Chronicles of an American Foursquare

E + G fix + furnish + update + backdate + live in a 97-year-old foursquare house

[americanfoursquare]

Hello, 2017.

Another year, another recap, eh?

[2015′s here; 2014’s here; 2013’s here]

As usual, we signed off last year with a big list of projects in mind for the new year. We managed a puny 15 posts this year but knocked a bunch of items off our list, spurred into action by the baby F countdown.

Here are the projects from that list that we got to, plus some we added along the way:

adding heat and improved insulation in the sunroom

fixing up the cubby space in the sunroom

built-in shelves with a swinging [rather than sliding or rolling] component in the sunroom

landscaping and hardscaping around the porch

building raised beds for our vegetable garden

built in shelves in the office

building a dining table and bench for the porch [didn’t get to a bar just yet]

improving our mudroom storage situation [and adding new steps, new lights, etc.]

new light fixture and furniture, then later window treatments and art for the back bedroom baby’s room

A few more things haven’t garnered posts yet:

new windows–probably the biggest house improvement of all ever!

piecing together and installing a handrail for the upper part of the stairway

building a radiator cover for the living room

adding USB outlets in several rooms to maximize lazy iPhone charging

I think the only things we didn’t get to from last year’s list were replacing the finished basement lighting, doing major insulation improvements in the basement and attic, and undertaking a serious garage storage overhaul. All still worth doing!

A few other things on the list for this year:

building a locking liquor cabinet before the tiny human can get her hands on our booze

building a radiator cover for the baby’s room

installing a cat door [possibly custom?] in the door down to the basement

working out some of the kinks in our raised beds–we had some soil moisture issues this year but now have a moisture meter to help us figure them out

Overall I’m pretty pleased with what we were able to crank out this year, even while I had some physical limitations due to being, you know, knocked up. With baby F here, I expect our project pace to slow considerably, and that’s just fine with me given our new LIFE PROJECT.

I’m not going to say we’re done… but we’ve now painted just about every room, replaced nearly every single light fixture and outlet, and have custom woodworking projects around pretty much every corner. But let’s be honest, G will never stop puttering in the shop, we’ll never stop tweaking things we’ve already worked on, we’ll never stop fixing things that break, and things will always break.

Happy new year, guys. 2017′s going to be… different, anyway.

[americanfoursquare]

Baby habitat.

Lots of our recent projects have been done, or at least expedited, with a future tiny human in mind [see, e.g., the mudroom improvements, the sunroom built-ins, the raised beds, and the office shelves]. 

After we tackled the major baby room stuff back in August, we signed off with a list of a couple things left to be done. We just managed to check those items off before the tiny human showed up a few weeks ago.

The most important improvement was the installation of brand new windows--a project so big it deserves its own post another time. G made those new windows look right at home by custom-building window casing that matches the rest of the house. 

We then hung a new faux pipe curtain rod [I appreciate the irony of paying good money for a curtain rod that merely *looks* like its pieced together out of random building materials] and heavy light-blocking curtains for maximum baby sleepage. 

In the attached sunroom, we installed bottom-up top-down cellular shades that don’t so much block light as give us a little privacy when we need it. 

Finally, we hung a little bit of baby-friendly art and craft: 

First, a couple prints from Brainstorm, which I have long loved. 

Second, an engineering print by Parabo of a photo G took on Runde Island during our epic trip to Norway in August--secured to the wall with maple slats that match the crib and light fixture. 

Third, a pom pom mobile that I DIY ripped off from an absolutely gorgeous mobile I spotted at Trohv [RIP] last year--it was cheap and easy to make although I will bear the scar of a glue gun burn for life.

Baby F showed up a few days before her due date and has settled in nicely [and acquired lots of lovely things] so far.

She has yet to express any opinion about the habitat we created for her... all in good time.

1 year ago: the sunroom transformation begins

2 years ago: the closet transformation begins

3 years ago: our first holiday transformation begins

[americanfoursquare]

A new way in.

Don't for a second think that a two month break between posts means we haven't been busy. Maybe we've been too busy to post, did you ever think about that?

Last time I hinted that G has been working on a big mudroom transformation. The whole idea behind this project was to make the mudroom [really a glorified shack attached to the side of our house] into our main, day-to-day entrance, with space for storing shoes and hanging jackets and maybe even stashing a stroller now that that's going to be a thing. Before, our normal entrance through the side door dumped us onto a tiny landing where really only one person could stand at a time, where shoes piled up and blocked the door, and where the bad cat frequently tried to make a run for freedom.

Now that the project is essentially done, we're ready to share the process and the results, in five parts:

working door

new steps

new light

new storage

new trim + paint

Here we go!

A DOOR THAT DOES WHAT DOORS ARE FOR

We did a pretty great job of ignoring the mudroom for the first 3.5 years in our house. Since we barely used it, we weren't terribly concerned about the fact that the mudroom’s exterior door (1) appeared to be attached only to the trim vinyl siding around it, (2) rattled the whole mudroom when it closed, and (3) let snow in in the winter. In other words, it was barely a door. But when a piece of that trim that was sort of acting as door stop came free earlier this year, we figured it was time to fix the stupid thing.

[Note: you're not really supposed to see light around the edges of a door....]

As tends to happen, as G started to unravel the mystery of the door's attachment to the mudroom wall, he was dismayed to find that the problems ran deeper than expected. And that is how G ended up building in a whole new door frame that actually attaches the door to the, you know, structure of the mudroom.

He did this primarily by adding 2x4s that reach the entire way from the floor to the ceiling, tying into the beams that support the mudroom floor and roof.

[On a related note, we found out the expensive way that 10′ 2x4s do not quite fit inside our car.] 

Inside and between those 2x4s he added primed 5/4 lumber that forms the new doorframe. And then, importantly, he added stop all the way around to keep the door from swinging inward as it did before [first photo below] and to keep the elements out.

Door goals achieved!

STAIRWAY TO MUDROOM

Next up, tackling the death steps of death that lead to the mudroom. Why is the top step so low? Why do both steps slope steeply toward the house? Why do bricks occasionally free themselves from the steps?

Despite all those questions, I will confess to fostering a hearty skepticism about this project--mostly I just couldn't imagine how the steps could be fixed absent removal and pouring of new concrete, which seemed like too much drama. Fortunately, G had a vision.

