The custom home is really starting to look like a “house” now. During the month of november, drywall went up as well as trim and baseboard. The front porch was finished, garage doors were installed, and interior doors were hung. The masonry and siding were completed in November as well. By the end of the month, primer was put on the drywall and a few coats of the finish color were added in various rooms!

This 32′ x 12′ custom deck features a screened in porch. The porch has a lovely cathedral ceiling, is completely screened in, and has a fan and lights. The deck was built was Azek Brownstone decking and white vinyl rails with black aluminum balusters.

Straightforward… here is the bibliography for the project.

Culpepper Porch

Fall 2009

The porch turned out rather nicely.  Gives a bit of presence to the entryway.  The knotty cedar T&G underside was a nice touch, I thought.  See for yourself:

In recent years, fall seems to fly by, fast, furious and all too fleeting. Seems like yesterday was August and now we’re just days from December.

This fall has seemed even more jammed than usual and much of it my own doing – some, like the cider, were born of interest and some, like the porch, of sheer necessity.

The upper part of the porch is now (mostly) complete and looks way better than before! Though I’d really like to have been able to get it all done, the weather was becoming a threat.

The underside is still unfinished wood simply because we couldn’t decide whether to stain it before applying the polyurethane.

The exterior paint job was completed a few days ago. We worried it might freeze before it dried but the fine print said that it was good at temps as low as 2 degrees Celcius and, thankfully, dry it did. Just one coat, but it’s better weather protection than none. The colour was chosen to blend with the house brick but I’m thinking it’s just too … meh … so the second-coat colour may change – we have all winter to ponder it.

What’s left? The pillar-cladding and some sort of cap on the brick knee-wall (which I’d love to remove but I was out-voted). Oh, and a trap-door to access the plug for the roof heating cable.

We’ll take the winter to plan the rest and make parts so that what’s left is quick and easy in the spring.

And the cider – it’ll get a second racking this weekend and then I’ll assess the whole bottling business. It’s actually smelling pretty good!

We’ve had a flurry of activity in the last few weeks to get all kinds of things done before the snow hits:

Raked leaves – thirty bags full!
Swapped the contents of two sheds – we do this each spring and fall; the shed close to the laneway holds the necessities for the current or upcoming season and the one tucked away on the other side of the house contains off-season and seldom-used stuff (I’d kill for a garage! Some day …).
Bought and installed brackets – one set to hold the ladder and another set for the sailboat mast.
Planted shrubs … that were bought back in September (yeah, I know …).

And this weekend will kick off the Holiday season, way too early to suit me but a necessity in some regards. Life is just easier if you get the outdoor seasonal lights up before the cold, ice and snow arrive and the end of November is actually late to be doing it around here. I’m not bothered in the least though that it’s still green outside!

I also get to bake eight dozen cookies this weekend, for an exchange I take part in annually. We’ve been at it for more than five years now and it seems to take place earlier each year, as it becomes harder and harder to find a date that works for everyone later into December.

Guess I’d better go figure out what to bake – tune in again to see the end result!

This is the view I see off of my back porch, during the day and at night.  The building to the right in the first picture is my office building! It is also a Marriot hotel and residences, and there are several boutiques, high end real estate offices, a gourmet grocery store, and a bunch of jewelry stores in the lobby, along with us. The space was donated, I believe.

The islands in the distance is Venetian Island, and the road is the Venetian Causeway, which runs all the way out to Miami Beach. I drove on it this evening (accidently…I thought I was getting on 395, but nope!) and its really beautiful, lots of homes and the bridges are intricately designed. Except, there is a toll, but it was only a dollar.

My daughter talked about these for days after my wife brought them home from a colleague whose daughter had outgrown them.

Despite the chaos that last week’s torrential rain caused, there was one really happy little girl at my house ’cause she got to wear these. While, I’m glad she got to wear them, I hope it doesn’t rain again any time soon.

This is Louis Ledford.
He makes music.
His website is here.
We only had 30 minutes after 8 o’clock the other night.

Check out some of his music here and his myspace page.

