Raising the Roof

Well, I guess we've been so busy enjoying our new deck since July, not to mention preparing for Luigi's arrival, that I have completely dropped the ball on finishing our deck building story. Prepare yourselves for a massive deck catch up in the weeks to come. I'm going to attempt to finish telling the story before Luigi gets here, and set up some installments to post automatically while we get used to life with a newborn. Of course, I plan to drop by and tell you all about him as well.

But let's get back to the task at hand. When I last told you about the deck, I was recounting a weekend in May when my Mom was visiting, and we all spent some time preparing the rubber roofing. This next phase of work took place over Memorial Day weekend, which, you might recall, was extremely warm. I remember well, because it was the first time I got a feel for exactly how difficult it was going to be getting through the summer pregnant.

At this point, since I'm so far behind, I will let the pictures tell most of the story. Here are a series of Greg finalizing the deck framing.

Every good structural engineer has to include some cross bracing somewhere, right?

The posts above are for the railing. 

It was a challenge to drill the bolt holes for the railing posts because of the 12" spacing Greg chose for extra stability, and the potential to screen in the deck as a room some day. 

Once the framing was settled, it was time to lay down the strips of rubber my mom and I cut. Each piece was cut as a trapezoid, so when we lined up the edge of the rubber perfectly with the edge of the joist, the troughs that were created naturally sloped away from the house. 

Now, I know I wasn't able to help much with the heavy labor of the deck this summer (not that I minded much), but I did help all day with this project, in the high 80s humid heat. And it was tough! I had the job of holding the rubber on the edge of the joist while Greg stapled it in place. He then covered the edges with a special rubber tape to ensure a water seal. 

The gutter from the roof line comes down the corner of the house, where we put the deck, so Greg put in a pipe to divert the downspout under the decking, but above the rubber roofing, so the run off from the roof would flow out with the water that falls through the decking surface. 

A few days after the rubber roofing went on, our decking boards were dropped off from a local lumber yard. It was really exciting to see them arrive, knowing we would soon be able to actually stand on our new deck!

Then & Now: The Master Bedroom

It's time for another installment of Then & Now. This time featuring the master bedroom.  It was a pretty blank pale yellow canvass when we moved in.

For some reason, I never take shots looking back toward our wall of doors. Probably because that's where we hide the mess, hanging from various over the door hooks, which pretty much keep our closet doors from ever being completely closed, and because I'm not entirely satisfied with the shoe storage solution that we have going on. So, this is just a reminder at what the wall opposite the windows looks like. 

Lastly, a before and after on my dresser solution that we replaced with a nice new grown up bureau. We ended up using my old maple chest of drawers in Luigi's room. It had been dinged up over the years, but is very well constructed, and should last a lot longer, so a fresh coat of paint did it justice, while I got to benefit from a solution that finally complimented the rest of the room!

So here's the breakdown...

What did we do?

• Refinished the floors
• Paint (Greg and his brother would both argue that I should have left the sloped portion of the wall/ceiling white instead of purple. I hold firm that I made the right decision. I think it would be especially weird behind the armoire to have a high contrast line between white and purple)
• Window treatments - both wooden blinds and curtain
• New bureau
• Refinished my Gram's dressing table
• Reconfigured Greg's closet to allow access into the attic (not shown)
• Lights added to both closets (not shown)
• Insulated the storage eaves (in the eave behind the dresser)
• Added the old sage green recliner from the living room with a new red slip cover. (It's now Siegfried's favorite place to sleep at night.)

What's left?

• Carpet. Probably carpet tiles in a few areas. Greg doesn't love carpet. I don't love carpet covered in cat hair, but I also don't love putting my feet on a cold floor in the middle of winter!
• New light fixture. Ceiling fan maybe?
• New finials on the curtain rod (try not to notice that the ones up there are blue!)
• Paint the trim, and touch up all the paint
• Shoe storage solution, perhaps built-in along the outside for Greg's closet
• New upholstery on the cushion at the dressing table
• New bedside lamps
• Art on the walls
• Very long term: bump up the eaves storage to create a master bathroom and walk-in closet

Then & Now: The Dining Room

Continuing the look back at where were started, and where we are after two years in our house, this week, I bring you back to the dining room, again set up for our fourth of July party earlier this summer. 