And the vision was made of graph paper, pressure treated wood, and plastic decking.

First, he built a nice big platform that would be the new mini-landing a the top of the steps.

The overall strategy, as this demonstrates, was to simply build over the existing crappy steps, adding supports to create a new, level surface.

Along the left side, G notched and added two posts that would ultimately support the railing along the side of the landing.

He used pre-made stringers to make stair construction simpler. And once that structure was in place, he started laying composite decking [using fancy mitered corners, of course] and adding white PVC wrap on the stair risers, along the side of the structure, and around the railing posts.

G cut, primed, and assembled the other pieces of the railing.

 Finally, I stepped in for my sole role in this project: bouncing my huge self up and down on the landing to make sure it was stable [it was].

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Back in the day, we added a new fixture and a timer for the light over the side door, our main entrance. Now that we were trying to encourage ourselves not to use that entrance, we wanted to shift the balance of ... lighting... to the mudroom entrance instead.

We've actually been thinking about adding a light above this door for at least a year--when I chose a fixture for above the screen door last fall, I ordered a second identical fixture for this very purpose. SMRT. Aesthetic decision down, we needed to figure out the mechanics.

Crucially, where would the power come from and how would we control the new light? Fortunately, we already had a readily accessible supply wire running to the mudroom, which powered a rarely-used floodlight that points back toward the garage. We decided to leave the floodlight, but to tap into that wire as the power supply for the new light. Oddly, though, the switch for this existing flood was awkwardly located next to the side door.

So step one of this process was turning that floodlight switch into a solid, unswitched connection that would bring power to the mudroom, and then adding a new box that would contain switches for both the floodlight and the new light for above the mudroom door.

G removed the flood fixture so we could pull down the wire powering it, running the wire instead to a new box located just inside the mudroom door. Meanwhile, I removed the existing floodlight switch [we replaced it with a blank] and swapped out the existing side door light timer for an ordinary switch.

G ran the newly harvested supply line into the new box, and then ran new wires out of the box--one to the floodlight and one to the new above-door light.

Attaching that light required a bit of creativity, but G found a fitting designed for light fixtures on vinyl siding, and found a very shallow metal electrical box that could house the electrical connections behind the new fixture.

We wired up the new switches for the two lights--an ordinary switch for the flood and the timer I scavenged from the side door light for the new light--and we were in business.

A PLACE FOR OUR CRAP

Just about the only thing our mudroom had going for it pre-transformation was a big plywood storage cabinet. Mostly we kept homebrew stuff in there, but even that was an awkward fit. 

With our new mudroom-as-entrance vision, we wanted something that would serve as more of a drop-zone--a spot for shoes, jackets, and other stuff we might pick up or discard as we're coming into and out of the house.

[Unfortunately outside the realm of possibility.]

The existing cabinet thing would not do. So G did a little light demo, leaving us with a semi-blank slate for a new storage solution. 

First, though, we had to do a little plumbing work. At some point, the previous owners had run hot and cold water supply lines to the mudroom. We figure they intended to move the washing machine to the mudroom at some point. This is nice in theory, but overlooks the reality that the mudroom is completely uninsulated. The supply faucets froze solid [and caused the supply to the bathroom sink just inside the house to freeze also] our first year in the house... due in part to the fact that the "frost-proof" fixtures were installed incorrectly.... So, apart from using them for brewing a couple times, we've had them wrapped tight in insulation ever since. 

So, given that the faucets were really more trouble than they were worth, we decided to arrange for their demise. G simply removed the Sharkbite fixtures and soldered new caps onto short pieces of pipe that he fit into the Sharkbite connectors. [It appears that the Champagne of Beers helped with this] [G’s edit: It was hot. And I hate plumbing]. This has the benefit of being reversible, should a laundry room ever become a viable option in the future.

After some careful measuring [taking into account the location of the capped off water supply and an odd PVC fitting as well] we figured out that two IKEA Kallax [the new Expedit] units in an L shape would be an almost-perfect storage solution. 

[Pictured is an earlier iteration featuring one different Kallax unit than we ultimately bought].

We came home from IKEA with one 1x4 cube Kallax and one what I'll call Krazy Kallax that has lots of different sized cubbies. By removing one vertical divider in the Krazy Kallax, we were able to slide the unit over the plumbing obstacles, creating a little cubby where we can shove insulation and hopefully prevent another freeze. 

The 1x4 cube unit was a few inches too long for the space between Krazy Kallax on the right and the wall on the left, so before assembling it, G lopped off the ends of the thick top and bottom pieces, leaving us with 3 cube cubbies and one narrower cubby on the left side. He slid this Kallax in along the back wall, where it serves as both shoe storage [thanks to cool X dividers] and bench.

PRETTY PRETTY MUDROOM

Now that the mudroom was functional, it was time to make it pretty. G pulled the short straw [by virtue of not being pregnant] and got to prep the room for painting--lots of fun sanding and scraping. 

He also added trim along the sides of the repaired door to hide the new 2x4s and added fancy cross-head above the door since we have that kind of thing laying around in our basement. 

Finally, he added a beadboard panel above the door, which hides the wire that runs to the back of the new outdoor light fixture.

I donned my VOC-beating Walter White respirator and caulked and repainted the mudroom walls, floor, doors, and parts of the new steps. We even tacked in some shoe along the base of the mudroom walls because we're klassy like that. 

We have a few more things planned: 

swap out the light fixture next to the door into the house [not pictured]

add strategically-located hooks

add skidproof rug to protect the floor

add a cushion atop the Kallax bench

probably add some shades to help make the room a little more mudroom and less greenhouse

But it's basically done and we're using it every day! 

Three cheers for mudroom!

1 year ago: [a blog break during porch construction]

2 years ago: a LOT more winter squash than we got this year

3 years ago: big pre-housewarming push

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Realer all the time.

I think its fair to say that 100% of the current human residents of our house are starting to get a little anxious about the potential future 50% house population increase. 

[100% of the current feline house residents appear to be unaware of changes in the works.]

As usual, that anxiety manifests itself in house projects. G has mainly focused on making our mudroom [previously the most neglected, unloved space in the house] a nice, new entrance for everyday use. We'll tell you about that multi-part project another time.

