light and bright (and very white)

We're not quite settled enough for a full on tour of our new digs, but I though I'd share a few photos of the main living spaces with you. They are my favorite rooms in the house and the only ones that are looking semi-close to "done". Not that they, or any room that we inhabit, ever, will be done, we're strange like that. But these are at least getting there.

The house was built in the early 1920's and thankfully, mercifully, people have left it pretty well alone in the almost 100 years since. Other than new windows, which aren't as pretty as the original ones but have the benefit of opening rather than being painted shut (which is inevitable on old houses with original windows), slightly boring but not out of place kitchen cabinets and a truly ugly yellow 1970's bathroom vanity, most of the details and fixtures are there.

Ironically, Will and I have spent the past two years shifting our furniture away from "it looks good in a bungalow" and toward "Mid Century/Scandinavian/Vermont Farmhouse". I keep wishing we hadn't gotten rid of our little leather love seat or the comfy, ratty armchair that I recovered in orange. They both would have looked good in this house. And we could have used them to pad out the (HUGE!) living room, which clearly needs more...something. Another couch? Two more chairs? We're not sure. But something. Actually we need chairs all over the house. I'm not sure how we ended up short of seating in just about every room, but we did. I have a list in my bag just in case I come across something at a vintage store or garage sale. Tall stool, dining room chairs, armchair for the bedroom, desk chair for the hall, couch for the living room, chair for Evie's desk, bench for the bathroom....See what I mean? Chairs, we need chairs!

And color. The house is white. Oh so white. White EVERYWHERE. Every single surface except the wood floors...white. Even the outside. I think they bough paint in bulk and went to town. I actually like white and thankfully I like this white, but it might be a little too much white. We're debating between just adding colorful things to the house and painting, just a few rooms, just so the white isn't so...everywhere. On the upside the house is bright and light and even on cloudy days (of which there are and will be many, this is Portland after all) it doesn't feel dark, which is a big plus.

But all that aside, we're enjoying the new house. It's silly and ridiculous but I get a little buzz of happiness just looking at bungalow rooms that I don't get with anything else. I'm a sucker for a good built in glass fronted bookshelf and picture rails, what can I say?

busy bees

Oh we've been busy bees here in the cold cold Northeast. Working away on the house here and there. It's funny, I've lived with crazy paint patches and broken lights for over a year but it's so much better with them fixed!

The new room, apart from the insulation that will go in once its above freezing again (And when will that be? Not today, the HIGH today is -5) is done. Pretty and bright and a studio for me! It's still a little cold unless we have one of our little heaters in there, but it's lovely to have a space for yarn and sewing and a table for cutting fabric. Heaven. I need to hang some art and put my antique quilt rack together with some of our quilts to soften it up a little more and bring in my jars of buttons and knitting needles and things like that, but it makes me happy just to see it done at last!

Outside we took advantage on one warm day and stained the new shingles. It's hard to match aged stain but it's close enough. There are still a few more spots to patch up, columns to wrap with wood, trim to be added, but the house looks almost done out there in the snow.

We're toying with painting the kitchen cabinets, wood floor, wood countertop and wood cabinets have always seemed a little too much to me, but choosing the right paint color has been a challange. And we're trying to get all the little project ends that have sat unfinished done before we embark on a new one.

I'm ready for it to warm up a little. This winter has been so much colder than last. Too many days below zero. Too many days below -10. At least it give me the excuse to sit and knit by the fire!

stick season

When I was little, probably not much older than Evie is now, I wrote an essay or a poem or a story on Seattle. I remember this because in my poem/story/essay I said that Seattle had only one season, gray, and someone told me that that wasn't a very nice thing to say. I wasn't trying to be rude, it was more of  a poetic observation. I'd only been to the city a few times and it had always seemed gray when we were visiting. I thought it was kind of romantic, to be honest.

It's not true, of course. Seattle, and Portland do not have one season. They have two. Raining, and Not Raining. The Not Raining season being so spectacular that it makes up for the much longer Raining season. And thank goodness.

Vermont is the complete opposite. Instead of two season, or four, we have six. And I'm pretty sure that anyone who live here, or in New Hampshire, and probably Maine and parts of Massachutses and New York, would agree. We have summer and spring and winter and fall, and then we have two more - mud season and stick season. They are the inbetween season. The not quite one and not quite the other seasons. Mud season streches for the weeks when the snow has gone but spring has not quite sprung. And stick season, where we are now, falls after the leaves but before the snow.

Sometimes I think they are trail run seasons. Nature saying "Are you ready? Are you? You don't seem quite ready, how about a few days of frigid weather and then a few balmy ones to kick you into action on all those winter chores." And so we do. Chop a little more wood, clean up fallen trees after a storm, stuff steel wool and then insulation into crevices to keep the mice and the wind out. And then sit around the woodstove and enjoy the stark light and the snugly animals and children.

