Category: exterior

Inspiration: Front Doors

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Doors I feel are such a focal point. And something that really makes a statmement about your house and what you are about to walk in to. The minute I saw this door, I said this is THE door for my house. Whats not to like.

 Paul Moon Design: Yarrow Point House
 
If I will have a black door, blue door, yellow door or red I do not know yet. But it looks great in fun colors too
  
For those of you that missed out on my artwork on Mondays post, here is some more with me attempting to still pick colors. So you get an idea of where our door is placed, etc.
 
 
I know, you’re amazed at my skills. Its like an exact version. I’m a visual person and I have to see it somehow on paper or person to understand what it will look like. Telling me does not work. I charge a small design fee if you like to send me pics, I can color your house too 🙂 I’m sure my inbox will be overflowing with requests.
 
Now as you can see from our exterior , there is a family entrance/mud room entrance whatever you want to call it. Here I want a dutch door.
 


Don’t go visit, her blog outshines mine. j/k
 

 
I doubt my mudroom will ever look this clean. Maybe on day 1, but doubtful. There is no poll for this inspiration because my mind is made up on these decisions. 1 of 1000 I know. Hope you like my inspirations. See you Monday. 

This weeks episode of Camus Road…

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I was going for a dramatic sounding title…like a soap opera “Days of our lives” or something. So hopefully that came accross. I’ll start working on a sound app or something. Anyway….This week we’ve had a burst in sunshine for that last bit of summer. Which was really nice, because we know that I love the sun.  Ellie started school, which she  was excited about. She has already lost a new coat. We’re hoping she finds it today, because of course I hadn’t wrote her name in her new coats yet.

On the house front, I’ve been reading everyone’s advice on last weeks Inspiration: Exterior post. And I’m still really undecided. So I decided to use my art skills and color an exterior photo and see what that looks like. I know, you are blown away by my coloring skills. I just had a .jpeg of the exterior and opened it in Microsoft Paint. Some bloggers I follow are really fancy and have photoshop programs and others. Well you aren’t gonna get that here. I’m pretty sure if you compared this with one of Peyton’s drawings, you may not be able to tell them apart. But it gets you an “idea” of what the exterior might look like. This blue is a shade brighter than what I’m thinking. But I couldn’t get it just right with the color choices in paint. So imagine with me. Sue said it looks like a Seahwaks house. So I am still considering a dark grey. I found a new color called Perfectly Greige. I’m considering. But my eyes always wonder back to the Navy’s/Blue. Ugh, decisions.

Ellie had her first cheer games Saturday. It was a bit long. The first game was at 9, then the second at noon. The girls were done by the second game, there were no firm motions, arms were just flailing. Also, it was hot for WA. Now try not to be too judgey here, but I ran my kids to McD’s before the second game to get some food in them. I pull up to order their happy meals, and both of them start yelling at me from the back telling me HOW to order their meals. People, this is not my first time through the drive-thru. I’ve ordered them more happy meals than I’d like to admit. I got this OK. Why my kids think I have no clue on how to order their meals baffles me. And to top it off, I got the soft spoken employee who I can hardly hear. So, you probably see where this is going, I have to turn and yell at my kids to stop telling me how to order their meals…in my mom voice. Then I turn back to the screen saying THANK YOU. Yeah, his face was pretty classic when I got to the window.

We had a fun family night Saturday night. Ron and Sue were gone, so we had the house to ourselves. Karlye and Josh brought steaks over and we grilled them up for dinner. I had gone to the store earlier in the day and bought some Sangria. The evening then turned into beauty shop, Karley began making my hair into an afro and Ellie put a bunch of braids in Karlye’s hair. Then the kids went to sleep. We drank some more sangria and somehow Karlye began chasing Josh around the island with the mop, then he grabbed the broom. It was more funny if you were halfway into a bottle of sangria. We then made chocolate chip cookies at 9pm, cuz it sounded really good. And we ate the dough. These are the times I really like living with so much family. Its always entertaining.

