We Are Getting There

The painting is almost done inside.

Those are words I didn't think I would ever say a couple months ago. But basically, painting should be done inside in the next day or two. I'm going to hire the same painters to finish up the outside painting, too.

But hey, where was I, why no updates?

We went to Peru for a week to spend time with an old friend. I loved Peru, we had a great time, we did some amazing things, we did some tourist-track things, and we ate more food than I believed possible. Also, I took a LOT of pictures of masonry.

Anyway, house update. Let's do it.

First, the driveway is mostly done:

I'll do a more detailed post about permeable paving in a bit. The short story about it is that it costs a lot more than standard paving, and if you are over soils that are less permeable than our sand, they need an overflow drainage system designed into them. I believe permeable systems are what we should all be putting in everywhere, but I also understand why most people don't.

In addition to the paver section, we also put in a grow-through paver section for the third parking space that the planning department insisted we install. This parking space is utter garbage, because in no way do we need this many parking spaces, but whatever. We did it and I'll plant little dymondia plants to fill it in.

We are waiting on the curb cut because the city messed up our permit for that, so we basically had to go reapply for it. That should be fairly straightforward.

In the back yard, the general contractor did a bunch of grading work for me:

That's a little intense but saves me some digging work. This summer is still going to be all digging all the time as I work on the master plan for the landscape.

What, you want to see inside the house?

I was concerned that I would not love the colours I chose for the parlours after three years of delay in painting them. But I still love them.

This is very similar to the old colour, just a little softer and warmer to fit the softer, warmer grays we have in the rest of the house.

I apologize for this photo but at this time in my life I am not willing to do anything that might interfere with the work of a painter.

The kitchen looks pretty great, too. I think the ceiling is the wrong colour but I really don't care. Honestly, you have no idea how low your standards get when you are in year four of not living in your own house.

I do kind of wish I had painted the whole house this colour, though, if only to see people cry in the comments. God I love this room.

When the painters are all done and I'm ready to move in, I'm going to gild the ceiling. I got all the stuff for it. Just watch me.

The front staircase looks pretty amazing, too. The black I chose is juuuuust not quite a harsh black and I really like that.

Here it is upstairs.

I think it looks pretty nice. A little dented and old, but it is a little dented and old.

The electrician has been at the house for the last week, installing light fixtures. This weekend I have to do there and make a count of all the light bulbs we need. There are a lot.

One thing I went a little nuts with was reading lights. I like to read in bed, and I like a nice light. Now we each have one.

The chandelier in the front bathroom is very cute. I think that's a trick you can only pull off once in a house, so I went for it.

I'm going to take more pictures with the nice camera once more of the stuff is cleared out of the house. And this weekend, four of our five plaster medallions are being brought back from being restored. (The fifth is still off being copied.) Things are moving forward!

posted by ayse on 02/08/19