DIE Lots

Yes, yes, I know. It should properly be spelled "dye" lots; as in, those batches of manufactured goods that are processed at the same time so they are the exact same color, shading, thickness, etc. But when you're really frustrated with poor quality control, it feels like it should be DIE lots!

Our bathroom remodel is coming along very slowly, but we aren't being helped by Chinese outsourcing. Namely, I discovered that all my boxes of glass mosaic tile must be from disparate dye lots. It became strikingly clear when I noticed one set of sheets was a good 1/8" smaller than another set. That doesn't sound like much, but over a one square foot sheet composed of one inch tiles and scant 1/8" grout lines, it means the joints won't line up!

As I frantically started comparing all 70 square feet of tile, I began to realize there are some pretty dramatic shade variations going on, too. Each sheet is composed of three colors; an icy seafoam, a medium blue-green, and a taupe. I now have five boxes with about six different permutations! The palest color may match between two boxes, but the taupe will be off. On others, the taupes look the same but the blue-green shade is very different. Overall, some of the boxes have a much bluer hue and some a greener. I've now spent hours on my hands and knees trying to figure out exactly how many tiles I need for each wall of the tub surround and finding enough similar ones for each surface. If the tiles weren't such a good deal, they would definitely be going back!

The camera doesn't capture the variations well, but you can probably see the far right box doesn't look much like the middle and left boxes!

Growing Girl

Heidi is growing by leaps and bounds. She is over 11 pounds now, she sleeps through the night, and she has learned "sit" and "come" (although not reliably, and the association is helped greatly by little liver treats)!

Who can resist a little foxy face?

To-Do List

December is "get your house in order" month here in the Evans household. We usually try to do a little of that every year, but we're really hitting it hard this time. We plan to analyze our budget and banking; review our home, auto, and life insurance policies; cull, organize, and document belongings, update last wills, living wills, and health care proxy forms; and generally check up on the status of all those "just in case" documents and provisions. It's not the new calendar year that sparks the notion as much as Jeff's somewhat more available and flexible time in the dead of winter now that the fall semester is over.

Oh, yeah, and we're also trying to sneak in time to build a niche, hang backerboard, waterproof the shower, tile and grout it all, and lay flooring in the bathroom. Not to mention housebreaking, crate-training, chew monitoring, and otherwise puppy-proofing our home and lives. (But I can't complain; Heidi has been a real love and she's super bright and responsive, so all those tasks are coming along quite well)!

Heidi-ho Neighbor

Since my last posts about our old Arkansas house were brought on by the tenth anniversary of its purchase, I suppose it's fitting we remember another "anniversary" of sorts. It was eleven years ago this month that we brought DaVinci home as a puppy. It was definitely another of those firsts, not knowing what we were getting into (a few photos of those early days were blogged about here). He was adopted right after Thanksgiving when we lived in a little townhouse and I was still working full-time. It was a rough few months, as any new addition is!

We've finally gathered up the courage to start again. We have really missed having a dog around the house, and while we love Schrodinger the cat, those are two very different animals. It's taken us almost a year to determine how we could manage a dog, given that we travel so much and are gone all day at times. We really planned to adopt an older dog, but finding one acclimated to chickens and ducks and cats and farm life was nearly impossible. And we're having a major coyote problem this winter (lost two chickens just last week, in fact), so we needed a breed that could survive and maybe even deal with that issue.

So, meet Heidi, the Great Collie (as Jeff calls her):

Heidi is a 15 week old Collie (or Lassie Collie, as some nickname them)/Great Pyrenees cross. She was raised on a farm by a couple who normally breed full-blooded working Great Pyrenees, but their determined female got out and bred with the Rough Collie at the next farm. Heidi was the runt of a large litter, so we really don't know what size to expect out of her. She's only 8 1/2 pounds right now, but she may catch up quickly, or she may stay small (for a Great Pyrenees, anyway)! Either way, her bloodlines give her great potential as a farm dog and guardian.

Lest you think we went pedestrian with her name and bucked our tradition of scientist-inspired monikers, "Heidi" is derived from Werner Heisenberg and his eponymous Uncertainty Principle. It's rather difficult to find pretty, feminine names in the historically male field, so we had to stretch just a bit!



And because there can never be enough cute puppy pictures:

Reminiscing complete!

As the current bathroom remodeling project is coming along so slowly, it's a good thing I started this little reminiscing series. Since I've been showing old photos of our first house remodel, I had better show the finished product before you think we lived in a wreck. We were so happy in our little bungalow by the end, it was really hard to leave. We felt that first house could have met all our needs for the future, so I'm glad we never saw it as a "starter home". It was just home!

This was no overnight transformation, like they portray on the design shows. The saying in the construction world is "fast, cheap, good; pick two!". I think we only ever got one of those qualities on any single project. It took four years and more thousands than I initially expected to get to the point of the "after" pictures below, but we wouldn't have traded those experiences for anything. 

Exterior before

After

After

After

Living room before

After

After

Dining room before

After

Kitchen before

After

After

Study before

After

Downstairs bath before

After

Master bedroom before

After

After

South bedroom before

After

Gable bedroom before

After

Upstairs bath before

After

No before shots, but carriage house/garage after

Carriage house loft after

Fish pond we added

Front yard in spring

Reminiscing II

As I mentioned in the last post, we really did not know what we were getting into with our first home. I had always dreamed of owning an old house, and Jeff was willing to learn some manual labor skills, but neither of us had ANY experience working on houses or decorating. I had never even painted anything! We had no tools and a very small budget. But we were eager and innocent (and much younger, as you can see in the photos)!

Reminiscing

Several conversations and events lately have me reminiscing about our very first house. We started our journey as homeowners and DIYers almost exactly ten years ago. In hindsight, we really had no clue what we were doing! But we had been house hunting for over a year, looking for a historic, affordable little first home that we could put our stamp on. We found our fixer-upper in a quiet, central location with a large yard and beautiful (though overgrown) landscaping.

After the home inspection, we almost didn't buy that first house! But the seller lowered the price to accommodate some big repair expenses, and we jumped right in. It needed a new roof (decking and shingles), a new water heater and new venting due to dangerous carbon monoxide issues, significant kitchen and bath updates, and a very thorough cosmetic overhaul.

We bought the house in December and had to immediately get the roof replaced before it got too cold. I don't think I even have exterior photos before the new roof went on because it was already dark on the evening we closed on the purchase, and the roofing crew arrived first thing the next morning!

Lots of potential, and lots of peeling paint

The mess of old shingles covered up the mess that was the old steps and porch

Front entrance and living room

Dining room

Blue, blue kitchen; and more dated ceiling fans!

Looking past the patched walls into the study

Dirty bathroom

Peeling paint and filthy carpet

What's with the mint green fascination? Our current house was covered in it, too!

Little country ducks border and heart stencils everywhere