143. All the Gray Is Gone…

August 27, 2015August 27, 2015 / Apple Hill Cottage / 10 Comments

Just when I think I’m going to post about the new back porch that is finished just in time for September (it’s not);

Or the new door that we’ve found to replace sliding glass door #3 (we haven’t);

Mr. H.C. surprises me by saying, “Let’s do the front of the house.”

He must have read my post a month or so ago, when I listed all the projects that need to occur for the front of the house to look ~~good~~ better. (See post 136.)

This is the cottage up until two days ago. (Uhmmm — the way it’s looked for the last two years. Just let me say that the front looks WAY better than the back.) So with the red brick, the faded blue gray cedar shakes, and the white clapboard siding, there was just way too much going on. Sort of a stripey effect, don’t you think?

I’m actually favoring the colors of white, red, and gray; but in a google image search for “white cottage red trim” this is the first image that showed up:

old_kurtz_house
Please pardon me, if this is your house, but it’s not at all what I have in mind for the cottage. Though it does look about like the color of red that is our back porch — Segovia Red — this color right here:

Back porch rails and ceiling, newly painted

The back porch color can be seen from both sides of the house as one drives down (or up) the road. So it counts.

I always thought when we did the exterior of the cottage, that we would try to emulate what it looked like in the forties; but we can’t really.

Back then it was white with forties green trim.

The roof was green, now it’s gray, and it will stay that color when we put on the new roof (next year?).

There was not a red back porch.

And there was no brick on the front. I’ve looked at photos of white houses with dark green and red trim, and no, I don’t want a Christmas house.

Here’s what we have now:

Neither of us are used to seeing it without the gray. Mr. H.C. thinks it might be too much white. I was originally thinking of whitewashing the brick, but now I’m thinking yes, that might be too much white…

The sliding glass doors will be replaced sometime before winter with doors that look something like this:

There hasn’t been an interactive post on this blog for awhile, so here is your chance:

Should we paint the brick? If so, what color of gray? :-) (Maybe if we paint the doors red, it will tie in the brick color?
What about door colors? Both front doors can be painted. (Keep in mind that the back porch is Segovia Red, and one can see the porch from both sides of the house.)
What do you think about shutters? Mr. H.C. brought that up the other day, just as I had been thinking about them too. But I have an aversion to shutters that don’t fit the windows, and that’s a 3-window series there in the front… I’m thinking more along the lines of flower boxes under those 3 front windows. What do you think — flower boxes or shutters or neither?

I’d like to hear your thoughts, dear readers. Of course, then we’ll do what we want anyway — whatever that might be…

Here are some more shots to get you thinking…

The remodeled cottage of the seventies

The siding has only one coat of paint still — hence the yellow tape.

Does there need to be a piece of trim between the siding and the shakes?

130. City House For Sale SOLD; or, more than ten reasons to never sell a house…

March 29, 2015March 30, 2015 / Apple Hill Cottage / 13 Comments

So you’re thinking of selling your house? Heed this warning:
Don’t ever sell a house.

The exhortation again: Find a house you love, in a place you love, and never sell it.
Or just rent.

In No Particular Order (This is not a top ten list):

It is unlikely that you will get out of your house what you’ve put into it. Forget about all those stories you’ve read or seen about house flippers, HGTV renovators, or just regular people making a mint in real estate. It may happen once in a blue moon to a professional, but IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN TO YOU (shouting, yes). Even if you’ve lived in the house for twenty years and the mortgage is paid off, if you have done routine maintenance and updating — new roof, new kitchen, new baths — you’ve probably put in twice the amount it will sell for. Especially if you have added on or done an outstanding job with a basement or patio remodel. And if you’ve done landscaping or gardening, forget it — the new owner might not be a gardener and could rip out all the plants you’ve lovingly planted.

If you haven’t done routine maintenance or updating, you’d better start now. That roof you’ve ignored? Fix it, or you will be required to by the inspection services. The room(s) you have just put up with because you didn’t have money or time (or both) to fix? Update them now, and at least you’ll have the benefit of enjoying the new room(s) for awhile. If you are normal people in a normal house, it can take you up to a year and a half to get your house ready to sell. Update a bathroom; remodel the man cave; buy a new awning; re-do the upstairs attic bedroom; put in a new sewer line ($$$$); replace a cracked glass block window; spruce up the driveway; cut down and trim the trees; put down new mulch; clean and paint the back basement; and paint every room but the hallway. (Are you tired yet?)

If you don’t know how to do things yourself, you’re really in trouble. You need to have on hand ready for any and all emergencies: a plumber, an electrician, a roofer, an HVAC repair person, a landscaper who works all seasons, a glass-block guy, a remodel company to update your bathroom and/or kitchen, a tree company, a radon company, and a good painter if you can’t paint without dripping and splotching. All these people are expensive. And once you get ready to actually sell your house, you need to find a realtor who is your trusted friend.

Be prepared for your beautiful house — that you’ve loved and sweated over — not to sell right away. Or perhaps someone will love it and make you an offer that is so low it is almost insulting. Or perhaps someone will love it and not be able to get financing. Or perhaps someone will love it and ask you for seller assist. Or perhaps you will be almost ready to show your house and the dining room ceiling caves in. Or perhaps someone will make you an offer as well as a simultaneous offer on the house down the street. Or perhaps no one will offer to buy it at all, and you end up taking it off the market.

