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Starting!

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by the Artist

Today we start a large kitchen remodel. It's been months in the planning. Initial meetings, design decisions, kitchen cabinets ordered, floor and backsplash tile chosen. Lots of details had to be ironed out before demo can begin.

We start demo by removing all base trim, pry off the countertops, remove the cabinet bases and uppers and pull up the vinyl floor. In this situation we are only removing one small wall. And I should say.. before we start any project we block off the area being remodeled from the rest of the house with plastic. We take every precaution to keep the home as dust free as possible during the process. But some dust does still sneak out.. especially if a furnace or ac is running.

So here's to demo day! It's been a long time coming but is finally here. I know the homeowners are looking forward to eating their first meal in their brand new lovely kitchen! Here's to dreams that do come true!



Building a vacation

by the Artist

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Going, going, gone. Back.

We were gone last week "building a vacation." And that about says it all. I commented that camping is the equivalent of recreating your home environment outside. You bring your bed, table, clothes, food, furniture (to sit on under the blue sky and by firelight), and if you are so lucky… your toilet, sink, and "HVAC".. (for you Mr Carpenter.) 

You work like a dog to pack it all away, kick the camper tires, check to make sure when you turn the lights on in the truck, that like dominoes... they are on all the way back to the boat. We then pray that we will arrive in a timely manner with the wagon train in tack. Fingers crossed that all 10 tires stay nicely inflated, and that the boat doesn't decide to turn left when we take a right. 

And added to the fun for this year.. a severe summer storm on the eve of departure. No electricity, roof, tree and sunflower damage which had the Carpenter pounding some nails that morning. And bless his heart… he helped me prop up all my sunflowers that decided to fall flat on their faces during the storm.

Upon arrival we circled the wagon train and spent yet another three hours (we have a "vintage" camper which is quite fussy) setting up our "outdoor for a week home". It's hot, and we're already maxed out tired from the pack-up and drive. Are we relaxing yet? 

This year has made me really think about what we have to "build" to enjoy some time away. I do believe some changes need to be made. Because as much as we love to "build"… we really don't want to work so hard for vacation. And I'm sure for those of you who do not like to camp… you would whole heartedly agree!

So here's to building… anything but vacations!




Camping.

by the Artist

Full on summer is here. We are through the 4th and soon to head on our annual family camping trip. As I review yet one more list… my mind spins with all that still needs to be done. Why do we camp? That's a very good question. 

Camping is massive prep on the front end and massive set up upon arrival. Then we crash and relax to recover. We work so hard during the year.. perhaps we need to take a cruise or stay in a beautiful resort with spas and gourmet meals.. with a staff ready to take care of all our needs. 

That's not really our style. The Carpenter and I love lakes. We love sitting by a lake, fishing on the lake, swimming in the lake, listening to the lake creatures… loons calling as they fly over. The smell of campfires, water lapping against our boat. And it's really appealing to us to do nothing unless we want to do something. To just chill. Get off the hamster wheel for a few days and contemplate. Or maybe not.

We don't like to think about the business when we are gone. And that's a good thing. We've been very busy this summer with many projects. We are starting a screened porch project the end of the month which will be fun to do. The last screened porch we built in the dead of winter. 

So we look forward to the relaxing part and returning hopefully relaxed and rested… that is the plan!



Littles.

by the Artist

It's been a busy week of "littles". A little bit of this. A little bit of that. And it's only Tuesday.

Our lead carpenter is out in the cabinet shop right now finishing up staining and varnishing for a window replacement project we are doing tomorrow. We've also been completing a couple of smaller projects, had plumbing and final inspections yesterday, and repaired two of our vehicles. One vehicle we've had only two weeks. Ouch!

I've been finishing up drawings for an exterior renovation bid. I'm pretty much done, just need to do some refinements. As I was working yesterday I thought about how as a child I would sit in front of our chalk board in the kitchen drawing apartment buildings (because they have many windows)… so I could draw all different types of window treatments! I spent hours sitting on the red metal stool drawing shades with those strings– that had a ring on the end– at different levels of open. I drew tiebacks and straight drapery panels. Surely I was a budding interior designer!

That little girl grew up and now does sketches of ideas to improve a home's exterior- curb appeal. I still get to "draw" and do what I love and help the Carpenter at the same time. 

Just a little bit of "little" to share with you today!

 

Some squirrels, a monkey and a whole bunch of wood!

by the Carpenter

It has been a 3-month process.

Back in April, I was in our town of White Bear Lake and I scored! I found a 40’ tall, 46” diameter at the base and a 30” diameter at the top, red oak tree. I arrived at the right time just when the tree cutter was going to fell it. He was actually more then happy to deliver it to me in chunks because I was within two miles as compared to forty miles where his shop was.