For now, my project: finishing the future human's room. Yes, with three months left to go maybe its a little early to be working so hard on this. But the whole point is to do this stuff while I CAN still work hard! 

Our series of sunroom projects went a long long way toward checking this room-finishing box. But we still had/have a few things left: 

getting our crap moved out of the bedroom

recovering the sunroom loveseat

new furniture for the bedroom

new light fixture for the bedroom

new curtain rods and maybe curtains for the bedroom

some kind of window treatments for the sunroom

MOVING CRAP OUT 

Last summer, after my flashy paint and trim job, the back bedroom looked like this: 

More recently, it looked like that, but with a bunch more random crap in it.

To prep for future human occupancy, we needed to get the Expedit shelving unit and all the crap out. Two projects helped with this. 

First, the built-in Billies in the office--this is where all the books moved. 

Second, I did a quick rehab of the office closet--where all the rest of the crap will go once we get it a little better organized.

Not much to say about this project, other than the closet was reaaaallly shoddy before, and slightly less shoddy with one additional shelf now. 

We sold the Expedit shelves and put an old coffee table and crappy bookshelf out on the curb, thus closing the crap gap. These cool Army shipping crates would have gone the same way had we not noticed that they’re stamped with a former house resident’s name and info, so we figure they belong in the house. 

Perfect for homebrew gear storage in the basement!

RECOVERING THE SUNROOM LOVESEAT

Next up was recovering this much-loved [by the cats, for sharpening their claws] loveseat. 

[Pro-tip: always make your “before” photos as terrible as possible]

IKEA has stopped selling covers for this 2-seater Karlstad, so we ordered a bunch of fabric samples for two other companies, Comfort Works and Bemz, that make covers for Karl. We happened to like a fabric from Comfort Works best and the price was right; about a month later our custom-made cover arrived in a fancy bag. 

Recovering Karl required partial disassembly, but overall was really easy. 

Nice result, cat approved!

NEW BEDROOM FURNITURE

The bedroom really needed just three pieces of furniture--a chair, a dresser, and a crib. 

Rather than invest in an ugly and/or expensive glider or rocker we decided to repurpose our Eames-style lounge chair that has served us well in our living room but has seen better days [i.e. all the days before I lived with a roommate and her crazy tortoiseshell cat who went apeshit on my poor chair].

So instead of spending money on a fugly new chair for the bedroom, we bought a much more exciting swiveling chair for our living room.

As for the rest of the bedroom furniture, IKEA served us well. We chose the HEMNES 8-drawer dresser in “white stain” [a brighter white than “white”] and the SNIGLAR [worst name ever] crib, which has the advantages of being like $80, convertible to a small kid bed later, unfinished wood [so no paint or other weirdness to end up in kid’s mouth], and good-looking. 

Fun assembly times ensued.

NEW BEDROOM LIGHT FIXTURE

While at IKEA, we also perused the light fixtures and settled on the BÖJA pendant for the bedroom--I liked the idea of the wooden shade, which spoke to the unfinished wood crib and the light wood base of the lounge chair. We also picked up a big dimmable globe LED--we figured there may, just may, be times that we don’t want immediate 100% brightness in that room.

To make that dimming possible, I installed a dimmer switch to replace the basic light switch, and didn’t set anything on fire, NBD. 

And to save myself from what I knew would be inevitable drywall repair and repainting after I removed the old boob fixture, I also got a 16″ ceiling medallion to cover up all manner of sins. I painted it the same dark grey as the lower part of the walls, which also speaks to the new grey ceiling beam in the adjoining sunroom. Yay laziness.

I’d say it looks pretty sweet!

So here’s where we stand on the list:

getting our crap moved out of the bedroom [mostly]

recovering the sunroom loveseat

new furniture for the bedroom

new light fixture for the bedroom

new curtain rods and maybe curtains for the bedroom

some kind of window treatments for the sunroom

Not bad, eh? The bedroom window treatments will wait until after our NEW WINDOWS ARE INSTALLED next month!!!! [So excited.] The sunroom window treatments... I’m just dragging my heels because they’re probably going to have to be custom, and thus expensive. Sigh. 

1 year ago: approaching the start of porch construction

2 years ago: oh just knocking down a wall in the garage [on purpose]

3 years ago: major debrownification times

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The cupboard under the stairs

Now that we've spent all this time tidying up the sun room cubby--by removing an old baseboard heater, laying a tile floor, adding insulation and trim, and painting the walls and ceiling--it’s time to cover all that up. Typical.

Over the past few weeks we've been working on built-in bookshelves to close of the cubby. After our relatively easy [i.e. E-lead] experience building in Billy, we first looked to IKEA to see if any pre-made options would fit the bill here. Unfortunately, because the space is a bit of an odd size, we didn't have any luck--the cubby opening is about 34" tall and 125" wide. Also, because the cubby ceiling slopes down from that opening, we'd have to cut the back off of any pre-made shelves we bought, potentially requiring more modifications than really made sense.

BUILDING IN SHELVES

Fortunately, I have a live-in carpenter, so custom bookshelves is NBD. 

We first decided to have three separate shelf units, two 36" wide on the sides and a 41" center unit. Between the units we'd leave a gap [to be later covered with trim] to allow us to fudge things a little, since we know the room isn't precisely level.

G whipped up the first two shelf units with ease, each essentially a box with a sloped back to match the slope of the cubby ceiling. 

Before adding internal shelves or backs, we installed these first two boxes in the cubby, using plenty of shims to get them level, plumb, and lined up with each other, and then screwing them into the beam above the cubby opening, the side of the cubby, and each other.

The third/leftmost unit was a little different. Unlike the other two, this one wouldn't be fixed in the opening the same way BECAUSE IT IS A SECRET SWINGING BOOKSHELF/DOOR/ENTRANCE TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE!

MAKING THE SWINGING UNIT SWING

Construction of the swinging unit was a little different than the fixed shelves--rather than having the sides of the unit extend down 2" past the bottom shelf as do the other two units, for this one the unit has no such "feet" holding it up because we need the clearance to let it swing free. Instead, it'll be supported by a swiveling mechanism.

