Last real update: November, 2001
(Not my house any more.)
Over the hills and through the woods (yeah, I wish)...
I decided if I was going to do handsprings in the living room, I
needed more room. So I moved the front door furthur away, and
chopped the corner off the office. I finished the corner with a
cantilevered door that opens toward the ceiling, so it doesn't
sweep out any floor space. There's a simple pully system, routed
through the attic, which counterbalances the door
so you can open and close it
with one finger.
I hid the couterweight in this closet. I did away with the closet
doors altogether, and just built in an arch.
I plan to put shelves to
the left, where they're out of sight, but easilly accessible.
The cut-outs on the right wall will have black screen faces
half-way up, to hold papers, letters, and such (to get some of
those baskets off my desk!).
There still wasn't enough room to do handsprings, so I
cut a hole out the other side of the living room, and into
the dining room.
Liberal application of bricks and wood glue produced
this giant mouse-hole effect:
Here's before and after the plaster and paint:
Did I show you the fireplace? Here's what it looked like when I
moved in:
Underneath the facade was this hideous green and purple brick.
I decided to cut the corners off the hearth before refacing it
in slate and granite. The clamps taped to the sides are there to
hold the string I used to draw the arc. I broke my sledge hammer
in the process of taking these corners off. :(
Here it is almost finished (I still need to grout between the tiles):
Do to either poor or subtly ingenious planning, I ended up staying up three
nights in a row, working on the fireplace, painting, and laying trim. Here
is Trim Hell, shortly after the sun rose, followed by the carpet going
in some 24 sleepless hours later:
As it happened, I only managed to trim the living room and hallway before
the carpet layers arrived. However, the lack of trim in the office has
inspired me to seek a better alternative. I am considerring using a split
plastic pipe, so I can run power and data cables inside the trim. More on
that as it happens... Here are with and without shots. Note the rounded
corner -- I had to have them custom
made (you would think you could buy them wherever you buy the trim, wouldn't
you?).
Remember the office closet? Here it is with the shelves, and my filing
cabinet (and... carpet!). I plan to put a plant on the filing cabinet
with tendrils growing out into the room. Also, here is an archway I
made to the kitchen:
In summary, here's what happened:
So, for the moment, I have most of a living room and the beginnings of
an office. It's been raining alot so the backyard is quite green.
And I found some great rope with which I made a slack
rope to keep me in touch with the earth. So, this seems a good time
for an intermission. But don't go away... we're just getting started.
Brandyn Webb /
brandyn@sifter.org
