The Estate of Things

Sitting around at Bungalow 404 with Sarah, Dan, DC, the dogs and the brothers is one of my favorite things to do on a summer weekend. We mostly spend our time on the porch talking on a wide range of topics between guitar pickin’ sing-a-longs. This particular weekend, we also ate a pound of pound cake cupcakes!

Sarah’s progress with Bungalow 404 is stunning, and here’s a little peak. (I totally score points with the fuzzy human photo, right?).

Click here to see where she started.

I’m gonna take the nod from Monrovia and attempt to design and sketch my own garden.

They have some step by step instructions on how to do it. I’m sure there’s some fancy, free program download for garden layouts but I’d rather just attempt it with old fashioned colored pencils and graph paper.

We have a blank slate in the backyard at Bungalow 404, I’m embarrassed but here it is,

It’s dissapointing to look out the dining room windows and have that view.

So first we’ll make the plan then the budget and finally…the magic.  I plan on sketching on Sunday, that is my goal and I want to emphasize the word goal.

Those bushes are growing out of an old cement foundation that will need to be removed and the whole yard will have to be leveled before the real fun can begin.  You cannot tell from the image but the yard has a lot of dips and a significant slope near the back toward the woods.

We will have the yard leveled and cleaned up before we have the design plan.  We gave our heavy equipment guy a call and he plans to meet with us on Monday to assess the job and give us an estimate.  And then once he begins the view will be even more depressing.

I’m thinking about something like this…

The circular patio and wood burning fire pit are a definite.

I recently went to a wedding at this property, I like the line of small trees that separate the different zones of the garden. This property is for sale, here. 

I’d like to frame a path with lavendar, kind of like this

I love how the red rises from the lower growing grass.  It’s a great contrast, possibly planted around the circular patio?

I like the concrete stones that were used in this path.

I like this Craig Socia design, thinking a layer of evergreens possible some good old Leyland Cypress along the fence line and then a layer of shrubbery and then a third layer with perennials

Sarah is being way to modest I guess. I got down to her house for Memorial Day weekend and almost flipped when I saw the difference in Bungalow 404. Almost everything is in its place there and the house felt great. Last time I was down it barely had sheet rock on the walls.

We celebrated Dylan’s birthday, had a porch party with the dogs and made some music with Rob (Please check out the original RnB song that we created here). I also snapped a picture of the front of the house so you could have a quick view of the before and after exterior.

Meanwhile, be looking forward to more tales from Sarah’s renovation efforts. I’ll tell them myself if I have to, though I just don’t think I can do them the justice they deserve!!

Before

After

The laundry room (more like a pantry/closet) is off the kitchen. The doorway leading in to this room is an odd width.  I thought, until about a week ago, that I was going to have to settle for bi-fold doors from Lowe’s Home Improvement store. They would have to be cut to accomodate the odd size.  In the midst of my dissapointment over having to look at more standard bi-folds, I found this!

Image via Sunset

They looked fairly easy to build so I asked the carpenter and he said–no problem, I can do it. So the carpenter built the simple frames, sans little silver plugs and I’ll have the local glass company fit it with some glass panels.  I’ll have my version of the doors painted white to match the trim and other doors in the house. Voila!

Exterior painting is slated for next week for Bungalow 404. Four paint samples have been up for about two weeks now, observed in different stages of the day and the family and carpenters have all voted and voiced their opinions-wanted or unwanted.

1- Sherwin Williams, Moody Blue

2- Benjamin Moore, Mount Saint Anne

3- Sherwin Williams, Studio Blue Green

4- Benjamin Moore, Water’s Edge

After much consideration I’ve settled on Studio Blue Green. Originally, I wanted the color to be more along the lines of blue/gray, think a Colorado Blue Spruce collides with a cloudy Seattle day. The decision narrowed to Mount Saint Anne and Studio Blue Green.  But after much deliberation and living with them for a bit I sided with the Studio Blue Green.

Also for your enjoyment I’ve posted the kitchen with cabinet install complete. I think the layout turned out great. I see the reward of putting those three windows in the dining room every time I visit, the light just beams in from the backyard unobstructed by gables or eaves, brightening the whole room.

Also a few pictures of the bathroom tile.

Hall bath, shower wall

Floor tile in hall bath

Shower in Master Bath

The projected finish date has been set for April 1st. Think we can make it?

I splurged on these fixtures from Circa Lighting.  Two of these beauties, hardwired in over the built-in bookcases on either side of the fireplace in Bungalow 404. I try not to think about the price, it makes me feel a little ill. Timeless they are, economic they are not. But I think the $9 ceiling light I am getting at IKEA for DC’s room will balance things out.

