The First Wall Color

Yes, that's right... the first wall color. It has changed twice since these pictures were taken, but in the interest of preserving history, all colors will appear here. Just not all today.

Speaking of today, this post is an unusual Saturday edition, and comes to you from the Bronx, where the Wests are visiting Chris and Andy's sister Robin for the baptism of her oldest son. So no work will be done today. Unfortunately, that will put us about a week behind schedule. Wait... what am I saying? We don't have a schedule anymore! All our time estimates were too far off, so we stopped measuring time.

So here is the wall to the loft, as seen from the living room. Mindy went a little crazy with paint swatches, and this was the view for a few days while we ruminated a bit. Some of them came down en masse, since yellows and dark colors just didn't match well with the wood of the floors and walls. Some of the blues stayed up for quite awhile, however, and eventually lulled us into letting our guard down and making a purchase.
As promised, here is the view of the craft room windowsill a week after we installed it. I don't think it looks too bad, actually, given all the cleaning we did this week.

We cleared out most of Andy and Mindy's bedroom so a different kind of work can continue there. The tools and workbenches have all been moved into the craft room, where they have been organized and stacked neatly. Well, neatish.

This corner was full of wood scraps for a long time. It has all been repurposed; some wood is mingling with the construction debris outside and will be burned in the springtime as part of our contribution to global warming, some of the wood has been placed upstairs for kindling, and some has been kept to use for kitchen cabinet work.

A clean workspace. The cherry for the kitchen cabinets is stickered on the right, and since it is on the workbench with casters, it is easy to swivel and move as we need to rearrange the space.

A view of Andy and Mindy's bathroom. This area has been full of drywall, sheathing, 2x4s, and insulation for a long time. We feel like we have discovered a whole new room in the house.

This was the centerpiece for one of our recent color discussions. We did our best to gather the kitchen colors together so we could see what our swatches would look like next to finished products. Our countertops will be poured concrete, and we like a slate color for those. The appliances and shelving are stainless steel, and the cabinets themselves will be cherry, just like the cherry of Mindy's jewelry box.

The workshop again, but after we moved the cherry and repositioned the tablesaw for actual use. With all the light streaming in that window, it is very easy to forget that you're in a basement.

One more view of the same room. Andy is in the background trimming drywall for some spots in the guest bathroom. Mindy gave him very specific instruction on how that room was to be completed.

Primer, at last!

The end of the primer. Karen and Mindy treat the house like a dorm room sometimes, coming up with silly pictures and curling up with the laptop to watch chic flicks late into the night. Happy wife, happy life.

We framed in some areas in the kitchen to prepare for drywall. The girls would like to paint this wall soon, also, but we aren't quite ready yet.

Eli was happy to stir our gourmet meal while the rest of us worked. Well, most of us, at least. Chris was taking pictures.

The first coat of the first color. The name of the color was renoir, and on a small swatch it looked great. But something happened to the color when it was on the wall, and it made little sounds while it was up there. "ha ha! I am ugly!"

The first choice for these two walls was two-tone; one color for the wall going to the basement, and another color from the living room up to the loft. Unbelievably, as much as we didn't like the darker teal that extended up to the loft, the toothpaste color that somehow came home and made it onto the wall was even worse. It lasted almost two hours before we shivered in horror and painted over it.

Now imagine thousands of tiny seahorses...

Nice and toasty. The thermometer on the chimney pipe has been very handy, and we like watching it climb.

The dining room at the end of the evening - all renoir, but better than toothpaste.

The view from the living room. I know, it's a little bit dark, but you can kind of see the color. The wall under the loft space in the dining room is really the same color. The light bulb there is a slightly different temperature - 5000k versus 6500k, I believe, and that contributes to a slightly different look to the color.

As I mentioned, this color has all been painted over. I will post again on Monday evening, so it will be a short wait until the next color is shown. It will probably stay up for awhile. Weeks, maybe. We'll see. :)