raised porch

After close to 6 months of waiting, I finally got the support beams delivered and installed for my raised front porch. They're Corten steel which left unpainted will patina to a rust color over time. Installation was less than an hour and now I'm ready to start on the porch.

it's natural

After I started to paint the main room today, I went for a walk in my field and realized I'm using the palette of my view in selecting colors for the interior. I'm thinking to paint the back wall green so I guess I'll wait til spring gets a little closer to pick the right shade. A special thanks to my friend Stephen for color consulting.

spring not sprung

March, as usual has been the cruelest month. Snow, sleet, rain, and even some sun... we've had it all, and sometimes all at once. Still a bit of snow left on the ground but for the most part it's thawed out. Kind of beautiful though.

the chelsea gap

I've designed the walls with a recessed baseboard like they use in art galleries to give the appearance of a "floating" wall. My friend Nick informs me that this is known in the trade as a Chelsea Gap. No doubt in reference to the proliferation of art galleries in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. I'm using 1-1/2" aluminum flat bar stock to finish it off. I doubled the 1/2" sheetrock on the walls to help insulate and give me a little more thermal mass to absorb heat when the sun hits them. This brings the walls out one inch from the aluminum "baseboard".
I tried to match the color of the concrete floor and came up with a medium gray that the paint store calls "anonymous". I wanted something that wouldn't compete with the view and would be calming for the bedroom. Some might say boring, but they can sleep somewhere else. The only real color in the room is the natural hue of the firebrick where the masonry stove pops through the wall to help with heating. The sliding doors and windows will be painted out with the same gray as the walls and ceiling.

plumbing

The plumbing is nearing completion in the "everything" room. Blue is for cold and red is for hot (duh). The room is off my bedroom and houses the mechanicals, washing machine and clothes closet. I've been plastering walls and hope to have more to show here soon.

every barn needs a tin roof

We got the galvanized roofing up on the ceiling this week. The only finish work was wiping off my fingerprints. It brings a lot of light up into the second floor.

starting/finishing

The bedroom is nearly ready to paint, just the window sills and baseboards to go. Al and I picked up the galvanized roofing that I'm using on the interior as my ceiling. No plastering or taping or painting, and very little cutting required. We just need to be careful of fingerprints while putting it up. The upstairs "outhouse" is starting to take shape.