For sale

Showing your house is very hard. Be prepared for people to be critical. The bedrooms are too small; the stairs are too steep; the driveway is gravel; only two bathrooms?; ugh, the kitchen has OAK cabinets; there aren’t enough closets; there isn’t whole house air conditioning… Yes, the gap between the house people want and the house people can afford is very large. And your house stands in the gap. HGTV should have never been invented. Do you have children? Keeping your house neat at all times is almost impossible, even without children. Sometimes you have an hour’s notice that someone wants to see your house. And you do want them to see it, don’t you?

city house

Generally, you are selling your house because of a life change, and you don’t need more anxiety. A new job, a new baby, marriage or divorce, a death, retirement — they are all reasons for selling a house and those reasons themselves are enough to provoke Life Change Anxiety. You don’t need the frustration that lies in wait around every corner of selling a house. Whether you have to sell your house fast, or you have time to wait for a ~~perfect~~ buyer, there is nothing rewarding about selling a house. Let the seller beware.

unnamed

Inspections. After you have a prospective buyer, you have the joy of having your house inspected by someone hired by that same potential buyer. In other words, they are hired to find everything possible or potentially wrong with your house (that you’ve recently put into tip-top shape just to put it on the market, right?) You are fairly confident that you have done everything but the radon test, and you expect that. But what you don’t expect is a 35-page report of everything that could possibly go wrong with a house. If you are a first time home-buyer, just read one of those inspection reports — you will go back to renting forever.

Negotiations. Nothing more needs to be said here, except this is where your trusted realtor friend is invaluable.

Spending more cash to do what the prospective buyer wants. If you weren’t broke after you fixed up the house to get it on the market, you will be now.

Trying to decide what stuff to keep, boxing up all your stuff, getting rid of all your stuff, moving all your stuff, arguing with your spouse about all your stuff… Yeah, that says it all, too.

Waiting on the closing can take forever… You, the seller, are at the mercy of everyone else. The closing can be postponed again, and again. And after everyone has taken their cut, you, the seller are left with just about the amount that you spent to get it on the market. The only other person on the list who deserves every penny is your trusted realtor friend, who walked you calmly through every crisis. Thanks, Linda! :-)

Sold

There’s more. You will have unexpected emotions that come out of nowhere because of friends, memories, and events that have happened in your loved house. But the chapter on the house finally finishes, and you leave behind those good friends and memories.

And you can finally turn the page for the next chapter… (unless you are too exhausted.)

(A clarification: Not all the problems listed here happened to us; some happened to neighbors and friends and relatives, but they all have happened recently to real people)

126. Mudroom Redo Redux Redoux

January 16, 2015August 30, 2015 / Apple Hill Cottage / 13 Comments

I’ve written about the mudroom before. Several times.

The mudroom has issues. Several issues.

Each time we’ve thought to tackle it, one of those issues has stopped us dead.

The floor for instance: Made of two concrete slabs, there’s not much of a foundation (if any). Just see the huge crack down the center. The sinking of the floor made it very un-level — a four inch difference from one side to the other!

The ceiling for instance: It leaks. Despite spot fixing and new insulation, the ceiling still leaks by the chimney. Mr. H.C. thinks it is the flashing, but the probable truth is

It needs a new roof.

But we aren’t ready to put on a new roof until we decide some serious architectural issues.

The chimney for instance: It is old and ugly and needs relining. $$$. We had a company come to give us an estimate — $3000 for just the chimney liner, not counting the stove pipe needed to hook up the wood stove.

The walls for instance: There is a floor-to-ceiling electric panel/wiring mess on the kitchen side wall. Not only is it inconvenient to have by the chimney, it is UGLY. And there’s no moving the panel box. (Hiding wires is hard!) The rest of the walls are a mismatched amalgam of siding, cement block, and plywood.

The whole room for instance: It is the main entrance to the cottage and the door opens into the prevailing winds. Many times the wind just grabs the door from your hands. Did I mention we live on a ridge? It is called Apple Hill, after all. Consequently the whole room is cold; and since it goes directly into our beautiful new kitchen (where we hang out a lot!) it makes the kitchen cold too.

So what’s a pair of rehabbers to do?

Put it off!
Right.
We did that.
Twice.

Mr. H.C. was just itching to get the wood stove hooked up into that chimney, but the contractor guy in him couldn’t bear to pay someone else big bucks for something he thought he could do. So we ordered chimney liners online from Woodland Direct for less than half the price and did it ourselves. (Well, Mr. H.C. did it himself, and I just helped guide the stove pipe into the new liner.) And once that old stove got hooked up and we could feel how warm that room was with wonderful wood heat, there was no stopping at the issues.
Mr. H.C. leveling the mudroom floor We had planned to put down concrete over concrete to level the floor and then some concrete board over the concrete to keep any cracks from showing up in a couple of years. But the cement board idea didn’t work, so we just laid a new layer of concrete. The laying/grouting/sealing of the tile did not go smoothly; I won’t go into details, but it certainly looks beautiful to us. (Did I mention we chose to do this project during the coldest week of the winter?)

mudroom wall One wall is finished with an old pine hutch top that has been repainted and repurposed into a mudroom staple — shelves and hooks for jackets. I painted it Blooming Grove green to bring the kitchen color out into the adjoining mudroom. The walls behind the wood stove are now covered in metal studs and Hardiebacker board (fire-resistant for the walls next to the wood stove) and some sort of tile will go over it. Soapstone is the material of choice, but $$$ matter. We’ve gone shopping at the big box stores and found nothing of interest, and we’ve had a long dry spell at our favorite Restores.

We have a long way to go still, but we’ve come a long way for a room that had such issues. And I have to show you one more photo series — a shot of the kitchen floor we took up, and why we chose this particular pattern for the mudroom floor.

After

Old kitchen floor

When I wrote the very first post for Apple Hill Cottage, I talked about trying to respectfully honor those who lived in it before, as well as making it our own.

I think Joe and Clara would approve.