Well deliver he did. Two hours later I had several 5’ chunks, a couple 4’ chunks and a 3‘ chunk. The 5’ chunks ranged in diameter from 46” to about 42”. The weight of the 46” logs worked out to be approximately 3500 lbs. 

I cut these logs into 10” thick wheels, and then used a wedge and sledge to create 6 pie shape sections from each wheel. Each of these pie pieces at almost 100 lbs. were then set in a log splitter which when split produced about 20 logs.

I think I spent about 25 to 30 hours on the chain saw and the same on the splitter.

After that was complete, we had a mountain of oak logs ready to stack. Was I going to do that????? Nooooooooo!

This is where my "squirrelly girls" and my "monkey boys" come in. Who are they you ask? Well I have been blessed with six spirited nephews and four sweet nieces here in MN, and one nephew and one niece in PA. The kids here in MN for obvious reasons have been more a part of my life over the years then the PA kids, somewhat sad but that’s another story.

Anyway, my MN kids became "my kids" over the years. As our niece/uncle/nephew relationships grew, somehow the girls became known to me as my "squirrelly girls".

Well as I continued to call them that, one of them insisted that the boys also be given a moniker. Because boys are boys– always jumping and swinging on things– they became the "monkey boys", and to this day the names have stuck!

Now they range in age from a junior in high school to 10 years older then that, and they are still my "squirrelly" and "monkeys". Always will be.

Okay back to the project. I had the four girls and one of the boys over today to stack. And boy did they stack! They put up over five full cords of wood (1 cord= 4’x4’x8’) in five hours.

Every time I am able to spend time with them, I really value it. They get along well, enjoy each other and really seem to actually like each other. They are slipping out of my grasp. Two monkeys and a squirrelly just graduated from college, One monkey works for me, another squirrelly is going to be a junior in college, one monkey just graduated from high school and is off to college in the fall, the two other monkeys are pursuing careers, and the last two squirrellys are in high school. One is a junior, one a senior. It’s a bittersweet time seeing them grow and go, but they will always be my "squirrelly girls" and "monkey boys!"

Today was a fun day with them and it was worth giving up work time to do it.

 

Happy.

by the Artist

I sat eating my lunch on the back deck today here at Applewood. It's beautiful out. Almost unbearably beautiful. I was taking a break from working on design concepts for an exterior renovation project we are bidding on. 

Music was wafting out of the cabinet shop where our Lead carpenter is building a custom bath vanity for one of our current bath remodels. Farther out I caught bits of conversation and laughter amidst the steady thump of wood being stacked. A group of our nieces and nephews came over today to help the Carpenter stack wood he had split for this coming winter. Yes I said that word!

It was a nice to be surrounded by activity. It's usually just me and the Snack Manager. Alone. I spend hours sitting in my "dormer" office working away in solitude. I'm okay with solitude. It was just fun today having more energy around here. 

And well.. it inspired this post. Life is good.

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Bidding on high.

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by the Artist

Last week the Carpenter and I headed to a home, to take photos and measurements for a large exterior renovation project we are bidding on. We call these larger whole house exterior projects "Second Acts". http://www.applewoodremodelers.com/second-act-1/ We love this type of work for different reasons.

The photos I took will be used to layout some design ideas to show the homeowners. The Carpenter went to look more closely at all aspects of the exterior, as well as take measurements for his bid. In the photo above, I caught the Carpenter deep in thought up on the roof. I'm always surprised how relaxed he is up high. 

The Carpenter favors working with the existing conditions of an older home. Problem solving what is revealed during the project, figuring out how to fit new materials and design into "old". He says it's like working a puzzle. He makes the renovation work.

I enjoy the challenge of designing the "before" to become a beautiful "after". I watch my share of home improvement shows. Actually we started watching "This Old House" before HGTV was even a glimmer in a producers eye. I make the design work.

We've both learned a lot over the years. A lot. How to renovate to current market standards without breaking the bank, and still maintain quality craftsmanship. There is an art to that. 

And we're off to another busy week. 

Here's to hoping you have a good week too.

 

Lots of new.

by the Carpenter

If you have been following us, by now you know and have seen some changes around here. The Artist has been working for months on our new and very improved website.

I must say what she accomplished is incredible. I think she has explained some over the last few months what she has been doing, but I want to emphasize to the non-tech type out here what that means. She spent hours upon hours teaching herself how to build the site with the help of the web host company called Squarespace.

Our previous host, Modern CRM, is a true web builder. He knows the “Code” as the Artist says. Our old site was 100% dependent on him if we wanted to make significant design changes, or fix technical glitches like our contact page suddenly not working. As often as the Artist likes to change things up, and have more control, we needed to find a way that did not take his time anymore. 

