Uncle Bill has been waiting patiently for this one...

David Bowie moved in recently. Changes, like the one that came to my parents (me) and released by Bowie in 1972 are on track to enter our lives this June, and we are VERY excited!

She will have much love an support from mom, dad ( still have time to get use to that title ), sister(s), the Carl, and MANY, MANY more. Not to mention the future new and first time grandparents on both sides.

The wife is doing VERY well! Years of healthy livin' and a naturally taut midsection has blessed ( or cursed ) her with what many laymen onlookers consider a late-blooming-baby-bump. We are more keen on the growth and are most recently enjoying feeling "flutter" from time to time.




01.02.11_____01.09.11______ 01.16.11



01.26.11_____ 02.06.11_____ 02.27.11

We even took some time to run away from the cold and snow of a wicked northeast winter. The Babymoon found us in warm Punta Cana, sipping fruity drinks beach side and treating our wintry shell to a much appreciated thaw.













Back to reality... The current office / wife's closet / spare room / library will soon receive an update to a hopefully hip and adorable nursery for the little girl.







Current inspiration are blushing orchid tones with a muted, warm buff base.



Potential projects ( along with fitting out the nursery with the usual suspects) include the following:

• Remove Wall Paper
• Fix the infamous "hole"
• Install ceiling fan
• Paint
• Install built in cabinets
  

We will keep you up-to-date on transition of the family as well as the room!!

Welcome Back

I know, I know... it's been a LONG time since a blog post; but I have a great excuse...

No, no I don't.

But a few things have been done in our lovely home. From the beginning, even before moving into the home, we felt that some of the colors and most of the "style" of the home seemed to be better fit for a couple / family much older than we are. We have a saying called " house appropriate" and one of the biggest things that was NOT "hose appropriate" to us was the dominate blue green color of the foyer and upstairs hallway. It is a bit dark and heavy, not a horrible color, but not really a great unifying color for the interior of the home, especially with the dark wood. Here are a few "before" examples



The living room yellow was not too bad, but again, a bit old and out dated for our tastes. We are also into distinct accent colors; and to achieve a good accent, you need to have a quite, simple background... So we have moved into clean, contemporary, yet "house appropriate" neutrals. The foyer before and during painting...


The updated foyer.... and YES, we are getting a new light - more on that later





I know in the pictures it may look like "white" but the actual tone is quite charming, "Silky Bamboo" is the color, and it has a warm, bright tone to it. The remnant green at the top of the stairs belongs to the rest of the blue green upstairs. THOUGH.. seeing the pop of color at the top of the stirs has moved us to plan on placing a bright print on that wall.

The simple living room with a new sectional.. in the picture it's hard to tell the color change, but trust us.. it's great! We chose "Baja" for the living room.. and in the first pick you can see the color difference between the yellow and the new color ( on the bottom )

All in all we really like the clean bright look of the foyer and stairs, and the comfy living room...
Next - the foyer light and spring time outdoors in the wood!

All aglow...

We thought we'd share a few images of our first Christmas season in our new home

The ever so angelic Mockadore ( big laugh ) getting her Christmas Present

and we were lucky to bring along some old friends and great memories into our new home

Happy New Year to everyone - Let's make it a great one!

Blue Christmas

This will be a relatively quick post with a few pictures.

We decided to tackle the kitchen, partially at least. In the long run we would love to get new counter-tops, cabinets, floors and ceiling. This is a task and investment that will need to come later. For now though we decided to rid ourselves of the checkered /plaid wall paper in hopes to move the space into a more simple and clean looking space... less fussy.

So, below is an image sequence with a few descriptions now and then.

A beautiful shot of the "before" walls... The majority of open wall is near the " back" of the kitchen, towards the rear door and first for bath / laundry. Most of the other walls are occupied by cabinets.


When we began to take down the wallpaper we soon found that there were TWO layers of paper to remove, with the second layer being painted / sized over. This made the process VERY difficult and time consuming. Add to that all the odd nooks and slivers of wall that needed to be treated and you end up with late nights and sore backs.


We decided to go with a color in the blue range, which was also a hard choice. Trying to find just the right hue that went well with the warm wood color as well as the cabinets that we are keeping for the moment was hard task. In the end we believe we found one that fits with the style of the home as well as all the odd tones in the kitchen.

And in the end, the result was well worth all the hard work in our eyes...




We had very nice toile curtains that Wife made which have both the buff and blue colors in them. They really bring the space all together. Who knows - Obama has promised us a nice first time home-buyer pick me up in the new year which may go to complete the kitchen (or possibly towards another room in our home)

Where have all the flowers gone...

WAIT.. WHAT IS THIS?!?!? AN ACTUAL POSTING!!!!

Yes, yes, yes... its been quite a while since a posting so here we go with another exciting adventure into home rehab / repair...

To bring everyone up to speed, we have had quite an eventful summer and fall; one which drew us away from the home on many a weekend. Now, as the leaves have fallen and the chill of New England fall / winter settles around us, we find ourselves in the home during the weekends more often.

Our eyes and ambitions focus on the interior and how we can slowly make our home more "our" home. One location that has been on our shortlist as well as a thorn on our side for quite some time now is the first floor bath / laundry. In case you have forgotten the beauty which is this small room, please take a moment to reflect on the images below.


Serenity was not precedent in this decorating scheme - and we sought to bring a tad of calm to the space, be it that it is so small and being asked to serve multiple tasks ( "public" bathroom / laundry )
I had a week free from work recently and decided to attack the space head-on! One major hurdle in working in the small space was the large washer and dryer, that remained in the space during the rehab. I'm a limber guy, but not THAT limber; so sufficient to say, certain joints and muscles are still expressing their discomfort. First task - rid the space of the oh-so-beautiful floral pattern.




There seemed to be a feeble attempt at a base board and chair rail that the previous owner threw on the walls. That too was out!

Discovery is a wonderful thing, and past, patched holes in walls, tight piping joints / runs and large gaps between floors and walls were par for the course. We briefly toyed with the idea of removing the drop ceiling ( which WILL happen in the future ) but we soon found that it may take a bit more time and money that we had originally allotted to this rehab.




After priming and patching, the room was ready to receive its new color - Mountain Haze~ a subdued light green ( that we felt could work with the dark green and white tile floor which was to remain )


And why, you ask, would we chose to keep that lovely GUT-WRENCHING-OFF-GREEN lower wall color? Because we LOVE IT! .. no... because we decided to cover the lower wall with a proper white wainscot, baseboard and chair rail - once again, trying to unify the room, and brighten up the lower, darker floor area.





Working in the tight space / with no-true 90 degree corners, around pipes and laundry machines, trying to cut the board and trim angles correctly was quite a task, but in the end the result is quite nice.


We also replaced the cabinet hardware ( along with putting the doors on right side up - if you are interested, look back at the old pictures and notice that they were originally installed upside down... don't ask... ) We also said goodbye to the shell-shaped toilet seat. You will be truly missed.




To freshen up the space, all the trim along with the new woodwork received a fresh coat of pure white paint ( Wife is always right! ) Future minor updates will include a new wash mirror, probably a tall oval one, old laundry prints in frames, and a some sort of curtain divider between the laundry equipment and the washroom space ( for parties and such ) I will post additional images when those amendments arrive.