curb appeal

so, we've got a few changes to report around here:

we have no kitchen:
Drew and his dad pretty much gutted it, drew ran new plumbing, electric and lighting (recessed!), and then he and our wonderful friend stephany installed drywall. this week d finished painting the walls that won't be covered by cabinets (not a lot of square footage there). The paint is my favorite new dove gray, which is essentially the color of unpainted drywall, so it doesn't look like much of a change in the photos:



drew turned up the original 1915 linoleum when he pulled out the lower cabinets. unsalvageable, but a cool artifact nonetheless, to be revealed the next time the cabinets are pulled out:


the kitchen isn't the only thing missing these days: for a while, we didn't have a front porch. our contractor Majo and his team are replacing the front porch and stairs, and cleaning up the back porch, to enhance the all-important curb appeal:
Since this photo was taken, they've replaced the porch floor, roughed in steps, and started rebuilding the columns. i know, i know - i should take pictures. i figure i guarantee another post, and soon, if I don't, however.

My own personal front porch is looking a bit different now, as well:

time for my quarterly post, apparently

i'm trying to think of really good excuses why i haven't blogged in THREE WHOLE MONTHS, but they just aren't coming. well, maybe we've been a little bit busy?

first, there was christmas, new year's, epiphany, etc. then, my mom came for a fantastic, too-brief visit, and we were too busy skiing, eating, and watching the inauguration.

then, there was hawaii - four days on kauai, including a stay in a treehouse-like cabin up in the hills, and an incredible hike on the na pali coast, where we encountered i guy who'd been hunting overpopulated goats all day with his bow and arrow:

after that, we had a visit from dear san francisco friends - again with the skiing and eating.

and there was this, our gorgeous new downstairs bath, courtesy of one drew derrick (i was no help at all on this project, or any other of late, thanks to a frozen shoulder and other, ahem, developments:

for a moment, i ask you to recall the "before" photos of this space (before we even moved in), and shudder:

and then drew's parents came. you guessed it; more skiing and eating, especially since betsy cooked up a storm the whole time they were here. they left this morning, and we're pretty sure we no longer know how to shop for our groceries, cook our own meals, or do our own laundry. and the house is totally transformed, thanks to their industry - new french doors in the kitchen, lots of installed woodwork and trim, and even a bit of exterior painting. while they were here, we spent a couple of days at a forest service cabin in the shadow of mt. adams, in washington state. it's a 2.5 mile ski in to this rustic little place with propane lights and no running water. lots of fun topography to explore, including a series of collapsed lava tubes and ice caves. a highlight was discovering just how much huck enjoys woodstoves. he'd literally stand with his head nearly IN the stove, until his eyes must have felt like raisins and he was too hot to touch. heaven for a skinny guy like him, i guess.

now we've got no more (planned) visitors, and we're on to one of our biggest and most exciting projects, the complete overhaul of the kitchen. no big whup.

we've had quite a bit of this this week:

now going on day four of being at home, inside, staying warm and catching up on things i can't believe i thought i'd get done WITHOUT three snow days off from work. like actually wrapping presents.

i've also been living it up in our fantastic, loft-like master bedroom, where we're finally sleeping. Pictures can't really do it justice.

We'd been in there three nights before I decided the sitting room needed more accessorizing - enter a new rug and lamps, and a new layout. Still a work in progress, but what a lovely change from dingy downstairs.

just when we thought we hadn't really come very far

i uploaded some photos tonight of our newly installed stair railings, tagging them "stairs" in our photo gallery. turns out we had a few other photos tagged "stairs." to wit:


whoa. what a trip down memory lane. we've come a long way, baby.
now, thanks to this:

and this:

and a lot of this:

plus a lot of staining (steep learning curve there), we have THESE (please supply your own drumroll):

not too shabby, right? just wait until my next trip-down-memory-lane post, featuring scenes from before we moved in. wow.

blogging on demand

our *ahem* readership has become rather vocal of late about the lack of progress on the blog. rest assured, we here at Casa Chaos have become similarly vocal about the lack of progress on the master suite. actually, there's been plenty of progress, but also enough setbacks to be disheartening. to wit:

1. drew finished installing the shower, only to be told by the plumbing inspector that he needed to add a tempering valve. this valve leaks. of course.


2. we painted the floors white, only to have them destroyed by the ongoing construction process - and my inability to understand the utility of dropcloths when i'm...


3. ...busy painting several coats of the wrong color paint on three separate doors and three windows.

all of this sounds more dreary than it really is, and so i bring you the latest in master bedroom chic:

the stairs, complete with treads (yet to be stained). drew and his coworker peter, who is an incredible woodworker, spent the last two days building the bottom two steps, which are rounded at one end. a really involved process involving, apparently, every tool ever invented.

the stained glass drew's mom gave me for christmas last year. how gorgeous are these? and how did i think i would want to leave those panels behind when we sell the house?

another view, from inside the bathroom.

the aforementioned "white" floors. with a couple more coats, they should look grand.

drew's closet (right) and the future built-in bookshelf (left) in the bedroom proper.

my closet (right) and the linen clost (left), now featuring doors painted the correct color.

the sitting room, seen from the bedroom.

yes, floors are exciting

some progress here: we've finished all the painting upstairs and drew has relaid all of the softwood flooring that was originally in the space. because of the new space created by the dormers, we had to go to the salvage center to get about 200 linear feet of additional flooring, and we'll lay carpet tiles in the [gloriously large] master closet.

view from the master bedroom into the sitting room

view from the stairs through the sitting room to the master BR. the stairwell and sitting room are a pale gray-green; the bedroom is a deeper pale gray-blue.

another view from the stairs through the sitting room to the master BR

the wood floor itself will eventually be painted glossy white, so it looks somewhat less rustic (read: beaten up). then, we trim out the space and the stairs and it's on to THE KITCHEN!

should be painting, not blogging about painting

we're leaving in three days for spain and this is what the "master suite" looks like:

note lack of viable flooring and other amenities, like doors. we were supposed to be done with this phase pre-spain, but my back and time were not interested in collaborating. also, i'm not so sure about the color(s), but we're not going back now. the floors will be painted a glossy white....

in other news, it will be three years tomorrow since this:

it's totally hackneyed, but three years really do fly when you get to spend every day with your best friend. here's to us, love.