Interior Decor

 June 2022

Time to start the interior fun stuff. While the painters handled the majority of the painting, there were a few walls I wanted to do something special to. 

First up was the laundry room. Who says a laundry room has to be an ugly utility space? Mine got wainscoting, and flower and butterfly stickers. After all, a laundry room that sports a chandelier also has to have classy walls. 

Next up was the bedroom. I wanted a yellow wall, but the first color was WAY TOO yellow. The second choice from the paler end of the card was much better. Now 3 years, later, I've still done nothing else with this room. 

My sewing room wall was the fun one. This took LOTS of measuring, lots of tape, and lots of time. I used 5 shades of pink, created by mixing the darkest pink with various amounts of the grey wall color. 

The entry was the last wall done. I had the help of a couple friends, and I used the same shade of blue that I had in the old living room. 

Ultimately, I wasn't happy with that shade of blue. I wanted a deeper navy, to go with the navy curtains. In January 2024, I started in on round 2.

I also painted the wall above the kitchen.

Then we finished things up with some trim work and coat hooks.

The room was finished up in February with some trim and beadboard on the end of the island. 

Exterior Wrap-up

June 10th, 2022

With the exterior completed, the dumpster and equipment gone, and the mud dried up, it's time for the final grade. This felt like a bigger deal than it was; it took the yard from construction site status to yard status. 

Due to all the mud we dealt with early on, the entire courtyard was graveled right up to the fronts of both buildings. When I talked with the excavator's young employee, I asked him to give us a little more green space, which meant digging out gravel and replacing it with real dirt. He seemed a bit dismayed by this request, but did it willingly. 

Sid's shop: This was the largest area that was dug out. Now, 3 years later, I'm really glad we did it. It's the biggest green space.

Right in front of the house we did an angled strip that went from the width of the porch on the west end, and tapered to a point next to the garage. I would have liked to keep the width all the way across, but the position of the building required gravel where Sid would need to back up to the shop garage. The combo of truck and trailer has some serious length we had to accommodate.  Right now I'm looking at how much edge of the front porch is visible. Somewhere along the line, the gravel ended up at the same level as the porch, and it's a pain because rocks are constantly kicked onto the porch to be stepped on. I want that edge back! 

The west end of the house. This is where the most hill had to be removed to fit the house in, resulting in a rather large slope. The worker was going to just smooth the hill all the way to the house, but I had him scoop out an area of relatively flat lawn. It's all graded to allow the water to flow away from the house, and currently needs a bit of attention to correct the settling along the wall. It left us with a fairly steep bank which has been a bear to get grass to grow on, and to mow. 

The side yard- this is the area between the buildings. Photos taken from the little extra window that ended up at the attic landing. 

Three years later- This is definitely utility space. There's more weeds down there than grass. 

June 14th, 2022

LAST load of gravel delivered to finish things off. 

THIS is when I lost my porch edge! 

Our west field was graded. This area got a lot of truck traffic throughout the building process. 

Finished driveway!

Propane tank in its final resting spot.

Sprinklers and hoses in use, attempting to start a lawn. This has been a long process! Three years in and I'm still starting seed in various places. 

Catch-up!

 It's been a while since I posted, and I'm doing so now purely to wrap up all the details so I can get this blog printed for posterity. Last post was June, 2022. It is now May, 2025.

After the last post, things started happening REALLY fast! There was a lot of interior details to take care of, and we moved in the first week of July, 2022. So many interior spaces were finished over time, so there was not any "finished" space to post about. I'll try to make separate posts for different topics. Thank goodness for Google Photo keeping all my pics in order and dated!