Also worth noting, my mother read that Circa Lighting will occasionally have warehouse sales in the areas where their stores are. If you live near one, you may want to investigate this further.

After a long search in both print and on the internet, I think I have found the right source of inspiration for Bungalow 404’s kitchen. If you are fairly indecisive like me, then it’s a relief to finally settle on a look you want to pursue.

Found on pointclickhome

This kitchen has many elements that I like, they are:

• Chrome/Nickel bin pulls
• Black countertops
• Chrome/glass pendants
• White cabinetry
• Ebony, gloss hardwoods
• Open to dining area

Oh and I think it’s important to tell you that I have decided to pack up my little family and move in to Bungalow 404…in case you hadn’t already surmised that. My favorite architectural style right now is Craftsman/Bungalow and I couldn’t pass up the chance to have my very own. And I am pretty sure Betsy is scouring the MLS searching for one that she can call her own because she’s jealous– but hey she gets to go to Europe this Spring.

Back to the kitchen…here are some purchases I have made to outfit 404’s kitchen.

At first I was sold for sure on the Phane pendant at Conran but just decided that it was out of my budget because I needed four and at $350 each, they got the boot.

Instead I ended up with the Clemson pendant from Restoration Hardware which I purchased new on Ebay and saved $40.

You’ll remember from a previous post that I chose white cabinets, some with glass fronts. I’ve also selected Absolute Black granite countertops and I’ve received one quote and am waiting for the cabinets to be installed on 2/9 before I receive the 2nd quote.  One of the stone companies I am working with advised me that Absolute Black granite tends to show scratches more than his Black Pearl and Black Galaxy stone. I had to just take that advise and move on because I couldn’t give up the consistency of the Absolute and I didn’t like the shiny stones or filler in the pearl and galaxy.

I purchased this lovely faucet for the kitchen sink after reading the reviews on Overstock and comparing prices.

Most of the original flooring on the main level is in fine shape and will be refinished. However, in the kitchen and new dining room, there was a mix between cheap laminate flooring and ugly and worn linoleum. New flooring will be installed Monday and it is a dark Hickory Spice by Somerset Flooring. The salesperson assured my Mom over the phone that it was an espresso-like finish.

This is natural hickory which I think would’ve been nice for the basement but we got white oak instead.

The contractor will continue the rest of the carpentry and trim work that needs to be done this coming week to prepare for the painters.  Painters have already started prepping, caulking, sanding and doing some priming.  The original trim work really needs to be sanded and smoothed to prepare it for paint. They plan to clean and pressure wash the exterior to prepare it for paint on Monday. The pressure is now on to select the rest of the interior and exterior paint colors this weekend.  I really want to get the outside color just right, I don’t want to pull in to the driveway everyday and it not be exactly what I wanted to see, it will bother the hell out of me so…I am going to probably paint a couple of samples on and observe those for at least 48 hours and make a decision from there.

It’s been a while since there was an update on the renovation of Bungalow 404. 

Since my last post on the project, the screened porch has been torn off as well as the entire front porch floor.  During an attempt to repair a brick column on the front corner, the porch supports were observed to be deteriorated and compromised because of old termite damage. Good news, no active termites. Bad news, the whole porch floor has to be rebuilt and I am going to reconfigure the screen framing.

I realize not everyone enjoys looking at the early stages of renovation, it can be quite boring. But for those of you out there that want to see 404’s progress, here is a brief visual update.

Meanwhile, some design decisions have been made. A dining room fixture was selected and purchased from CB2.

As far as my choices for the bathrooms, my decisions are still few but I’ve settled on white beadboard for the bathroom in the basement and haven’t made any tile selections there. In the hall bath (one with the difficult air return) I will deffinetly stick with the white subway tile chair rail there and I’d like to use a bigger 16×16 polished porcelain tile which mimics marble but is more durable. I found the polished porcelain at Lowes. I’d like to have the least grout lines possible because here’s the deal–it’s easy to get charmed by those small hexagonal or white round penny tiles but those equal a lot of grout and if you use a white tile then you are going to use a light grout.  Grout gets dirty over time and even with all of the specialty grout cleaners out there, it doesn’t quite come clean. Moral=reduce grout lines or reserve small tiles for bathrooms with the least traffic.

I am stuck on what to do with the three bathrooms in Bungalow 404, well I haven’t really put in the effort on collecting ideas and putting them together. The first bath is in the hall in between the master bedroom and the second bedroom.  I have decided (95% sure) that I would like to paint the hallway Mink by Benjamin Moore, it’s a chocolate brown and I like the idea of bold colors in small spaces.  I think it will elevate what would normally be a boring hallway.