A+ – Got an A+ on my negative space photo for design lab! I’m super-excited since this was one I felt like I struggled with getting right.

Inbox says (1) new message
Just then (2) new messages
My God, could it be.
Usually not
Usually naught
Unusually knot
My love in a Sir Mix-a-Lot basket
Spare the spearhead
the spearmint
the spirit man
Inbox says nothing
I wait on the porch, old school.

With grad school and a very active job search, I am doing a ton of research. Most of my time is spent reading. Every once in a while, I can sneak in a fun novel.

Party Remnant (316/365 11-12-09)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

Sometimes the best photos of a party come when it’s over.

In year three of the porch project, we have achieved restoration of the old woodwork long hidden by aluminum cladding (see that stuff on the eaves? it’s going next) and also—kaboom—lighting!

We still need to put up wood trim fat enough to hide the transition between brick and beadboard—and that there’s a transition between common brick and show brick that is apparent at the ceiling line. And actually, I’m wondering whether we should scale down the light bulbs a few dozen watts. Granted, I’m used to using the Braille method of finding the keyhole, but this is now the brightest light on the block! Either way, I’m so pleased with how it all pulls together.

Yes yes, I am behind in my posting. Life is busy.

We now have a roof.

Front of House with Roof

Back of House with Roof

Here’s our master tub. I really love how the tub deck runs into the window.

Master Tub

Here is our beautiful mahogany front door. I just love the color. The exterior will be stained a darker walnut color and the interior will just be sealed preserving the natural color.

Front Door

Stained Front Door

The master window has some extra trim to make it a little more special. It’s also going to get black shutters which should be going up soon.

Window Trim

The front porch turned out amazingly beautifully! I can definitely see myself sitting out here sipping Mojitos.

Front Porch

Front Porch

Tommy consistently goes a little further. Instead of plastic siding roof which you’d normally get, he put in this beautiful bead board. I’m so glad he’s our builder.

Bead Board on Porch Ceiling

So as November rolls around, we still have a lot of good weather projects left unfinished. On the other hand there are a few projects that are finished. So here is the done list:

- Removed all concrete from the porch foundation. Put it on craigslist and someone actually picked it up for free. Didn’t have to lift a finger. Thank you

Here you see it.

And here you don't.

- Boiler is commissioned and making our hot water. Old water heater is ready to be pulled out and put on craigslist

- We bought a bunch of blue jean insulation and insulated the attic

- We have made some decisions about the new roof, drawings should be done within a week and we officially committed to our contractor.

- Removed the chimney and patched the roof.

Here you see it.

Here you see the Metalbestos pipe.

Hole in the roof, view from inside.

No more chimney in the attic. No more presents from Santa

All patched up. Hopefully enough to get us through the winter.

- Staining the sills for the front porch.

Redwood sills for the front porch with transparent stain applied.

Here's a close up.

Kuya Mike's porch

I’ve been spending the past couple of days over at kuya* Mike’s place to learn the basics (and sooner or later, the advance..s?) in creating and designing websites because I got offered to learn this for free to work full-time at Indios Bravos (www.indrios-bravos.com) before the year ends.

I am pretty excited to learn more. So far I’ve only got the introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and I’m pretty excited about this topic because I’ve always wanted to learn how to create my website’s layout the way I want it. Once I master this, I’ll create one for this photo blog. I’m into simple things so I’m starting to brainstorm on how I want this site to look like. Nothing too simple but nothing too extravagant.

It’s been a long time since I took the time to learn and as I converse with kuya Mike, I can feel my brain working the old sprockets back to life. It feels great to learn something new again. And it’ll feel better to explore and create more possibilities when I get to apply these new learnings.

*kuya is a Filipino term that means “brother” in the Philippines. It’s commonly used for older brothers or addressing male seniors.

Coming soon to a porch near … me:

After we get the beadboard ceiling back up, anyway. Seems it’s going to be a two-person job. Mr. Carpenter Cohort started working on it alone yesterday and says with the warping of the old boards, there’s no way to make it a tidy job without an extra hand. And my extra hand isn’t free for several days.

Poor Kenny Powers doesn’t look so good…