Day 18

Sha-Zam! We have walls! Dan The Framer was busting a move today.

This is the bathroom and closet of the new master suite. On the right is the wall of the walk-in closet. Where the plumbing is coming up out of the floor will be a wall that doesn't reach all the way to the ceiling--in the hopes that it will make the space feel bigger and allow in more natural light.


Here's the wall that defines the walk-in closet. Or maybe I'll make it so that Sadie has her own bedroom. I think she'd like that.


This is the new wall for the closet and main bathroom.

The edge of the bathroom and the entry into the master suite.

I love progress!

Beantown Handmade

Seriously. Which of you didn't smile (or laugh!) when you saw this photo?


By Beantown Handmade Pet Apparel and Accessories on Etsy. Found via Emmy Lu.

Ma(i)sonry

I have always loved stone buildings. And this one is no exception.

It's Ma(i)sonry, in Napa Valley. And I love it.


It dates to the early 1900s and was recently restored. In its current form as Ma(i)sonry, it's described as a "living gallery" that serves as a stylized backdrop for the appreciation of limited production boutique wines.

They have fun things like UFO Water Crystal Chandeliers.


And gorgeous furniture. I'd have a wicked good nap in this black chaise, even without the benefit of that glass of wine!



Found on Remodelista.

Calm and clean

As if the construction isn't bad enough, we've had major dust storms every few days. Every surface of the house is covered in dust and dirt and grime. I can't wait to have a calm, clean house again and to feel like this picture looks.

From Toast.

Day 16

Yesterday they poured the new concrete to bring the level of the old garage floor up to the level of the main house.

I resisted the temptation to let Sadie run through it to leave paw prints for eternity.


The septic system was inspected on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon it was all covered over again. It's like it never even happened (except for the huge bare patches and the piles of dirt and leftover rock...).

Smell the air

I am ready to sit in the grass under a tree strung with candles in mason jars. And do nothing but relax and smell the air.

Photo by One Love Photo, found via Veiled Vows via Style Me Pretty.

3/50 Project

This is a great idea I found via Simple + Pretty.

It's the 3/50 project: Spend $50 per month (total) in three different independently owned stores in your local area. What a great way to help our small businesses in these crazy economic times.

Find out more at the 3/50 project website.


My first stop will probably be at Enstrom's, the makers of The World's Best Almond Toffee. (Hands down.) My second stop will probably be at one of the locally owned garden centers. Or, maybe I'll skip the toffee this month and visit three of our locally owned garden centers. Oh, how I love buying flowers...

Hanging succulents

Many weeks ago I spotted this hanging succulent garden in a post on Remodelista.


And I went silly over it.


Over the weekend I was catching up on my blogs and I saw them again, this time in a feature over at Design Sponge.


These are all the creations of Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. And I think this woman is a genius.

She also makes wreaths of succulents.


I love the wreaths.


Like these from Martha Stewart Living and Viva Terra (which can be purchased for about $100).

Bird place cards

I saw these spring-inspired place cards earlier and then promptly forgot about them until just now. They are too cute for words.


Complete DIY instructions over at Scissor Variations.

Spring in Palisade

With the news that another cold front is moving in, I almost hate to say this. But I think that spring is finally really here in my small town.

With all the construction and several printing projects in the works right now, I haven't had much time to walk around to see what's blooming.

It turns out that all sorts of things are in full bloom.

Day 12

Today was the first day of concrete.


We got new footers under the slab of the garage.


And they filled in the trenches from the plumbing.


And they took away Buffy's gigantic litter box. She's bummed. I wonder what she'll do to retaliate.


Fred also installed the two new picture windows in the front of the house.


I was SO happy that it involved removing the red brick. It had to come off anyway, to be replaced down the road by stacked stone, but I am happy to see it go sooner rather than later.


Because I'd much rather look at this for a few weeks than look at that red brick for one more day.

Day 11

Fred removed the garage door today. In fact, he removed the whole entire wall.


And then he started to build a new one.


Tomorrow they will start the first day of concrete, filling in the trenches for the plumbing inside, and pouring a new 16" footer around the perimeter of the old garage. Next Monday or Tuesday they will do a second pour of concrete to bring the old garage floor up about 4" or so to be level with the current house floor.

Fred installed the two new windows in the living room yesterday. I helped him move them over from the workshop and put them in place. I realized I need to work on my upper body strength.

The Big Dig continued today. That should be finished tomorrow, and inspected on Monday. Then I need to find a home for a bunch of dirt. And rocks. Man, he dug up some big rocks.

Fun finds

I finally have a bit of a break to go through all the fun finds I've bookmarked recently.

One year of white pages in the form of one notebook per month for notes, doodles, shopping lists, poems, lists of parts you need for your plumber, etc. From Canoe.


And I love this photo from Amy Atlas Events. That color is darn close to some letterpress cards I just printed with some bunnies.




Love these blue bird file folders from Red Stamp. I wonder if having these would make me more organized...

Day 9

The Big Dig started. And I'm the proud new owner of a hole in my backyard that is 10 feet deep.



This is a happy day--a new septic tank. We're one step closer to indoor plumbing again.



Day 10 will include digging the rest of the trenches for the leach line--we will have two trenches, each more than 80 feet long. Each trench is 7 feet deep, filled back in with 5 feet of rock. For those of you who failed rocket science in school, that means I will have a lot of dirt left over. No, I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Sadie might have some ideas, though. She's good with ideas. She likes the idea of having lots of dirt to bury bones in.

We also started removing some of the windows. The new ones arrived and will go in soon. In the meantime, I am loving the filtered light you get when you use plastic sheets for windows. (No, not really. But I'm trying to stay positive.)

In other news, the new irrigation system is going well. My husband's new suspension bridge to carry the pipe across the creek is almost complete. He is very proud of it. He keeps asking when I'm going to feature it on my blog. He's even asked if he can write a post about it. I told him I might consider it if he lets me get that new gigantic letterpress I just found yesterday. (More on that, with hopefully good news, at a later date.)