They painted the front entrance and living room. More blue, lol.
We are getting ready for the kitchen demo next. 
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I was brainstorming with my husband over lunch and he’s excited about the project and has some ideas for how to build them.
Of course I came back down to the studio to measure some things and check to make sure a taller shelf wouldn’t block too much light (it won’t) and thought to myself, you know what’s better than one shelf? Two!
So now I’ve got plans to put a second narrower shelf on this side about 1” bigger around than the blue sketchbook.
That side is wider but can’t be as deep because of my easel but I’m really excited about this plan! It should solve all of my current and foreseeable future storage problems while still maintaining the openness of the studio.
Now to spend the afternoon trying to remember how to use sketch up or similar to make some designs. 
Edited to add - OR we could do one long unit and direct the vent back into the room somehow. That would actually be the best to allow access to the bookshelves but would block the ability to open the window 
So I think 2 separate units is the way to go.
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Google air vent extender…we used something like this when our couch was over the floor vent…he could build over it?
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The painting of the exterior of our house is off to a good start!
Before:
In progress. The brick will be whitewashed in a very light grey.
It’s been a slow process due to weather, but I have commitments that it will all be done by the end of June…One year after we moved in!
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Loving that blue! And it should go great with the whitewashed gray. That’s a popular combination around here.
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Really makes the house look fresher. Can’t wait to see the final.
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Our neighborhood is mostly white, tan or beige houses. A few were that yellow…most were built in the late 70’s. I think a lot of neighbors are planning to refresh their houses…our painter (my nephew in-law) has been handing out contact info all week! ha It’s been fun since I get to meet people as well!
The color will actually be much darker. It took our shed about two weeks to reach the color we had custom blended. I want a brick red door, my husband wants black. He will probably get his choice since the pavers on the porch are black
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When we painted our house and started doing renovations, it was interesting how the neighbors started doing stuff too. All except one….who lives right next to us. He doesn’t give a flip about the appearance of his house. 
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I think our house was THAT house to our neighbors. Most of them told us that they are very pleased that we have decided to upgrade and clean up the house. It actually was one of the uglier houses in the neighborhood. There is a lot of peer pressure and subtle things published in the monthly neighborhood magazine. The magazine features homes and families and remind people that Spring is refresh time, etc. This is good and bad, but at least there is no horrible HOA!
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Our neighborhood seems to almost have the opposite of this. Being in the forest on mostly 5-acre parcels in Montana with almost no ordinances has people doubling down on their “property rights” in some ways. Probably part of that is that many houses are away from the road so not clearly visible, so they aren’t motivational. For us, it’s easy to forget what the last owners left behind the shop building or on the far corner of the property when there is so much more fun and satisfying work to be done at the house itself. That said, we have also gotten use out of the pile of T-posts, stack of lumber, etc. My deck project last year does have me more interested and enthusiastic about the “curb” appeal, though, so hopefully I will keep that through the spring/summer/early fall when outside conditions are more conducive to these projects.
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I think curb appeal should be mostly how you want your house to reflect you and your family. It can give a sense of pride in ownership. It will also help with selling down the road and keeping up with maintenance will mean not having to do it all at once or leaving a place that needs a lot of work for your family to have to do when you are gone.
I am sure a lot of people would like to do more, but it is expensive if you can’t do it yourself and time consuming for working people and unable to do it if you are elderly or disabled. There are a lot of lawn mowing services around here that are able to help out at no cost for many of these people. My person says he is able to do this because people like us can pay enough for him to take care of his family and he can pass on help to others. I admire him for that!
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Curb appeal is a real estate term, so yes, I agree. That said we have no curb, and like many in our neighborhood our house is away from (and above in our case) the road - which we also own.
I’m glad such services exist. In our neighborhood, almost no one has a lawn - it’s the forest! But there are people who help those in need with raking, etc. Mostly what I am talking about is junk cars, stuff removed from the house, old stock (animal) paraphernalia, etc. There are no laws or ordinances against this, just like most rural communities, and some people just collect “junk” and they do it where people can see it from the road. We actually have a pick-n-pull business in the area which I think gives the hoarding-inclined “permission” to just keep putting their old cars “out to pasture.” The vibe can be almost, "well, just because they tidied up doesn’t mean I have to and in fact, I’m going to tow a snow mobile that needs work home and park it at the end of the driveway until I can work on it (never).
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When houses are closer together, I am sure certain things could be dangerous, not just unsightly. People need to check ordinances before buying in an area. We have some pretty angry people who did not read that they cannot park their RVs or boats in public view from the street. One guy down the street is being fined $100 a day for parking his boat in his driveway after several warnings.
In my sister’s neighborhood, you have to park your cars in your garage. Only guests can temporarily park in the driveway. Additional cars have to part in the specially marked garages (for a fee). At least we don’t have that! Our garage is a mess right now with renovations!
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We are in the central core of our city, in a historic district. While we don’t have an HOA with rules on parking, trash cans, etc, we do have a list of things that can or can’t be done to a majority of our home’s exterior. Most of it has to do with keeping the home in the original architectural style, a craftsman bungalow. Any changes other than paint color have to be submitted for approval or rejection. (Maintenance and upkeep items don’t have to be submitted.) Other than that, we just have the regular city codes for property maintenance to adhere to. These would be overgrown weeds, long term piles of trash in the yard, etc.
My neighbor’s house just looks tired. It hasn’t been refreshed in decades. The paint is peeling, the oleanders in the front are dead. He doesn’t care because he only comes outside to smoke a ciggie and let his roommate’s dog potty.
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Kitchen demo/fix up is in progress. Upper cabinet doors and all drawers are sanded and waiting for the stain to come in. I’ll start sanding the rest of the lowers this week. Theen the cabinet fronts. 8 doors, 8 drawer fronts done. 6 doors to go. Then the cabinet faces and sides.
My DW is replacing the extremely uneven drywall behind the sink wall so we can tile. We inherited copper colored tin ceiling tiles as a back splash, did not hold up, but was beautiful. 75 year old houses are such a treat.
Cabinets won’t arrive until the second week of May, so we have time.
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Yay for skilled spouses!! All that sanding doesn’t sound like a fun job either but a month from now your kitchen is going to look so amazing.
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We had silver tin tiles asa backsplash too, how stupid is that? Nice & rusty, lol
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My kitchen is in a similar state to yours, @marionberries. Demo starts tomorrow and I spent today clearing out the rest of the dining room, kitchen, entry, and half bath. Here’s some in-progress shots.
It was always cluttered up with keys and papers (my PIL left it when DH bought the house from them), so this is the first time I think I’ve ever had a good look at my key rack, lol. It’s so cute!
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That is an adorable key rack!
I don’t envy anyone having to do a kitchen remodel. We finally found a fridge to fit into the existing cabinetry. We wanted a larger fridge but the cost to remove the cabinet and fix the sides of the remaining cabinets was going to be more than the fridge!
We’ll wait until we do a whole kitchen remodel to get a better one.
You guys are working hard to get your homes the way you want. Looking good!
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@tendstowardschaos your kitchen feels so familiar. We can journey through this together.
We left the kitchen in chaos tonight and my DW must work tomorrow. I need to find some temp kitchen space quickly.
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