Slates

The downside to building things in November?  Mud.  Big piles of dirt and mud with no hope of growing any grass until April.  My floors inside are covered in hundreds of little muddy paw prints and more than a few muddy shoe prints.

To help the situation we needed something better than a cardboard box and wood scraps at the bottom of the deck stairs.  My lovely parents gave us a couple of leftover slates from their house.  With their help we placed them at the foot of the stairs over some carefully leveled and tempered sand.  There's still plenty of mud for Georgia to make a mess with, but having the slates helps significantly.  And it looks a lot nicer than a cardboard box.

Porch Floor Refinish

A few weeks ago we completed the porch project by refinishing the porch floor and bringing the mahogany wood back to its natural beauty.

The photo is lousy.  Sorry about that.  I was in a hurry before work, my car was covered in frost and I had a lot of scraping to do.

A power sander made quick work of sanding down of what little remained of the old varnish.  We applied a few coats of teak oil and the mahogany now looks so beautiful.  We're glad to have it protected for winter. Before this the wood was really dry and brittle looking, now it's dark and shiny.

Our Fence is Finished! The Driveway Gate Installed

Our backyard is officially fenced in.  We finally installed the driveway gate!  Combined with the deck and sliding glass door access, we can let Georgia out and leave her out for as long as she pleases.  No more chasing her around the yard when it's time to come in!  (Which by the way doesn't work - she is way too fast.)

Deciding on the height of the fence for our driveway gate was tough.  On the other side of the house we have the 6 ft privacy fence which aligns well with the next door neighbor's new 6 ft privacy fence.  It blends together and the height makes sense for maximum privacy.  However on the driveway side we weren't  sure what to do.  Blending with the neighbor's 7 ft arched cedar fence didn't make sense.  6 ft tall gates seemed awfully foreboding - how would anyone ever be able to check and see if we were in the backyard?  And the driveway is more than 12 ft wide - could you imagine giant 6 x6 ft gate panels blowing around on a windy day untethered?!  It would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.  There was also the issue of opening and closing such tall gates - how could we possibly open and close them from the outside to take our cars in and out of the back?

It became glaringly obvious that a shorter fence for the driveway gate was the only option.  But how high?  We considered 5 ft, but still even then I'd have trouble seeing/reaching over to open it from the outside.  We settled on 4 ft, the same height as the chain link - plenty high to keep dogs in but low enough for an adult to easy open and close the gate from both sides.  Our house is on a slight hill so from the street the 4 ft fence provides plenty of privacy, but when a guest/friend/neighbor comes up to the gate they can easily see if we're in the backyard.  It's the ideal balance of functionality, manageability and privacy for us.

The gate opens in the middle and the two halves swing inwards, supported by two wheels.  The wheels not only keep the gate from sagging, they also prevent the panels from swinging around wildly in the wind.

The Finished Deck

So here's the deck.  It's 6'x10'- the perfect size for a couple of chairs and a small table, plus some plants and all that good stuff.  We are currently working on sealing it before winter -  a challenging task this time of year because it has to be above 50 degrees and not raining for 24 hours according to the directions.

We also still have to get the inspector to come back out and close our permits.  Once we're all set, we plan on putting up some lattice underneath the deck to finish it off.  It might be spring before that happens.

The Finished Dining Room Doors

I'm back! And here are the finished dining room doors out to the deck.  Aren't they lovely?  The walls have been plastered, the trim put back up, and everything has been painted back to white and Salisbury Green.

Georgia absolutely loves the doors - backyard access, a full view of the backyard, and a sunny spot to sunbathe for most of the day.

I can't wait for spring so we can really start using our deck.  I'll share pictures of it tomorrow.

Be Back Monday

View from Pilot Mountain in NC

My Grandmother passed away last week.

It's never easy, even when you know it was their time. I just need a break to get my bearings.

Lots went on in the house while I was away in North Carolina. I'll start fresh on Monday with pictures of the finished deck and dining room doors - they look beautiful.

Hiatus

No new posts for a few days. We have some family business to take care of.
Hopefully I'll be back sometime in the middle of next week.

Radiator Cover Five Done: Upstairs Bathroom

The bathroom looks so much nicer and cleaner with the nasty permanently dusty radiator covered up.  The doors to the vanity still open - key in such a small space. And it's nice to have an extra shelf in here when we need it.

