rug? #firstworldproblems
Pomegranate
Winter
Elements to consider:
Dining Room is white on white w teak & lucite bling, cowhide & natural fibres... with the serious consideration of Emerald velvet curtains (but these are not visible from the Library).
Bookcases are white with medium-dark grey backboard.
Hardwood is an expresso stained Bamboo.

What else is kickin' in the digs? Well... Plumber gave our house an ill-bill, so we're replacing our stack & moving our water meter (while installing the expansion tank) + the usual waiting and flakiness of trades-folk in this Boomtown. So, we're busy waiting and agonizing over Library wallpaper as we drywall :P

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Phase III. Family Bath.b.

Since we did more ripping apart of ye ole Humpty Dumpty House this past year (year 2!!!) than putting back together again, we are down to one bathroom for the three of us for a while. Yay.

Bustin' ass here working on getting this guy up & running b4 the Winter break...
at the same time as this guy...
and a little of this.
Ambitious? Of course.
Aim high.

We'd like to thank our friends, for allowing us the space/time to be completely head-embedded-up-ass involved with House and still be our friends. We know we've neglected you for the sing of the tile saw, flaked out for Roxul insulation installation, and out our own painting as priority instead for helping you with yours... we're selfish pricks. Thanks for being our pals anyway. <3

Next Up:
Plumbing. Plumbing also going into the Basement @ the same time (no progress pics of that folks... still looks like a Dead Zone). 

We chosen some interesting options for the bath... used to be that "interesting" yielded kickass innovative results, but confidence is shaky after 2 years non-stop snot-dripping ugly-bawling House renovations (not gonna lie, us poor saps need a capital H-holiday). 

Bath/Shower: modern style tub with side-mount faucet & shower-ring. We've done the whole shower-ring with a clawfoot thing, and despite being mildly cumbersome it's worth the vintage-feel (and style over those awful plastic surround-shower inserts any day). Will it pull-off the kickass vibe without the essential vintage element of the clawfoot tub though? We'll see...

Walls: 3/4 wainscoting. We have plotted to overrun this house with wainscoting. Will the added character make up for painting out all the original woodwork for you folk who wagged your finger @ us? Honestly... in another 5 years, when the bulk of the work is complete and the level of awesome blows your mind, let us have another little conversation about that, shal we? Mmmmmkay ;)

Lighting: Still sussing it out... but bustin' brains o'er here to do that fast (need the electrical in b4 walls go up!). Droolworthy lighting link.

Heated towel Bar: because we are little pussycats and like a warm towel in the winter. It's the little things. If it was new-build, we'd heat the floors. It gets cold way up here, folks.

So... pulling it all together? Only one way to find out. Giddyup.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Phase III: Exterior.b./Front Porch


Exterior painted. BOOM.

Ignore the rough&tumble state of our yard... we were kinda busy.

Snooty McSnooters may not like the colours, but we are over the moon. More importantly, we are rockin' it. Boohyeah. So y'all who hate it, you need to travel more. We don't care how much you have travelled, you obviously haven't travelled enough.

This was an experience. Not only did we do all the scraping & painting by hand (the condition of the cedar siding was delicate enough to not be accessible with electric scraping or paint spraying), but we were essentially on display. Lots of staring. Lots of commentary. Lots of compliments & encouragement. Lots of meeting our more further-radius neighbours. Didn't expect that, and it was good.

the FRONT PORCH:
On the wind of inspirations, we painted it to co-exist with the Exterior palette (in olive & lime green + white), creating a breezy feeling to the space and blurring the lines between interior/exterior.
Currently housing shoes & such outdoorsy things front porches ought to do, it will probably suffer through several incarnations of furniture & placements at whim.

Features include:
A new ceramic-tile floor that was interesting to install. We used an orange dimplex over the subfloor and a silicone grout to assure the ceramic tile would be durable over the freeze-thaw climate here in SK (otherwise, ceramic tile & normal grouts will crack/break due to the temperature changes). The tile is meant to mimic the look of hardwood... pulling the dark-brown decking through into the space (furthering the exterior/interior breezeway) and in the future will pull the eye through to the dark hardwood interior flooring. Noice.
Mid-Century dresser holds some bits/bobs (reuseable grocery bags, sunglasses. etc.), but functions as a freezer in winter. Oh winter... *le sigh*.

Still deciding on a light fixture... need to find some other pieces to give this space character: an old creamer for umbrellas, a fantastic chair (or dreaming BIG: a MCM bench) and whatnot.


Next Up:
Completing the front facade: next summer (fingers crossed!)
That monumental task includes: exterior lights, side-entrance facade, tons of mulch to replace the grass, and new border wall (current wall fondly referred to as the "seagull shit" wall... apparently-as told by our neighbour Dave-this was a common technique a previous resident of 619 brought over from her home in Wales. Mmmmmkay whatevs... it's fugly & gotta go).

Then... plans for next year.

We've soared through our 2nd summer here, and are ready to dip into debt (uncomfortable territory! eeep! but thought we might join the club) to get the GARDEN in for next year... and start producing our own foods again. It.is.time.
Chickens? Where do we put the mushroom-logs? The compost bins? The bees? Many very exiting questions are beginning to be allowed to surface as we have gained some serious confidence in completing the monumental task of painting our Exterior, because it was crazy difficult, but we did it. Gold star right here.