The House That Josh Built

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Josh and I spent last week in Vermont with his parents and brother's family. Josh thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread house with our two nieces, Laska (almost 13) and Larissa (5). Rather than buying a prefab kit, he decided to make it completely from scratch, so he used his mom's gingerbread recipe to make the dough.
Larissa helped him roll it out.
The next day, he made icing and assembled the house.
It was a little rustic, but held together pretty well considering we had no architectural plans to work from.
Laska helped decorate cookies made from the leftover gingerbread dough.
And then they set to work decorating the gingerbread house.
Laska went for symmetry, while Larissa focused on adding candy that could be easily pulled off and eaten later.
Josh added icing icicles and marshmallow smoke coming out of the chimney.
I added a few final touches, but the credit all goes to Josh, Laska, and Larissa for this sugary masterpiece, which made a lovely centerpiece for Christmas dinner the next day.
We gave the house a 'green' certification, since it is made entirely from consumable materials.

Professional Photo Tour

I've finally added the rest of the professional house photos to the post I started back in October. You can see them all here. It doesn't show every single room in the house, but it should give you a good overview if you don't want to wade through the whole blog looking for "after" photos.

Happy Holidays!

Nothing new to report. Just thought I'd share a photo of our Christmas tree for those of you in need of a blog fix.

Let It Snow!

We got our first snow of the season today!
It was a wet, sticky snow that weighed down tree branches and (unfortunately) made good snowballs. Josh and I took a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon and saw several snowpeople standing sentry in various front yards. Two days ago, it was sunny and 65 degrees here, but now that it's snowing we can officially get into the holiday spirit. In fact, we are going to the Washington Men's Camerata's annual Christmas concert this evening. Our friend Rob H. (not the contractor), sings with this group, so it's a holiday tradition to go to the concert and then adjourn to our friends Scott & Paige's house for cookies and cocoa afterwards. While the snow will make travel a bit messy, it will provide a much more appropriate atmosphere...

I'm sure my family is glad they got out of here before it snowed. My parents, sister, and aunt & uncle all flew out from California to spend Thanksgiving with us and see the new improved house. They were all here for a week, so we really put the house to the test -- not just with 5 adult house guests, but hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 11 people. The house passed with flying colors. We were able to comfortably accommodate everyone, AND Thanksgiving dinner was an all-around success! In addition to the seven of us, Josh's parents and their friends Stephen & Joan were here -- and contributed several tasty side dishes to the meal. It was quite a feast!

Here's the whole gang. Clockwise from the bottom is my sister Sonia, Joan, Stephen, Lynne (Josh's mom), Josh, Bill (Josh's dad) holding their dog Mikki, my dad, my mom, my aunt Sybil, and my uncle Bill. One of our family traditions is to do jigsaw puzzles when we gather for the holidays, so we reclaimed our old dining table (which used to belong to my grandparents) from my cousin who had borrowed it but no longer needed it. Now that everyone has gone home, we'll probably move this Formica and chrome monster down to the basement -- although it may be a good spot to wrap gifts...

Well, that's all for now. We've got to get ready for the concert, and prepare for the next wave of house guests who are arriving on Monday. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving, too...

Blinded

Most of my family is flying out from California to spend Thanksgiving with us. My parents and aunt & uncle arrive tomorrow night, and my sister gets in Tuesday night. I think they are just as excited to see the house as we are to see them -- I haven't seen my parents since Christmas, and it's been even longer since I've seen my mom's sister and her husband.

Since we will have a full house for several days, we thought it was about time we got some proper window blinds so they'd have some privacy. We went to Next Day Blinds a couple weeks ago and ordered blinds and shades for several rooms in the house. (The name is a bit of a misnomer, since it actually took about 2 weeks, but I think if you order online, they claim to ship them the next day.) Someone came out to measure the windows later that week, and then a different guy showed up Friday morning to install them. He was peeved to discover that some of the measurements were off (3 blinds were an inch too short) and one of the roller shades didn't work, but he installed everything and said they'd have someone replace them on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). He also told me I didn't have to pay our remaining balance until everything was right. So, what they lack in precision, they make up for in customer service. Here are our new blinds/shades...

