Bye September and October

We must have been sleeping off the effects of our kitchen remodel because September came and went without a single post and October almost did as well. We even missed our ninth house-i-versary (that's totally a thing). At least it wasn't the big One Oh. The truth is, we didn't really do much to the house all last month. This month, however, has been all about the yard. It's definitely fall, folks.

First though, a bunch of pictures from the summer that I never posted because I was too distracted by kitchen stuff. Our butterfly bush by July had gotten higher than our gutters. Until it fell down under its own weight and just sort of lay on the grass for the rest of the summer (leaving a nasty empty spot under it where all the grass died, but at least the butterflies were happy):

 Our new crepe myrtle did indeed bloom a cotton candy pink and seems to be happy in our yard.

We had a ton of black-eyed Susans and quite a few echinacea (though we'd still like more of the latter):

 Even our tiny primrose was happy and bloomed much of the summer (foot for size reference):

 Some red tiger lilies:

 Some fragrant pink lilies:

But of course, all that is in the past. A few weeks ago ago, we trimmed back, cut down, and otherwise groomed the front gardens. We got rid of the dried husks of black eyed susans and cut down the long iris leaves that we always leave until spring. We cut the butterfly bushes back to almost nothing, after the one near the house had grown so big that it was taller than the house and then had fallen into the yard and driveway (we didn't want to trim it too early because the butterflies and bees were enjoying the flowers so much). For a couple weeks in a row, our yard waste collection looked like this:

We've had a few other yard adventures that I hope to share with you soon. Let hope that almost two-month hiatus doesn't hit again!

The Kitchen, Finally

Let's cut to the chase, since I made you wait a few weeks, before I show you some process pictures. The bottom line is that we LOVE LOVE LOVE our new kitchen. We did not, however, love the process. I was too frustrated to blog about the progress while it was going on, after the initial few days. Communication issues, scheduling delays, etc. But it's all done now and we couldn't be happier with the final outcome. So without further ado, kitchen money shots:

So to backtrack a bit from where we left off earlier this month, here are some installation pictures for the counters. They set the join between the two pieces just to the left of the sink, using giant clamps to hold it in place.

I wasn't thrilled with the join. I had suggested going to the right of the sink (which is usually under the drying rack or at least a little more hidden) or at the sink itself, but our installer preferred to do it away from spots that are constantly wet and I think also wanted smaller pieces to work with, though he didn't admit it. The two sides weren't entirely smooth and I could feel a little edge, which was very annoying when wiping things like, say, messy peanut butter, from the counter. He argued that up to 1/16'' was acceptable but agreed to come back and try to smooth it, especially since he had to even something else out as well, and I was much happier with the result the second time.

For paint color, we ended up with Halcyon Green, which if you look at the paint chart from the previous post, is in the second column from the right, second one down. We are thrilled with it - bold but also muted, decidedly cool-toned, and somewhere in between blue and green.

Here it is, with our old light fixture and old (now dreadful) olive-colored blinds. If you scroll back up, you'll note that D mostly won the light fixture contest from our mood board and we went with the Pottery Barn McCarthy 3-Light Pendant. Though I don't dislike it, the finger prints may quite possibly drive me crazy. Though I think back to the original light when we first moved in (the first one we replaced, our first foray into do-it-yourself), and I think of how far we've come.

When the kitchen job was finally done, we did the finishing touches, like swapping out the annoying corded olive roman shades with some beautiful cordless gray ones from Home Depot. I don't remember having such pretty options years ago when we settled for the last ones. Obviously cordless and affordable shades have made huge strides in 9 years. Who knew?

I may delve into some of the smaller details of our kitchen in future updates (the under-cabinet lighting deserves its own post, it is so awesome) but I'll leave it there for now. One more upgrade off the to-do list.