Our dining room furniture was well established when we moved in, so the biggest transformation in this room has simply been the pain color. 

What did we do?

• paint
• add lighting to the storage cabinets
• hung art on the wall

What's left?

• more art
• new wine storage
• possibly a lower more high-chair/family friendly table
• a new light fixture? there's nothing wrong with the one that's there, but it's not extremely interesting
• a new screen door 
• a new exterior door that is actually insulated
• window treatment? not sure if we need it
• a split system air conditioning unit house outside that will vent into the dining room to cool the main floor, and above to our bedroom

The Nursery

The long awaited nursery reveal is here! I spent Sunday morning making the room look photo shoot worthy. It will probably never look this way again, but at least I will always have it documented, right? So, without further ado...welcome Luigi's new room! If you are curious about where things came from, there is a resource list at the bottom end.

This is the view you see from the hallway. 

Once you get to the doorway, you can see a little bit more. 

I'm really happy with the way my scrapbook paper animal faces came out. At some point, I would like to add more art on the other wall above the crib, preferably something with words/letters. But, I think that can wait for now.

When you turn around, and look behind you, you can see the big wall of stripes. Have I convinced everyone that purple is completely acceptable in a little boy's room yet?

I'm sure the objects on the floating shelves will be constantly changing. 

Here's the crib from the closet wall. 

From the far window, looking back at the closet, you get a good view of the rocking chair and dresser. 

We created animal face artwork to compliment the colors of the stripes, and the subtle zoo animal there.  It was really important to Greg that Luigi have some faces to interact with. Of course, I wanted something very graphic and not too characterish or themey. I think we came up with a good concept. 

And coincidentally, the mobile has almost the exact same combination of animals. Just swap a zebra for a tiger. But they both have stripes. 

Zoo mobile

Cuddly Courdy Roy the Horse, sits on the rocking chair and adds an extra splash of purple. 

Yes, I even got coordinating cloth diapers. But only a few so far...we still need to see how it goes. 

But they look really cute on the changing table, don't they?

Luigi's first Matchbox car, a purple pickup truck selected by his cousins H & L. 

Cool wooden race cars from my friend T who is expecting a boy in January. I think Luigi will be playing with these much before we let him touch the purple pick-up. And maybe someday T and her son will come to Boston so he and Luigi can play cars together. 

Toy/Book shelf, stocked up and ready to go with so many wonderful and
generous gifts from family and friends. 

Really cool robot piggy bank, a gift from Granny's friend. 

Resource List:

• Dresser - my old dresser, painted in the same colors as the stripe wall
• Eiffel Tower Lamp - have had it for awhile, it will probably be replaced eventually when we find something different. I think Target still carries this in black. 
• Rocking Chair - found in my Gram's house years ago, and painstakingly painted and reconstructed to get rid of the horsehair and hay cushions. Amateur no-sew upholstery in Boca Pacific. 
• Blackout Curtains - found at many online retailers, can't quite remember who I actually bought the from. 
• Ottoman - from Target
• Carpet Tiles - FLOR, Feeling Groovy in Lime, Sky and Iris. 
• Crib - Babyletto Hudson
• Changing Table - IKEA Gulliver
• Toy/Book Shelf - IKEA EXPEDIT, in high gloss white. Can be used vertically someday as well, if need be. 
• Wall Shelves - IKEA LACK in high gloss white. 
• Mobile - Nojo Jungle Tales
• Bedding & Changing Pad Cover - Morning Zoo from Land of Nod.
• Striped Pillow in Crib - IKEA VLABORG
• Lamp on book shelf - IKEA VIDJA
• Paint - Sherwin Williams:
• Main Walls - Cay
• Stripes - Secure Blue, Lime Rickey, Aquarium & Genetian