We used to have white matchstick blinds in the living room, but the original ones don't fit on the new windows, and NDB doesn't make them in white anymore. We got them in 'mahogany' instead, which perfectly matches the window stain.
I also used to have white wood blinds in my office, but once again the old ones didn't fit on the new windows. The new blinds ended up being an inch too short, but they'll certainly keep the afternoon sun out of my face until the replacement ones are installed. They had several shades of white to choose from, so we were able to perfectly match them to the trim around the windows.

If anyone ever buys that monstrous McMansion two doors down, we'll definitely need to keep the little windows in the master bedroom covered. These white roller shades should do the trick.We got cream-colored roller shades for Josh's office, which are a pretty good match for the paint color in the hallway. We also scored a free twin bed from a neighbor who was moving, so we'll set it up in here so my sister will have a proper bed (and bedroom) to sleep in.
We ordered honeycomb shades for the upstairs guest room, since it has sort of an Asian theme. They don't block much light, but they provide much-needed privacy, since it's on the front of the house.
We're enjoying the last of the fall colors here. Well, I was probably enjoying them more than Josh, since he was outside raking leaves.
And while this has nothing to do with the house, I have to mention that I watched the Big Game last night, and was pleased to see Cal defeat Stanford 34-28. Go Bears!

Safe travels, everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!

CoTY Awards!

Exciting news! I got this email from Steve B at SAI (our builders) yesterday:

I’m really pleased to tell you that, thanks to the hard work on the applications by Susan and Barb from ESG, the beautiful design by Marta and her team at EnviroHome Design, and the craftsmanship of the SAI construction team, we will be receiving two NARI Capital CotY awards on Naina & Josh’s house on North Hancock: Entire House AND Green Remodeling Entire House! We received the letter today notifying us about the awards, and inviting us to the Capital CotY Celebration on Saturday, January 30, 2010, at the Bethesda North Marriott. Of course, we’ll have to wait until then to learn whether we’ve won Honorable Mention, 2nd or 1st Prize for each, but whatever the outcome, we should all be very proud.

Thank you all for everything you did to make this possible. And I’d especially like to thank you, Naina and Josh, for giving us the opportunity to serve you in making your dream a reality.

It's going to be tough to wait until the end of January to find out how we fared in each category, but it's still a thrill to know that our house was a finalist in both -- especially since those are the only two categories they entered. I don't know if Josh and I will actually be able to attend the awards ceremony, but I'll keep you posted. It sounds like the Oscars of home renovation...

In the meantime, a big CONGRATULATIONS to everyone involved!

Best. Baby. Photos. Ever.

When Rob was over earlier today, he promised to send me some new photos of his son, who was born Sept 15. When these arrived in my inbox, I just had to ask if I could post them to my blog. Not only is this kid absolutely adorable, but these are some of the most awesome baby photos I've ever seen. I can't decide which one I like better -- the one where he's sticking out his tongue...
...or the one where he and the dog are both looking completely miserable in their matching lobster costumes. Who knew they made lobster Halloween costumes for babies? Or dogs?

House Numbers

Rob came by this morning to take some photos of our exterior stucco for a new project SAI is working on where the homeowners also want to do stucco. While he was here, he also installed our new house numbers for us. We already have those lovely handmade tiles that Amalio bought for us in Mexico -- and that Josh made a beautiful frame for and hung by the front door -- but they are not easy to see from the street. Most police and fire departments recommend that you have house numbers that are easily visible from the street in case they need to locate your home in an emergency. So, I ordered these cool numbers from Restoration Hardware. It was a cold, rainy day, but Rob and I braved the elements to figure out where to put the numbers. Note that instead of a ladder, Rob is standing on his trusty hand-made toolbox. (Also note that if I were standing on that toolbox, I'd barely be able to reach the top of the arch.)
Rob tried holding them up so I could see how they'd look, but, sadly, he only has two hands.
Here's the final result. I'm pretty sure the numbers are perfectly centered, but because the front door is not centered on the arch, it creates the illusion that they are a little off. If we change our minds, we can always move them, but I think they'll be fine as is.
It was fun to have a chance to catch up with Rob. We ended up becoming pretty good friends over the past 9 months, and he said he really felt that the great relationship he -- and John -- had with Josh and me was reflected in our house. Warm fuzzies all around!

