HGTV Comes to Our House

Here is our kitchen from the same view as in the post about surviving a renovation. In the earlier view, we were looking at our temporary blue wall, which divided the kitchen and allowed carpenters to work while we continued using the space.

In this view, we have a camera crew from HGTV filming for the show Bang for Your Buck. They were comparing three Atlanta kitchens in the same approximate price range. When the show airs, I expect we'll find that they've been tough on us, because we're in the business. But it was fun. It will (I think) be the 6th episode in the new season, which begins in September.

FYI, Vern Yip is as nice as everyone says he is.

Bathroom Design on How Stuff Works

It's been a crazy spring, and I apologize for the dearth of posts. But I do want to show you a link to an article on http://www.howstuffworks.com/ (part of the Discovery Channel) - because I was interviewed for it and quoted in it. Try:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/decorating/10-mistakes-in-bathroom-design.htm

Family Life: The Birthday Week

I had a birthday recently, and I celebrated with our family’s custom: the birthday week. This is a tradition that really works, and I recommend it.

Almost everyone, from the teenage years on, has had at least one birthday that was a crushing disappointment. No one paid much attention that year for some reason; or you didn’t get the one present you were hoping for, or – if you’re a teenager – a fight with your parents destroyed the whole day. Magic solution: the birthday week.

During the birthday week, you designate seven full days to be nice to yourself. Other people aren’t really part of this: it's not a week of tyranny over your family and friends. Maybe they’ll let you out of doing the dishes a few times, but in general, this is a week in which you take responsibility for making yourself happy.

You allow yourself some of the little treats that you’d ordinarily skip. An affordable luxury – like a book or a sweater – that you’ve been wanting to buy, but haven’t? Buy it. Making time for lunch with a friend, even though you’re busy? Do it. Coffee and a magazine for half an hour after lunch, even though you have work to do? Make it happen.

In our family, we find that the birthday week gets us out of that whiny, “Does anyone really love me?” state of mind that birthdays seem to engender. So when the actual day rolls around, somewhere mid-week, whatever your family and friends choose to do for you is nice, but not the whole story. You’re having a good time before the day even starts.

And when the birthday week is over, you’re ready to admit that you’ve had your fun and that normal life can resume.

Surviving a Renovation

I came across some pictures you might enjoy. These are from a project we did on our own house two years ago, and they show how helpful site preparation is when you’ve got workers in your house. We do site preparation like this on every job – as needed -- when people are living in the house.

Our project included custom cabinet work in the family room. Carpentry is messy and takes up a lot of space, so you have to plan for it. Often, the carpenters do most of the work in their own space off-site, but in this case the guys we were using live far away, so it was easier to give them space in the house.

We started by building a temporary wall out of two-by-fours and blue foam board.

The wall divided our kitchen from the breakfast / family room, and it had a door cut into it (the hinges were just made of tape.) Just for fun, we made a poster-sized picture of a familiar water view, and we taped the picture to the blue wall. Not beautiful, but cheerful in a goofy kind of way.

On the other side of the temporary wall, the carpenters worked all day. Their conversation and power tools seemed slightly distant from the kitchen, since we couldn’t see each other. We never allow radios on any of our jobs, so that wasn’t a problem.

Here’s the workers’ side of the room. The view below is actually of the breakfast table area, temporarily filled with tools.

The next is of the cabinets in progress....

and the last is the finished work.

Family Life: More on mudrooms and cubbies

When you’re building or renovating a mudroom or laundry room, don’t forget the dogs! A very useful trick is to build dog crates directly under the counters. Of course, the doors need to be made of wire mesh, so there’s plenty of air. And of course, you don’t expect the dogs to spend all their time there – just bedtime, as they would with any other crate. You can put their blankets or beds inside, and the whole thing is out of the way.

In this case, the puppy looks a little bit sad. It’s not because he doesn’t like his bed; it’s because he started to come and play and was told to stop so we could take his picture.

Family living: mudrooms and cubbies

At our house, we’ve had many years of book bags and sports bags in the dining room. Apparently, that’s the logical place in our house to dump everything, especially when the dining room table was the homework center. But in other people’s houses (and yes, we are jealous), we often build new mudrooms and cubbies to catch all those things. A separate cubby for each child, with hooks for coats and book bags, with a bench they can sit on to take off their shoes, and with a shelf at the top for homework and special projects…… this is really a nice thing to have.

Design: Choosing Colors

Here’s a simple trick to help you choose colors: no matter what the combination you’re looking for may be, when colors are good together, they both look clean. Try it.

Saving money: “Weatherize” your house

Although replacing old windows is usually seen as a good way to reduce heat loss, in fact there are less expensive actions that accomplish even more. Read this in the New York Times.

www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/us/30weatherize.html?_r=1&ref=us