State of the Kitchen

Our counter is in. It has been for a while but it's hard to appreciate given the rest of the mess. We're very happy with the color and pattern and impatient to keep going. Due to some supply and schedule delays, it's been like this for about a week now. We have a few pictures of the installation in progress, but they're on a different camera, so I may post them later. Here's the finished view:

Then yesterday, the rest of the project began. First was electrical day - setting up the recessed lighting. Here's our ceiling "before" picture - just one sad little light in the middle and a spotlight over the sink

After quite a few hours of labor, having to measure and check for joists and then carve out a few extra holes in the plaster to help feed the wiring...

 We got to this! Obviously there are some holes that need patching.

Here's a view of some of the planning that went into it. He kept having to measure out four even spots for the light, only to find out that one of them would be in line with a joist. Then he'd have to start over. Oh, and note the super classy yellow circle above where the hold light was. I guess the previous owners were too lazy to take the light fixture off when they painted the ceiling.

Speaking of painting, we have a tough choice to make. A quick trip to Sherwin Williams and I came back with a range more or less of a similar tone to our current color. The kitchen/dining room, you may remember, is the only room that we never repainted. We were happy enough with the color when we moved in. While I couldn't find an exact match at the store (keeping in mind that this paint is also at least 10 years old), I found one pretty close, called Svelte Sage.

Svelte Sage is the top sample (of two) on the very left. We knew we definitely didn't want to go any more beige/warm, so I started from there and moved cooler. They're laid out more or less from light to dark (up to down) and then warm to cool (left to right). I took a picture with the lights on and then in natural light.

Any suggestions? I have my own ideas but I'm curious to hear yours.

Asbestos Free

Today the air quality tests confirmed that our basement is now asbestos free. Three weeks and quite a bit more money later, a problem we never knew we had has now been fixed.

When the plumber identified the insulation that he believed was asbestos, we immediately called in a team to test it. The company took it off to the lab and said that it was 10-20% chrysotile asbestos. Apparently this stuff comes in different varieties. We had another company come out to do the abatement and they identified yet ANOTHER pipe covered in asbestos insulation, this time unwrapped (the first pipe had something like packing tape covering the insulation). Yippee. Fortunately it was in a corner of the basement that we rarely use, leading into the unfinished bathroom that I usually forget we have. Can you see it there, running parallel with the back wall and above the orange spray foam (seriously, even our energy efficiency company working right next to it didn't noticed?).

 Here is a picture of it from inside the unfinished bathroom:

So the day of the abatement, a team of three worked for about two hours. They shut themselves up in the unfinished part of the basement, ran this loud vacuum device, and did their thing. For obvious reasons, we left them alone.

Then a couple of days later after the dust had settled, they came back and ran a little fan for an hour that circulated air onto some sticky pads - apparently a more sophisticated and sensitive test than the industry default of using sticky tape to just pick up surface lint, or so they said (either way, it was included in the price - which was their minimum price anyway). So off it went to the lab and, as of today, we are officially clear:

Asbestos-free party anyone? I wonder if they sell theme decorations for that? I'm thinking Hazmat suit.

My Kitchen Mood Board

Let's just pretend we don't still have an asbestos problem in our basement and move on to more fun topics - KITCHEN! This is a close to a mood board as I'm getting, since I don't really do those. So here's how it is shaping up.

Despite the strong outpouring of support for our previous choice of Peppercorn White, I couldn't leave well enough alone and commit. So we went to a countertop supply center to have a look around. There was no shortage of stuff to look at:

We even got to dress up in hot pink hard hats, because this was a factory where they were actually lifting, moving, and cutting stone. OK, so they also had yellow hats, but where's the fun in that?

When I saw it, I knew it was love:

76, Rolling Fog. Definitely more my style. Here's a big view of Peppercorn White, for comparison, number 15:

As I feared, the larger sample looked so much busier than I wanted. I feel like this was the same sensation I experienced after sampling a bunch of greens in the nursery only to paint it a color that turned out to be incredibly LOUD! We took home some more samples (I briefly considered taking home enough samples to make a coaster set, only to realize the edges were probably too sharp to be considered child-safe). Rolling Fog is all the way on the right and Peppercorn White is the top left. The middle row is Mara Blanca, also a choice that we liked, but a tad too boring.