Toolbox Winner

Congratulations to John Pali for winning the toolbox contest at our open house a few weeks ago. John, Rob, Dane, and Steve W each made a toolbox out of construction scraps, and visitors to the open house were asked to vote for their favorite one. Here is the winner. Nice work, John!
And, of course, a virtual round of applause to all the contestants for their impressive entries. Especially Rob's, which could double as a composting toilet. (hee hee!)

Black Monday

I'm working from home two days/week now, which is a vast improvement over commuting to Silver Spring every day, but not nearly as nice as working from home full-time. I was home on Monday morning when I got a call from Kevin, the person my boss, Stephanie, reports to. He was calling to let me know that Discovery had undergone yet another re-organization, and that Stephanie's position had been eliminated. She had been notified that morning that it would be her last day. How awful! She had only been my boss for a month and a half, but she was a good one. I was bummed that I wasn't able to say goodbye in person, but at least I got to talk to her on the phone later that day.

Kevin told me that I would now be reporting directly to him -- which makes him my 5th boss in seven years. Fortunately, he's a very nice guy and I'm sure he'll be easy to work with.

When I went in on Tuesday, I learned that at least a dozen other people I know had also been let go, including a few people I've worked with for years. I've lost count of how many rounds of layoffs I've been through, but I can assure you it doesn't get any easier. My heart goes out to everyone who was let go, and I hope they all land on their feet. Those of us who were fortunate enough to keep our jobs are expected to continue as if nothing has changed, but I had two meetings and a lunch date on Wednesday that were canceled because they were with people who had been laid off. It's not that easy...

Ironically, Discovery was just named one of the Top 10 Places to Work in Cable last week...

In other news, we had a Wellness Fair at work yesterday, which included a cooking demonstration by Nathan Lyon of the Discovery Health Channel's A Lyon in the Kitchen. I've never actually watched the show, but in person, at least, he is a very engaging and entertaining speaker. He also provided generous samples of the Tuscan Vegetable Soup and Peach Blueberry Cobbler that he made in the demo, so I got a very tasty lunch out of it, along with the recipes. I also chatted with the doctor at Discovery's in-house Wellness Center about our renovation. I went in for a physical last week and it came up in conversation. She was planning her own renovation project and was interested to see what we had done, so I had given her the address for this blog. I did warn her that some of it was a bit silly, since at the time the very first photo was the one of Josh pretending to poop in Rob's toolbox. I cringed a bit when she said she had read my blog, but fortunately it sounded like she focused more on the photos of the house.

Steve W stopped by this morning to borrow the key for Ann & Matt's house -- which is 2 blocks away -- so he could winterize the pipes and turn down the heat. They have a ways to go before they'll be ready to start demolition/construction, and if they want to reuse or donate any of the materials in the existing house, it needs some basic maintenance to keep it in decent condition.

Cerphe came by this afternoon to return our house binder, accordion file, and plans that Susan (his wife) had borrowed for the awards submission last week. If you had told me a year ago that I'd be on a first-name basis with my favorite local DJ, I would not have believed you. Funny what life throws at you...

Trick or Treat?

Can you believe it's November already? Where did the year go?

This past week was a busy one for us -- which made it much the same as most of the previous weeks... After the open house last weekend, we had a bunch of friends over for dinner Sunday night, our friend Matt staying with us Sunday through Tuesday, and Josh's brother Ben visiting Tuesday through Friday. That was our tightest turnover between guests so far!

