Thursday: Stucco samples (2/24/11)

Today I'm looking at stucco samples.  From left to right:  Pearl Gray, Navaho White, and Winter Gray.  This was taken with (shortlived) morning sun shining on them, which sort of washes out the differences.

And to ensure I remained completely confused, I kept moving them and switching the order - brilliant.  From left to right:  Pearl Gray, Winter Gray Navaho White.



Here's a closeup taken inside so you can see the texture a little better.  From left to right:  Pearl Gray, Winter Gray, Navaho White.





This is the stone that is closest to the cinder black walls, which are to be covered by the stucco.  From left to right:  Pearl Gray, Winter Gray, Navaho White.

Seeing it in person, I'm leaning toward the Navaho White which is very slightly warmer in tone, and closely matches the mortar.  In the photos, I sort of like the Winter Gray which is a little cooler in tone and is closer to some of the stones' colors.  I think the Pearl Gray is too light and will stand out too much.

What say you?!



Wednesday: Mortar work (3/23/11)

The last couple of days the stonework guys have been here working on completing the pointing.  We've gone round and round on trying to match the new mortar to the old, and lo and behold, I think we finally did it.

They also completed the pointing on the ends of the fireplace.  You can also see in this photo that they sanded down some of the sharp edges in the contrete hearth.

And the other side...



Here you can see that they removed the chimney cap and I think it looks much better.



Monday: Charles M. Goodman house (2/21/11)

My friend Mary, a realtor, very generously took me to see the house owned and renovated by Charles M. Goodman, the architect who designed much of the Hollin Hills mid-century modern houses in this area.  The house is currently up for sale for $1.25 million.  (Caroline couldn't come with us, unfortunately, and I promised to take photos - this seemed like the easiest way to share them.  So this has absolutely nothing to do with our house!)

This is what you see as you park in the driveway.  The roofline beyond is the 1850-ish original two story house that was added onto by Goodman in, I think, 1952.

This is the doorway by which you enter.  The following picture is taken standing on the other side of this stone wall.

This is a little quasi-courtyard to the right of the entrance.





Inside view of the front entrance.  The newspaper article about the house said that they used wood flooring on the ceiling, which continues outside.  The floor inside is slate with under-floor heating.






This is the fireplace in the new section of the house.  That's a concrete cantilevered box...   ambitious!





The "architect's office/library" in the old part of the house which has old doors and traditional windows.




This is the other side of the "architect's office/library."  Note the wooden slide-out plan files behind the right corner of the desk.  He built these in many of the rooms.





The "family room" in the old part of the house.



This is the kitchen (new part of house, I think) with vintage St. Charles metal cabinets - the same that Frank Lloyd Wright used.

This is the biggest bedroom of four, all upstairs (old part of house?).

This is the smallest of the bedrooms (tiny!) with....  plan files, of course.  I think every bedroom had at least one section of them.

And as interesting as the house was, you get a lot of views of the nearby McMansions, and lots of road noise from nearby and busy Quaker Lane.  Too bad.

Wednesday: A roof with a view (2/16/11)

We made it!  I took this picture while standing on the carport roof.  They reshingled this side of the original roof.

This is looking into the courtyard toward the new dining room.  They clearly haven't done this portion yet, and we've had such windy days that the tar paper gets blown off.  I have a daily regimen of checking the neighbors' yards for stray strips of tar paper.

Here, I'm standing on the new dining room looking into the courtyard toward the back wall of the carport.

This is the top of the chimney with our new chimney cap that will be removed soon.  We'll probably have a small metal cap put on that will be visually minimal.  I think they're not quite finished with the roofing materials, so I'll be curious how this will look.  The portion to the right, over the raised roof in the living room has rubber covering rather than shingles.

The large roof vent is for the furnace and water heater.  The small one is for the plumbing stack and the little flat one is for the bathroom fans, which used to vent into the attic.

And THIS is our lovely back yard.  Can you believe that all used to be paved?  I was so thankful to not have all that to shovel during our last snowfall.  Debbie, we're obviously going to need some landscaping help!

Tuesday: Roof work (2/15/11)

They've gotten a lot of the roofing done, but I wasn't able to get up there this day.  Initially the workers had the ladder against the carport wall so you went up through the skylight opening near the front door.  It's amazing how much more comfortable it made me to come up through that opening rather than having the ladder leaning against the fascia.  I started up the ladder this day and totally chickened out.

Sunday: A dry spell (2/13/11)

Not only has it been a dry spell in visible progress, but it's also been dry weather.  They're taking this opportunity to do the roof, so all our tarps are gone for the first time in months...

This picture is taken looking up in the kitchen with the morning light beaming in.  I kind of like it.  Maybe we should keep it this way.

Friday: How the heck do we get in? (2/4/11)

On Friday, a lot changed - suddenly the window opening we'd been using as the main front entry actually has a window installed in it!  Reuben was pretty confused and upset...



They also added some plywood to the deck portion in front of the new front door and temporary versions of the steps that will lead from the carport to the door.  It all feels so foreign!



So there's the new front door!  Actually, it's a "previously enjoyed" front door, possibly from Habitat For Humanity, with whom the builders frequently associate.  Maybe the door was hanging out with our kitchen cabinets or fridge...  Our new door will be larger (and solid wood), with a sidelite window.





We asked if the left-most fascia board might be switched out because the color was jarringly different from the adjacent one to the right.  This seems much better, although a couple of the boards might need a little tweaking with stain...



Tuesday: Added deck framing (2/1/11)

On Tuesday, they added more of the front deck framing.

Monday: Cedar fascia (1/31/11)

On Monday, they installed most of the cedar fascia board.



And while our neighbors are busily shoveling their driveways, the guys are shoveling the snow off our roof, as it's not watertight yet.  Here, they threw the snow through the "skylight" near the front door...



...and into the courtyard garden.

Thursday: Heavy, heavy snow (1/27/11)

Wednesday evening we got rain, then ice, then 5-6" of really wet, heavy snow.  Washington got completely gridlocked, and Jack left DC at 6:30pm and got home at almost midnight.  Crazy.