It looks nice now, and should be fabulous in the spring when the perennials come up.
More photos on flickr.
Posted at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We've been in this house for a bit more than a year now, so now we're able to do same month year-to-year comparisons of our energy use. We've been steadily working on making the house more energy efficient, so I've been curious to see what the impacts are. We've replaced the windows, one of the toilets, clothes washer, dryer, boiler, fridge, dishwasher, and stove. Basically, the only things left to do are the hot water heater and the air conditioner...
So, the envelope please...
Dominion is making a big deal out of their new conservation plan, but I'm pretty skeptical. Based on my results, my guess is that just showing people how much their energy use costs won't significantly affect usage unless they also adopt variable rate pricing, where electricity costs a lot more during peak usage times. (Dominion does not appear to be doing that, since their demo says you'd be entering the rates from your bill.) I think this is mostly an attempt to convince politicians to give them approval for the transmission lines and coal-burning plant they want to build.
* When I see stories like this one about people with $400 monthly electric bills, I have to assume that they have electric heat, and very poor insulation. I'm not sure I could run up a $400 electric bill in this house even if I ran the air conditioning with the windows open.
Cross-posted to my main blog.
Posted at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We're going to put a counter under the window in the "breakfast area" part of the kitchen and so we've been looking at bar stools. I've been keeping an eye on the Craigslist options, but mostly they've convinced me that there's an awful lot of truly ugly bar stools out there. There are also a lot more people selling bar stools in dark woods than in light ones, and I think we need light ones to go with our kitchen.
Some googling led me to these chairs at cooking.com:

I think they're lovely, but no way am I paying $628 each for barstools.
At the low-end is the Ikea Franklin chair:
But, I'm nervous about a folding chair, since the boys will be using them and they've been known to rock, climb, etc. And they're just not as nice.
So, we've decided to go with an intermediate option, the Kyoto barstool from Design Within Reach:
(but in natural birch -- they don't have an image of it on their site)
I like it a lot, but I have a feeling that if I hadn't seen the $600 chair first, I'd be thinking that $139 was too much to pay for a chair. But by comparison, it seems like a bargain.
Posted at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Here's the kitchen with everything in place and the walls painted. We still need to order and install a table to go under the window in the breakfast nook, but the main project is done.
(We went with Behr's Mystical Sea for the walls.)
More pictures over at Flickr.
Posted at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The countertops were installed last Friday, and the tile* went on the wall yesterday and was grouted today. We've got a working sink, stove, and dishwasher. Hopefully the floor will go in this week.
*Right after they told us that the tile was on back order and wouldn't be delivered until next month, they delivered it. Don't ask me.
More photos are in the flickr set. We're taking suggestions for what color to paint the walls that aren't covered by the backsplash.
Posted at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
They were able to move the lights over, without moving the cabinets. They put drywall plugs in the holes, but still need to patch them up. The microwave has been installed and is working, and the other appliances are in the kitchen, but not yet hooked up. (It still beats having them sitting in our dining room.) The electricians installed all the undercabinet lights and plug strips.
So, here's what still needs to be done:
Countertops installed (including sink)
Pendant lights installed
Dimmer installed for overhead lights
Ceiling patched where they had to move the lights
Dishwasher connected (water line and power)
Stove connected (gas line and power)
Fridge connected (water line and power)
Flooring installed (because we're doing sheet flooring, they said it
should be after everything else)
Backsplash tile installed (the tile was backordered, so this won't
happen until next month)
Posted at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The good news is that the cabinets are in, and they look terrific. The bad news is that it's clear that they messed up the placement of the recessed lights -- one of them is partially behind a cabinet. I think they're going to have to move the cabinets again in order to fix it.
More pictures at flickr again.
Posted at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The contractors have been busy all week fixing the walls and ceiling from the holes left from installing the lights (and from the various lights and vents that are going away). They were even here both days over the weekend. The cabinets were delivered today, and they'll be installing them starting tomorrow. Supposedly they'll be ready for the countertop fabricators to come and take measurements on Friday.
More pictures in the kitchen renovation set at flickr.
Posted at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Recent Comments