Our builders and architect are submitting our house for a Contractor of the Year award through the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). The deadline was Thursday afternoon, and Susan stopped by Monday night to borrow the house binder and accordion file full of info about our house that Rob had put together for us, along with our architectural plans and a CD of photos I took that showed all the 'green' features of the house. They must have needed to provide a lot of detailed information about the house. I spoke to Susan on Friday morning, and it sounded like they got right down to the wire in meeting the submission deadline, but she was very pleased with how their entries turned out. I don't think we'll find out until January if we are a finalist, and then you have to attend the awards ceremony to learn whether you actually won. I guess it's kind of like the Oscars of home remodeling. I'll keep you posted...

In other news, yesterday was Halloween. It was unseasonably warm here (70) but also a bit windy and drizzly. The threat of rain didn't stop Josh from wanting to test out his new (used) sailboat, which he bought last weekend. (Yes, he went to Annapolis on the first day of the open house and came back in the afternoon with a boat strapped to the roof of the car. I didn't get much sympathy from the SAI crew...) It's just a small, 2-person sailboat, unlike the 35-foot Dragon Lady that we once owned -- Josh inherited it from his grandfather -- and which I'm convinced was cursed. But don't get me started on that story...

Anyway, Josh's dad and his friend Aron came over yesterday and they strapped the boat and Josh's windsurfer onto the cars and headed down to Pohick Bay on the Potomac.
I stayed home and took care of a bunch of stuff around the house (laundry, houseplants, bills, leftover pizza) and put up our Halloween decorations. Normally I would have done that the weekend before, but since we had the open house, I thought that might look a little cheesy. (Although I did ask Steve W if he could send someone over to help us inflate all our Halloween lawn decorations before the open house. He got a good laugh out of that.) Actually, our Halloween decorations are pretty tame. We have orange lights around the porch railing, jack-o-lantern lights on the stair railing, and a spooky black light up by the balcony. I was going to make a ghost to put out there, but since it was rainy and windy, I decided against it. Maybe next year.
Josh and his dad and Aron returned just before dark. Apparently all three of them sailed around in the boat, which nearly caused it to sink, but it sounds like they had a good time. Here's Josh looking spooky (and eating Halloween candy) on the front porch.The first wave of little trick-or-treaters arrived before I had even lit the candles in the luminarias. I guess they wanted to get an early start in case it rained later. We handed out candy until about 8pm, and then put a "Gone Hauntin'" sign on the door and went for a quick walk. Halloween is a big deal in our neighborhood, and many houses along the main drag had spooky music, fog machines, dramatic lighting, and creepy decorations that covered their whole yard and/or house. It's quite a spectacle! So many kids come trick-or-treating here that most people just sit on the front porch with a bowl of candy and a glass of wine so they don't have to keep running to the door every 2 minutes.

After checking out the Halloween scene, we went over to a neighbors' house a few doors down. Jeremy and Alison had invited us over for pie and drinks, so we hung out with them while the last wave of kids came through. Just when we thought all the trick-or-treaters would have called it a night, we saw someone coming up the front walk. It turned out to be a large German Shepherd. A moment later we saw a uniformed police officer. He glanced in the door, and then walked toward the house next door. Jeremy went out to the front porch to see what was going on, and the officer told him to stay in the house. He was a little shaken up when he came back inside, as he had just seen another police officer with a gun and a flashlight coming down the street. Alison quickly made sure all the doors and windows were locked, and we peered through the front window to see what was going on. We saw the police and the dog walking around the vacant McMansion and then head up towards the other end of the block -- and our house. Josh and I started getting very nervous, so we waited until we saw a police car drive off and then headed home.