G did lots of research to try to figure out the best hardware to use for such a mechanism. Actually, there's a simple answer to this--a $150 secret bookshelf door hardware set sold by a retailer that specializes in exactly such things. But we're not $150 specialized hardware people. Instead, G bought a $4 lazy susan swiveling base, which he attached just in from the outside bottom corner of the swinging unit. He attached the other side of the swivel to a strip of plywood that he would then attach to the floor.

We carefully set the swinging unit into place, again with shims to line it up properly. G then screwed the swivel mechanism into the floor. 

Of course we still needed a way to attach the top corner to the upper beam as well. We headed to Ace where we perused the hardware aisle, working through a number of different ideas before we settled on a giant lag bolt, washer, and bronze flange that together will work like a simple wheel and axle, allowing the shelf to pivot around a single point. [Our hardware budget was now up to $10.]

[so not to scale]

Back at home, G carefully measured to ensure that the top pivot point would exactly line up with the existing bottom pivot point--i.e. the center of the lazy susan swivel. He then drilled a pilot hole through the top of the shelf and into the beam above the cubby. He widened the hole in the shelf until he could insert the bronze flange, added lubricant to the bolt where it will rotate inside the flange and against the washer, and then inserted the bolt up through the top of the shelf and into the beam. He ratcheted the bolt down [up?], securing the top of the unit to the beam, but not so tight that he added friction to the pivot point.

And now, our moment of truth. G freed the unit from its supports and shims, and gave it a tug--it worked! Not only had our jury-rigged rotation mechanisms worked, but G's math regarding the unit's swing radius was good as well. See, those gaps between the shelving units were necessary for one more reason--as the left shelf swings open, its back right corner tracks an arc that takes it closer to the center shelf than its normal resting position.

STABLIZING THE SWINGING UNIT

The only slight issue we saw at this phase was that the outer [swinging] edge of the unit drooped when we removed the shims holding it up. That wasn't shocking, given the stress on the unit's joints, but also wasn't desirable.

First, G built and installed two shelves to help stabilize the swinging unit. The center and right units will have movable shelves, but the swinging unit needed fixed shelves to help add strength to the structure that's under more stress. To make the shelves stronger just a simple piece of plywood, G added solid wood banding on the front and back edge of each shelf. 

Adding these shelves did help with the sag, but we still saw about 1/4" of droop.

Next up, adding a solid back--G cut a piece of 1/2" plywood to size and screwed it in tight to the back of the unit and shelves. This helped a lot!

Finally, G built a little ramp with nylon pads and a carpet-wrapped threshold to help support the underside of the unit when in its closed position. The carpet allows the shelf to slide into place and then holds it snugly in place, and as an added bonus is easy on the knees when crawling into the cubby.

[Photos from much later in the process so just ignore all that fancy trim for now!]

Why not just add a caster to the swinging side of the unit? We definitely thought about it, but there are two downsides: [1] We have a nice thick rug that will live in this room, and which the caster would have to cross as the unit swings open. With the minimal clearance, even a caster with a spring probably wouldn't clear the rug. [2] We worry that a caster, over time, would rub/compress the soft pine floor. So with those limitations, we're doing our best to make the unit nice an stable even while it floats above the floor with minimal support. Let’s just say the swinging unit is not the best spot for storing a set of encyclopedias. 

MAKING THINGS PRETTY

At this point, the shelves were official built in. If only the work ended there. The next, lengthy step was making them look pretty and conceal the swinging nature of the left unit.

First, G added backs to the two fixed shelves. Since these didn't need a super strong back, we just added pieces of beadboard that we cut to fit and then painting dark grey [Behr Dark Granite] to match the lower part of the wall in the adjoining bedroom. I also started painting the units our standard Behr white trim color. 

"Put down the iPhone and help me."

Next, G added simple trim to the front of the fixed shelves.

Then the harder part--the trim for the swinging unit. We had three main challenges with this: [1] designing trim for the bottom that would allow the unit to swing free with clearance for the rug, [2] designing trim on the right edge that would hide the gap between the left and center unit without being TOO obvious, and [3] designing trim for the left edge that would hide the gap between the left unit and left pillar and allow the unit to swing, while leaving room for the small arc that trim attached to the unit will trace [see arc drawing above].

It wasn’t long before G encountered small problem--the existing vertical trim at the left side of the cubby opening was well out of plumb, with the bottom pushed in about 3/8" from the top. For our new trim to line up properly with this existing trim, we needed to do... something. After a bit of debate we decided to fix the issue by cutting through the new, pretty baseboard and trim so we'd have room to move the vertical trim into our preferred position.

G pried the trim out, then inserted shims behind it and nailed it into place.

At this point, he could finish the matched trim around the swinging unit. The very last piece was the trickiest--the trim between the unit and the left pillar was just slightly wedge-shaped and needed to be sliced down the middle to allow the unit to swing free. G measured carefully and made two matched pieces of trim.

We finally added shoe moulding across the entire front of the built-in, which hides an uneven gap between the bottom trim and the floor, and helps disguise the swinging unit.

Finally, we added beadboard to the inside of the swinging unit to match the other two. Since we used a plywood back to strengthen this unit, we cut the beadboard to fit between the shelves and glued it to the inside, rather than nailing it to the back as we did with the fixed units.

To dress up the back of the swinging unit--which is visible when open--we opted for self-stick wallpaper [glorified contact paper] in coolest print we could find.

We added the same paper to the backs of the two fixed units even though they'll never see the light of day--it helps brighten the inside of the cubby up and covers up some ugly nails, etc.

LATCHING THE SWINGING UNIT

One last challenge was figuring out a suitable to hold the unit closed [although the carpeted threshold and tight trim holds it closed quite well on their own]. We found a number of online tutorials that used gate hardware, but we were wary about using a gate latch that would stick out right at eye-poking-out level. 

Eventually we came across an example using a magnetic childproofing latch. I found these Safety 1st locks at Target and they seemed to fit the bill. G installed the latch on the back of the swinging unit and the little plate it hooks onto on the ceiling in the cubby. To unlatch it, you touch a magnetic key to a certain spot on the inside of the unit [you can see the key in place a few photos above--we have some thoughts about making the key more subtle/sneaky]. Very importantly, you can also easily release the latch from inside, and can even disable the lock altogether. 

