A few updates.

Here are a few things that have been done around the house in the past year or so but that haven't as yet made their way onto the blog.



Baseboard and trim around all the doors and windows. Finally!

This makes everything feel much tidier and complete. We used 3/4" poplar which feels substantial even with the small trim that we wanted. I like that the base and the trim are the same dimension. It feels to me like a cake decorator came over with a big pastry bag and iced their way along the floor and around the doors. Except in a nice clean machined sort of way. This doesn't really make any sense but that's how it feels to me.




Here is the trim around the widows in our bedroom. The windows are deep set in the stone wall.




After two prior attempts (grey, bright bright green) we found a color that we like for the spiral stairs. Forestwood! Thanks Sherwin Williams.

Also a large and lovely Evan Hecox screen print up there on the outside of the office wall. Thanks Sarah and Sarah's parents and Country Club Gallery!




The breakfast nook region is installed and painted and Junia, Momom and Popop eat their morning meals over here. Banana mush, Kashi CRUNCH and black coffee respectively. The table and chairs came with the kitchen cabinets and we re-covered the chairs with happy oil cloth left over from our happy wedding.




And this is the shower in the master bathroom. Pretty orange glass mosaic tile that Sarah tracked down with a really heavy frameless glass door. It feels funny to take a shower in something so cubic, it feels vaguely roman or like a very fancy and private YMCA. Hard to explain but it's a good feeling.




This is where we keep our shampoo and ivory and bodywash.

Nursery!? Whoa.

Here are some pictures of the (almost) finished nursery.



Outside that window is the balcony which is lovely. That will get it's own unveiling once it gets pretty outside.





On your way down the stairs.


This is the backside of the wallpaper wall for those of you who remember.


These windows open to the main body of the house.


Just like all the baby books recommend: "place the crib near a potentially perilous drop". I guess I need to put a lock on here.


Ooh..and here is the occupant - Junia Thompson Allan - born February 13th, 2009.


I assume she'll grow into that crib.


Welcome little one.


and naturally Butters likes it too.

and if you don't know, now you know.

Sarah and I are reproducing.


That's right..


... and oh boy is she cute.

I love her.

Just a refresher.

Hi. I just noticed that it's been a long time since I showed you the front of the house. So in case you've forgotten here it is.


We planted double knockout roses on the left side, a peony on the right and a weeping cherry in the middle. Those pretty yellow things were there already.

That is all. Thanks.

Yup.

Look at these pictures and be happy.



Living room!











Living room by night.







Dining room.













Kitchen region.











Small bathroom by the front stairs.



The bedroom.







Master bathroom.







This is the view looking up from the bathtub.





You might want to see what we started with again at this point.



Say hooray. Say it now.



Goodnight.

Ready for Drywall:



After Drywall:



If you need me I'll be in Vietnam.

The Heat is On.

The heat is actually finally on. The floor is warm and Butters is a happy kitty. It was a pretty dang complicated assembly process involving some 150 copper solders (no leaks), 75 threaded black pipe connections for gas (many of them manually threaded with my tired arms), many feet of wire and some fancy wiring, 2 thermostats (and 2 more to come), PVC pipes through the roof for the exhaust and a whole lot of figuring.

Here are some of the technical details which you may or may not find interesting. It's a really elegant system. The building is divided into 4 zones each with it's own thermostat, zone valve and series of tubes. If a particular thermostat calls for heat the zone valve controller opens up the valve for that zone which allows water to run through the appropriate tubes, it switches on the secondary pump and tells the boiler to turn on (if it's not already on heating another zone). The boiler has a bunch of sensors and is a pretty sophisticated little unit. So the boiler is now burning gas and heating water in a hurry which is flowing through the floor tubes in the appropriate zone. The water starts out hot and returns cooler having given off some of it's heat to the floor. As the difference between what's coming back and going out gets closer to a programmed differential the boiler modulates it's heating so that it only heats as much as is required to maintain the right temperatures. Then eventually the thermostat says whoa! and the whole system just mellows out for a while, a long while. It can take like 3 hours for the air to drop just 1 degree once the concrete slab is heated up. There's also an outdoor sensor so that the system can predict rising/falling temperatures and disengage/engage early if needed so there's no lag.

Pictures with labels:









The important thing to know is that it keeps my toes warm and it makes butters curl up like a happy cinnamon bun.