As soon as we got out the door, we encountered another policeman armed with a rifle. We asked him what was going on, and he said someone had reported seeing a man with a gun trying to break into a vehicle. They had searched the area, but didn't find anyone, and he said it was safe for us to go home. I got the impression that he suspected it was either a Halloween prank, or a case of someone's costume giving an observer the wrong idea. In any case, we were still a little freaked out, so we turned on all the lights in the house and made sure the doors were locked. I am happy to report that we survived Halloween, despite the unexpected scare.

Parade of Homes, Day 2

So Saturday evening Josh and I were hanging out in the family room, and Josh sat down on one of the toolboxes that SAI had brought over for the "Vote for Your Favorite Toolbox" contest. He commented that with the big rounded hole in the top, it kind of reminded him of a composting toilet. That inspired us to take this photo the next morning:
[Please note: 1) Josh is still wearing his boxers, they are just carefully obscured by the newspaper; and 2) I wasn't planning to post this photo on my blog, but Josh told me to!]

I emailed the photo to Rob, saying, I hate to break this to you, but... Josh just took a dump in your toolbox.

Rob showed up laughing at our door about 20 minutes later and said, "You guys are twisted!" Of course, he thought it was hilarious and forwarded it on to the rest of SAI.

The weather was much nicer on Sunday -- sunny, clear, mid-60's. Once again we had a steady stream of people come through the house.
The same crew from MGC was on hand, along with Marta and Amalio. Rob took over for Dane and John to represent SAI. He is very proud of the work he did on our house -- as well he should be -- so I'm sure he enjoyed being able to introduce himself to people as the guy who built the house. His wife came by in the morning with their new baby (age 5 weeks) so Josh and I could meet him (adorable!), and his mom stopped by in the afternoon to tour the house. Here are Rob and Amalio ready to greet the next wave of visitors.
Barb from MGC greeted people at the door and handed out literature. She also collected donations for HomeAid. Edward resumed his post in the kitchen, tallying votes in the toolbox competition and taking down people's contact info.
Here are the toolboxes. They were built by the guys at SAI from construction scraps. I don't know who won the competition yet, but I set up my own poll so you can cast a vote for your favorite one. Here are numbers 1 and 2. (Josh did not actually go number 2 in #2...) Since I've already divulged that Rob built #2, I guess I should disclose the others as well. Dane built #1.
Here are numbers 3 and 4. Steve W made #3, and John made #4.
Our friend Matt arrived in the afternoon. He and his wife, Ann -- who I've been friends with since 4th grade -- are planning to move to DC next year and have already signed a contract with SAI to build them a green home in our neighborhood (yay!). He was in town to meet with SAI and their architects and was staying with us. He and Susan had a nice chat about what he and Ann are planning to do.
My friend Rob H. showed up towards the end of the day with his fancy camera to film a video tour of the house. Rob L. (from SAI) agreed to be the host, so we outfitted him with a wireless microphone and Rob H directed and filmed him. It will probably be a while before Rob H has time to edit it, but once I have the final product, I'll add it to the blog.
Meanwhile, Susan's husband, Cerphe, came to pick her up and took a quick tour of the house. He had seen it once before, but that was before we even had drywall up. He seemed impressed with the final results, and Susan later told me that he described it as "perfect" as they were driving home -- which she said was high praise indeed. Once again, it was very gratifying to get so many nice complements on the house after we put so much work into it.
After all the SAI and MGC folks left, we had a nice dinner of takeout Indian food with Matt, Rob H, and the rest of our 'gang' (Diana, Jason & Elizabeth, and their kids).

The next morning, Josh and Matt both had to leave early for meetings, and I worked from home as the cleaning lady came back to tidy up after a weekend of people parading through the house. It actually held up pretty well since they made everyone take their shoes off, but there was still a bit of detritus tracked through the house.