Latched and unlatched, below:

One last thing we haven’t done yet is adding lighting inside--we’ll probably use Ikea LED strips just like we did in our closet. 

A BIG SECRET

There you have it, built in bookshelves, and a hidden door that leads to a super-not-adult-sized cubby. 

Speaking of, in approximately 4.5 months we expect to have a much smaller-sized person joining us at Bentwood Acres. Just thought we'd drop that a the end of this post just to see if anyone's still reading :D

Which leads to the hilarious [?] part of this whole project--we're not going to use it! At least not for a long time. Inspired by these people, who hid a secret room behind their son's dresser until he was 4 years old, we're going to try to keep this a big secret until our little one is old enough to appreciate it. So here's the part where we ask you for a favor. If you see our kid in the next, oh, 4-5 years or so, try not to mention that there's a secret tiny room hidden behind the bookshelves in the sunroom. We think it'll be a pretty amazing surprise once we're ready for the reveal.

1 year ago: taking a break from projects, apparently.

2 years ago: mid-year update featuring nearly-ripe peaches

3 years ago: chopping down a weed tree and painting painting painting

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Mini-project.

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So how’d that porch work out?

Now that we’re firmly in summer territory, I thought we’d check back in to show how our new porch has progressed. 

Maybe you’ll recall that way back in the planning process, we drew a little mock-up to make sure the porch we were having built would be able to accommodate all of our wildest dreams. 

Just like we planned, a couple months ago we bought pieces to make an ÄPPLARÖ sectional from IKEA, which we’ve spiffed up with a couple outdoor pillows from World Market and Deny Designs. The rug is a woven mat from World Market. 

We got the two rockers, two little tables, and two hanging planters from IKEA also. Still <3 IKEA, obvs.

To the right of the door into the house we have a spacious corner where some day we may add a bar with storage underneath. For now we’ve got an enamel-top table that was G’s very first furniture purchase when he moved back to DC years ago. And next to it we have an ÄPPLARÖ wall panel [Ikeaaaaaa] where we can stash our crap for now. 

Finally, the main event--G’s custom table and matching bench! I'm going to let him tell you about the construction in another post. Both are made of reclaimed wood from a row house in Shaw that our friends were renovating, and G scored the turquoise metal table legs from our lovely neighborhood store Trohv [RIP] when it closed a few months ago. 

We rounded out the table with three chairs from... yeah, IKEA... so we can comfortably seat 6. 

Just a few months ago our porch was a lonely, unused place. We’re pleased to report that both we and the cats have essentially moved out of the house and onto the porch on the weekends. Even when its super steamy out, its comfortable in the shade with the fan running. With the addition of a new grill [!] a few weeks ago, we’re happily in solid summer mode. 

Sweet success!

1 year ago: painting the back bedroom

2 years ago: back in history with street view [i just revisited this post and it blew my mind all over again]

3 years ago: lots of rain, and how to deal with it

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Zucchini and okra and beets oh my.

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Backyard rehab.

Remember this giant pile of dirt and how only half of it went into the raised beds?

You’re dying to know what happened to the rest right? Don’t worry, I’ll get there.

When we last checked in with the exterior of the porch [about 6 months ago] it looked like this:

We’d transplanted a few plants from elsewhere in the yard and raked some leaves around the perimeter of the porch. Clearly we had some more planting and tidying to do, and the path to our screen door left a lot to be desired. Specifically, a way to get to the screen door without walking through bare dirt. 

On a warm afternoon a couple months ago, I decided to do something about the path situation. We bought some inexpensive pieces of flagstone on mesh from HD. As I later realized, these are only meant for installing on a concrete bed or as non-structural facing on a wall, but we thought we could just lay them flat on the ground using leveling sand instead. 

Initially I was pretty pleased with the look.

But although they look ok, there was a pretty serious problem–the pavers are so small and light that no matter how much leveling I did, they moved underfoot.

After quite a bit of frowning and grumping about, I gave up on getting these things to work and moved them to the little nook next to the driveway where our grill now lives. Since the grill pretty much just sits there, the instability isn’t a huge deal. New grill soon, hopefully, BTW. 

So we were back to square one with the path to the porch. 

But a couple weeks ago we took a trip to Meadows Farms to give our plants some new friends and check out the stepping stone selection.

We were super pleased by what we found–a nice selection of different sizes of flagstone that wasn’t as expensive as we feared. We picked out an 18″x30″ piece of flagstone for the “step” up to the porch [which sits a little higher than the others], four 12″x24″ pieces for the stepping stones to the driveway, and a little 12″x18″ piece for placing next to the hose bib and hose-keeper. 

I dug out flat-ish spots, then used sand to level each paver. 

We love how it turned out! Together the stone came to right about $100, making this the third of three VW-funded projects, yay #dieselgate.  

Next up, making the rest of the [outside of the] porch pretty. We came home from Meadows Farms with quite a haul of plants. But unfortunately, the existing soil around the porch didn’t provide a terribly hospitable environment for them, since its about 50% clay, 50% gravel. So we waited to plant everything until we could give the new plants a happier start with new soil much more conducive to growth. And this is where that big ass pile of dirt comes in. 

While G was filling in the raised beds, I moved wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil around the porch, planting as I went. After everything was in the ground, I tucked everything in with a thick layer of mulch.

Getting through that upper layer of gravel required some… effort.

Effort well worth it, I think. 

From left, we have red chokeberry [var. Brilliantissima, which will be a small, bushy tree to help screen that corner of the porch from the neighbors], bee balm [var. Raspberry Wine], space for another shrub of some kind, and garden phlox [var. Blue Flame]. Then we have the blueberry, iris, other blueberry, peonies, black eyed susan, and oak leaf hydrangea transplanted from elsewhere in the yard. 

Rounding out the porch we added eastern ninebark [var. Summer Wine], more bee balm, false indigo [transplanted], foxglove, and common lilac [another small tree]. 

If things are looking a little… dirty.. around the perimeter of these new beds, that’s because even after filling the raised beds and adding soil around the porch, we had plenty of soil left over for another sub-project.

G used that extra soil to fill a few low spots in the yard and we spread the remainder across the worst of the former gravel parking pad. 

G spread grass seed and seed-starting fertilizer across the new bare patches, then carefully covered everything with straw to keep those baby seeds shaded while they start to grow. 

