Just a little Wordless Wednesday cute...

I'm grateful...

Grateful for the great weather.

Mother Nature finally gave us a weekend worth spending outside. I spent Saturday doing some dog training outside the house and picked up a bunch of paint samples from Lowe's. Today, we chose a few and here's the result:


Of course, the colors don't translate, so it's a little pointless for me to post these pics.

The red on the left is an old color sample. The middle color is somewhat more taupe-- warmer-- than it looks in the picture. The white is perhaps not quite right, but I do like the red:



The color on the right is actually greener than it looks, and I'm not crazy about this red; also, perhaps too dark(?):


What to do? What to do.

He likes it!

He really likes it!

Adam and I both agreed that the top picture (the dark neutral gray/taupe) in our previous post was pretty darn good.

The trick now is finding that actual color in a paint swatch.

And if the weather cooperates this weekend, I can get some samples and make some decisions, buy some paint and submit some receipts to the insurance company.

Here's hoping!

Or...

Maybe something in a warm gray instead of taupe-- something to compliment the gray roof better, or will it just look cold all over...? Or green?

More photoshop!




The light gray does seem a bit too cold (obviously we'd choose a cooler off white for the trim, but still...), but I could live with it, I think...On second thought, I don't think I could.

I really like the green, but Adam has been adamant that the body of the house not be green. I photoshopped it in anyway!

And the dark gray/taupe is really nice, too... The green and dark gray seem the most bungalow-y. So many choices in such a time crunch!

Spring colors

Well, it's crunch time. We basically have to get the house painted this month. We also have to fix the hole in our ceiling.

I'm hoping that the weather will stay nice, but I can't count on it. Considering the weather and our budget, we're leaning toward using Valspar Duramax paint. It's supposed to be good down to 35º, it's acrylic so it's ok for brick, and it's got a fairly quick drying time, so they advertise that it's less likely to be affected by wet weather (within a certain time frame, obviously) or morning dew. We've had such great success with other Valspar paints that I'm willing to give this a shot.

Now. As to color...

Last time I talked about this, we had decided to scrap the idea of a brick color, due to the horrendous tuck-pointing on the front of the house.

We then moved on to this color scheme-- Adam slapped this together (with an old photo that doesn't include our new gable vent) and he is MUCH better at Photoshop than I am:

Basically, a nice taupe on the body, buff on the trim, and the red brick for the eaves.

Now, Adam hasn't seen these offenses to Photoshop that I concocted last night, but they are basically colors that we've discussed...

With a red stripe continuing across the front:


And without:

I'm torn. The taupey/beige and green and red are very Craftsman and earthy and I like them very much. But the taupey/beige and buff is so clean and simple, if a bit boring. Flowers in the spring, summer and fall, and holiday decorations in the winter go a long way to helping with that, so...Admittedly, it was hard to get the right color green and the crispness that it should have since I did such a quick, down and dirty job of mocking it up. At any rate...

I just don't know.

Edit-- clearly needs a richer green...more olive, less mint. But hopefully this is enough to get an idea...So torn.

It's crunch time

Well, it's been almost 2 years since the hail storm. That's how long the insurance company gave us to get things finished. We're still not done, so that means a whirlwind of work should be gearing up!

During the last couple of weekends, Adam has been working on a few things. I did my part today. First of all, Adam cut a threshold for the entrance between the kitchen and laundry rooms. I cannot believe I neglected to get a before picture. The closest thing I can find is this--a blurry crop from an even blurrier photo of the oven:


So Adam built a threshold out of pine:


Simon decided to pose with the wood...

Today, I shellacked it.

It's nothing special, but it'll get the job done until we have the time and money to replace the laundry room floor.

Next, we dealt with the broom closet. Before, it was too short and didn't reach the ceiling.



On one side, we added a little strip of wood:

And Adam put the crown trim back up...however, it doesn't really fit. the ceiling slopes, the closet slopes more, and to top it off, the cabinet also bows out.






It was my job to do a little creative caulking:




The splotches are due to wood filler-- I still have to paint pretty much all the trim in the house, starting with that ugly green door in the threshold pic above.

I also worked on cleaning up the patio in anticipation of nice weather to come. I'm ready to be done with the snow, to be honest. Our last big bout of snow and ice was certainly pretty and gave Adam a chance to use his new camera...



...and the puppies definitely had a great time romping in it.




You may be wondering who the little black and white piebald pup is. Meet Robin:


It's a long story; however, the long and short is, we weren't seeking out another dog, but she is a sweetie and is sticking around. Unfortunately, she went into heat pretty much immediately, so she's been a diaper dog and Simon has been a hot mess. She's only about a year old, and I'd guess this was her first heat. We'll be taking care of that ASAP.

And that's about it. Not much else to report around here. It's a long post, but I'm hopeful that the future holds lots of shorter posts with lots and lots of progress. In the next day or so, I'll post some new ideas for painting the house and soon thereafter, my trials and tribulations trying to match the texture on our ceiling.

Good times.

Washing machine heaven

That's right. All I have to report in house-related news is our great pleasure in using a set of fully functional appliances. It wasn't without hassle, but it's all worked out in the end.

Last time I checked in, we had bought a closeout LG washer and dryer set for $700. They had to be ordered and were to arrive on Thursday. I waited until after the Friday shopping craze to call. Saturday morning, this is how the conversation went:

"Hi, I ordered a washer and dryer and want to know if they are ready for pick up..."

"What's your name?...Oh. The LG front-loaders. [Long silence...] Just a minute. [Long Wait...] Ok, ma'am? There's been a massive mistake. We oversold those machines. We sold WAY too many. There aren't any more in the store or in the warehouse...We can't order more. There are no more. You can bring in your receipt for a refund or get another set."

"For the same price?"

"No, you'd pay the difference."

Seriously, Best Buy? I calmly (well, mostly calmly) explained to the poor customer service rep that I had skipped out on the good Black Friday sales because I had already bought these and now I was going to be out more money because they screwed up and that was really not ok. He got a manager and I was promptly informed that I could come back in the store and pick out a new set for the same price.

We went in and while we weren't given the option of picking out another set (that would have been ridiculous-- I'll tell you right now I'd have opted for steam!), we were given the nearly identical set that is replacing the closeout model we had ordered. The machines were in stock and we started our washing marathon yesterday.

It's wonderful. A little vibration, no air hammering, and no walking so far-- and that's on the high and extra high spin speeds. I love it. LOVE IT. I watched the first cycle and I took a shower while one was running without losing pressure. Most of all, I'm completely smitten with little song they play when they're done.