What a difference some paint makes

I should have taken some before shots to illustrate just how bad the paint on the outside of the house was. What might have illustrated it even better would have been a 'during' shot to show the sheer amount of wood showing after they powerwashed and scraped the siding and trim. But as usual, I forgot to do either.

But I will have in the next few days some post-painting pictures to share, and that's kind of exciting. I'll contrast them with the shot of the house I swiped from the MLS listing, showing it all tired and white. The trim is now Navajo White (a bit creamier) with Messenger Bag siding, a nice dark khaki green.

Jeff Chaney Painting has done a great job and taken care of not a small amount of wood rot (we had a hole in our house!) and glazing. Mrs. Blandings and Soodie both gave good reviews and you can now add ours to that list. Photos to follow.

UNRELATED UPDATE: I started this earlier in the evening but posted a few minutes ago, it's just a bit after 11pm. I'm sitting in the dining room with picture windows on two walls, and A FOX just ran down the street. Where do foxes live in the city?

When floor space is at a premium

I know it must seem like I'm obsessed with gutting our bathrooms but it takes a while for plans to come together in my head, so bear with me. The half-bath (with the purple sink and toilet) are way down on the to-do list, but I'm tossing ideas around. Tucked in between the kitchen and the family room, I'm guessing it's about 4 by 6 or so. It's not a bad size, but there are a couple things we can do to make it feel more spacious. One is moving the sink from next to the toilet to the end wall facing the door. The other has to do with the toilet itself.

Pictured above is the Duravit Vero toilet with in-wall tank. Not only does its concealed tank give back a bit of floor space, but look at the sides, all verticle. I'm betting it bolts to the wall rather than the floor, so you don't have to have those flat parts on the sides that catch dust, or those annoying bolt caps that invariable come off when you're scrubbing things down.

My question for you is do you have, or know anyone who has, an in-wall tank? Duravit is a german company and I tend to trust german engineering, but it's very different from what one normally sees so I'm slightly hesitant. Also they're not cheap, so if I decide to go with it (ha!) it's a fairly serious commitment.

From reading around the net, I believe they come with a "service door" that installs on the other side of the wall so you can get in easily should something need a repair. The other side in this case would be my kitchen, but if I place the fridge there (which would make sense in the kitchen plan) getting to the service door could be as easy as rolling it out from the wall.

So, anyone have any experience with these? If you do, please share.

Mr. Blue Sky

The rain is finally gone! The painters are back scraping the house as we speak and the foreman said they hope to work through the weekend. Stay as long as you can boys!

Also serving to elevate my mood, the electricians are in the basement running a 220 line for the dryer.

I'm off to strip some wallpaper, enjoy your day!

Some thoughts on the holidays

NPR this evening mentioned a recent survey report that said 80 percent of respondents planned to buy fewer holiday gifts this year, and a large percentage (I forget the number) was planning to pay cash. Gift buying within our means? And in cash? How un-Christmas-y!

The slow economic recovery and uncertainty about the job market were the reasons that most gave for reining it in a bit this year. Of course this has retailers running scared and apparently the discounting has already begun. (when and how did the holiday shopping season become a business model?) While the report never specifically said it, the general tone was that this was bad news.

Except that it's not. It's not bad news for me, and I hope it's not for you either.

I was an only child and an only grandchild, so I'm completely familiar with a big Christmas. I can remember the piles of boxes and toys. But the thing that I remember most? White undershirts. Always from JC Penney, and always

To: David
From: Grandma & Grandpa

I'm sure they were unwrapped and unceremoniously tossed aside for something more fun, but that memory is still with me because of what it represented: Grandparents who wanted to give me everything I wanted, and made absolutely sure I had everything I needed. White undershirts, as unexciting as they are, meant love.

Brett and I realized a long time ago that we pretty much buy ourselves most things we want, so we downsized our Chrismas. Our hundred buck limit seemed harsh at first, but it forces us to be creative and pay attention. (okay, full disclosure, I actually paid for the sheets the dogs gave us last year) While I like presents as much as anyone, what I like more is when our family obligations are done and we get home, make a drink, and sit down to open our presents together. It's small and laid-back, and only sort of about the gifts, but it's my favorite thing.

I guess what I'm thinking is that as awful as the news seems sometimes, there are some good take-aways if we look for them. It's not our responsibility to prop up the retail sector by losing our heads in December and putting ourselves in debt for months. Nobody needs a bunch of stuff just for the sake of stuff. And just a little bit of thought can make the smallest gift the best gift. Sometimes less really can be more.

And while I'm on the subject, none of this should start before Thanksgiving.