And then, just as we were ready to sit-back and let those seeds sprout, nature smacked us with some other plans, namely half-inch hail, 60mph wind, and a torrential downpour that carved some new channels through our newly-improved backyard [and plastered the porch with shredded leaves--pictured below].

Let’s just say not all of that carefully-laid soil and grass seed ended up where we intended… but this past weekend, G, undaunted, laid more seed and re-spread the straw. For better or worse, we’ve now had 14 straight days of rain. But we're just now starting now to see some [unevenly distributed] teeny baby grass shoots.

One final aspect of our spring landscaping work was starting a new chapter with the fig tree/bush/monster. This year, unlike the last two years, the whole fig survived the winter. 

That’s great, but instead of letting the entire thing grow we decided to get serious about creating a more manageable fig situation. We figure that smaller bush will produce a more realistic quantity of figs, plus we might actually be able to protect it from the cold next winter. 

G not only chopped down 90% of last year’s growth, he also dug out at least half of the extremely extensive fig roots/stumps. Tough work. Thanks, G!

And then I transplanted our little circle of daffodils to echo the newly-reduced fig circumference. 

The fig is all leafed out now and we’re excited to see what the chosen stems can do for us this year. 

1 year ago: just a picture of purple flowers

2 years ago: mulch madness 2014 edition

3 years ago: our first raised beds and an introduction to pokeweed

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The rite of spring.

This winter, in preparation for spring, we got our soil tested. We had two main areas of interest: [1] soil characteristics like nitrogen, pH, and other stuff that matters to plants; and [2] lead. 

We took samples, as directed, from a bunch of different locations–the first bag contained a mix of samples from our driveway-side bed, where we’ve grown herbs, peppers, and last year tomatoes; the second was a scatter of samples from across the backyard, which we figure needs the most improvement from a plant-perspective. 

We shipped the samples off [just like this–USPS seemed unfazed by the unusual mail shape] to the University of Delaware for testing and got our results a couple weeks later. 

Let’s just say they weren’t inspiring. Overall the soil nutrients weren’t terrible though the pH is a little low. But most importantly, our soil lead levels were unhappily high for both samples, but higher in our driveway-side bed. It wasn’t a shock, just a disappointment. [And for the record, its not a huge deal that we’ve been eating produce out of this bed–lead is mostly a problem for leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, not so much for fruit and vegetables, which is good news for our peach and fig crop also.]

Now there are a few things one can do about this, as the report and Dr. Google explained: raising the pH helps make lead less bioavailable, so does adding calcium, and it’s best to not have soil sitting bare–so get some grass growing [more on that another time] or cover it with mulch.

All good advice generally, but we want vegetables! So rather than go ahead with this year’s vegetable plantings in the very-weedy and lead-infused side garden, we decided to elevate our kitchen-garden game with raised beds. 

G and I did a lot of side-by-side googling before deciding how to proceed. The material options that we considered were, essentially [1] pine or some other low-cost but not particularly weather-resistant wood; [2] much pricier but weather-resistant cedar; [3] pressure treated wood; or [4] metal. 

We decided to go with metal for a number of reasons. First, we didn’t love the idea of having to rebuild the beds in a few years if we used pine or something similar. Second, solid pressure-treated wood wouldn't look that nice and and cedar was pricey [and required a trip to a specialty store]. Third, metal looks cool. 

We found lots of examples of raised beds constructed using corrugated galvanized steel roofing panels. We decided we liked the look of the boxes that had the corrugations in the metal running vertically, like this one [below] and more importantly like these [I think we watched this video 4 times between us]. 

We decided to make two large 3′x5′x16″ beds along the house near the side door and then one narrow 6′x18″x10″ bed that would run along the front edge of the garden, leaving space for accessing the rain barrel, and adding a little curb appeal [we think so anyway]. 

We did a bunch of math and headed to HD, where we picked up 4 sheets of galvanized roofing material, 20 pieces of metal flashing for the corners, a cheap circular saw blade for cutting metal, a bunch of pressure-treated wood for the frames and top rim, metal screws, and deck screws. 

The most dramatic part of the box construction process was cutting the long metal panels down to size, a very noisy undertaking that I’m told made a shower of sparks. G built simple rectangular frames out 2x4s for each–and then screwed and nailed the flashing corners and galvanized sheets into the inside of the frames. 

He used metal rivets to attach the sheets to one another along the long sides, and to attach the corrugated pieces to the flashing corners. 

Finally, G added 1x4 rims to the top of the wood frames, covering the exposed edge of the metal and giving the boxes a nice finished look.

Then he put the planters in the garden and dug down a couple inches to level the new planters and set them in place. 

I’d love to say that this was the end of the project, but so far all we had were three awesome, but empty, raised beds. 

After a bunch of research and weighing of options, we decided to have 4 cubic yards [!!!] of topsoil-compost mix delivered to the house. [That is over 6000 pounds of soil, which would have taken us approximately 12 trips to HD to haul home in the wagon.] 

G moved a bit less than 2 of those yards into the raised beds, on top of a layer of cardboard to keep plants growing in the happy raised-bed soil instead of unhappy existing soil. 

[Meanwhile I added another yard or so of soil to new garden beds around the porch, which were basically 50% clay, 50% gravel from an old parking pad. And then we used the last yard-ish to fill in dips in the yard and spread over the graveliest part of the former parking pad. All a story for a future post.]

We also bought a couple galvanized tubs to serve as smaller planters near the rain barrel in the side yard–G drilled holes in the bottom to allow them to drain. 

G then dug out the mint and strawberries that have pretty much taken over the side garden in past years, transplanting a couple of each to the galvanized tubs, where they’ll be contained.

He then added a nice thick layer of mulch [also delivered] between the beds that we hope will help keep the weed situation at bay.

Finally it was time for the fun part–plants! In one of the large beds we planted three varieties of tomato [Roma, Big Boy, and Yellow Jubilee] and two pepper plants [Mammoth Jalapeño and Red Bell]. In the other, we sowed okra and zucchini seeds. We planted sweet basil, Thai basil, cilantro, and thyme in the long herb planter. And in the raised beds in the backyard, which we topped off with soil, we planted arugula and started some beets from seed. We’ll add winter squash and pumpkin back there also once the weather warms up.  

