Landscape, Lifestyle and Joie de vivre

 Ah, August is nearly over, but I'm not ready to let go of summer. We're so close to finishing the inside of our house, I'm already dreaming about the outside. Thought I'd share some inspirational pics of landscaping that is just so beautiful. Love the broken concrete and gravel and all the lush vines growing up and around this patio.

 We're definitely going with gravel. No need to mow it and it still allows for yard drainage. You do have to be diligent about keeping the weeds out though. 

 Such a lovely outdoor eating area. The lush vegetation is tempting.

 Glass of wine anyone? That striped table cloth adds a nice punch of color.

 This little seating area is so inviting, don't you think? Grab a pillow, a book and a glass of lemonade. With regard to landscaping our front yard, our challenges will be creating a sense of privacy with an outdoor patio, that is, with a stone or stucco wall, but one that's not too high or too obtrusive as to make you feel disconnected from the neighborhood. 

Like Provence, Carmel is another inspiration for landscaping. We plan to have a grape stake fence. It lends a note of whimsical fairytale to our Euro farmhouse feel.

 This winding walkway pulls you right in. We must have one of these two. Although I don't think I could care for this many plants even though I love how they look here.

La Blanchisserie and Closet Redux

Thanks for being patient! Whew! We just dropped my parents, sister and her two kids off at the airport late this morning. And I had a few minutes after work to blog about our progress. Sorry, I’ve been a bit remiss with posts. We’ve just been having so much fun during my family’s stay. Lego Land, the Science Center and the LA Zoo were among our travels, but it was all of the time back at home, cooking dinner, playing in the pool, watching movies and playing cards (Nertz) together that I loved the best. We are missing them already.

I can report that during the past two weeks my husband never really slowed down our house progress, however. Although we had hoped our house would be done by the time my family arrived at the end of July, alas, it was not. But, we are getting close. And, we did finish the bedrooms and bathrooms enough to be useable. At one point, we had 10 people sleeping comfortably in our house. And when everything is completed, with all of our built-ins, we’ll even be able to fit a few more!

Today’s post is just a quick update on our master closet and laundry nook, which I am loving. See pic above of our closet--although it's hidden behind the partial wall. That cable sticking out is the HDMI cable, which will be used for our new TV, which should be installed next week. Wahoo!

 But before I show you the final closet, take a look at these before photos. Woah. Yes, that's a crib in the hallway. It's sitting in the alcove where the laundry is now. That white door led to the "his" side of our old his and her closets. Not bad. But super cramped inside. And I always wanted to make our bedroom feel a tad more spacious.

 Here's a look at the "Her" side of our closets. At this point, we had just installed that little window up to the left, which later got moved again. See, it's pretty cramped. Hard to find anything in here.

Here's a shot of our closet as you walk into the master bedroom. This image happens to show the concrete floors just after they'd been poured and prior to the dry wall. No dry wall on that partial wall.

Here's an almost complete master closet. It deviates from our inspiration room a little bit because we opted to use some of the leftover cedar planks for the interior and not plaster them over. The planks smelled so good. And who doesn’t love a cedar closet? We used some inexpensive piping to make two rods, one upper (for winter clothes) and one lower (for the current season). Scrap wood was used for the rest. A trip to the Container Store and Ikea has given me some great ideas about where to put our shoes, my jewelry and all the other incidentals that don’t get hung up. We'll likely use the vertical space on the interior sides of the closet as well. After living in our small guest house with just a drawer for my clothes, I’m ready to get organized (and edit down my wardrobe)!

 Here's a reminder of what we were going for with our closet design: clean, organic, but rustic. Notice we have a similar, but not exactly the same, partial wall. We still have to polish our concrete floors and we opted to go gray, not white. I was afraid of the upkeep. I did go to the fabric store to price out linen and a linen/rayon blend to recreate the awesome inspiration curtains, but the price was $17/yard, which I thought cost prohibitive. I opted to go with 8 foot long linen curtains with metal grommets from Ikea, which were only $30 a pair. I will probably go with the Ikea linen drapes for other areas of our house as well because the prices are so great.