I think that a soft blue bath off of the brown hall is going to be a great contrast. I’m sold on white subway tile and in this particular bath I will be doing a tile wainscoting. I haven’t decided what to do with the floor yet. We are stuck with a vanity because there was a huge air return in the bathroom that the owner didn’t want to relocate so the return had to be framed and boxed in so it will be tied into a vanity to make it disappear. I had originally planned for a pedestal.

I would really like to incorporate a glass door and this one is right on the mark. The wall color on my monitor appears to be the subtlest of blues also something I am searching for.

I like shaded sconces a lot like the ones featured in this image from pointclickhome.  I’m always looking for something timeless, it’s so easy to be so excited about something for your house and in 5 to 10 years want to desperately rip it down. I’m trying to avoid that.

These images helped me peer into the future with the use of a blue/green wall color and white subway tile

I was also considering using small mosaic tiles on the shower walls. Instead of the blue mosaic, I was thinking maybe some white mosaic.

White subway tiled shower walls also a consideration

And I really like IKEA’s circular Grundtal mirror, at $29.99 I like it even more

Again with the mosaics, only a different palette

So I’ve got some work to do on finding the right vanity that is going to hide that hideous air return and I’ve got a lot of concrete decisions to make on this bath with two left to go.

As promised too long ago it seems, I have some interior pictures of Bungalow 404.  Now I have to warn you it is still in bad shape because it wasn’t too long ago that demolition took place.

The living room has these great built in bookshelves on either side of the fireplace.  The shelves were already lit but the wiring was severed and not functioning, so I just asked the electrician to repair and let there be light!

Through craftsman french doors the living room looks into the dining area.  The owner of the house could use the dining room as exactly that or it could also be an extension of the living room.  The existing living area is a bit small and considering that homeowners typically spend most of their time in the living room or the kitchen, my suggestion is to expand the space because there is another great dining space in the house.

Here, we are standing in what was the original dining room.  When looking left, you see the hallway, look right as we are now and you see a bank of windows and the side door.  This door leads out to a small side porch on the side of the house.  The house does have original pine flooring that we will preserve. The original flooring in the kitchen was covered with oak and the oak had to be removed because the floor wasn’t even leading from the dining room into the kitchen after the wall was removed.  The original underneath doesn’t appear to be salvageable and will be covered with tile.

Standing at the entrance to the kitchen, we removed a portion of the wall to create a cased opening.  Some old wiring hangs from the ceiling that used to be in the wall.  In the background you can see the dining area.  The dining area was an old addition with a low ceiling.  We eliminated another wall between the original kitchen and the dining area and knocked out the ceiling in the addition to reveal a slightly taller ceiling.  The ceiling becomes a half-cathedral.  There was a single window that was off-center on the back wall which wasn’t contributing to the room at all so we added three new windows.

This is the view from the kitchen looking to the front of the house.

There are two equally large bedrooms on the main level of the house.  The yellow room is the master at the rear of the house and the pink room is the 2nd bedroom at the front of the house.  The master has a large walk-in closet and bath.

This week the new windows are in which are copies of the old windows.  I couldn’t convince the owner to preserve the old windows that were on the weight system.  It can be done but can cut into your budget and heating/cooling efficiency because they are single pane windows. The plumbing and electrical rough-in is complete and we are waiting on an inspection which will not happen until Tuesday 11/4.  To say we are frustrated about that would be putting it lightly.  We called for the inspection on Tuesday 10/28.

I did not photograph the basement yet because much of the lighting down there has been eliminated or removed.  I have been combing my favorite online lighting retailers lately looking for all kinds of fixtures for Bungalow 404.  I love Restoration Hardware’s pendant lighting lineup.  I found all of these on Ebay.

I also have to say I am quite fond of Pottery Barn’s Porter pendant, which has been around for a few seasons now.

I have some experience with this fixture, I put two of the small ceramic Porters over a bar in an apartment.  The electrician didn’t have experience with the pulley system and for some reason he cut the rope making one of the pendants really short, smart person!  I have received the modified kitchen layout/cabinet plan. This particular kitchen calls for a downdraft range.  This applicance is new to me.  It is a drop-in appliance where the oven is nestled among the lower cabinets.  We will elect to have a smooth cooktop and the unit is vented out of the bottom and through the side wall of the house because we do not have a hood.

The quote on the Avonite countertops is $2350.64 and the quote for the cabinets is $5354.06 (includes installation). I would like to get a quote for black granite for comparison.  Avonite is a man-made product,  a blend of polyester/acrylic alloys and fillers that is like Corian. I’ve got two pendants centered on each window above the sink and two pendants over the countertop that houses the cooktop and some rough-ins for recessed cans for general lighting.