Landscaping--The Second Half

About three or so weeks ago I featured the final cleaning up of the front of the house. The grass is growing and we have a nice row of privet, boxwood and glass bells planted along the foundation. It has started to look orderly again. The remaining piece of the puzzle was out back.

The backyard in the United States is the "private space" of the residence. It is the traditional garden area with recreation space and room to relax with the house blocking activities from passers-by on the road. Of course back gardens vary a great deal from house to house and with my relative disdain for excessive manicured lawns I wanted a back yard that was suitable for recreation but not overly large. The grounds are all to often over-looked in architecture. This is a pity as the grounds reflect the house. It is very easy to mismatch the two and end up with a disaster.

Our house is located on just over 4 acres of land. There is a lovely little red barn with horse paddock out back and our property line is set back in the woods around the entire property. One of the best parts of the Homestead is that it commands a lovely view of the property out back which we intend to leave fairly natural (except for up around the house). Our master suite, kitchen and living room are positioned to take advantage of the privacy and view across the back three acres of the property. The deck with its outdoor fireplace is the crown jewel of the back gardens. We wanted the area around the house to be tidy and composed but the rest of the property left fairly natural. So, Tuesday was land moving day!

As of last Monday this was the disorganized disaster that met the eye in back of the house. The rock wall is part of the master plan but is not complete and gives little hint to its final place in the yard. Note the large plant covered mound at the head of the wall....this pile of loam had been there since we finished excavation last year. I had become so used to this tumor in our back garden that I had quite forgotten about it. That was at least until I had 13 yards of topsoil dumped next to it (right of the green pile).

First step was to start moving dirt. Bill used his skid steer to move topsoil from the pile around the area to the right of the wall.

Here is a great deal of the soil place above the wall to create a level surface around the deck area to the wall which will form the confines of the manicured lawn.

Next came time to install the "steps" to the cross through/mudroom door. This beast pushed the skid steer to its limits. Once we had the step in place we returned to moving dirt and I carted wheel barrow load after load of rocks out of the dirt to a pile in front of the wall.

New England soil is really rocky. It was hard going for early settlers here because the ground was not terribly giving. When the Western Reserve (Ohio and the plain states) was opened in the early 1800's many settlers who had grown weary of hard scrabble farming in New England headed west to fight Indians and settle the land which has become known as the bread basket to the world.

We used the last of the dirt in the large pile to sweep down around the rock wall and return the terrain around the barn to a natural landscape. We then smoothed out and filled in the area around the cross through door.

If you look to the right you can see the terrain sloping away and down along the barn.

The final step for Bill was to distribute the loam in the big green pile around the back. You can see the piles dumped in areas around the back of the deck for me to smooth out. This is rich healthy topsoil and makes a nice top layer....once you get all the rock out.

After several more hours of raking and leveling the backyard has begun to look like something. Now missing is the infamous "green pile" at the end of the wall.

The ground is now all level across the back and meets the bottom of the stairs.

As planned, the rock wall now acts as a retaining wall with about 6" of rock showing above the level terrain. Here you can see the backyard seed with grass seed and watered down to let the seed grow. Note the deck legs still visible. The railing goes in next and the lattice under the deck.

The rock wall once again, almost complete. Stephen Kiss finished it today and I am putting in the railing on the deck. Stay tuned for more photos!

The Nursery - Part I 1/2

Too cool of a free tool not to share... The Design Your Home 3D from My Deco renders your room with "actual" furniture (it's British and all the items are from British stores). It has its limitations, of course, but it makes for a fun way to play with furniture and designing a space without any knowledge of or without rendering software, just to get a feel for layout.

I did Margot's nursery and the result is not bad... The layout is pretty much this, the colour scheme is close (more beige and less yellowy but close), the only difference will of course be the actual furniture and accessories - but not bad, yes?!

The Pergola... or... it didn't rain today

Today was an exciting day at the Homestead. Frankly, I was torn as to what was more exciting; the fact that we were to install the pergola or the fact that it didn't rain. Well, it did rain a bit but only near 6:00 this evening and only for a short while. True to predicted alterations in weather patterns as a greater part of global warming, this is now our second year in New England of soggy late spring/early summer weather. It is quite strange, really. There are times when the downpours are actually hard to fathom. The rain comes straight down in torrents as one might see in a Costa Rican rain forest. For the last three weeks we have scarcely seen the sun. Today, finally, after many days of rain and dashing in and out of the garage to paint, we got a sunny day for the moment I have been waiting for! The pergola!

