Windows and people we adore

Dear Followers,
Our apologies for the 2 week delay in posting an update on our GrayNol home project. I know we've left many of you holding your breath wondering what happened after we cut all of those gaping holes into our new home?! Believe me, I've been holding my breath right along side you. Now I'm breathing again ... here's the story:

By the time we managed to successfully rip the 12th window out our house - we had boards over our windows at night, heaps of building debris all over the yard, plaster in our bed and on our pillows, and a skittish kitty who learned to cuddle-up and sleep all day next to the shock waves of the nail gun compressor.


Pat Noland's back in action! - thanks Pat.

Life without windows - it gave our home a cabana-like feeling by day (like Jamaica!) ... um, not so cozy by night with boards blocking out any light and wondering if we might encounter a squatter inside our house the next morning!

We were up to our neck in construction, and there was no turning back. After ripping out all of the windows, we furred out the house by creating another wall surrounding the existing frame of the house. This allowed us to build the exterior walls of our home out, flush with the edge of the foundation (it looks like the foundation was built for brick, but it had no brick!). That also allowed us to keep the existing insulation and house wrap and add a second layer of both insulation and house wrap. So, we easily doubled the efficiency of our home, while adding more water protection and a frame to attach the new siding to.

Notice on this corner of the house, we are building a bay window :)

Yet, we couldn't install one new window until we finished framing the house and called for an inspection. Luckily, bureaucracy was on our side. The same day we called the City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development for an inspection - they arrived and we passed inspection! After getting some great tips (adding smoke alarms and proper house ventilation) from a friendly building official, finally, we could start putting our house back together.


Ready for inspection.


Jimmy Tsen came back to help frame! Thanks, Jim!


A few days prior, the big yellow truck arrived with our new windows! Two friendly guys from Pella Windows unloaded our latest investment - 14 new Energy Star qualified, Pella - Proline Windows.



Then the crew was ready to help - Christian, Fred and Fred joined in for the fun of window installation. These guys managed to install 9 windows in one day!

First new window!

Christian prepping for the next window install

Fred Perry installing house wrap

Fred Johnson spraying foam insulation - just after this photo was taken he caught an important mistake. This spray foam was not the kind with minimal expansion, designed for windows and doors, and if left to dry could have bowed our windows to the point of making them unable to open or operate. Good catch, Fred!

Now we're sitting prettier with new windows, insulation, and lots of light pouring into our house. We still have lots to finish: siding, paint, staining, and cleaning up and finishing all of the windows from the inside.

More to come.
Stay tuned,
patty homemaker

Color Test

Okay, we've been chewing over a tough home decision for the last month. Now, we're looking for your advice. How do you go about picking the exterior colors for your house??! I've read tips such as: coordinate, don't clash with the neighbors; choose historic colors to match the style of your home; don't go too bold or bright on a small house, but use bold accent colors; choose colors from inside of your home - what color combination are you drawn toward?

We have a gray house to the south of us, an electric-blue house to the north of us, and a green house looming over from the hillside. We like bright, warm colors. We've walked the streets of our neighborhood looking for inspiring color combination - we've found a few. We definitely like a houses that use multiple colors in interesting ways.

What we keep coming back to is the vibrantly colored houses we fell in love with on our travels - it seems loud colors exist close to the equator where the sun shines all the time. We would love it if the sun did shine every day in Seattle, but that's just not the case, even though Spencer says different. So, why, I wonder, do so many people have a muted colors on their homes, when the sky is of the same tinge?

So, here's where we're at - Spencer being the brilliant architect he is, whipped up a 3D model of what our house could look like. We haven't bought the paint yet, and we're honestly looking for input here. We've landed on a bright, golden-yellow, goblin green, and a natural wood accent - that's the orange-ish/brown in the rendering.

Tell us what you think - honestly! Give us your suggestions, advice or your color-choice story.

Happy Homemaking,
Pattyg

HOME at last

Spencer and I are on a new journey in our lives. We're settling into our first home and are eager to dig in and unleash the beauty that surrounds us. After 15 months of a full-on housing search, 3 failed attempts to buy, and a real estate market that crashed and burned, we found this little unnoticed gem tucked quietly behind Safeway in Mt Baker/ Columbia City neighborhood. It sat stagnant on the market for 9 months, the price was down considerably and we able to purchase this place under ideal terms: a mortgage based on one salary, 4.5% interest, $8K Home Owners Tax Credit and a low-low price (for Seattle, that is!).

We bought our house from four sisters who grew up in this small 750-square-foot home - along with a mother, father and brother - I can't imagine a family of 7 in this house! Their father built the house with his own hands in 1954 and the family owned it for 54 years. From what we've heard both parents passed away and the house sat empty for 5 years. The sisters would come and visit from out of town, care the lawn, not willing to part with their childhood home.

The subtle 50s charm of the place is what caught our eye - a huge corner picture window in the living room, a low-pitched roof, simple wood trim, and clean lines throughout the house. Well-worn treds on the stairwell- Spencer says that's called "wabi sabi" in the wood - take you from the kitchen down to a concrete cellar. I immidiately thought: rollar rink! Spencer thought Speakeasy one night a week. Low-and-behold, as all of our friends warned, it's now full of our tools, toys and junk! However, this unfinshed basement contains luxuriously-high ceilings, windows, plumbing and heat - this is our best bet to expand the house and increase our livable space one day.

No fancy modern embellishments made it on this 1954 house - no built-in wood cabinets, no brick fireplace, not even brick on the exterior, although it strangely looks like that was the intent. We fully intend to change this reality.

Spencer and I are committed to making this home a charming mid-century modern home with the added personality all our own. Spencer's artistic mind is already running wild full of ideas - I've already told him multiple times "No, let's finish this project first, then start on the next". He has the creativity, talent, and knowledge of design and construction to allow us to take on our dreams into our own hands. Although I wasn't born with a hammer in my hand, like the Noland family - I am the lucky woman who gets to listen and learn in awe beside the youngest Noland. I've offered to do my part by documenting this process and sharing it with whomever will listen.

This will be the "GrayNol" - an active and honest place for us to tell the story of the making of our home. Will you join us??

:) patty homemaker