The Little Deck

Here's what the sliding doors look like from the outside and our new very small deck.  It's built on a brace right now until we can get an inspector out here on Tuesday.   The town is not exactly customer service oriented when it comes to this stuff.  Apparently this is very typical, but we were surprised by how hard it was to make an appointment (we had to call for 3 days!) and how long it takes to get them to come out.  Even better, one of us has to be home ALL DAY on the day of the appointment because they can't give us a window for the inspection time.

Radiator Cover Four Done: Upstairs Hall

Mike created the cover for the small radiator in upstairs hall.  This cover makes the perfect little table.  Hello clutter, here I come...

We Have Doors!

The contractor installed our new sliding glass doors!  Don't they look beautiful?  They let a lot more light into the dining room and make the room feel so much bigger and open.  I love it!  We are waiting for the inspector to come and approve the header (the stuff above the door) and then they will do all the drywall/plaster work and the trim.

The window and wall removal was a bit of a harrowing experience for me.  It was incredibly noisy with vibrations that shook the whole house, insanely loud crashes every couple of minutes and then they kept yelling at each other in Spanish.  Unfortunately when they yelled at each other, they spoke slowly enough for me to understand half of it.  And so the only parts of their conversation I picked up on were things like "You are crazy! You cut the hole too big!" (which is how we got a 6 ft door instead of a 5 ft door) and "Are you trying to kill me !?"   It was interesting working from home, attempting to concentrate with all that going on below.

Outside they dug the holes for the deck supports and started building the deck on a brace.  The inspector has to come and inspect the holes to make sure they are deep enough so that the deck doesn't one day fall over or collapse or whatever. 

Now we're waiting for the inspector to come before they can do anymore work.  Except we still haven't reach anyone to make an appointment after 2 days of trying...

Re-Packing the Dining Room

It felt backwards, but I repacked the dining room before the doors were installed.  I didn't want to risk any of my wedding china/crystal/vases - leaving it all unprotected on display in the hutch felt like I was inviting an accident.  So I re-packed all my delicate pretty things and put them back in the sun room to keep them safe.  (And it's a good thing I did too - the demolition work to pull out the windows and cut the hole was intense!)

The dining room had also become a sort of staging area and temporary home for a lot of things while we worked on the kitchen.   Tools, small appliances, canned goods, stacks of dishes that won't fit in the cabinets, excessive amounts of Tupperware... all of this had to be cleared out.  Things were getting out of hand in here so it's probably a good thing.  Except that it's all back again in the sun room... and now we can't even walk in the sun room anymore - all over again.

Sliding Doors & Backyard Access

Project Announcement: We're having sliding glass doors installed in our dining room!  We will finally have real backyard access! 

We are hiring a contractor to remove the double windows and replace them with a set of Anderson sliding glass doors that will lead out to the backyard.  They are also going to build us a very small deck (6'x10') with stairs going into the yard.  In the spring we're planning on building a small patio next to the deck.

Originally we didn't want to spend the money on any sort of deck.  All we wanted was a simple set of stairs down to the backyard where we would build our future patio. Except the town refused to give us a permit for just stairs.  For "safety reasons" we would have to build a 3'x5' landing, and building a landing is the same complicated process (with the extra inspections and permits and approvals and costs) as building a deck.  Our contractor said basically that a small deck would only be a little bit more than a small landing.  I wasn't thrilled about the extra costs, but if we wanted real backyard access (no more of this basement side door nonsense) we were stuck.  So we went for the deck - might as well get a better bang for our buck!  At least decks add value to the house, landings do not.   And we'll have a nice little space for a small table with a couple of chairs, a place to sit outside and drink coffee and all that good stuff.

This is our biggest, most expensive project we've ever done to the house.  When we started planning we thought it was going to be a lot simpler (just pop out the windows and stick in a door! How hard could that be?! Stairs? Maybe! We could always use a milk crate! See how easy we are?! ).  I'm a little nervous about the whole thing but I think it will be worth it in the end.  Adding the doors will allow the house to flow into the backyard and fix the awkward yard access.  It will increase the livability and use of the dining room.  And the deck will become an extension of the house, an outdoor room I know we'll enjoy for many years to come... just in time for winter for winter of course.