Tool Belts

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Mudroom

This has been a long time in the making. I haven't updated the blog with images of the mudroom as it wasn't finished in my mind. There were several places that needed to be finished before it's debut. I finished several of those items over the weekend. Mostly, it was little touch ups here and there. And I painted the inside of the door, which made a huge difference. It was that typical metal door grey. Now it is a very buttery straw color, it's in fact Benjamin Moore's Waterbury Cream. The walls are also BM in Stone.  It is a very bold color, it works well in the space, since there is a lot of natural light coming in.  We also were interested in bringing more warmth and texture into the space, so we left the Douglas Fir doors to the powder room, basement, and closet natural.
 Looking from the kitchen/great room to the mudroom entry.
 Looking from the mudroom to the great room/kitchen.
 Looking into the kitchen and toward the powder room.
 With the addition of the mudroom, we were able to open up the space into the dining room beyond.
 Sneak peak into the powder room, with the pocket door open.
 Natural Douglas Fir door to the closet and new opening to the basement. Erik rebuilt the stairs into the basement, so that the opening isn't though the studio space, but easily accessed from the new mudroom entry. In addition to having a workshop counter where the old door was located, it also will provide more privacy for when the furnace guy needs to get into the basement. He isn't trudging through the whole house.
 Below the window is a slate bench. Erik salvaged the slate from Vignola's, an Italian restaurant below his office in Portland, who was renovating the interior over the winter. They were throwing the counter top out, and Erik rescued it from the landfill. It has a slight curve to it with a Douglas Fir base below. Again, to pull out the warmth and texture of the opposite doors. 

Winter Room gets Sheetrock

This weekend was super hot. Too hot to work outside on the side of the house. We decided at the beginning of summer on what days were too hot or rainy we'd try and complete Phase 2, which is the first floor of the existing portion of the house. Since it was close to 90 degrees, that forced us inside. We  moved all the tools out of the Living room or the Winter room, (as we have taken to calling the space) in order to finish sheet rocking the walls and ceiling. There were only a few pieces left from when Brian and Mike King came up to help out this spring. So, it wasn't so bad. Not like when we sheet rocked the great room. That was awful, for several reasons; the ceiling was sloped, each joist needed to be shimmed it was so uneven, and it was literally 900 degrees that day! So this wasn't bad. And it was so rewarding to have this be our final room downstairs.
 We also worked a bit smarter- using the poles we got to hold the tarps up. They were super handy to hold the rock up, in order for Erik to screw the piece into the joists. So handy, even I can take photos instead of holding it above my head.

The goal for the end of the weekend was to have a first coat of mud over the seams, which we achieved. We are hopeful that we can start doing the American Clay application by July 4th!