So entered Squarespace. A website host company that specializes in do-it-yourself site building– a so called "plug and play" system meaning they have lots and lots of templates to use, and lots and lots of instructions and videos on how to build a site. You pick a basic design and build from that. With the help of their tech team, and the Artist’s "stick-to-it-tivness," I think she came up with a site that looks every bit as good as a high end web designer could have done at a fraction of the cost. We just pay a annual fee for them to host the site.

With the new site host, we also went to a new email host. Our email addresses have not changed, just the company that handles the email– I think they are called our "server". That was for me to figure out. We had to re-configure all our devices for the new server. It took several phone calls to the tech team and many hours of trying and re-trying, but we finally got it. If you had tried to send an email to us about a week and a half ago, you may have gotten a bounce back. We were off-line as they say for a day and a half, but all seems to be working fine now.

On the home build front… more new jobs keep coming our way. This looks like the summer of smaller jobs. We are not bidding on any big additions or projects right now. Just several smaller projects. We just completed the design process for a kitchen remodel that we will be into in about three weeks, finishing up two bath remodels, a porch repair, and you probably saw our loft project. That was fun and fast. Its good to get those types of jobs that all of a sudden come out of nowhere.

Still working on prices for other jobs– two garages, a small addition, a total exterior remodel/update and a couple porches. And as the song says, “and the beat goes on, the beat goes on”. And as usual a contractors summer does not leave much breathing room. I may be on the hunt again for another carpenter. We will see on that.

Another new item. Our old faithful Ford Explorer gave it up a few months ago. It still runs but very rough. We have been told it could be as simple as a vacuum issue or as serious as a timing issue. I decided not to put any more investigation money into it. If you know of anyone that likes to wrench on cars, it’s a 1999 Explorer. Brand new transmission, body is in excellent shape for a '99, it has some issues with some lighting, door locks etc, but it is a '99. Send them our way if you know of anyone who may be interested.

The other new item is "new" to us. A 2006 Toyota 4 Runner. It seems funny, we bought a car with more miles on it then the Ford had, it is seven years newer, but we feel we are now driving in luxury! It has a nice ride and I hope it proves to be everything that Toyota’s are known for. Do you call it a sun roof or a moon roof? The Artist wants to know. I have a '93 Toyota pick-up that has 168,000 miles on it and the engine seems to be as good as the day it was new. I do need to do some other minor work on it which I now think I will. It was very difficult for the Artist to be without a vehicle for three months. But hey, it gave her the time to build the website! 

Back to bidding.

 

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Here to help.

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by the Artist

The end of last week the Carpenter and I met with customers whom we are doing a kitchen remodel for, at our local tile shop to assist in picking floor and backsplash tile. They brought along a sample of their countertop and a floor tile sample they had found previously. 

Before heading to the store we met first at their home, so I could meet the homeowners for the first time and get a feel for their "style". We looked at the floor and countertop tile samples they had already, and discussed what their design goals were for their kitchen. I also looked at some magazine kitchen samples the homeowner had found. We also talked about the foyer flooring that connects with the kitchen and how to "marry" the two floors, keeping in mind that the foyer floor will be replaced in the future.

On route to the store.. I was studying the chosen countertop sample and decided on a color to look for based on that– a different color then the homeowners had picked. They liked their first pick but were concerned it matched too closely to the old foyer tile.

Once in the store I knew exactly what I wanted and we found a handsome warm gray textured tile quickly. It is made up of random widths of mostly vertical pieces with one large more square area. (If you haven't been to a tile store lately.. you've got to go see the beautiful faux wood tiles and the new monochromatic what I call textured plank tiles. So beautiful!)

We then found a gorgeous glass subway tile in a warm brown with olive undertones. Again picking up a vein of color in the "chosen" countertop sample. We then picked grout color for the floor and subway tiles and we were good to go! The last item to check off needing my help will be the wall color.  

When we were setting the order up, (the Carpenter till needs to measure and order quantities).. I noticed that the homeowners were excited about the choices and how it all came together. They seemed relieved. Seeing that made me very happy. When I help with design decisions.. I want the customer to feel what I'm feeling, to be excited about their project. I also am relieved myself that I was able to successfully assist them. 

The homeowners said more then once.. "we just get so overwhelmed with what to choose". It's scary because you don't know what it will look like till you see it finished. So there definitely has to be a trust factor between a homeowner and the designer. You see that played out all the time on HGTV.

You too can get my design assistance if you sign on a project with Applewood. It is included in the project proposal. No need to feel overwhelmed during a project. Yes there are many decisions to be made. We can help lessen the pressure to make the right choices.