This wasn’t a cheap project. Nor a clean one. Let’s just say that our vegetable gardening probably isn't going to pay for itself, but it’s fun, right? 

The raised bed materials came out to about $125 [another Volkswagon-funded purchase, woohoo!], the two galvanized tubs were $40 total, and the soil and mulch delivery [about half of which went to this project] came to just over $300. But it’s all in the name of safe, delicious vegetables and hopefully a less dire weed situation for the next few years. 

1 year ago: a landscaping update, at a normal pace [our plants are running about a month ahead this year]

2 years ago: finishing the front hill

3 years ago: mulch madness v1.0 plus our first visitors

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Unwelcome visitors on the cherry tree this morning.

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Building in Billy.

This is not a post about a person named Billy. It’s a post about a well-known and -loved bookshelf named Billy. And how we made that bookshelf part of the house. 

Up to now we’ve had some admittedly sub-par storage in our home office [which we use approximately never, but do, like, keep books in]. So sub-par, I couldn’t be bothered to take a “before” photo–so just imagine a crappy little bookshelf where the trash can is below: 

For an upgrade, we decided to build in two IKEA Billy shelves–one full-width along the wider wall, one narrower along the short wall. We added height extenders to both, making each one shelf taller than normal just to take advantage as much vertical space as possible.

The first step after assembling the Billies and figuring out approximately where they’d go, was ripping off the baseboard and trim that I so painstakingly added after finishing this wall 2.5 years ago so the shelves can sit flush against the wall.

Next I moved the units into place, shimmed them up until they were level [the floor in this room is most definitely not], and then added a bunch of L-brackets [AKA corner braces] to hold them to the walls. 

This included a bracket at the bottom outside corner of each, a bracket at the center of each top, one bracket on the inside corner of the big shelf [obviously once i moved the narrow shelf into place I couldn’t do the same for it], and then a couple screws in the kick plate area attaching the units to one another. It would have been great to add a few more brackets and screws but [1] there weren’t a lot of places I could access that would end up hidden, and [2] they feel nice and solid in any event.

The shelves were now officially built in, but not looking so hot. That’s what trim is for!

First, G cut some little wood strips that I added to the front end of the very top and bottom shelves so that the front of those shelves would become flush with the unit sides. I glued those strips in first, then cut full-height baseboard, base cap, and shoe for the walls, and shorter baseboard and shoe for the sides and fronts of the shelves. The shoe covers up the shims and otherwise camouflages the gap below the bottom of the shelves.

For the top, we decided to do a bit of crown moulding. Given how much we love crown, we surprised ourselves a bit with this decision. 

Because the crown moulding on the top of the shelves didn’t quite extend to the ceiling, I couldn’t nail directly into the ceiling as one normally does when installing crown. Instead, we cut some angled backer pieces out of 2x4 to support the crown and provide something to nail into [fortunately the moulding we chose, a simple cove, sits at a 45 degree angle making cutting these supportsrelatively easy]. I nailed and glued the supports to the top of the shelves, then got to work cutting cove.

I won’t say it was easy or fun, but I only had to cope one inside corner [the worst part by far] so it wasn’t terrible. My mantra throughout was “caulk will forgive all sins.” I will not be showing you a closer-up photo. 

Finally, I applied that thick layer of caulk over virtually the entire thing, plus spackle to smooth over the seam between the standard bookshelves and the height extenders. Our walls are a bit uneven I used caulk backer rod to fill the biggest gaps between the shelves and the wall. 

A couple coats of our standard white trim paint, a few books, and some wall decor, and I’d say we’ve successfully toned down that crazy green a bit: 

All in all this was basically a one-person job that took most of a weekend plus a couple hours later for a second coat of paint. The Billys and height extenders came to about $160 at IKEA, and we spent a few bucks on extra brackets, and maybe $20 on trim. [Actually if we’re being honest, which I guess we are, Volkswagon paid for this project as apology for our NOx-spewing TDI wagon.]

1 year ago: G’s amazing nightstands 

2 years ago: conquering the front hill, and then some

3 years ago: baby’s first trip to the plant nursery 

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Oh what a difference a mild winter [and 2 years] makes.

April 6, 2016

April 6, 2014

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Pretty... awkward.

This week I finally summoned the motivation to crawl into the wedge-shaped cubby space in the sunroom and finish the project we left hanging a few weeks ago.

G's dad installed beadboard across the back of the cubby, which is great, but to look finished, it still needed trim along the top and bottom of the beadboard, as well as baseboard along the two side walls.

We decided we'd continue with our tradition of using door stop as shoe moulding along the floor. And while we were at it, we decided to use stop where the beadboard met the sloped ceiling as well.

All this required was a well-angled cut by G to ensure the trim would sit flush against both the wall and the ceiling. 

After nailing in the top piece of trim, I installed primed 1x6 along the side walls, and then shoe along the bottom of the beadboard.

A coat of trim paint on the trim and wall paint on the walls and ceiling, and we're in business.

None of this was a big deal, but the small space made it all a bit.... awkward.

In other sunroom news, we scored a rug from World Market [on sale!] and the whole room is looking rather ready for its close up... pending built-in shelves and new cover for the 2-seat Karlstad [which Ikea doesn't sell anymore! end of an era!] and maybe blinds for the windows.

We know it's going to get messy in here again before it gets better, but for now its nice to see a space so much improved since we started working on the scary cubby a few months ago!

1 year ago: a half-tone addition to our bedroom décor

2 years ago: making Bentwood official

3 years ago: a water-logged mystery [gosh I'm glad I haven't had to use the "mystery" tag lately]

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Happy 98th birthday, house!

Hope you like the outdoor sofa we got you!

The cats sure do.

1 year ago: our best house-related video ever [and finishing our closet build-out!]

2 years ago: sowing seeds and the beginning of a coffee table

3 years ago: wow, its been 3 years.

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A sunroom story

When last we posted about the sunroom, we’d started replacing the remaining crappy trim, removed the old baseboard heater, safe-ified a couple outlets, added a switched outlet for a swag light, installed a new floor in the cubby area,  and painted about 1/4 of the room. Woo. 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve ticked off a few more sunroom items in pursuit of two goals: (1) a warm room and (2) a pretty room. Here we go with the way back before picture once again!

