Bit by bit

The sage continues with the endless amount of tongue and groove cedar.....

I can't count anymore how many brush strokes and gallons of stain I have racked up.  I'm in the thousands for sure.....and who needs to work out anymore when you climb ladders all day long?

Not me....when you climb up and down a ladder twice in 6 inch increments all day long it's enough to drive a person to drink.  Well, having a tasty beverage near by has numbed the back pain and pulled us through mentally but it's still daunting.

It's beautiful and essential to the design, but boy I'm I sick to death of wood.

On a positive note, since this post has a agitated negative tone, it's nice to be working inside out of the rain and cold and back into more familiar ground....

God Rays

My husband snapped these shots a couple of days ago early one morning.  So beautiful don't you think?

I have been "in the trenches" lately...........  In the beginning of a project your energy is high and by the end your running on fumes so tired and waiting for it to be over. It causes you to forget what you are doing and why you are doing it.  Then you look at photos like these and remember that this is only going to happen once.  This moment in time will never exist again and if my face is down in the trenches so stresses and worried I'm going to miss all  the beauty that's happening right above my head. That's why I love documenting this process, I can't wait to look back in 5 years and recap what we did from a differentt perspective.  This project has taken things for me to a whole new level, in some ways things haven't turned out as I had hoped, and in others they are better then I expected.  Maybe that's what I needed to get out of this, and the god rays are singing loud and clear.

Let the light shine in

I forgot to post about my garage doors.....they have been installed for awhile now and I was totally in love with them the minute they were in place.  It's funny to admit that you were in love with aluminum frames and glass, but these beauties make my entire garage sing!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                     

We went round and round about some fiberglass plain Jane simple door or these expensive little suckers. In the end the decision of cheapen out on a huge element (that you are most likely never to replace unless broken) was a no way and a splurging must.  Plus I designed the garage to have no windows around the perimeter to ensure lots of storage.......so it would have been a

   dark cavern = no place for me.

The odds and ends

Finishing up the little details for the exterior siding before we complete the inside has been a BIG mental challenge for me. I have been buying kitchen cabinets, tile for the floor, staining the wood ceiling etc. but nothing should be started inside until I finish that darn exterior.  I don't want to be touch up painting in the middle of a rain storm on a tall ladder 20 feet high, so I had to just force myself to pick up that paint brush and finish what I started.

I'm pleased to report that all the exterior hardi panels got a fresh and final coat of paint, exterior wood nail holes filled and stained,  exterior trim around all the soffit vents had to be installed and stained / painted, exterior lights installed and programed and the largest task of painting the exterior stairs and installing the wood landing are all complete! Yippy!!!

So, to be truthfull....... there are still a couple of small odds and ends of metal trim on corners that will be unfinished until the end, nothing too noticable but for budget purposes we can live without them for now.  I feel so much better to have that checked off my huge list and now the fun part that I have been waiting for all project long can begin!  Plus it just started raining so....... it's going to be nice and dry inside!

Who are those guys?

 

Some quick photos (thank you mom) of our new  product line we have been using this past week while painting, fun times and definitely time for a facial....happy Friday!!

One man's trash is another man's treasure

I know that these aren't really exciting pictures, but I'm a sucker for the small stuff.  These scrapes of wood were left over pieces from the exterior siding. When we were finishing up the siding a couple of months ago I just couldn't throw the left overs away.  It was such a waste!! Well, let me take that back considering how much some people over order for materials then throw them away because they had to much.  I ordered the exact sq footage plus 10 percent for mistakes and such, but enevitably you always have a scrape pile.  The point that I'm getting to (it's just taking me awhile) is that your scrape pile might still be full of good stuff and could allow you to save some money for other areas.  Sounds good right?

So the pile of scape's moved to the corner of the building waiting for a new home.  And finally yesterday they were dusted off and re cut to there new destination of the bedroom niche.  This element has always been a little off to me.  It's never felt quite right even when I was first designing it. But now the wood is defining the line of the niche........ it's like a whole new niche.  The entire element actually has become important to the space, even from outside looking up into the room.  (Hummmmm It's like I planned it......shhhhhhhhhhhh)

My middle ground

This project has really been a struggle for me when it comes to my design decisions.  I have been picking paint for clients and my own projects for 8 years with no problems.  But I have really had some conflicting conversations in my head about what direction I want to go when it comes to wall color. I know in my head how I want it to feel but the designer in me wanted to go all bold and bright, and the architect in me wants the spsce to speak for itself and not be distracted.  After much debate (with myself and my poor husband saying he wasn't to sure about any of it) and one paint flub I finally decided. 

This color (which is called Soothing Aloe) from Benjamin Moore is the perfect balance to me between designer Terra and architect Terra.  Its not aqua blue screaming in your face and it's not white and boring with no personality.  Its not the focal point of the room, its just the middle ground. Just where I want it to be!