A Little Trimming

We have a dogwood tree out back that we never really liked.  It's not a bad tree but it doesn't get enough sun to get more than a few blooms, it had been neglected for several years before we bought the house, and now it has scale.  It could have just used a trim but we have started to work on some plans for the backyard and decided that it just needed to go.  Plus, Andy loves any excuse to use his chainsaw.

Andy had to cut a replacement piling top for the shore so he was excited to get working.

Then he got right to cutting down the largest branches.

The tree got smaller...

And smaller.

Until there was just the main trunk left.

TIM....

BER....

He had to dig out around the stump to cut as much as possible.

And in about an hour we had one less tree and lots of bundles of branches for the yard waste pick-up in a few weeks.

Now we just need some grass.  

Cool or Creepy (Part 3)

We have some snake wannabes. You see, we have worms, lots and lots of worms.  But they are approaching small snake size and I'm finding it hard to still like them.

And worm poop -- I had no idea. Do you know they leave these little mounds and that people actually collect and use to make (for lack of a better description) "poop-juice" to use as fertilizer? Or to be politically correct, Worm Casting Tea.

These piles are everywhere -- our garden, our yard, around the base of trees, under the bark of dead trees.  It's certainly not a bad thing.  I just wish there was a little less of it. So now if you see these piles you will know the dirty truth.

This one was close to 12" all stretched out.  Definitely more snake than worm!

The Steps Are DONE!

With the steps primed and the risers and trim painted Andy set to work to tape off all of the treads.  We wanted to make sure we had perfect lines along each edge.  I missed this fun task but it took him over three hours.

Taping around rounded edges is tedious work!

The first coat of paint went on quickly.  We picked Stone Lion from Sherwin Williams.  

At first glance it looked great (although just about anything was an improvement over what was there before!). But after looking at it from the living room for the evening I knew it wasn't the right color.  It was too light. 

We brought out the runner and our visiting critic (4 mo old Rocky who is visiting for a few weeks) to check out some new color options.

We didn't hate it -- just felt it was too light.

So after looking at more swatches we went back to Sherwin Williams the next day and got a new paint color.  Some of these pictures distort the new color but we were very happy we made the change before it was too late.

After about a week to get all of the painting, sanding, and more painting done it was time to install the new runner.  Andy removed what was left of the old carpet (hooray) and all of the tack strip.

He measured and cut new carpet padding for each step and lined them up with the laser level.

It took a lot more planning to get the very top started (we wanted it slightly recessed behind the new carpet in the upstairs hallway) but once we got moving the carpet went down quickly.

We needed two runners because of the length -- I think cutting the rug was the most nerve wracking part of the entire process.

It took a little more planning to get the patterns and width to line up right but we are please with the end result. 

Now we can finally hang some pictures and art on the big blank wall!

A Shore Thing

It's a sure thing that no matter how much planning goes into a project at the shore something won't work out as planned.  The house turns out to not be very level or square which adds to it's character but also to the worker's frustration.  After Andy and Kyle got the cabinets hung in May it was clear that we had an issue with the ceiling.  You can see in the photo below how the top cabinet on the left touches the ceiling but there is a significant gap on the right.  The floor and ceiling aren't level and to keep the counters and cabinets level we ended up with this gap that made the room look unfinished.  Despite Andy's wishes to take some time off from the renovations this summer he and Kyle worked up a plan to level the ceiling and add some white-washed paneling.

 

In July SD, LD, and I white-washed all of the boards.    

Later in July, Kyle and Ashley came back down for a long weekend. First, Andy and Kyle located all of the studs and ran level string lines.

With the lines in place it was time to start lowering the ceiling with 2x4s, 1x2s. and shims.

The ceiling looked crazy with all of the shims in place, but it was time to start hanging the paneling.  

With the ceiling placed there was no more gap! One step closer to being finished!