WARMNESS: 

While removing the sliding glass door and installing modern windows went a huge way in making the sunroom warmer, a recent energy audit showed that the crawl space on the left side of the room was a big heat suck. The energy company recommended insulating around the crawl space [making the crawl space “conditioned space”] but we elected to DIY this one by insulating between the crawl space and the sunroom. 

G drew the short straw and ended up wedged in the crawl space for hours caulking little spaces around the framing and filling up the wall with nice puffy insulation. 

Yay, G!

Although it wasn’t as much of a culprit, we went ahead and added insulation in the baby knee wall at the back of the cubby as well--or rather G’s dad did when he was here on a quick visit. 

Insulation is great. But heat is great also. And with no radiator, the sunroom was severely lacking in the heat department. 

After a bit of research, we decided a wall- or baseboard-mounted electric heater was the way to go. The winner for us was the Envi electric convection heater. We were won over by (1) the fact that the surface of the unit doesn't get hot, (2) it’s not terrible looking [um, nothing in this category of home appliances is winning any design awards], and (3) it’s not massively expensive. 

While the new heater doesn’t draw a ton of current, G thought it best that we put the new heater on the dedicated circuit that previously powered the old, scary baseboard heater. The only tricky part--the baseboard heater was in the cubby, but we wanted new heater in the main part of the room. 

We knew that the power ran to the old wall-mounted thermostat [which we also removed], so with the help of a fish tape, G ran a new wire down through the wall from that junction box. 

G then installed a new box and outlet next to the cubby space opening, where we could easily plug in the new heater to be installed the neighboring wall. 

The heater itself was simple to install. After that it was just a matter of setting the integrated thermostat to a warm-but-not-crazy level so we could keep the room comfortable without spiking our electric bill. 

We’ve had some pretty good tests lately, and I can preliminarily say [pending first electric bill] this little guy was a good purchase. 

Warmness achieved.

Next,

PRETTINESS:

As foreshadowed above, I did, in fact, finish painting the room like the pro that I am.

G did quite a bit more fancy trim work, adding flare to the top of the side windows, base cap, and shoe. 

G and I both did a ton of caulking, blah. 

And after stuffing the little cubby wall with insulation, G’s dad added beadboard along the whole wall. 

Charlotte did nothing helpful.

Things were looking pretty slick.

A last step was reinstalling the crawlspace door. We added new, pretty hinges, and a simple latch that--unlike the old latch--won’t allow one to accidentally lock oneself in the crawlspace all alone, forever, yikes. [Also in the WARMNESS department, we added weatherstripping and a door sweep.]

This weekend we finally got to loading things back into the room--including the loveseat, curtains, swag light, and a new porcelain rhino head because that’s what happens when I go to Target by myself on a Sunday morning. 

We hung also three Smokey Bear posters that have been needing a home.

Things are looking up in the sunroom, but there’s a lot more left to do to call it finished: 

finish trim in the cubby area [at the top and bottom of the beadboard and along the side walls]

paint the cubby walls, beadboard, and the sunroom ceiling [and touch up paint throughout]

install a threshold between the cubby tile and sunroom floor

buy a new cover for our totally destroyed Karlstad loveseat [thanks, stupid cats]

add a more neutral rug to tone down the blue-on-blue-on-blue theme we’ve got going

figure out how to cover the weird outlet box where the swag light is plugged in

add some kind of window treatments [blinds?] for the side windows

and finally

build rolling bookshelves [or something] to close off the cubby.

Apart from all of that, we’ve been staying pretty busy with seemingly endless snow removal tasks and efforts to keep our basement pipes from freezing. 

Can’t wait till we can fill the porch up with furniture and spend a lazy, warm weekend out there!

Until then...

1 year ago: G <3s cove

2 years ago: a straight newel post is overrated

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To 2016 and beyond.

What’s even better than a new post about house projects? A post where I tell you about projects I already told you about. That’s right, it’s recap time.

[2014’s here; 2013’s here]

Most notable for 2015 was the big decline in house projects… or at least posts about house projects. In 2013 we made 72 posts, 37 in 2014, and this year we managed just 21. I’m no statistician, but I think that puts us on track to have -2 posts next year. Sometimes I doubt my commitment to Sparkle Motion house blogging. But seriously, I figure we’ll stop when we’re [1] bored with it or [2] embarrassed by how boring we’ve become.

Anyway, last year, just as the year before, I made an ambitious list for 2015. And I haven’t looked back at it until this very moment. Here are the ones we got to:

painting the master bedroom

painting and adding/replacing trim in the back bedroom [mostly done–window trim TBD]

finishing the master bedroom closet

repairing and painting the garage door

building night stands for the master bedroom

having someone else build us a back porch [more on that here and here]

And here a few more bonus projects that weren’t even on last year’s list:

seriously brightening up the unfinished basement

painting the finished basement

keeping the kitchen garden going [including spreadsheet madness]

installing cove moulding in the master bedroom [“never again,” G says, again]

rebuilding our medicine cabinet, basically for fun

fixing up the sunroom [in progress]

a few that didn’t make the blog–including building a window box that dresses up our garbage can storage area, finishing a knife block that fits anything and everything, and relocating our instruments to the dining room where we can play them more often/feel more guilt while not playing them

and, of course, planning and going on an epic 10-day trek in Torres del Paine in Chile.

Of course, a few items from last year’s list evaded us. Those plus a few new things now slide on down to 2016:

swapping out lights in the back bedroom, sunroom, and finished basement

improving the mudroom storage

building sliding rolling bookshelves to close off the sunroom cubby area

improving garage and workshop storage

building shelves for the office

building a dining table, bench, and bar for the porch

figuring out a way to heat the sunroom and finished basement

energy efficiency improvements–including attic, crawlspace, and basement insulation

landscaping and hardscaping around the porch

building raised beds in the driveway-side garden

all new windows??

Here comes the mushy part. 2014 kind of sucked for us on the personal front. While 2015 has definitely been better for our family of two, it wasn't so nice to all of those closest to us.

I’m not going to naively wish for a perfect 2016. Instead I’ll sign off with this: In 2016 I want to remain thankful for everything and everyone we have, and I hope we all–our friends and families included–continue to find happiness even in the face of setbacks. Love ya’ll.