And so, with that, we committed whole-heartedly. And now, onto other choices we've made for the kitchen. We solved the issue on making our backsplash interesting without being *too* interesting by choosing a subway tile style with some subtle texture, Highland Park by MSI (the same people who make our quartz counter) in whisper white. And again, for something a little interesting, we've asked our tile installer to put them together like this - hopefully it works out well:

We're still undecided on our dining room accent light, mostly because D and I seem to have conflicting opinions. He like the kind of hanging pendants with an old-fashioned-looking lightbulb with exposed filament (they're all LEDs by now, so it's totally fake). I like elegant chandeliers, which, admittedly, might look out of place with our decor. I'm willing to compromise with pendants that use textured glass (I suggested mercury glass, but D wasn't a fan). So here are the current contenders, in order from his preference to mine (literally - our choices run exactly opposite each other):

West Elm Sculptural Glass

Pottery Barn McCarthy

Pottery Barn Paxton

Pottery Barn Arden Crystal Chandelier

For knobs and pulls, we're using some pretty standard looking brushed nickel ones from Home Depot. We still have to commit to a paint color but we're going to go with some very similar to what we have now, so if we don't get out to pick up some paint swatches, we'll just have the painter color-match it.

And with that, we're off! First payment paid and first day of work scheduled for Friday!

The verdict

Yes. Yes it is.

The Suspense is Killing Me (I hope not literally)

This isn't the post I planned to write next. I have some exciting kitchen ideas and some beautiful flowers that were all just waiting to be posted. But suddenly, a heating pipe in our basement started leaking. Not onto our heads, because it is wrapped with insulation, but leaking for sure. We could see some wet rusty stuff forming. Super slow, maybe a pinhole leak, and we're not using our heating right now. Not a big deal. D called our heating guy, who was out of town for a few days but promised he would come take a look.

He stopped by today. Here is the leaky pipe, from two angles. Can you guess the potential problem?

Asbestos.

Ughhhhhhhhh.

A mitigation company came and took a sample for testing. What was going to be a minor and cheap repair may turn into something much bigger and more annoying. Stay tuned - we should know for sure tomorrow.

Lumberjack Husband

It's always hard to photograph foliage, given the way photos are great at removing all depth. But if you look at the picture below at our new little maple tree, you'll see a tree behind it and to the right that is occupying the space and sunlight where I'd like new maple to grow:

 Here's a picture from the exact opposite side, behind the offending tree and, past it, to the maple.

It hasn't looked great pretty much ever, and was on our list to be removed. D figured it was small enough that he could handle it. It certainly wasn't big enough to hit our patio or house, and he was pretty sure he could angle it towards the empty lot where most of it could just lie there undisturbed until he could carve it up. You'll note that back in 2012, I blogged that D did not know anything about cutting down trees and he didn't have the right tools. Apparently very little has changed.

He had a hand saw. A tiny hand saw. Tim the Toolman Taylor he is not. And yes, I made a 20-year-old reference. He did not let that stop him:

He cut a triangle in it in the direction he wanted the tree to go, which he learned thanks to some youtube videos and google searches:

The tree had other plans, falling exactly opposite the direction he wanted and towards the swing set (fortunately still a few feet off). By the time it was close to falling, he knew which way it was going to go and we stood appropriately out of the way. He quickly sawed off all the branches and dragged them to the curb for pick-up.

He's now slowly chopping through the trunk whenever the mood strikes him (and when the weather is not 100 degrees), taking it apart piece by piece.

Here's a before and after view from upstairs - the maple is hidden behind the tulip tree occupying the left side of the screen. I circled the part that changed.

And for an action shot:

I failed to mention perhaps the most important part of this post. When did this awesome guy choose to conquer nature with a tiny hand tool? Father's Day! Maybe next year I should buy him a chain saw...