Countertops

The cabinet bases were built and ready for counter tops:


Here's the first piece:


Second piece:


It really made a difference in the feel of the building to have finished counter tops.


They look good, too:


There's still a bit of painting left to do (the section around the front door inside and touch-ups), wood staining and sealing, and trim finishing and caulking.

It's coming together.
Yesterday the espresso machine was installed. And, as usual, I don't have the pictures ready to put up yet.
Next time.

Color - Part 6

This picture is a close-up crop looking up toward the ceiling that shows the two darker colors:



This is in about the same spot, but with a slightly wider view:



These dark colors require multiple coats even after painting everything with two coats of primer.


There's an exterior update coming soon....

Interior - Starting to Look Like Something

My camera battery died, so these are the only pictures you get right now.
And true to my picture taking style, they're not very good ones.

I'd already turned off my working lights, so this is a flash picture that's overwhelmed by the light from the soon-to-be-replaced street side window:



My computer's monitor doesn't show color well, but it should show the light color on the wall as a light sage green (PC calls it 'frog').

This close-up shows how I painted each face of this odd corner a different color:



My battery is charged and I will take more pictures today.

Interior Update - All of Almost Nothing

I'm finished priming the entire interior.
Phwew.

Today I will paint the ceiling.
Color tomorrow.

I'll post pictures later this week.

Interior Update - Half of Almost Nothing

I promised you an interior update this week and all of a sudden it's Friday. So, here goes:

This first picture looks like nothing, which, let me tell you, is better than looking like brick or 2x4s or insulation or bare drywall.
Why?
Because this nothing is actually progress:





This view is a little wider - it actually looks like a little more than nothing:




What is all this nothing?
Primer. The pre-coat coat of paint. So, in a puzzling sort of way, even though I'm not really painting, I'm actually going through all the motions of painting; I'm priming.

It almost looks like something in this view:




See all these angles and corners? This is why it's taken me so long to mud and sand everything. Well, okay, that's one (good) reason.






I'm tempted to stop here. It actually looks as if I've accomplished something, doesn't it? I suppose I have, but it seems so slow (and messy).
If I back up and take a picture -looking up towards the ceiling- you can see that I'm not finished.
This picture is a little dizzying:




But this one is more clear:



Really, I'm about half way. Actually, I'm a lot further than that, because I'm almost ready to prime this other half, too. I just finished sanding it yesterday and later today I will patch a few rough spots. After it dries, I'll sand it again with a finer sandpaper and it's ready to prime.

Why did I do it in halves? Because I just couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing at once. Knowing I was done with half, and only had half more to go, was a strategy to preserve my sanity.
Did it work?
Hmmmm.....

Colors - one more time (for now; we'll resume later)

I'm learning. I finally figured out if I upload the pictures first, then it's easier to format the words around the picture frames. Also, if I upload them in reverse order from the way I want them to be viewed, then I don't have to click and drag to rearrange. It only took me about 8 months to figure this out. That gives me hope; I'm teachable.

It's Sunday morning (barely - it's almost noon) and I'm not at The 123. PC is though. He got up early -again- and went down there to get started. He has a few more things he's got to finish up inside and then he's going outside to get started out there. He's looking forward to moving outside. I'm looking forward to him moving outside, too. It'll be good to get some of that outside stuff started (more about this stuff later) and that gets him out of the way so I can take over inside. (I'll tell you more about that, too. Later.)

For right now:
Here's a picture of the bathroom with primer on the walls:




Here's a dusty-camera-lens picture looking in at the green bathroom walls:




One wall, the one you can't see in the above picture, is the darker green (if you've been following along, this is the bullfrog as opposed to the lighter green of the spring peepers).
Here's a tri-color corner shot:




The ceilings are (and the rest of them will be, too) the traditional white. Trim will be the creamy white. The deep red will be accent, at least in the bathroom. Outside of the bathroom, two of the larger walls will be painted this deep red to create a cozy corner where you can relax with your coffee and read or open up your laptop and check your email.

Enough for now; I've got to go. We're meeting PC over at the lodge at Tygart Lake for the buffet lunch (and live music!). This is opening weekend. The Foundation sponsored the Spring Hop and had all kinds of activities going for the past few days and I've been wanting to get over there. Yum.

[I think the Tygart Lake State Park Foundation has a website, too, but I seem to have misplaced the address. Will someone shoot me an email with that information, please?]

Color debate

I purchased the paint primer last night, but put off buying anything with color because I'm indecisive!

For the past few days I've been mudding the inside of the bathroom (I'm not very fast) with the intention of getting it ready to paint the first part of next week. I hope to use a couple of the lighter shades -for the smaller room- to get an idea of what some of these colors are going to look like; I never think the finished product is exactly the same as the color sample (I think it's just me).

Interior Colors

Paint.
Adding color to the bright white of fresh drywall always makes a huge impression and, therefore, makes me feel both bold and scared. Bold because it will cause drastic change and scared because what if it looks like crap?
Since looking like crap is not an option, I will be asking for help from people who know something about color. So, rest easy knowing that my (lame) eye for color is not the ultimate decision maker.

After narrowing the options down from a three-inch high stack of color samples to just a few deep, warm, autumn tones, here are some color names (I'm having trouble uploading colors from Behr's website, so I think I'll have to take a picture of the color samples and post them that way. I'll do that before I take the most recent pictures off the camera.):

PUMPKIN PATCH
S-H-250
AWNING RED
S-H-180
PINEAPPLE SODA
340B-6
ITALIAN OLIVE
S-H-390

You can go to Behr.com and plug them in to see before I get them posted over here.

Opinions are welcome :).