Today Kyle is meeting with the TRUSS guy. Hopefully its all put together. If there is any luck at all, we can put our whole package together and submit it to the county by the end of the week. My fear is, after talking to others, is that this building permit approval thing is going to take fooorreevvveerrrrr (insert dramatic tone). One person told me it took them a year to get it all approved to begin building! I will have a total freak out if  that happens. I’m realistic, I know it will not take a week, but after a month or so I expect something. So I”m sure my next several posts will be all about the waiting. At least in the meantime kyle can keep clearing and begin installing the septic system.

To end the post. Here’s a cute picture of Peyton and Bailey cuz who doesn’t love babies in baths.

Inspiration: Exterior

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So I am told that the first major design decision I need to make is the exterior. Like what siding do I want, what pattern, etc. Color comes later (I think) but it has to be all planned out. I have thought a lot about this, and there are tons of different options. So I’ll show you my faves, and what the pros and cons are to me. Then you take the survey below and help me. Who doesn’t love a survey?!

Option 1: I LOVE this color. This is the Young House Love show house. The color is called newburg green by Benjamin Moore. I think its a nice pop of color without screaming. I see it being a nice alternative to the greys and browns. And I like how this house has a cozy PNW feel to it with the natural cedar.
Pros: Color, Ceadar accents, white trim, rock trim, single post, shingle siding painted and lap siding.
Cons: Can the same concept be acheived on a single story, kyle is not a fan of painted shingles

Option 2: I like how clean and neutral this look is. Its a classic, something everyone likes. I like how it uses a combo of all the materials: lap, shingle and board & batten. Plus the rock. And this has the dlb post colums.
Pros: Color, materials.
cons: Do I want grey like everyone else? Well all the materials make it look pieced together?

Option 3: Now you could go grey or blue with this scheme….which I like. Again, great PNW feel with the natural shingles. I don’t like the rock they used, but thats easy to change. Has shed and peak dormers like us. And its hard for me to tell, but I think this house has grey windows.

Pros: mix of color and materials.
cons: Looks like we counldn’t decide and threw everything on the house.

Whats a girl to do?! Kyle is on the fence about blue. He loves grey. He hates white…but its so clean and crisp. But we do live in the PNW where it rains, so would the house also have dirt splats on it?
This house is Chip and Joanna Gaines (Magnolia) house in Waco, TX. Of course I have a special place for that since I lived in waco for almost 3 years. I love Joanna’s style and so wish I could go visit her shop for some decor. You can watch them on HGTV on their show Fixer Upper. They have great ideas.
 
Now granted, all these pics show houses with WHITE windows and WHITE trim. BUT, I’m not married to that. Because I have seen a lot of houses with black or grey windows too. And I kind of like it.

 
 So what would you do? To remember what our exterior looks like, go to the Floor Plan page and they are almost at the bottom. There is no pic of the back, but it too has two peaks.  
 I think the survey’s are fun. I love getting your feedback. Do you like the surveys? Also, I think I set the answers to let you pick multiple answers, if you can’t commit to just one- story of my life. So that may or may not be helpful 🙂
*Click NEXT at the end to submit the survey.

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7 week itch

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Yes week 7 of our new lifestyle. And whats happened…..Monday morning began with discovering that Tubbs our dog had tangled with a porcupine in the night. He had 6 or so quills in his lip. So Kyle was kind enough to pull them out. Let’s hope Tubbs has learned his lesson.  Ellie also started cheer practice with TCYFL. Oh how it keeps us busy, but oh how she loves it so much. It was like 97 degrees that day, and then clouds rolled in making it muggy. We are Washingtonians, we don’t do muggy. I had a maxi dress on, and it was still too heavy. I’m not sure who had it worse at practice, the moms sitting on the sidelines watching, or the girls jumping around. Everyone looked gross. So I worked all day, then got to go sit in the sauna outside for 2 hrs. The plus to this: I didn’t have to cook dinner OR clean the kitchen after family dinner! A plate was waiting for us when we got home. Ellie has practice M W and Th nights, so I’m liking this no cooking or cleaning scenerio. Oh we had to stop by the old house to pick up a package that accidentally got delivered there. So Ellie’s with me and gets out of the car too, she sees on the porch this bicycle planter thing. Well appearantly she had got it for me last year on mothers day (totally forgot), and I had left it behind for the new owners to plant something in. She was mortified “MOM! I got that for you!” So I said, oh really well…I guess we can take it back. So I awkwardly took this planter off the new owners porch, that was mine..but now isn’t. Not sure what the rules are on that. (Sorry Chantelle!) Oh, and as we left Breve was there laying on the sidewalk. He looked good, we petted him and told him how much we miss him. He did not care.

