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.
October 24, 2009
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.
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.
October 21, 2009
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.
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.
October 19, 2009
Parade of Homes
To thank our builders for doing such a great job, we have agreed to let them use our house as a show home for the 2009 Northern Virginia Building Industry Association Parade of Homes this weekend. Our house will be open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, and our builders and architect will be on hand to give tours and answer questions. Josh and I are also planning to be there -- both to answer questions about the house and to keep an eye on our stuff...
I was a little intimidated when I looked online at some of the other houses that will be participating. There are over 60 houses that will be open this weekend, and some of them are HUGE. Many are for sale, and have been professionally staged. Ours is going to look small and rather eclectically furnished by comparison, but since we aren't trying to sell it, I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyone who would look down their noses at our house probably wouldn't be good potential clients for SAI or Marta, anyway. Rob is coming by tomorrow to spruce up our front yard, and SAI is sending someone over on Friday to clean the house for us, so all we'll need to do is tidy up and hide any small, valuable items that we don't want to walk away.
Meanwhile, the saga of the radiant floor heat continues. It was unseasonably cold (40's) and rainy over the weekend, so it was pretty chilly in the house. The heat was sort of on, but the temperature kept fluctuating and never got above 66, even though the thermostat was set at 68. Uncle Lewis came back this morning to continue bleeding the air out of the system, and Steve W showed up soon after to help him out. They were both here until 5 pm (I was working from home today), and said they'd be coming back tomorrow morning to meet with a specialist. Fortunately, it's supposed to be sunny and in the 60's for the next few days, so even if it takes a couple more days to get the system running at full efficiency, it should be a little more bearable in the interim. I'm sure Steve is highly motivated to make sure everything is working properly by this weekend.
I was a little intimidated when I looked online at some of the other houses that will be participating. There are over 60 houses that will be open this weekend, and some of them are HUGE. Many are for sale, and have been professionally staged. Ours is going to look small and rather eclectically furnished by comparison, but since we aren't trying to sell it, I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyone who would look down their noses at our house probably wouldn't be good potential clients for SAI or Marta, anyway. Rob is coming by tomorrow to spruce up our front yard, and SAI is sending someone over on Friday to clean the house for us, so all we'll need to do is tidy up and hide any small, valuable items that we don't want to walk away.
Meanwhile, the saga of the radiant floor heat continues. It was unseasonably cold (40's) and rainy over the weekend, so it was pretty chilly in the house. The heat was sort of on, but the temperature kept fluctuating and never got above 66, even though the thermostat was set at 68. Uncle Lewis came back this morning to continue bleeding the air out of the system, and Steve W showed up soon after to help him out. They were both here until 5 pm (I was working from home today), and said they'd be coming back tomorrow morning to meet with a specialist. Fortunately, it's supposed to be sunny and in the 60's for the next few days, so even if it takes a couple more days to get the system running at full efficiency, it should be a little more bearable in the interim. I'm sure Steve is highly motivated to make sure everything is working properly by this weekend.
Professional Photos
I got the first batch of architectural glamor shots that were taken by a professional photographer a few weeks ago. Watch this space, as I'll add more as I get them. All photos are credited to Greg Hadley Photography.
If you look closely, you'll notice that some of the accessories -- lamps, vases, flowers -- seem to shift around in different shots of the same room, or move from room to room. They call that 'staging'. Just for the record, my favorite flowers are NOT yellow chrysanthemums. OK, on with the tour...
If you were walking to our house from the Metro (subway) station a couple blocks away, here's how it would look as you approached the house -- provided you were looking through a wide-angle camera lens.
Here's the front view -- also slightly distorted by the camera, which makes it look a little taller and skinnier.
The front porch is very welcoming. A lovely place to hang out when the weather is nice -- if you don't mind sharing it with a spider or two. 
Welcome! We love our front door, and we're pretty sure it was original to the house.
Come on in! From the entryway, you can see all the way through the living room to the dining and family rooms.
The living room and dining room.
Dining room and kitchen
Kitchen from dining room.
Another view of the kitchen from the family room. That's not my teakettle on the stove...
The family room, with Beatles Rock Band!
The main level bathroom.
There are two other rooms on the main level: the "Indian Room," which is a guest bedroom with Indian decor, and my office. The photographer didn't deem either room photo-worthy, but here's the door to my office. We refinished and reused all the original interior doors on the main level of the house.
Let's head upstairs. The stairs are one of the main focal points of the house, with handmade tile from California.
Front upstairs bedroom, with balcony doors open.
Josh's office wasn't deemed photo-worthy either, but here are the closet doors. All the doors upstairs are new, but were stained to match the original doors.
The blue & white hall bath upstairs is difficult to photograph, but he did take a detail of the floor tile.
The master bedroom, with built-in shelving and window seat.
