That tree!

Finally, the big tree is down and we can all breathe a sigh of relief and the kids have a new playground.  Now, we wait months until someone has time to remove it from the yard.



 

Through the screen door, a safe distance away

Climbing Heaven

Log Rolling

Happy as a Climbing Clam

If a tree falls in a forest...

This is the story of a very lovely 80 year old maple tree. Loved by many, it spent it's life trapped in this tiny backyard.

 

It provided shade to this fabulous porch.

Unfortunately, due to it's size, I cannot make a photo that illustrates it's grandeur.

The branches were hovering so dangerously close to the power lines, it appears to have been hit by lightning, perhaps many times.  The branches that hung over 3 garages, were split and strung up with tension wires by the previous owner.  It had become a danger to itself and everyone around it.  Sadly, we decided to have it cut down.

 

Over the past 3 weeks, we have watched The Tree Guy slowly whittle this fine mammoth beast down to a few tall stumps.  Complete with fun dangling pieces!  The neighbors loved this part.  Don't get too close... 

 

The wood will thankfully be used by one fabulous woodworker for various projects over the coming years.  There is a ton of beautiful lumber bearing solid mahogany colored centers.  it will make lovely furniture some day.

It's also great for exploration.

 

 And makes creepy sunset images

Now, it sits like this until the The Tree Guy comes back to finish the job.  We will miss this lovely tree, but look forward to having a back yard.

"We go to war with this tile job..."

Trent found himself quoting Donald Rumsfeld during this bathroom rehab, which must mean it went on far too long and started to affect his emotional and mental well-being. 

"As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Donald Rumsfeld

Our second floor bathroom remodel started at the studs, with everything completely gutted, including the window (see "Window of Opportunity").  Many many months later (working off and on), another bathroom install is done for fun at my Mom's house and a multitude of other house projects have been completed. The Master Bath remodel is now nearing completion.  I took the inaugural shower on Sunday and it was amazing.   The Carrera marble tile has so much depth, it's like peering into a cloud. You can't help but feel calm. 



 
Carrera marble tiles in 3" subway & 2x2" hex for the floor from The Tile Shop.  Bancroft toilet and sink by Kohler, Danze shower head and stick wand.  The paint is Sherwin Williams Pro-Mar Zero Voc in Meershaum and Ancestral (Pratt & Lambert deck colors) chosen as to not conflict with all the grays in the tile.

Meerschaum



Ancestral

So, to get back to Rumsfeld. As any weekend home remodeler knows, things happen, measurements get wonky and lighting fixtures might be a little off center. You could even put a hole in the completely wrong place and just decide to leave it there. It's a great conversation starter. Just like the toilet and sink that are currently installed that have a slightly fun house feel to them. They will be the next things to get realigned, but in the meantime, we will be tilting to the right when walking into the bathroom. We're going to war with THIS tile job. It's OK, it took us a long time to get here so we can deal with it. By the time you get here, everything will be just fine. Until your next visit, here's some photos to pique your curiosity.

studs packed with foam insulation, shower pan

just add drywall

stain some cabinets for the basement while you're at it

frame out the window, install shower pan

mmmm...marble tile

make a new wall cabinet

clean it up



some more paint

and it's almost done!

And as far as Donald Rumsfeld goes, I think we will be quoting him again when we begin the kitchen remodel, which is going to be a enormous, looming beast of a project.  Get your demolition pants on! 
"[Osama Bin Laden is] either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive."

Fear This Gardener

Lovely but overgrown

When we first found this house on 49th street, back in April of 2011, it had a bleak looking overgrown tangle of muddy weeds in front. As we visited the house and the previous owner, I watched as the flowers and plants grew and grew, flowering here and there. There were peonies in the late spring, lavender in June and a huge bright pink Easter Lilly in late June. I imagined myself keeping all of these flowering plants, rearranging them and keeping tabs on them.. Learning as much as I could about when things were in bloom and what to trim. 

Vivid Lilies

Fast forward one year and we have a mess of weeds, ground cover that is competing for attention, trees that are falling over with the weight of ill-proportioned branches. It's a nightmare for anyone who wants a simple, organized garden that doesn't require a ton of watering. (I personally feel watering is as bad as taking a too-long shower. Wasteful and decadent, only to be done on hideously hot days in July.)

