Yellow and the Floors

It started about three years ago, but we seem to be captivated by the color yellow. We were having Chinese food and Kevin's fortune cookie said something about the color yellow. We've been trying to figure it out ever since. Interestingly, when I try to visualize colors for various rooms in the house (specifically the kitchen and living room) I am inextricably drawn to the yellows in the fan deck. Currently for the kitchen, I'm loving BM's Hawthorne Yellow for the walls, Ivory White for the custom cabinets. For the living room, I may go with something a bit more neutral like Navajo White, Seapearl or Halo. Anyway, I drive the hubby crazy going through the fan deck. ;-)

As we think ahead to the floors in the living room and master bedroom, we have realized that even though Kevin added some support under some beams, the house still shakes when you walk across either room.....so we've decided we should go ahead and take up those floors as well. Unlike the kitchen, the wood is solid in these rooms so we will remove it carefully and reuse it. There are only a few small spots in the master bedroom of what appears to be old termite damage. I was thinking about using some paint stripper that encapsulates any lead paint, but Kevin just reminded me that the Amish gentleman that is going to build our kitchen cabinets has an industrial planer in his (very impressive) workshop, and we could pay him to plane them for us. The flooring is yellow poplar, which used to be very common in Indiana, and has a subtle but beautiful grain. The color is relatively light, so we're not sure yet if we should just put some varnish on it, or use a light stain. We will experiment with that to see what looks best. This is a BIG project that will set us back a little, but like the kitchen, we know we will be happy we did it now instead of wait for some problem to come up later. In the next few weeks, we'll be opening up the master bedroom floor, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took today while walking around listening to the sound of the wind whipping through the trees as loud as the ocean. I wish I could include a photo of the eagle I saw flying but couldn't get the camera ready on my cell phone in time. It was majestic and beautiful and made me catch my breath.

~Ann

p.s. Happy New Year!!!!

Merry Christmas from the Tash Farm

Merry Christmas from The Tash Farm!!!  

I have to say "The Tash Farm" when I refer to our house because that's the only way people around here know it.... And that is just fine with us. We are coming up on 7 months already being here and it really has flown by. We feel welcomed by the community and it is really a wonderful experience -- the folks around here are genuine, down to earth, real good folks. In our new favorite restaurant in the center of town, "Hanna's," our favorite waitress calls us her "California people." ha ha

On to the house projects.

Since the weather cooled down, and Kevin started interviewing more, we've slowed a little but are still plugging away.

The new floor structure in the kitchen is complete:

I apologize this is not the best photo. I know I have a better one, but somehow it is not be found in this moment. You may recall that this kitchen we believe may have been the original structure before the front section of the house was built. Maybe it was only meant to be temporary since the exterior beams were laid directly in the dirt with a few stone supports. In any regard, there were many places that literally crumbled when we touched them, so Kevin inspected every inch of every beam, cut out the bad parts, patched in new 6x6's, and then attached a new floor structure to the old beams. We felt this was the best way to tie the old and new together and provide the maximum structural support.

The next job in the kitchen is plumbing -- but first we need to have the county and/or a plumber come out and take a look at the main water coming in. The pipe just doesn't look right to us, so we need to get that settled.

Elsewhere, I finally got all the wallpaper stripped from the walls and ceiling of the master bedroom, which I realized (while working on it) used to be the original parlor/front room because the doorbell is on the door that goes into this room. The other front door goes into the room we will use as our living room. I wish we could switch the doors in order to use the doorbell on the front door, but alas, they swing in opposite directions. Oh well. I'll figure out a Plan B for the doorbell.

After I steamed all the wallpaper off, I started patching the plaster and here is a tiny look at what I've done so far:

The white on the chair rail is going to be the trim color....

And here is a sneak peak of our master bedroom wall color: Opal Cream from Behr.

The plaster patching is far from over, and some places will need to be reattached roughly in this manner:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20210037,00.html

We know it won't look like smooth drywall, and that's ok with us. We love the character of the plaster.

Incredibly, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving in our home, with china and all (a surprise from Kevin -- he got the dining room table out of storage and set it all up with Nick's help) and he is planning an even bigger surprise for tomorrow.

Here is our tree:

May your days be merry and bright! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~ Ann