Josh called me after his meeting, which was with Steve W's wife and the general counsel for her company -- he was hoping to sign them up as clients as they discovered when they first met that they work in similar areas. After the meeting, Steve's wife took Josh aside and told him that her husband had sent her a funny photo of him at work. Yep, that's right -- he sent her the photo of Josh sitting on Rob's toolbox! Josh was mortified, but fortunately they both had a good laugh about it. I'm not sure what possessed Steve to forward that on to his wife knowing full well that she had a work-related meeting with Josh, but he does have a rather strange sense of humor. I guess since so many people have already seen the photo, Josh figured I might as well share it -- and this story -- on the blog. I hope it doesn't come back to haunt him -- again.

Parade of Homes, Day 1

Our house was open from 11-5 Saturday and Sunday as part of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association Parade of Homes, which is a builders' showcase. It was one of 68 homes that were open throughout Northern Virginia -- the majority of which were for sale. In addition to doing some landscaping to spruce up our front yard, our builders sent someone over to clean our house on Friday morning. They were grateful that we had agreed to allow strangers to traipse through our house for 2 days, and didn't want to further inconvenience us with the pressure to make sure it was spic & span by 11 am Saturday.
A crew of people from SAI (our builders) and My Green Cottage (who does their marketing) showed up a little before 11 to set up yard signs, brochures, etc. Our architect, Marta, and her husband, Amalio, arrived a little later.
The weather was a bit tropical -- warm, windy, and rainy -- so they decided to make everyone take their shoes off. Here are Amalio and John (SAI's master carpenter) showing off their best visitor-greeting smiles -- and their matching socks.
Susan, the president of My Green Cottage (MGC), enjoyed the tropical weather on our back porch while working on a DVD about our house on her laptop. She also kept an eye on the toolboxes built by the SAI crew from construction scraps. They asked people to vote for their favorite one and enter a drawing to win a prize (I think it was dinner for 4 at a restaurant). I imagine it was also a way to create a mailing list...
Edward from MGC spent the whole time standing in the kitchen taking people's votes and entering their info into his laptop. Here he is chatting with Steve B from SAI (in blue shirt), Marta and Amalio, and the guy who owns the company that did our hardwood floors (in suit).
Despite the rainy weather, we probably had close to 100 people come through the house on Saturday. Several people were disappointed to learn that the house was not for sale, and we got lots of great compliments from everyone we spoke to. I had sent an announcement to our neighborhood email newsletter, so lots of neighbors came by to check out the house. Many of them thanked us for doing such a nice renovation and helping to preserve the character of the neighborhood, which I found very moving.

Dane and John from SAI stuck around after everyone had left to fix a loose towel ring in the bathroom. It ended up being a bigger project than I anticipated, but they graciously kept at it until it was fixed. They are as handy as they are handsome!
We finally had the house back to ourselves around 6 pm. It was great answering questions and listening to people say nice things about our house all day, but also pretty exhausting. We ended up spending the rest of the evening on the couch trying to make a dent in the TV shows that have built up on our DVR.

Curb Appeal

Here are a couple more shots of the house with the new landscaping in front. That pointy juniper by the front stairs should grow to be about 10-15 feet tall and about 5 feet wide

This side bed was so overgrown that Steve W found an entire bale of hay in there that was leftover from the previous landscaping work.

Landscape Artist

So when I opened the door to get the paper this morning, Steve W hucked it at me from across the front yard. It was not yet 8 am, and he and Rob had already made significant progress sprucing up our front yard. Since they wanted the house to look nice for the open house this weekend, they agreed to throw in a little landscaping for us. Rob used to have his own landscaping business, so he went to the garden center yesterday and bought us a juniper, a hydrangea, some heather, a flat of "chocolate chip" ajuga, and a bunch of mulch to give the front yard a quick makeover.
Rob and Steve also pruned back our crape myrtle, weeded and mulched under the other tree, and edged the lawn.
Here's Rob 'randomly' planting the ajuga amongst the heather and nandina (which Josh planted a couple weeks ago).
They had to work quickly, because the photographer was coming back later in the morning to take some exterior shots of the front of the house (since it was raining the day he photographed the inside of the house). I had to leave for work before they were done, but I'll try to get some photos of the finished product tomorrow morning.