Now I'm switching gears to show you the progress we've made on our laundry nook. I like to call it La Blanchisserie, which I think means "laundry" in French. : ) Concrete floor. White washed cedar plank ceiling. And three layers of Vasari plaster. I'll do another post on just the plaster another day, but we are absolutely in love with the look of our plaster walls, which are everywhere (except where there is stone). It's a brighter version of what is called Navajo white (we reduced the recipe by half). Composed of lime, marble dust and fine sand, this plaster is giving the house a beautiful organic look and feel. Beyond aesthetics and no VOCs, the advantages of this plaster are many: it's water-tolerant, breathable, has insulating qualities, absorbs CO2, plus it's naturally resistant to mildew and fungus. And, when it's lightly burnished, it reflects light, which brightens up the entire house. In our old house, we used to have to keep the lights on all the time to see anything, but now we never need to turn on the lights during the day. And here's a tip: washing the walls with a 1:1 solution of Dr. Bronner's Pure Castille Soap and water seals the plaster, making it water resistant with no dusty residue.

Here's a reminder of the old area that would become the laundry nook. Look just inside and to the left of this doorway (under the loft space).

And voila! Here is the after shot. Our stackable front-loaders fit nicely. (As a reminder, this used to be the hallway entrance to our daughter's old bedroom. We thought it may be better used for the laundry, which used to block our old kitchen door. And in case you're wondering, they are LG. So far, we're loving this laundry unit as well. Sure beats doing laundry in the garage and at the laundry mat. While we did install sound proofing insulation in these walls here (as well 5/8 dry wall, which is thicker and more fire resistant) because we thought it would be too noisy to have laundry near all of the bedrooms, it is whisper-quiet except for the music it plays when it's done! Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

This Week's Update: Prep for Plaster

There is dust and debris everywhere this week. Furniture, toys and clothing have made their way into our backyard and it's a mess. Looks like a tornado hit. I spend my weekends white-washing as many cedar boards as I can, but after the first 50, I'm getting pretty efficient at it. It's scary to think that my parents and sister (and her two kids) are coming to visit us (to see our finished house) at the end of July! We have officially blown past all of our estimated date of completion schedules. I'm trying to press for some "Extreme House Makeover" pacing, but it's more like "This Old House" speed. The upside: We're getting to the primer step and that's hopeful. Here's a shot of the kid's bathroom after it's been primed for plaster. Our plaster is a step lighter than what's called Navajo white, so it will be a little creamier than what you see here. And, of course, it will have that lovely aged texture you can only get from natural plaster. 

The kid's shower/tub is taking shape. It got primed, too. There is some grouting details that will have to be tended in order to clean up all of the stone edges and it's on the list. It's just that list is so darn long.

The arch around the doors to the kid's water closet is taking shape. 

This is the area under the loft, which is where Max's bed will go. Just bought a basket on wheels that will fit under his bed and hold toys, but don't have anywhere to store it for now. Is that putting the cart before the horse? Maybe, but it was the last one and it fit the dimensions perfectly.

Another view of all that joint compound.  There is nothing that makes more dust than sanding joint compound. It's everywhere. 

The partial wall that hides our closet got dry wall on Saturday and an HDMI cable for the new flat screen TV. Although we may have to wait a few years to afford anything to put on this wall! But I'm an optimist and like to plan ahead.

A view from the other side of that partial wall in our bedroom. What a mess. But the ceiling looks nice.

Our crew is also simultaneously working on finishing the ceiling in the kitchen. When the ceiling is in, Milo promises we can place all of the appliances and lower cabinets. Can't wait to see how they look. Did I mention we still have to build a base for our sink? Add that to the list. We've been cooking on a barbecue for the past year, so this kitchen will be an extreme luxury.

I hesitate to put this image on here because it's not my best painting job. But when you get one hour to paint while your 19 month old takes a nap, you tend to cut corners. When he woke up, this job had to BE DONE if you know what I mean. This cabinet used to be yellow and green. And before that blue... This was a built-in I found by the side of the road many years ago, and well, rather than get rid of it, I'm hoping to reinvent it again. It will be filled with baskets of Barbie dolls, assorted squinkies, craft supplies, etc.,  and placed in my daughter's loft space. BJ White Linen is the color I had on hand and it works with the neutral color palette. One of the glass doors came to be broken, so I'm removing the glass on the other side and replacing it with chicken wire. I'll post the final pics. Have a great week!

Plank (and Dry Wall) Progress Report

We've just about finished putting in the cedar planks in the North half of our house. And the dry wall. Whew! Today the crew started to add the tape and joint compound in effort to prep for the primer coat and plaster. Here's a shot of the loft area. That's the ram board on the floor to protect the new hardwood floor.

Another view of the loft. It took some time to cut those planks around all the light fixtures and sky lites.

Here is the little nook. The dry wall and ceiling is in.