Number please

I hate bad house numbers. I used to think that companies made a lot of ugly digits for the outsides of our homes, but I've changed my mind. I now think that options are relatively slim, and that half the country uses those sort-of-script serif numbers in black. While I think those are bad, at least they're not the number-spelled-out-in-script ones that make my head hurt.

Richard Neutra specified aluminum numbers for his homes, and you can buy them through Design Within Reach. I think they're pretty much perfect, but the problem is, they're 48 bucks a piece. I've got far more pressing needs that I can throw my 200 dollars towards right now, but when everything else is done, these will be mine.


While we wait, these were six or seven dollars at Westlake. Yes, the hardware store. Simple, silver, sans serif. (I like them so much I'm thinking about using them as drawer pulls on a piece of furniture I need to paint)

Plus they're about five inches tall which should show up from the street. We'll mount them over the porch on the now-will-be-Navajo White trim using the floating installation. I think a bit of shadow should make them show up just fine.

And yes, for the photo they're sitting on our unfinished, paint-splattered, long covered up hardwoods. See, plenty of other places to spend.

Firsts! Visible improvement

Tomorrow excitement comes to Chez Malaise with the beginning of our first big project - exterior paint!

The gutter guys should be there early to remove the old guttering and give the painting company a clear shot at everything they need to do. Following them the paint crew will begin powerwashing and hand scraping the house. I'll be very interested to see what results that yields as the paint is so bad it practically blows off in a strong breeze.

As for color, our original plan was to trim in black and add some color to the casa with a dark green. The test patches were bad, and the black was the issue. We're going with the green (Sherwin Williams' Messenger Bag) with their Navajo White for the trim. The white isn't bright and should provide a nice transition between painted wood and stone, and the Messenger Bag should contrast nicely with both stone and trim. The current black shutters are in horrible shape and will be replaced at some point, but will remain black as I still like it as an accent. A new front door is on the list but I'll likely paint the current door black for the time being.

I'll post a shot of the simple silver numbers soon.

Mrs. Blandings comes a calling

Sunday I ran out to the workshop to grab a can of black paint for some color testing on the house. I was getting in the car to come back home when Brett called: "Mrs. Blandings came by, and brought muffins!"

While there is one shown in this photo, our welcome was actually a huge plate of delicious pumpkin muffins. Delicious pumpkin muffins that disappeared in embarassingly short order. Tied with a grosgrain ribbon in her signature black and white.

That was so nice of you Patricia, thank you very much. It totally made our weekend.

Exterior paint and associated good news

It was a full house at Chez Malaise today. Brett's cousin picked up his folks on her way to Kansas City and brought everything for a fun family lunch. Both her daughters (who live in town, one just blocks away) and one of their husbands joined us for house touring and KU Football. The touring and discussing plans was fun, the football, not so much.

I started the day early with a trip to the laundromat, or as my mother says, the wash-a-teria. Our washing machine is in and working (with one hose to change), but the dryer is sitting sadly with no place to plug in until the electrician comes this week. (who has gas dryers anymore?!) I did a load the other night and used the clothesline we found strung in the basement. Rather than the "fresh from the sun and wind" I remember from my grandmother's outside clothesline, I got stiff and crinkly and unwearable. Laundromat technology has certainly advanced since my college days. They have a five-loader washer at $8.75 a pop. Of course I had whites, colors, and sheets/towels so I had to split among three.

During the festivities here the first paint contractor came by to bid our outside painting. We thought we'd wait until spring for that, but frankly the exterior of the house is in such bad shape that it's kind of a bummer every time we come home. The company was recommended by a friend in the guttering business, and once again, technology has come a long way.

He walked around the entire house with us, asking questions and plugging information into his laptop. With all the information on what we wanted, and all the estimates on what we needed, he had a full and extremely detailed quote, with options on a few things we'd discussed, in about 30 minutes.

The good news is that there is far less wood rot than we expected. He found two places where they'll have to replace boards, but that was it. His guess is that the house has not suffered from neglect it's entire life, but rather just for probably the last 20 years. Basically he says it looks worse than it really is.

We'll probably get another bid or two as a number of people have recommended painters, but I have to say, I like this company. I had a lone man paint my first house in Brookside, and while he did a good job, it took just over six months. He'd disappear, reappear, paint some more and then he was gone. Even the best lone painter is going to take longer, and we're running out of good weather. A large crew can do everything needed here in a week to ten days, and more importantly can start late next week.

So we went out tonight and got paint chips to narrow down candidates to sample on the house. And I'd seen some house numbers I liked so we picked those up as well. More to follow.