We are going to be working on the "finishing touches" for a while (no time-line), but as Steve so aptly put it, we are officially closer to the end than to the beginning. So here's some shots for all of you out-of-towners...which is most of you.
Office/ Crafts Room/ Twin-Bed Empire
Old kitchen pantry given a few stinky coats of paint
(the last of the not-friendly stuff that Timbermart was selling)
Chair from Dad's old office, squeaky
Sawhorses I made for our door-desk
And a light fixture, 1 of 3 that we bought,
that resulted in us gambling with traffic and the gods
on our way home from Toronto.
Laundry and utility room
Old kitchen cabinets put to very good use
My first foray into plank-style farmhouse countertop
(Dad did most of the work)
The ridges make it rustic
(I decided not to plane)
The wood filler keeps the dirt from falling between cracks
Right?
And now, for Steve's Baby:
Oh, how we deliberated on siding. We wanted some stone, but all applications of it looked forced (as in, why is that plunked there?) No one wants to spend money on that.
We eventually came around to a cedar and stucco mix. Spent a lot of time searching images of "modern" siding (as modern as you can get with the bones of our house, typical peaked roof, etc). We ended up getting clear tongue-and groove cedar, no v between the boards from Brown and Rutherford, in Winnipeg. Applied it horizontally in some locations, trimmed windows and doors with it as well (see first and second photos).
The stucco was another major decision in the making. We wanted it as smoothly applied as possible and considering our house was already wrapped and prepped, our options were limited. However, our contractor did an amazing job, taking his usual "lace" application and smoothing it out even more.
The only difficult part about the whole stucco process was choosing the colour. Once my penchant for white (à la L.A. breeziness or Greece-like pure) was negated, we quickly settled on dark grey. Yea! Two weeks later, we still hadn't agreed on that dark grey. It finally showed up on a paint chip we had brought back from the city months ago when choosing indoor wall colours. Sico's "Urban Grey". Go us!
Steve busted his butt on the siding. Learned all about making 45 degree mitred cuts on wowed boards (hold those babies super tight to the guide. Clamp them?) He enlisted a friend for a day or two, but mostly got the cedar up on his days off.
That's it for the house, right now. We're still working on trim work inside the house, shelving, some plumbing and picking out lighting. Master bath is not done, but we're going to let someone else play with that!