In the cold and wind this weekend we finished shingling the new room. Stiff fingers dropping nails all over the place, dashing inside for tea and to warm up by the fire before heading out again. There is still more to do, finishing touches. Paint and stain, if we get a few more warm days, trim and edging along the porch, drywall tape and mud and paint on the inside. But the big job is done. I think it makes the house look more balanced, as though it was always meant to be this way.

We still have a few more weekends, probably, to finish up the out of doors work before we move in and switch modes to winter. There are places that still need insulation, and more down logs after a big storm that need to be cleared. And the chickens need to be moved and the bees need to be wrapped to give them their best chance of survival over the winter.

The cold is coming. Although I enjoy stick season, enjoy spotting houses and views that are hidden when the trees are leafed out, I'm looking forward to the snow. But not yet. I'm not quite ready yet.

demo

So this happened this weekend.

Actually, It happened last weekend, this weekend we just made it worse.
Demolition.

Renovating our house is, obviously, something of a hobby of ours. And I love it when a space turns out just the way we planned it but this, this is not my favorite part. This was the sunroom. Which, in the year and a bit that we've lived here has gotten zero use. It's too big and too uninsulated and too, I don't know, superfluous. So it's being turned into a smaller more outsidish porch and a much needed guest room/craft room off the living room. Smaller, insulated windows. Thick, insulated walls (can you tell I'm really into insulation? Yeah, remember when it was negative 24 here? It's all about insulation)

We are aiming for two weeks to completion. Which is totally crazy and probably unattainable but we will try. For now we are stepping over the piles and shifting tools here and there and generally living amidst the chaos. Ah renovation. My old friend.

how to paint stripy steps without loosing your marbles: a tutorial

It's been a long time since I've written a tutorial. Not because we haven't been up to lots of things around the house but, well, they haven't been very tutorial worthy. What can I say about a wallpapered piece of plywood other than, um, wallpaper a piece of plywood? For the most part our projects these days involve either planting veggies or flowers in the yard or painting. We're on our second round of painting. In theory, all the rooms that didn't get painted last fall will get paint now. Except for Briton's room. Which we are not allowed to change. Whatever. If he likes half painted walls and a rug over plywood, so be it.

But the stairs. They took some serious thinking and planning. So I thought I'd share. Plus I love them. It makes me smile every time I look at them.

Our stairs are, barring the you may not change this floor in Briton's room, the only raw floors left after the great carpet removal of last August. The living room floor is painted, awaiting hardwood flooring someday, and the upstairs is bamboo floored. But the stairs were a little bit of a problem. At some point we'd like to put new treads in. Nice, solid hardwood ones that will match out kitchen floors. Except man, treads are expensive. Plus since the rise of the steps is also rough plywood, that will have to be replaced as well. Which makes it a big, expensive project. And not really one at the top of the priority list. I've had this stripy steps idea in my head almost since we moved in and the plan has gone through lots of possibilities. Carpet? Too expensive. And also too hard to find in stripes we liked. And also I hate carpet. Canvas runner? Too trippy. I can just see one or all of us falling down the steps when it gets worn and baggy. I almost went with the kind of tape they use on gym floors. Bright, colorful and practically permanent, but in the end, paint seemed the easiest option. And as a result of our many, many painting projects, and painting ideas, we had lots of little cans of different paint colors. Blue from the kitchen, pink that almost was in Evie's room, yellow from the bench, green from, actually, I have no idea where that green came from.

The big challenge, however, is how to get nice, neat, straight lines without going nuts. As it turns out, it's not as hard as it looks but I'll warns you, it is tedious. This is not a one day project. There is much sitting around waiting for things to dry, and then adding another coat, and then waiting some more. But that's good, Because while one stripe is drying you can still walk on the other parts of the steps. Which, unless you have two sets of stairs in your house or you don't need to get up them, is necessary.

So, here's how you do it.

First paint the edges of the steps with your base color. I used the white trim paint we are using all over the house. Sebring White from Benjamin Moore if anyone is interested. It's our go-to white for flat and glossy paints. I decided that I wanted the border to fall 8 inches from each side of the steps and used a ruler to mark that out, then painted about an inch over that mark. After the third coat had dried, it was time for.....another coat. Except this one is special and it's the secret to really neat and clean stripes (I wish I'd figured this out long ago)

Using regular masking tape, no need for the fancy painters tape here, I taped off the line at the 8-inch mark and then painted over the tape with the white. Why? Well, if you've ever tried to use tape to make a perfect line you know that, inevitably, no matter how much you smooth it down, paint is going to leak under. By painting the stripe line first with the white the paint that leaked under is the same as the base and the tape line is sealed in. Once the white was dry I added yellow on one side and dark blue on the other, painting out, again, slightly further than I wanted that particular stripe to go.(It's easier to see on the yellow, but obviously I did the white first)

Again with the paint several coats, tape, paint another coat (hint, don't just paint on the raw side of the tape, otherwise you'll have a weird line in the middle of your stripe and have to go back and touch it up. Lesson learned) then add a new color, until you've filled the space.
There is a lot of dry time needed here but since I chose not to use floor paint (too expensive, takes too long to dry and, in our experience, didn't hold up any better than trim paint) it wasn't too painful. I will recommend shutting your animals in a bedroom or outside each and every time you start to paint and leaving them there till that stripe is dry. Unless you want little yellow kitty footprints on your kitchen floor.