The master bath, with an overabundance of yellow mums.
Most of the 'green' features of the house are hidden, but the master bath has a grey water recycling system. Water from the sink is held in a tank underneath and is used to flush the toilet.
Down in the basement, you can see our hot-water recovery system. As hot wastewater drains out through the big pipe, it heats clean water in the copper pipe wrapped around it. That water goes to the on-demand water heaters, which have to use less energy to heat it the rest of the way to 120 degrees. The green plumbing pipe is also 'green'. 
This super-efficient boiler heats the water for the radiant floor heat throughout the house (and small radiators in the basement).
And last, but not least, here is the back of the house.
If you look closely, you'll notice that some of the accessories -- lamps, vases, flowers -- seem to shift around in different shots of the same room, or move from room to room. They call that 'staging'. Just for the record, my favorite flowers are NOT yellow chrysanthemums. OK, on with the tour...
If you were walking to our house from the Metro (subway) station a couple blocks away, here's how it would look as you approached the house -- provided you were looking through a wide-angle camera lens.
Here's the front view -- also slightly distorted by the camera, which makes it look a little taller and skinnier.
The front porch is very welcoming. A lovely place to hang out when the weather is nice -- if you don't mind sharing it with a spider or two. 
Welcome! We love our front door, and we're pretty sure it was original to the house.
Come on in! From the entryway, you can see all the way through the living room to the dining and family rooms.
The living room and dining room.
Dining room and kitchen
Kitchen from dining room.
Another view of the kitchen from the family room. That's not my teakettle on the stove...
The family room, with Beatles Rock Band!
The main level bathroom.
There are two other rooms on the main level: the "Indian Room," which is a guest bedroom with Indian decor, and my office. The photographer didn't deem either room photo-worthy, but here's the door to my office. We refinished and reused all the original interior doors on the main level of the house.
Let's head upstairs. The stairs are one of the main focal points of the house, with handmade tile from California.
Front upstairs bedroom, with balcony doors open.
Josh's office wasn't deemed photo-worthy either, but here are the closet doors. All the doors upstairs are new, but were stained to match the original doors.
The blue & white hall bath upstairs is difficult to photograph, but he did take a detail of the floor tile.
The master bedroom, with built-in shelving and window seat.
The master bath, with an overabundance of yellow mums.
Most of the 'green' features of the house are hidden, but the master bath has a grey water recycling system. Water from the sink is held in a tank underneath and is used to flush the toilet.
Down in the basement, you can see our hot-water recovery system. As hot wastewater drains out through the big pipe, it heats clean water in the copper pipe wrapped around it. That water goes to the on-demand water heaters, which have to use less energy to heat it the rest of the way to 120 degrees. The green plumbing pipe is also 'green'. 
This super-efficient boiler heats the water for the radiant floor heat throughout the house (and small radiators in the basement).
And last, but not least, here is the back of the house.
October 15, 2009
Anniversary
Josh and I celebrated our 9th anniversary yesterday. We had a nice dinner at the Tabard Inn last night, and we also enjoyed a fabulous weekend in St. Michaels, MD, on the Eastern Shore. We stayed at a nice B&B called the Five Gables Inn, which was right on the main street and easy walking distance to shops, restaurants, and other attractions.
It was a little rainy on Saturday, but still relatively warm. We had lunch in Easton on the way and went to a juried craft show at the museum there. After checking into the Inn, we walked around a bit and later had dinner at a nice restaurant a few blocks away. Sunday the weather was picture-perfect -- sunny, clear, 70 degrees -- so in the morning we visited the local maritime museum, which was right across the street. The road in was spanned by a drawbridge, which had been relocated from another part of town. Not sure why they decided to save it, but it did make for a dramatic entrance.
As we were walking to the museum, Josh found this baby snapping turtle on the sidewalk. He took it to a little stream by the water, in hopes that it would have a better chance of survival. 
It was a gorgeous day to be right on the waterfront. 
We had to check out of the Inn at noon, and then we headed down the street to the St. Michaels Winery. One of my colleagues at Discovery is a co-owner of the winery, so she met us there and gave us a tour. It's a pretty small operation compared to most of the wineries I've toured in California, but they have won several Maryland wine awards.
Afterwards, we had lunch at one of the waterfront restaurants, and then paddled across to Oxford, MD in our canoe. We found a boat ramp that just happened to be right next to an ice cream stand, so we sat on the dock and enjoyed some ice cream before paddling back across to the car and heading home. On the way back, we stopped at a farm stand and bought a couple pumpkins for our front porch. All in all, a great weekend getaway!
When we got home, Josh hung our nicely-framed house number tiles by the front door and disposed of the ugly plywood sign once and for all.