For those of you following along, you will recall the evolution of the back of the house. Here are a couple of run-up shots showing the back of the house.

By late last Fall we had the back of the house framed, covered with vapor barrier and some of the windows in. For those of you who have a keen eye you may notice the two small windows to the right of the chimney on the second floor of the house which have since been swapped out for a large picture window. Note the deck is not even in yet.

An early evening shot from a week or so later with the deck now in place. Note the two windows now removed in the master bedroom with a new rough opening for the picture window.

30 degrees F in late November, one day prior to finishing the siding. Note the large expanse of space from deck level to the eaves.

Mid-spring, the back fully painted and final site work ready to start.

A partial shot with the gutter now in place. You can see that most everything is now done. All that is left is for detail work and the stairs/railings for the porch. Now comes time for the pergola. The problem we ran into was endless rain. At long last we got a short break. I went to work cutting and priming all the pergola components.

My drawings called for a pergola across the back main face of the house. I have always liked pergolas but the point of this one is two-fold. First, the back of the house is our South facing side which receives the brunt of the sun year round. It also is exposed to the elements. While the three doors to the living room (to the left of the column in the drawing above) are sheltered under a cantilever, the two french doors to the kitchen are subjected to heavy abuse from the elements. The pergola, with slats in place on top, will help provide a bit of shade as well as some protection from the rain and show. Secondly, the back facade is fairly tall and wide making it appear a bit imposing. The pergola will serve to cut the space and reduce the impact of all the siding.

From the side you can see the pergola extending past the edge of the 4' wide deck from the kitchen. The pergola is to be supported by two main carrying beams on two 4x4 columns. The design changed a bit as I went to work cutting parts but the concept remained the same for the most part.

The two 2x8 carrying beams cut and fully primed/painted lie on the main section of deck awaiting installation.

Three of the 18 5'-6" / 1.67 m "runners" which will attach butt-end to the house with the tapered cut end extending out over the edge of the deck over where the stairs will be.

Here we can see the two supporting columns in place with the carriages for the stairs starting to go into place.

After helping to lift the carrying beams into place I step back for a photo. Next come the runners which will be attached to a 5/4x6 board on the house which went in when we were putting up the siding in the fall.

The first two runners in place anchor the carrying beams firmly in place. All that is left now are the other 16 runners.

The runners are all in place now and the carriages for the stairs are going in as well. This main stair will corner at the cut in the deck and the last step will meet on a common landing near ground level.

Early evening (yes, it rained again just as we finished putting in the pergola) a great shot of the pergola "corridor" as seen from the living room door. What a great difference! Such a nice framing of the space and a wee bit of shelter as well.

A few days later, the stairs are complete. The site needs work but that will start this Thursday as we begin to move around a bunch of dirt. By then the retaining wall (just out of the photo to the right) should be done. This will allow us to smooth out dirt around the back giving a nice flat area at the base of the stairs for a stone patio with table and chairs. We will lattice the under side of the deck and sides of stairs as well. Once the grass seed is in and the ground is level, the back yard will really come into its own. Stephen Kiss, my stone wall guy and ground's keeping expert is building the wall and will be bush-hogging the back yard late this week.

With the deck and stairs to the right, here is the wall under construction. The ground to the right of the wall will be filled in to about 6" / 15cm below the top of the wall and the ground to the left will be about 18" / 45cm lower. Such a modest load means that this heavy yet non-reinforced typical New England stone wall can shoulder the load of holding up a level back yard.

Here one can get a better feel for the finished height of the wall. The ground will be topped-up on the left side in the photo.

Here is one last shot showing the stairs mostly complete. Barring rain we will be grading the back this Thursday! An update will follow as this will mostly conclude the site work for the house and leave only odds and ends to do on the outside.

The Nursery - Part I - Defining the Big Idea

I found out that I was pregnant in the same month that we started designing the house. From the begining, I assigned the room above the library as the nursery - it is the smallest of the two bedrooms upstairs and it felt cosier and somehow, just perfect. Margot's room has been one of the most fun to think about and also, at points, one of the hardest. It is also the only room that will have been designed fully to the last detail - the other rooms, although also thought out, will, as it should, evolve with us living in them.

