Fall Color

Utility Room 2.0

Old laundry room.

Our utility room was always pretty ugly.  When we first bought the house, it wasn't completely separated from the kitchen, so the furnace was practically sitting out in the room.  During the kitchen remodel, we closed in the utility room and added a door to separate it from the rest of the space.  That was helpful, but it made the room feel even smaller.

We started this project because we bought a new water heater to replace the old one.  The new water heater is a high efficiency heat pump type that we received a Federal discount on.  The plan was to rip everything out of the room, install a new floor, paint and then get everything reinstalled in a weekend.  That's just what we did.

Here are some photos of the project:

Above: New vinyl flooring.  We picked vinyl because it is easy to clean and a water resistant surface.

Above: New energy efficient GE heat pump water heater.  It's an attractive looking machine.  We painted the room to match the kitchen colors.

Above: The controls on the new water heater allow you to set the temperature, as well as the efficiency settings.  You can temporarily set it to fast recovery for high-demand hot water needs.  The energy sticker on our old water heater claimed 5,000 kWh per year.  The new GE claims 1,856.  According to my calculation, the new water heater will save us approximately $25 per month.

Above: The newly organized and finished utility room.  It looked a lot better before we put everything back into it, but it feels much more organized now.  We installed a large shelf in the back for laundry and recycling.  This room also houses the cat box and now there is room for cat liter storage.  Not bad for a weekend project.

Preserving Food

Tomatoes and peppers in the smoker.

A friend came over and brought with her a case of tomatoes, a case of peaches and a case of red peppers all sourced from local farms.  With that started the fun that ensued in the kitchen for the next 2 days.  We canned smoked red pepper spread, smoked tomatoes, peach butter, hot & spicy peach BBQ sauce, and a Guinness mustard.  Not bad for a couple days worth of effort.  Altogether, we each walked away with around 30 pints of canned goods.  The new gas cooktop got a serious workout!

In the next couple of weeks I'll put up some cranberry relish sauce in time for T-day.

Living/Dining Room Remodel

Salvaged built-in cabinets

We're picking up the pace of the living/dining room remodel project.  A few details have changed since we last talked about this project.  First, we've decided to go with a more open floor plan.  That means finding a new use for the room divider cabinets we picked up from a Tacoma salvage store.  We have since removed the glass front doors from the cabinets and deconstructed the cabinets.  We have carefully stowed the wood away for use in future projects, such as the library cabinets we are going to build in the future.

Fireplace mantle and bookshelves

The new plan is to install the cabinet doors on the fireplace mantle bookshelf surrounds.  At one time we have grand plans for rebuilding the mantle, but have since decided to keep it simple and refinish it as it exists today with some minor modifications to make the glass doors fit.  To make this a reality, we need to finish stripping the paint from the mantle, which is nearly 80% complete.  Next up is to cut the new bookshelf surround frame and install.  Then, we'll begin the work of sanding and staining the mantle.  I expect to be able to finish up the majority of the project before the end of the year.

But wait, there's more -- a lot more.  We're looking at different tile products to redo our fireplace, which is currently a 60's style brick.  We love much of the tile offered by Motawi Tileworks, and have set sites on the gorgeous field tile in the picture to the right.  We're making a trip to Seattle in the coming weeks to look over their tile products and get some ideas.  Our current thoughts are to use the same field tile in the kitchen and living room, but use different embedded art tiles to make the room unique.

We're also looking at drastically changing the color scheme in the living room.  When we first moved in the living room was a mustard color that had been sponged with a gray silver color.  YUCK!  One of the first things we did to the house was to paint the living room and dining room.  We picked a very dark and rich merlot color and painted the walls and ceiling.  It wasn't the best choice.  The colors are very dark, and the room swallows any hint of light.  We have a 300 watt bulb in our floor lamp, and yet it is still to dark to read.   The color makes the room feel much smaller than it is because it is so dark.  The plan is to paint three walls Leapfrog green (Sherwin Williams SW6431).  It is the color highlighted in the picture to the left between the two black lines on the color swatch.  It was picked by matching it to the color in the background of the wallpaper we're going to use on the back wall of the living/dining room.  The plan there is to build wood frame and panel wainscoting 5 feet up the wall with a plate rail.  Above that we are planning to use hand screen printed wallpaper we've selected from Bradbury & Bradbury.  The ceiling will be painted Roycroft Vellum (SW2833), which matches the ceiling color in our kitchen.  That should help to brighten the place up a bit, but still make it feel cozy.

The list goes on.  New light fixtures, box beams in the living room, new ceiling to cover the popcorn installed in the 60s, stained wood work, etc.  It's a long process, but I look forward to making progress on the project.

Living/dining room.  Left: Wall to be wainscoted.  

The Big Harvest

Canning is one of those things I vaguely remember my grandmother doing, but had never tried myself.  Well, I can now say that I've done it.  So far this year, I've put away 21 pints of pickled beets and 7 pints of pickled dill carrots.  All contents are fresh from our garden this year, which makes it even more exciting.  Next year, I'll have a better idea come garden planning time, now that I know what I can more easily preserve.

The canning was all made easier with our new American 921 pressure canner that's capable of doing 14 pints or 7 quarts.  This weekend I'm going to give an Apple chutney a try.  I'll post the results.

The New Cooker

New gas range and double ovens

It's been a long time in the making, but we now have maple butcher block countertops, a new gas range and a set of double ovens installed!  It's been one heck of a productive week for the kitchen remodel project.  We've had a couple of days to test the ovens and the cooktop, and we're pretty pleased.  It's nice to see a project come together and to be able to reap all the benefits.  Next up is the hard part -- deciding on an accent art tile for the backsplash to mix with our white subway tile.  Oh, and all the trim and finishing the cabinets and painting them.  All small things :-)

2011 Garden Photos

Here are a few photos of the garden during the 2011 season.  Enjoy ~