It's a good thing we chose last weekend for our anniversary getaway, because the temperature plummeted 20 degrees yesterday and now it's cold (in the 40's!) and rainy. The abrupt change was hard enough to adjust to, but I especially noticed it when I was working from home today, since our heat wasn't turned on yet. Our HVAC team showed up at 8 am to try to fix the problem they discovered last week. Once that was resolved, they still had to drain all the air out of the system. Uncle Lewis was here until 5:15 pm working on it, and finally said he'd have to come back tomorrow to finish the job. The heat is on now, but it's still only 66 degrees on the main level of the house, and a bit cooler upstairs. Hopefully by this weekend we'll get to experience the full benefits of radiant floor heat. For now, I'm just glad to have a little space heater to warm up my office.
It was a little rainy on Saturday, but still relatively warm. We had lunch in Easton on the way and went to a juried craft show at the museum there. After checking into the Inn, we walked around a bit and later had dinner at a nice restaurant a few blocks away. Sunday the weather was picture-perfect -- sunny, clear, 70 degrees -- so in the morning we visited the local maritime museum, which was right across the street. The road in was spanned by a drawbridge, which had been relocated from another part of town. Not sure why they decided to save it, but it did make for a dramatic entrance.
As we were walking to the museum, Josh found this baby snapping turtle on the sidewalk. He took it to a little stream by the water, in hopes that it would have a better chance of survival. 
It was a gorgeous day to be right on the waterfront. 
We had to check out of the Inn at noon, and then we headed down the street to the St. Michaels Winery. One of my colleagues at Discovery is a co-owner of the winery, so she met us there and gave us a tour. It's a pretty small operation compared to most of the wineries I've toured in California, but they have won several Maryland wine awards.
Afterwards, we had lunch at one of the waterfront restaurants, and then paddled across to Oxford, MD in our canoe. We found a boat ramp that just happened to be right next to an ice cream stand, so we sat on the dock and enjoyed some ice cream before paddling back across to the car and heading home. On the way back, we stopped at a farm stand and bought a couple pumpkins for our front porch. All in all, a great weekend getaway!When we got home, Josh hung our nicely-framed house number tiles by the front door and disposed of the ugly plywood sign once and for all.
It's a good thing we chose last weekend for our anniversary getaway, because the temperature plummeted 20 degrees yesterday and now it's cold (in the 40's!) and rainy. The abrupt change was hard enough to adjust to, but I especially noticed it when I was working from home today, since our heat wasn't turned on yet. Our HVAC team showed up at 8 am to try to fix the problem they discovered last week. Once that was resolved, they still had to drain all the air out of the system. Uncle Lewis was here until 5:15 pm working on it, and finally said he'd have to come back tomorrow to finish the job. The heat is on now, but it's still only 66 degrees on the main level of the house, and a bit cooler upstairs. Hopefully by this weekend we'll get to experience the full benefits of radiant floor heat. For now, I'm just glad to have a little space heater to warm up my office.
October 8, 2009
Punch List V: Revenge of the Grout
I worked from home yesterday as we were having a variety of small repairs done on the house. Since it was a nice day, I took a few quick photos of some recent developments.
Josh moved our old garage door to the side of the house and planted some new nandina to replace the ones we lost in the renovation. 
He also made a cool frame for the house number tiles that our architect's husband brought back from Mexico, and used leftover mortar and grout to secure them in place. Now we just need to hang this by the front door so we can finally get rid of that ugly plywood sign. (see photo above)
Rob showed up a little after 9 am with the HVAC team. They headed down to the basement to fire up our boiler and test the radiant heating system.
Meanwhile, Rob took care of a our latest batch of punch list items -- little things around the house that weren't working quite right, like the flood lights on the back of the house.
Rob was also nice enough to nail my birdhouse to the post Josh had set up for it in the back yard. This was originally the post that SAI had set up in front of the house for the electrical box during construction. We saved it and Josh cut it down to size so we could re-use it for the birdhouse. The birdhouse itself was made by John from construction scraps, and I stained it using leftover wood stain from the doors and floors, so it's a 'green' house, too.
Rob finished up around noon and headed back to work at their current project in DC. The HVAC guys announced that they'd have to come back next week, as there was a small problem that needed to be fixed and the person who knew how to fix it was out of town. They left soon after Rob. Then one of the painters showed up around 1:30 to repair our front door. When we were dog-sitting for Josh's parents a couple weeks ago, Mikki (the dog) got upset that we left the house without him and scratched up the inside of the front door. Bad dog! Steve W came by a few days later, and when I showed it to him, he said they'd take care of it for us. The painter spent a couple hours sanding, puttying, and re-staining the door, and said he'd have to come back next week to seal it. Good thing I'll be able to start working from home 2 days/week on a regular basis...
Josh moved our old garage door to the side of the house and planted some new nandina to replace the ones we lost in the renovation. 