The first main decision for the nursery was the "big idea", theme and colour scheme. Even after we found out we were having a girl, I was adamant about not making the room pink - it is one of my least favourite colours and it gets overused. Besides, I was not sure I wanted a "gender defined" room. I am also not into the bright colour theme for babies' rooms - I know, I know, babies see brighter colours better but I really wanted a calm, peaceful environment, while avoiding the cliche' "shabby chic", or the pink and brown scheme that is just so passe'!

So I looked around for inspiration and found it in a few different places. The first one was the Serena and Lily's catalogue - this room in particular, from the Cameron Collection.

I love the neutral/linen tones, and in particular the colour of the crib, but the beach theme was not appropriate for this house. I kept this image in my files anyway and came back to it over and over. The next inspiration source was my favourite shelter magazine, the Spanish El Mueble. I have been buying this magazine for more than 20 years and my mother still gets it and mails it to me every few months. Last Summer, there was an issue with a special on children's rooms.

Once again, I love the soft tones in all these images and the feeling of peace that they convey. The one below became the fulcral point in defining "the big idea". I loved the beiges together with the rose (as opposed to pink) and the seafoamy blue.

The inclusion of blue was finally decided by a visit to our favourite baby store, Baby Cottons. A few years ago, my husband helped design and managed the contruction of a Baby Cottons store. Ever since, we joked that we decided to have children so that we could buy their clothing... I have often fantasized about having a baby store but the formula has been perfected by Baby Cottons, so I will stick to being a consumer!

Not only is the clothing adorable, but, most importantly, every piece is pima cotton and made in South America. And I can guarantee its outstanding quality - I wash Margot's clothing in the washing machine, and the Baby Cottons clothing remains just as soft and the same size after being washed over and over, just like the day it was bought!

But I digress... The Baby Cottons collection Pets gave me the excuse I needed to stick to the beige, rose, and blue - Pascal is the brown/beige doggie; Colette is the pink bunny; and Gustav, the blue kitty (below is the collection's hanger, with some pieces I knitted for Margot). We also have a few decorative items from the window display of a past Baby Cottons collection that the owner, Alexis, gifted us (it is still boxed but there will be photos of it soon).

So the colour scheme was decided! Beige for the walls; white for the furniture (which will include some DIY projects, more on that in another post); blue for decor and soft furnishings, including a beautiful work made by my good friend Valerie, a framed felted bunny based on the Baby Cottons logo.

Now I just needed the right shade of rose. It has taken me months but I finally found it - in a vintage Laura Ashley fabric in chalk rose, with white, pale blue and linen beige stripes that is coming all the way from England! My mother, the sewing expert in the family, will be making the bedding and a few other accessories!

In the next couple of months, it will all be put together finally! Part II will cover the process, and Part III will bring the final result - ohhh, I can't wait.

Homestead Holiday

Things are very busy this Independence Day weekend. The Homestead will be taking a giant leap forward in the coming week as the Churchill Brothers' office is closed for the week. A perfect time to push a whole bunch of projects forward. There will be a great deal to report on the coming week, especially as the stairs to the deck out back have been finished and our stone retaining wall is going into place. Nine days is a long time to work and I hope to get maximum bang for each day.

So, we are going to take a brief holiday from reporting on the Homestead today. Over the last 6-8 weeks I have been spending time, off and on, working on a Ferret & Hound project that I am very excited about. Back in February I mentioned that F&H, in addition to several other activities, had taken on a couple design jobs, one of them quite exciting. Naturally I must be somewhat obtuse and discreet as I wish to maintain maximum privacy for my client. However, I can share some of the basics as they pertain to the basics of the design.

I am designing a house that will be built on a very nice and generously sized piece of property here in Connecticut. I am enjoying this project a great deal as my clients are quite affable and have a very well developed taste. They have provided me with a frame work of what they would like and I am developing it. It is a challenging and very substantial project.

Design is hard. Sometimes the most simple-seeming plan blossoms into a complex project when the seemingly workable floor plans are pulled up into exterior elevations. There are countless hours of thought before and while one is actually making the drawings. I have spent a great deal of time developing the project and will meet with my clients this weekend to go over design development and see how they feel about how the project is jumping off. Here are three elevations.

