Need YOUR Help

Hello everyone - I promised an update for today and here it is. This time I'm going to need a little help. Below you can see this nifty little 50s Retro chair that I bought at a flea market in Batavia, Ohio. I've decided that this corner of the living room will be our classic corner. Now I just need a little something to add to it. I was originally thinking of some kind of little table, and that's still an option, but then I started thinking about something more unconventional. There's always a stack of old retro suitcases, but that's kind of over done. Then I thought about 2 or 3 retro hat boxes stacked to make a little table next to the chair. What do YOU think? You, our readers have been so supportive and helpful (and demanding), so now it's your turn to contribute. Log in, post us some comments with your ideas and opinions.

Below are two shots of the mud room coat storage area made from left over lumber from the playset. I'm going to get some funky storage boxes to go on the top shelf for extra hats, gloves, scarfs, etc. and perhaps some metal boxes below the bench for the kids' shoes.

You can see in all of these pictures that we still haven't finished the baseboard and window trim, so there's still more to do!

Ok, Ok, Here's an Update!!!!!

I'm glad we have such a loyal fan base! We've heard from so many people wanting updates, so here it is. With "Back to School" over for us now, we can focus back on the house. We've started installing the HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilation), and have installed both of the storm doors. Today we worked on the "mud room" coat storage area. I'll post more pics tomorrow when it's finished. Below you can see the finished pictures of the kids' playset, and the really cool thing about the playset is that we had some leftover lumber from the kit that we were able to use to build our custom mud room coat storage area - it's really cool, you'll love it!

In these two pics above and below, you can see the new area rug under the dining room table. I called my rep at Interface Flooring and told him about the project. BTW for those of you who are not in the design field, Interface is THE best commercial carpet company in terms of environmental responsibility and sustainability. Feel free to read their CEO (Ray Anderson's) book, Mid Course Correction. Anyway, so the rep hooks me up and I pick out the tiles above. We're still waiting for the living area tiles - YES, I'll post pictures when they come in. The colors don't read as well here as in real life - there's more orange to it in reality, but you get the idea. . .

One thing to add about the playset: a lot of the mulch that you see there is actually mulch that we made from a huge pile of trees and brush that we had been stockpiling on our property since we started building. We rented a chipper and within about 2 or 3 hours, it was all reduced to what you see here. We ended up needing more, so there is a load of mulch there from a bulk landscape supplier that we purchased. We could actually use a bit more and we'll probably buy it since the rental on the chipper is like the price of 4 or 5 loads of the bulk stuff we bought.

Below is one of my favorite trees on our property. It's right outside our bedroom window and it's already started to turn colors . . .

One more exterior shot

I just realized that I hadn't included this shot in my section of exterior pics from a week or so ago. This is the view of the house as you approach it on the driveway.

Latest Project

Ha! You all thought we'd retired and given up on house projects and our blog, didn't you? Well heck no - we've just been busy on our latest project - see below. It's almost complete, the monkey bars are the only thing left to add, and they'll go at the back behind the rock wall and tunnel. Just in case you can't tell from the pictures, there's also a slide, two swings, a trapeze/ring bar, a clubhouse with steering wheel and telescope, and a sand box below. We still have the mulch left to do, but overall it has the kids' approval.
It's made of Cedar and Cyprus - so it's durable and no toxic chemicals with pressure-treated lumber to worry about with the kids!
Next on the list: mulch around the playset, misc. landscape cleanup, getting some shade trees planted, and getting the HRV installed. Once the weather turns cold we'll begin working on interior trim.

Oh yeah, I forgot to update everyone on the blinds - we have interior blinds now and the ones in the great room, dining room, and kitchen are motorized on a timer so that we can set them to go up and down with the sun. Until next time . . .