Here's a view of the bedroom just below the loft. Yeah--dry wall here, too.

Dry wall in the ceiling way above in the water closet for the kid's bathroom.

Here's the area just above the kid's bath tub/shower area. These planks have been coated with a marine sealant.

A view of the closet wall in our master bedroom going in. We decided to continue the cedar on the inside of the closet, but not white wash it like the ceiling. The wall you see here will actually be inside our closet.

Here's another view of the cedar-lined wall that will be inside of our closet.

Here's just a little peek at the ceiling in our kitchen. More of these planks went in today while I've been at work, so I can't wait to see how they look.

Natural Wool Insulation: Not a Baaaad Option

Just a short note to mention one of our new favorite eco-friendly finds: natural wool insulation. Because our ceiling is covered in cedar T&G planks, we had the option of using wool fibers. While you can purchase natural wool in rolls similar to the traditional fiberglass insulation, using the unrolled wool was nearly half the cost and just as good. Hands down, wool is not only a completely recyclable, renewable resource, but it's one of the best insulators on the planet. In fact, after doing some research on the Internet, we were amazed at its additional perks, especially the ability to prevent condensation, breakdown indoor air pollutants and absorb sound. We ordered our wool from Oregon Shepherd. If you're interested, please check them out at: www.oregonshepherd.com. I copied some info from their site here.

Why Use Wool?

There are many natural insulation products available today, so why would you choose wool, or more specifically, Oregon Shepherd’s wool insulation products.

Since 8,000 BC, sheep have been able to adapt to even the harshest of environments; their wool protects them through hot, cold, damp and dry seasons. Because of their crimped nature, when wool fiber is packed together, it forms millions of tiny air pockets which trap air, and in turn serves to keep warmth in during winter and out in the summer.

The crimp in the wool fiber forces each strand to bump up against each other, as opposed to lining up side by side or laying down flat together. This keeps the tiny air pockets intact, acting as little insulators — the key to being able to keep you both warm and cool.

The unique advantage of wool as an insulator is the NATURE of the fiber.

• It absorbs and desorbs moisture, it heats and cools as this process takes place. Wool therefore can absorb moisture in your house, preventing condensation.
• It has plastic memory, not that there is any plastic in wool, but rather that technical description is used to explain the “crimp”; the ability to retain the shape it was in before it left the sheep.
• The energy required to produce our insulation is less than 10% of that required to produce traditional insulation materials.
• Wool can absorb and breakdown indoor air pollutants such as formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.
• Wool is a sustainable and renewable resource; every year our sheep grow a new crop.
• Wool is completely recyclable; at the end of its life as insulation it can be remanufactured, reused, or biodegraded.
• Wool is an excellent absorption medium of sound waves; its inherent qualities provide much more acoustic insulation than traditional insulation in similar applications.
• While wool is generally fire resistant, our wool is treated with a 100% natural solution of organic materials that provide unequaled fire and vermin resistance. These materials are bonded chemically to the wool fiber, not merely “glued on” as in most other insulation products.

Here's a pic of our bedroom ceiling going in. Because our ceiling rafters are not very big, we were limited on the type of insulation we could use. That is, we had to get the biggest R value (insulation measurement) in the smallest amount of space. We first sprayed a three to four-inch layer of Foam It Green insulation, which has an extremely high R rating. It accomplishes in two inches what traditional fiberglass insulation does in six to eight inches. Then, in the space remaining, we're stuffing in the wool fibers. It's all done by hand and kept in place by the ceiling planks.  

The Ceiling Is Going In....Plank by Plank

Our last big flat bed truck load of materials arrived a couple of weeks ago and included in the mix was our 8-inch western red cedar T&G planks. We opted to go with the cedar because it's renewable, has natural resistance to decay and insects (including termites), and is naturally mildew resistant. Plus, it smells incredible and looks amazing. Because I'd like to stick with a very light, bright, neutral palette, we also decided to white wash them, choosing Benjamin Moore's white Linen diluted 1:1 with water. This pic is an inspiration photo. Since our new space is entirely vaulted, we'll be placing our planks on the ceiling, but they also look pretty cool on the wall.

This plank ceiling looks nice and rustic and appears more gray. It's a nice juxtaposition with the white walls and warm toned farmhouse table.

I love this ceiling, too. And for awhile, considered going very dark with our wood floors.

This plank looks a bit more rustic and is a nice match with the material used on the bath tub, which is from Waterworks.