One single solitary bloom

As I mentally moved all these plants in my planning last week while on vacation (aka working, but at home), I sketched tall plants (waaayyy to many of them) to the back, ground cover to the front and a nice organic flow to the patches of things that I massaged around the yard. After 4 days of digging rooted, overgrown hostas and awful naught ivy, I gave in.

 

 

I am going to remove it and start over. I feel awful.

 

It's a mess

I have grown to love the little blips of blooms that come and go, but they are killing each other! There isn't enough of anything to make sense design-wise and I'm sure the neighbors think I'm crazy for trying to tame the crazy "Victorian" mess.   Were the Victorians insane?

The Charlie Bucket Kitchen

Our basement kitchen has acquired a name and I'm not entirely sure it's a good one. 

While working on the kitchen shelves a few weeks ago, Trent's friend (who will remain nameless for his safety) came over and swiftly determined our temporary kitchen was a little sad.  He called it our Charlie Bucket Kitchen in reference to Willy Wonka's main character Charlie who lives in squalor only to find glorious fortune in the Wonka Chocolate Factory. 

The name stuck.

I'm finding that the more we embrace the Charlie Bucket-ness, the more fun we can have.  It no longer has to be a work of art; this space where we will cook for the period of time while we work on the real kitchen.  The shelves can be a little Wonky and the floor will probably always be dirty and that's OK. 

Basement kitchens were even featured in this month's This Old House Magazine with a story about a couple who are renovating their kitchen with no help from the outside world. They have spent the year cooking out of their basement.  They included a recipe for Toaster Over Beef Wellington, which is right up our alley!

So.  Here it is.  The Charlie Bucket Kitchen. 

Feeling the political energy today

THE toaster oven

It looks better in color, not quite so basement-y

Special spice rack

Fancy dried goods shelves

Blogging is hard

This little foray into the blogosphere was fun when we weren't in the middle of a rehab and a move...now it's just hard. 

Trent and I spend most weeknights planning what we will do on the weekends to complete a project.  Currently, there are several:

Most important is the second floor bathroom.
This is the highly coveted shower pan.  It's really heavy and pretty fancy.  It's big too, takes up most of the room!

What's going on around that pan is the plumbing (new lines for all pipes, made of a completely BPA free material), and new mold resistant wall boards over the blow-in foam insulation.  There's also a built in shower shelf there on the left.   I have zero technical terms right now, but if anyone is interested, I will check and get back to you.

Nice window, huh?  It will be a transom eventually.

When we're not working, we are trying to eek out a little neighborhood fun.  This weekend was the annual WHNA All Neighborhood Rummage Sale.  We set up a lemonade stand with made from scratch lemonade in our Charlie Bucket Basement Kitchen.  (see Willy Wonka for reference)  Nice, rustic fun!

Sophia's new friend Payton selling her heart out

Happy as a Clam with no teeth

7 years of Stuff

It's now May and we have lived at 1732 for almost 3 weeks.  For the last 6 months we have been doing nothing but construction, little moves and preparation yet we are still living in a sea of boxes and repeatedly ask "where is the...?"

But it really pays off when Sophia wakes up happy

in her bright & cheery purple bedroom.

Or can walk herself down to her friend's house to

hang out with them for a solid 5 hours.

Or when it's so quiet that we can hear things

scurrying in the yard.

We're still under construction, and will be for at least 6-8 more months. 

• The final walls and fixtures going up in the second floor bathroom.
• Building a fine looking temporary/canning kitchen.
• Tricking out awesome closets for all of our junk.
• Fixing up the first floor bathroom.
• Ripping out the walls and reconstructing the kitchen.
• Rearranging the "natural" landscaping.
• Painting the first floor.
• Buffing the floors on the first floor (no real sanding, thankfully).
• and about 104 other things.
• whew, that's a lot of things



finishing the canning kitchen cabinets

fabulous use of a weird closet

getting settled



do you see the halo?

 Next up - What's going on with that garden, is something living in there?