This is the front of the house. My clients have elected to go with a fairly traditional New England type of design but with some unique twists. The house has some subtle Georgian touches but is basically a traditional colonial with an eyebrow second floor (the second floor is only 5' at the sides but incorporates dormers to open the space and let in light. The house lacks symmetry but I am pleasantly surprised and very satisfied with the way the barn (right) balances the house. Below is a view of the front as seen from the left side. Here one can see the barn broadside and begin to understand what I mean by balancing the house.

The "barn" is a three-car garage entered from the back of the property from a long winding driveway. The master suite is above the garage. The main house is connected to the garage on both levels by utility space, making the suite private and secluded.

Below is the back facade, which is still getting some last minute touches but I have included it last to show it in the late states of development. The highlight of the back is the library on the second floor in the middle with a terrace and double french doors.

I may be able to share the floor plans later but I want to keep them under wraps until I am more confident that they are close to what we will follow as the house moves from D&D to Development. It is a fine and well sized house. The big deal will be when I set it onto the site plan and we begin development of the site and driveway. Hope you liked the preview. Stay tuned for more, including big progressions here at the Homestead!

Intro to Tiling: Tiling Gets Under Way at the Homestead

Neglected to this point has been our other choice of flooring and finishing. I covered our choice of wood flooring around the house and mentioned that the master bathroom and kitchen/cross-through would be tiled but to this point we have not discussed selections and installation at all.

While I first learnt to work with wood, to be honest, the next skill I picked up was tiling and I owe my nerve to dig in to the other half of F&H who grew up amongst ceramics in her "native land" of Portugal. The early days of F&H our efforts were far more focused on cosmetics and refurbishment of apartment/condos. It is actually what sent your humble author back to school for architecture and the reason why Claudia moved towards interior design. We spent a great deal of time working over apartments and rolling them. It was eye opening and a great deal of fun. It was where we discovered the open and yet unfilled niche for "the million dollar house for $500K". We were appalled at what passed for livable and we discovered that a little thought, some hard work, and a modest budget could yield a product worth many times its investment.

At a point in the near future I am going to get the way-back machine out and take us back to a time of 1.2 megapixel digital photos and show a couple earlier projects. But for now we shall discuss tiling.

As I mentioned, I cut my teeth on tiling because the interior design department agreed to show me how to lay out and mark tiles. This left me to figure out tile cutting, mortar/mastic, and grouting. I bought a cheapo Chinese wet saw (which of course did not last well and has now been supplanted by an MK Diamond saw) and we picked out a new tile for the kitchen we were then refurbing.Above is my Diamond wet saw. Made in the US (mostly) and while this is a smaller version, the choice of professionals) It took a bit of practice and it was wet work at first but the floor really impressed me. We laid out a grid on the floor starting in the center and worked to the edges and around objects. Corner and round cuts took time but I got the hang of it.

About 16 projects later we came to this project. Tile selection was slowed and laborious. We wanted just the right tiles. Today we cover the kitchen and guest bathroom. Next comes the master bathroom which I promise will be a treat (I have put a sneak-peek of the tile at the end of this post).

My first step was to put down tile backer board over the plywood sub floor in the kitchen and cross-through into the garage/barn. Backer board is a cement board which is screwed down and provided and rigid and mold resistant surface to apply tiles to, both for walls and floors.

Here is the backer board screwed down to the floor of the kitchen. The blue-grey tiles (with an ever so faint marble of rust in them) are pictured above. The next step was to lay out the grid. This room has a lot of cabinets and corners. In addition, the flooring runs out of the kitchen into the cross-through where it also covers the laundry room and pantry floors. We needed a strong, clean, straight line running from one end to the next.

Skipping a couple of steps for the moment, pictured above in the baseline of tiles running the longest distance of tile in the kitchen. If this line were off it would have horrible consequences visually from this perspective.

Once the line was established I mixed the mortar and we began tiling.

I sweep the mortar with a toothed float to leave a pattern of ridges. To make sure I have time and can reach across the area I tend to do about five to six tiles at a time.

I use these little spacers to maintain an accurate spacing along the floor. It also helps insure that the floor maintains a grid layout. Each tile is set into the mortar and then pressure is applied to set it and position it in relation to the others. The process is repeated across the floor. The corners go more slowly as do the edges. Each tile needs to be custom cut to fit and cut.

The color of the tiles should pick up the counters and the cabinets very well. It provides just the right amount of ceramic in an otherwise wooden room.