Another pretty ceiling. I'm loving this color palette. So relaxing.

Now, back to our reno. Here is a shot of the ceiling planks going in our son's new bedroom.  That lower window is the transom, which goes above the pocket french doors leading to the kids' bathroom. My plan was to allow for as much natural light to bounce around in here as possible. Hence, the decision to white wash the ceiling and install as many skylites as possible. This room used to be a cave.

Here's a look at the area just above our son's sleeping nook. More planks. And that little square cut-out is actually a "secret" hatch that offers a short cut up into our upstairs loft area. With this angle, you're getting a sneak peek at the built-in bed we've started to craft using the front door from our "old" house. We kept the door knocker and peep hole just for fun. To create the structure of the bottom of this bed nook, we're planning to use the lower half of our old kitchen island. It has some nice built-in cabinetry and shelves for storage, so fingers crossed this works out. You'll notice we sanded the door lightly and I'm thinking of painting it, but the worn look is just so interesting, we might just keep it. What do you think? The texture reminds me a little bit of an old leather bomber jacket.  

Ah, our old bathroom got just a tidbit of the ceiling planks when we installed the "loft" just above it. It adds some architectural interest that this room lacked before. What you don't see are the vapor barrier under these planks and the sound-proofing insulation. That should keep it a little quieter down here when kids are upstairs running around. And we still have to coat these planks with a marine sealant since they are right above our shower.

Here's another snippet of the ceiling just outside the bathroom. This little nook used to be the entrance into the second bedroom, but we closed it off to use the space for our new stackable washer/dryer. Again, we included soundproof insulation in this space to keep things quiet.

After our ceiling is installed, we'll be adding 4X4 beams at four foot intervals. I've been flummoxed by what color the beams should be: natural, white, gray, stained or a more brown color wash? I would have loved to use old, reclaimed wood, but these beams were way too pricey. I do like the look of these beams shown above and below. How do you think they'd look with our white-washed cedar planks? 

Love this color palette.

Love these beams. Wonder if we can achieve this look by painting our beams. The new wood is far too orange-yellow, so perhaps a stain or paint would work to get this weathered, time-worn wood tone. While we're busily white-washing more planks in the driveway this weekend (we only have a few hundred left to go!), we'll also try experimenting with some color options for the 4x4s. I'll report back later.

Escondido and Solana Beach, Calif Shopping Inspiration

It was my stepdaughter's graduation from high school this past Friday, so we sent the dogs to the Pooch Hotel (for a luxurious stay in the presidential suite—a stay we won at our elementary school auction) and we spent the weekend in San Diego County. I think our dog's hotel room was nicer than ours--but no matter. I got to shop at some fabulous shabby antique shops, such as the Urban Barn in Escondido, Calif. The prices were pretty reasonable. And I got so many great ideas! Take a look. This pic above shows how great old reclaimed wood looks next to a white chandelier and a mirror.

The pillows piled a top this cute dresser were made with Rachel Ashwell fabric. Pretty. And the dresser is just a pretty gray color I'd like to duplicate somewhere in our home decor.

There is so much crammed into a small space, you have to stand and stare for awhile to take it all in.

This shot just shows you the size of this place. Out the back is the outdoor/garden area.

Who knew an old ladder hung from the ceiling could look so interesting. Where could I put this? Hmmm.

Good ol' drop cloth curtains. They are heavy, made of cotton and just have a lovely shabby look.

Another vignette in there somewhere.

One of the back rooms at the Urban Barn. I took this shot because I loved the ruffles on those curtains. Not sure if these are drop cloth, too or just linen. But so pretty.

I was loving this old cast iron bath tub. But don't have any place for that.

If you're interested to check it out, the Urban Barn is located at 155 W. Crest in Escondido 92025. (760) 743-7225.

We spent Sunday morning (quickly) walking down Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach, Calif.  It's a design district and is chock full of decor and vintage shops. I love to get ideas just from looking at the design of the quaint store fronts, such as this one at House Vintage. Some of the shops—including this cute one—are closed on Sundays. But I liked taking a peek from the outside anyway.

How cute is that door?

My daughter is into mermaid's right now. So, we had to take a pic of the mermaid sign.

Interesting signs (and one with yet more mermaids) and assorted junk.

There are a few garden shops as well. I love the layering of the plants as shown here. And that fountain planter in the background.

I like the rocks and drought tolerant plants shown here layered on the slope.

And here...

And somebody got really creative with some drift wood to build this horse.