He also made a cool frame for the house number tiles that our architect's husband brought back from Mexico, and used leftover mortar and grout to secure them in place. Now we just need to hang this by the front door so we can finally get rid of that ugly plywood sign. (see photo above)
Rob showed up a little after 9 am with the HVAC team. They headed down to the basement to fire up our boiler and test the radiant heating system.
Meanwhile, Rob took care of a our latest batch of punch list items -- little things around the house that weren't working quite right, like the flood lights on the back of the house.
Rob was also nice enough to nail my birdhouse to the post Josh had set up for it in the back yard. This was originally the post that SAI had set up in front of the house for the electrical box during construction. We saved it and Josh cut it down to size so we could re-use it for the birdhouse. The birdhouse itself was made by John from construction scraps, and I stained it using leftover wood stain from the doors and floors, so it's a 'green' house, too.
Rob finished up around noon and headed back to work at their current project in DC. The HVAC guys announced that they'd have to come back next week, as there was a small problem that needed to be fixed and the person who knew how to fix it was out of town. They left soon after Rob. Then one of the painters showed up around 1:30 to repair our front door. When we were dog-sitting for Josh's parents a couple weeks ago, Mikki (the dog) got upset that we left the house without him and scratched up the inside of the front door. Bad dog! Steve W came by a few days later, and when I showed it to him, he said they'd take care of it for us. The painter spent a couple hours sanding, puttying, and re-staining the door, and said he'd have to come back next week to seal it. Good thing I'll be able to start working from home 2 days/week on a regular basis...
October 5, 2009
Jealous?
OK, we did do some work on the house this weekend, but I didn't have time to take any photos, and since I'm rarely home before dark during the week, this silly story will have to tide you over until I have an opportunity to document the new stuff.
So, when I left off last week, I had just met Capt. Johnathon from Deadliest Catch. I took a photo with my cheesy cell phone camera, which I sent to Josh, with the subject line "My new boyfriend."
Josh's response: Cute. I'd be more jealous if it was Mike Rowe. I doubt I'll lose out to a guy who smells like crab. Of course, who knows what Mike Rowe smells like…
If you are not familiar with Mike Rowe (really?!), he is the charming host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, as well as the narrator of Deadliest Catch. He has also hosted Shark Week, narrated several other Discovery specials, and starred in a series of Ford commercials. He gets around.
It just so happens that my neighbor, Maria, has a life-size cardboard cutout of Mike Rowe standing outside her cube. She was on a business trip that day, but when she returned on Friday, I gave her the backstory and asked if she would mind taking a photo of me with her Mike Rowe. She was instantly on board, and dragged poor Mike through the maze of cubicles until we found a spot with decent light and a white background. Of course, we were still limited by my cell phone camera, but she managed to get a decent photo, all things considered.
I promptly sent the photo to Josh with the subject line "My even NEWER boyfriend!"
Josh's response: Ha ha! I never noticed his striking family resemblance to Flat Stanley.
As an additional follow-up to my previous post, I got an email from my sister over the weekend:
I was just looking at your blog and saw your Deadliest Catch poster, which reminded me of the attached photo. It's a screenshot I took of a banner ad from my hotmail account. I posted it on my facebook page with the caption "check out the buoys on THAT guy!".
So, when I left off last week, I had just met Capt. Johnathon from Deadliest Catch. I took a photo with my cheesy cell phone camera, which I sent to Josh, with the subject line "My new boyfriend."
Josh's response: Cute. I'd be more jealous if it was Mike Rowe. I doubt I'll lose out to a guy who smells like crab. Of course, who knows what Mike Rowe smells like…
If you are not familiar with Mike Rowe (really?!), he is the charming host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, as well as the narrator of Deadliest Catch. He has also hosted Shark Week, narrated several other Discovery specials, and starred in a series of Ford commercials. He gets around.
It just so happens that my neighbor, Maria, has a life-size cardboard cutout of Mike Rowe standing outside her cube. She was on a business trip that day, but when she returned on Friday, I gave her the backstory and asked if she would mind taking a photo of me with her Mike Rowe. She was instantly on board, and dragged poor Mike through the maze of cubicles until we found a spot with decent light and a white background. Of course, we were still limited by my cell phone camera, but she managed to get a decent photo, all things considered.
I promptly sent the photo to Josh with the subject line "My even NEWER boyfriend!"Josh's response: Ha ha! I never noticed his striking family resemblance to Flat Stanley.
As an additional follow-up to my previous post, I got an email from my sister over the weekend:
I was just looking at your blog and saw your Deadliest Catch poster, which reminded me of the attached photo. It's a screenshot I took of a banner ad from my hotmail account. I posted it on my facebook page with the caption "check out the buoys on THAT guy!".
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