Once the floor was complete it set for 24 hours. Once the mortar was hardened it was time to grout. Regrettably I have no pictures of me grouting, only after photos. Suffice to say, grouting takes a touch of practice but is not too hard and the results tend to be very satisfying. Tiling plays funny games with your head. The first few tiles put down make you feel great and you begin to envision the completed floor. Then as you get half completed you feel like it will never end and you notice every single minute thing that might be done incorrectly. Next, as you are on your last tiles (typically the most complicated corners and cuts) you must resist the tendency to rush. Finally, with all the tiles down you feel satisfied but it looks terribly rough and incomplete with all the dark lines between the tiles. That last step, 24 hours later, where the grout goes in, makes all the difference and the floor explodes to life.

With the grout in place the kitchen floor was completed. Sometimes it is hard to get photos of everything and all steps. The upstairs bathroom is an example.

The guest bathroom has a 5'/1.52m Kohler Villager cast iron tub and wood flooring. This is a very simple but clean and elegant basic shower/bath tub. We chose 3"x6"/7.6 x 15.2cm "subway tiles in a sparkling white.

Because the tub is not as long as the wall it is placed on I constructed a seat/ledge at the end and covered it with backer board. To give it just a tweek of accent we decided to skip the stock house step of simply wallpapering the entire shower with white tile and make the seat stand out a touch. We chose a light marble with a nosing in a 6"x6"/15.2 x 15.2 cm size. I debated a solid slab of marble but we agreed that the using an actual tile allowed it to share grout lines with the rest of the surround. We liked that language a bit better. Here are the results. The lighting is not as good as I would have liked as it picks up the glare on the sparkling white tiles. Hope you get a good idea.

Here is the photo of the blend valve in the wall of 3" x "6 subway tiles.

The shower head fitting protruding through the tile above the blend valve.

Once the bathroom is complete with toilet and sink I will be able to get some nice pictures of the room and tub fully cleaned and hopefully have nicer pictures of the tiling. In the meantime, with things running along here I leave you with the master suite tiles. We picked a mosaic for the floor of the bathroom and shower and white marble subway tiles for the shower walls. This should prove interesting!

Tag and Backyard Sale Spoils

So the sale came and went. Everyone had a great time, sellers sold and customers bought, the shop was busy, and the weekend was a success! I spent most of the time manning the shop so I did not have time for "1st dibs" but on the second day I did have time to go out and do a little shopping of my own.

OK, so I did have first dibs on one piece that is in fact my favourite "purchase". It was going to be a purchase but ended up being an early birthday gift from one of my bosses (Thank you, Suzanne!). It's an heirloom piece, a vanity made in Germany in the 1930's. Hopefully baby Margot will grow to appreciate the good things in life and I will be able to pass it on to her. I have the perfect spot for it in the master suite. Now the quest for the perfect vanity stool begins...!

There was another lamp that I had seen and loved but it sold on the first day. However, I managed to snag this one before someone bought it on Sunday. It's black painted metal and I just love the detail in the base. I have not decided yet where it is going but at this point I am thinking "desk".

And speaking of desk - I eyed this little beauty all weekend. It has some tear and wear but I confess that it was part of its appeal. Right before the end of the sale, I finally broke down and figured that if it was still there, it was because it wanted to go home with me... I was thinking about it for the office/guest room but it has a very delicate look to it - it is not a large desk, so maybe in the library. We will have to see.

I found these fabulous pillows that one of the interior designers was selling and, if you can believe it, they are the perfect match to the print fabric I have and that I will use in the master suite!

Also for the master suite, we purchased this great driftwood full-length mirror. It was a bargain and it will go fantastically in the wall across from the walk-in closet!

The weekend before last we made some purchases as well, at a tag sale in our street. My first find was this rocking chair for Margot's room - it was a true bargain and I love the distressed look. I have the cushions but I will need to re-cover them.

Then I saw this from the corner of my eye - a solid pine chest of drawers. It had my name written all over it - I just love the rusty old pulls too!

Last but not least, this cabinet was another bargain. It is over 100 years old and I have a feeling this was either part of something else, or it's a marriage of sorts. Either way, I liked its quirkiness and I think it will house kitchen linens in the small back hallway, just off the kitchen.

Not bad, eh? Very soon I will be able to post on what goes where, including our furniture that is now in the garage and the attic - oh yes, and I think the basement as well. The move to the main house is imminent (I am so excited I can hardly contain myself) - next post or so, I will share my ideas for the master suite and the nursery and I may need some help with suggestions so stay tuned.