Just sayin.

A little note on cleaning. Because we've lived with painted plywood floors for almost a year now, I've had plenty of time to try out different cleaning methods and have finally struck on something that works. Most of the time my painted floors just get a good sweep and vacuum and then a once over with a Bona mop and wood floor cleaner. But about every three weeks I use a long handled bristle brush and give it a scrub with a mixture of hot water and just a little washing soda. Just a little. Otherwise there is a white film when it dries. I use an old pan and put about a teaspoon of soda in with the water. I follow up with a dry towel to wipe up the water (no standing water on wood floors!) and the floors look almost new. Since the part of the stairs people tend to walk on are stripy and not white, the steps stay pretty clean and have, so far, just needed sweeping.

So there you go. Stripy steps. Not the craziest thing we've done. Probably not even in the top ten (not even close to the time we took a bus and then a train and then another bus to that sketchy IKEA in London when Briton was a toddler. Geesh that was one long, slightly frightening day. )

sun on wood

Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to have floors? Well if I haven't, it is. Wonderful. And much softer on the feet. Everyone seems to agree. It's all done now other than a teeny little troublesome narrow piece at the back of Will's closet which will get done, well, maybe never, but you can't really see it anyway. Ahhhh.

And now... I think it's time to paint the stairs.

the kitchen now

The kitchen is...not done. But it's made some serious progress since we moved in almost 9 months ago, when it looked like this.

There are still so many things to do. New counter top on one side, new drawer and cabinet fronts (or painting the existing ones), a new sink and appliances (oh please, please manky refrigerator, last until we can replace you!) But of course, it can't come all at once. Set aside the cost issues and the fact that we have a long list of other, more pressing projects to do around the house and we still have the little thing of needing to cook two or three meals a day for two hungry kids to work around. But slowly and surly, a little bit by a little bit, it's getting there. This weekend it was new lights, last week we started replacing the handles and pulls, a few weeks ago it was tile (still to be completed once we find the perfect pencil tile trim for the corners). It's coming. And it's so much nicer, half finished though it is. The walls are brighter. The lights are brighter! The open shelves are easier to use than the shallower cupboard. The pantry is full of mouse proof jars. It's spiffed up and a little more modern without being hard and cold, at least it seems that way to us. But mostly it just feels better. Feels more us.

floors (at last!)

After seven months (seven months!) of plywood floors (and one with nasty smelly carpet) covering most of the house, we are finally finally finally walking on lovely smooth new floors. At least upstairs. In the den. Because the bedrooms aren't done yet.

But still!

Floors!

Downstairs we're still rocking the painted and sanded plywood. Which is fine. We've got all sorts of decisions to make (new woodstove or old, new wall heater or radiant flooring, what kind of hearth, what size of hearth....my head spins just thinking about it) before we can pick out and install flooring downstairs. Plus the sanding and painting of the downstairs plywood made it relatively smooth and presentable. But the upstairs plywood, blarg.

Halfway through installing it we looked around and realized that it's so shiny and smooth and new that it almost looks...fake. Or maybe it's just that in all the places and houses and lived in we've never had new flooring. Ever. Ever, ever. We've refinished old floors and lived with truly decrepit ones and even had nicely kept up old floors, but never had new ones. And it's really, really nice.

We've still got two more rooms to do and then the stairs before we're finished but I keep finding myself wanting to hangout up there in the den so I can just smile at them. Ahhh. One project (almost) down. Only...um... right, too many to count really, to go. Small victories though. Yes?

hang dry

When we lived in Ireland, one of my friends lived in a classic straight up and down Georgian town house that I loved, especially since we lived in about half a floor of a similarly sized building. Besides being pretty jealous of her large kitchen, and gigantic bathtub (truly, her bathroom was bigger than our bedroom) I was completely envious of her airing cupboard.

To be honest, I didn't know what an airing cupboard was before we moved there, but once I discovered it, and especially since we had a teeny tiny washer/dryer combo that didn't do much along the drying lines, I really would have loved one. And I've been wishing I had one ever since. And airing cupboard is basically just a cupboard for your water heater or boiler that also has shelves for storing towels and sheets near the warmth to keep them dry. But, at least for my friend, it was also where she hung dry clothes. And that, that is what I want. A nice warm place to hang up all those clothes that we don't like to put in the dryer.

When I went to re-sort our linen closet this fall, I realized that our linen closet is piping hot anytime the fire is going and warm most of the time that it isn't, and I've been meaning to figure out some way to harness this and rig up my own airing cupboard. Eventually I'd like to put some slated shelves in there, but for now, I rigged up a closet rod to hang things from while they dry. And after a little test run last night with some wet laundry which was nice and dry by this morning, I think I've got it. Yay!

And yes, those are our lovely plywood floors. One of these days they'll be gone. (Please please not too long!)