Tuesday was Miss Ellie’s 8th birthday! I can not believe how old she is. Every year I lay in bed and make Kyle listen to me remeber going into labor. And us having no idea what we were getting into. Ellie woke up and asked for a bagel with cream cheese for her bday breakfast…OK. Then I called her at 10:43am to tell her “officially” happy birthday. That night she had cheer again, and now it was raining..so still muggy but not as hot. The cheer girls sang her happy bday, and she ate cookies all the way home that Sunny (alternate mom/nanny) made her. We ran home, grabbed Peyton and headed to my parents for the kiddos to have a sleepover. Nana made her her favorite dinner of Chicken and Dumplings. I than went back to the compound, where Sue had ordered a new Fax machine/Printer and I was asked to install it. Sue was at Bunco (I love bunco BTW) so I kicked Ron out of the office, he was not a good assistant. He was as bad as Peyton, kept moving everything I was taking out of the box…I have a method! So, I spent the next hour hooking up this new wireless contraption, and did so successfully.  I asked if this covered my rent for the month, the reply was barely!

Miss Ellie August 12, 2006
 

Wednesday was a mellow day. No cheer that day, and no where officially to be. Peyton and Kyle went down to the Columbia River to go Salmon fishing with Ron and Sue. So Ellie and I had the entire house to oursleves! I splurged and got us our favorite pizza from Brewery City Pizza- Cheese with Asiago sauce. We ate the whole thing. It was so good.

Thursdays adventrue involved a deer. While Ellie and I were at cheer practice, Karlye came over to the main house to use the grill for dinner. As she’s outside grilling, she notices a deer laying in the grass in the side yard. Obvisously shes intriqued by the fact the deer is just laying in the yard. Upon further examination she discovers its dead. Yes, just appearently keeled over and died in the yard. Josh looked it over, no gun wounds, or vehicle wounds. So either it had a heart attack or something. Anyone ever heard of something similar? Anyway, coudln’t leave it there, so he drug it off with the 4-wheeler.

Ellie and I had the house for 2 nights to ourselves. I made sure to clean up Friday so my laziness wasn’t so obvious. I was watching Bailey for the day, and Ellie had her bday party at painted plate.
It was a little busy. First, I completely spaced and in my head was thinking it was Saturday, so being downtown and parking I didn’t pay the meter and got a nice $15 parking ticket. Oopps. After the party I was craving some nuts, so we went to Farmers market. I was just “running in” so I carried Bailey in with me. OMG, there was the whole stinking family in front of me sampling every signle nut the lady had. “oh this one is spicy, oh this one is sweet, blah blah blah”. I was like I know what I want and I”m holding a 30lb baby, HURRY IT UP! I swear we were there 20 minutes waiting for all of them to decide which nuts they wanted. Of course when I get up there, Bailey immediately knocked a box off nuts over…yeah. I forget babies can do that. I got my large bag of coconut-lime almonds and was happy to escape.

We finally made it home, and to my surprise the well drilling truck was sitting on our property!!! YEAH!!! finally. No drilling was actually taking place I learned, but they are starting that today. My estimate is $12k for this. This will be our first major expense, in a long line of expenses I’m sure. We may not have a house yet…but we will have water!

Kyle finished most of the exterior drawings this weekend. Tried to take some pics to show you guys. He says he has ONE more to do and promises it’ll be ready to send to the engineer tomorrow. Let’s get this show on the road! So this top picture here is the front of the house. I like the look of two story’s but ours is not a 2-story. So, this large dormer will have windows that are open inside, high ceiling thing. Does that make sense?

View of Garage/Bonus room. That little door in the middle goes into the laundry room.