Home Brew

No secret here that we tend to be beer snobs. Well, actually, we tend to be food, coffee, music, chocolate, and beer snobs. We just have such a hard time drinking beer that tastes like watered down something or other that's not even beer. Aside from the occasional Natty Boh (which is a Baltimore staple, so it's a fair excuse), you'll find us going for the more potent, flavorful, and artfully crafted varieties.

This past Christmas, Andrew's parents gave us a home brew kit. We had tried an English Bitter beer that they had given us a kit for and it turned out fairly well. However, it was a beer that you'd rather drink with food rather than have as a refreshing beverage on a hot Baltimore summer day. As our supply of the first beer dwindled, we decided to brew a second batch-- this time my favorite, an IPA. The process is a long one with a lot of waiting after actually brewing the beer, so at this point we're waiting on the final carbonation process that occurs after the beer has been bottled.

The process starts with a giant pot of very hot water, some grains in a bag, and finally the addition of malt and hops.

It ferments for almost a week after some yeast has been added, and looks something like this when it is ready to be bottled.

Super tasty looking, right? ;)

The next step is to add a priming sugar that starts the carbonation process and then siphon the beer into a new bucket in order to filter out all of that sludge. Finally, it is bottling time!

We've been thinking of a few names for this particular batch and then I'll be designing labels. We'll be waiting about one more week until the beer is ready to drink, so I'll try to update you all then.

Have any of you tried home brewing?

Year of the House - Half Bath Update, Part 2

By now we should be done with our half bath, right? Wrong. Seems there was a little measurement issue that I may or may not have warned Andrew about. And that measurement issue may or may not have turned out to be as I had suspected. Thus, our toilet did not fit back into the half bath and was off by a quarter of an inch. Crap. (Did you think that pun was as funny as I did?)

There was also the small part about water leaking from the sink water hookups under our new cork floor. And the part about a fan air drying it for a 24 hour period. And so Andrew was back at square one, re-hooking up the sink, with not a minute left in the weekend to start worrying about moving the pipe for the toilet.

Now the sink is back in its place and we have been leak free for another 24 hour period of time.

Andrew is now busy fixing the piping under the toilet, so that we can finally move the toilet out of our living room and back to its proper location. First, he moved the drain collar over about 2 inches, which meant doing a little cork floor patch for the adjustment as well. This is what it looks like in the bathroom:

And this is what it looks like in the basement in our laundry room:

Yes. That is a gaping hole in the drywall that had to be opened in order to get everything back to working condition. So as I traipsed down to the basement to do some laundry the other night, I found Andrew sitting on the dryer with some PVC pipe in hand, getting some serious work done. And by serious work, I mean making a telescope out of PVC pipe.

Finally, after the fun was over, he got back to work. Lilah decided it was best if she stayed out of this mess this time around and opted to be lazy in her bed instead.

Hopefully all will be finished in the next few days so that we can finish up the rest of the original project, which was to install the horizontal wood panels. Here's to hoping that the next time I update you, the half bath is at least back in working condition with little left to be done!

Year of the House - Half Bath Update

This past weekend Andrew worked away at installing maple panels in our half bath. Wood paneling doesn't always sound so lovely, but remember this post about our final goal to have a Frank Lloyd Wright bathroom? This is what we're going for. Not that old 70s wood paneling you're thinking about.

In order to get a clean, nail-less look, the first step in the process is to mount something on the studs called a z-clip (because it's shaped like a z).

After these lovely clips were installed, Andrew used a router to create a reveal that would show between each panel. Yes, he bought a ridiculously expensive router just to do this. (Cue in Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunts and sounds). And there's a back story about this router that I won't get into that may or may not have been the reasoning behind these flowers. But in order to spare him of anymore embarrassment, I'll leave it at that. Plus, I'm getting way off topic.

So next is to screw the other half of the z clip onto the back of the panel. Then the panel just locks into place. These clips are supposed to withhold some ridiculous amount of weight and help create a seamless look with no putty holes-- a definite bonus.

Two more rows of panels will be added along with a final cap on the top row. The next step will be to stain and finish the panels. Once all of that is done, the sink and toilet can go back in, freeing up space in our living room. Though as I've said before, the sink and toilet hanging out in our living room right now sure makes it looks classy.

And of course, none of this work would be getting done if it weren't for our stealthy contractor, Finn.

I've yet to witness it, but I've heard he's pretty handy with a hammer. What do you think of the progress thus far?

Year of the House: One Step Closer...

Right now our studio/reading room is a bit messy while we work on getting rid of some things we've had in storage since we moved into our house. We're doing better than our last move. At our old apartment, we'd been there for a little over two years and had boxes that had yet to be opened. For now, we're one step closer to finishing this room as I work on transitioning my huge collection of paper, shipping supplies, and other such things into this empty half of our closet.

And see that lovely pile of crap in front of the closet. That's off to Goodwill. It feels amazing to purge the stuff that's been sitting around for a few years. In the meantime, remember this half bath project? Andrew has been diligently working away at this the whole weekend. Things seem to be going a bit more quickly today than yesterday and hopefully I'll have an update for you soon! In more important news, maybe the toilet and sink that have been sitting in our living room for the past six week will finally find themselves being reunited with their appropriate space.

Year of the House Bathroom Floor Update

The time has come. The self-leveling underlay has been poured in the half bath and it is finally time to lay the cork flooring. A few update photos courtesy of Andrew who snapped away while he was working.

The flooring looks great! Now just to finish it and then get wood for the final piece of the project. I'm happy to announce that this is one home improvement project that has taken as quickly as I had hoped, unlike a project that started with "f" and ended with "ence." I prefer not to talk about that one in terms of the project anymore, but only in terms of outdoor enjoyment factor if you know what I mean.

Year of the House Update

About a week ago I gave you a little peek at the beginnings of our studio transformation. The painting has been completed and our comfy reading chairs for part of the room have arrived. Unfortunately, our sleeper sofa that was to go in the basement didn't fit so it had to be sent back. Now we must start over at square one in that department. However, I had my heart set on the chairs and after only a few days, I am so glad we decided to keep them. This space, while not yet close to being completely transformed, is already turning into a quiet, peaceful, and tranquil place. It feels cozy and since the room is in the back of our row house, the noises of the street are nearly nonexistent.

Much still needs to be done in terms of decor, and the actual studio side of the room isn't much more than my desk at this point. I'm looking forward to continuing the work on this room.

In addition to this transformation, another one has begun to take place. We picked up our cork flooring for our half bath on the first floor yesterday afternoon. Andrew couldn't wait and had to dive into the project immediately. Here is a glimpse of the bathroom before demolition began.

Those ugly black tiles are also gracing our backsplash in the kitchen-- another project that will eventually be in the works. We're planning on putting down the cork flooring and then doing a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque paneling of maple that extends just right about the height of the sink, similar to this.

As for now, we have a toilet and a sink sitting in our living room. You may or may not have seen my tweet about the construction currently taking place, but for a look at what's going on, check the photo out here.

And So It Begins...

Our second bedroom is becoming a studio. Today it all starts with the paint. Goodbye white walls. Stay tuned for more. I'll be sure to share the transformation.

Design a Day Challenge: Day 31 & 32

I may be a bit behind the times in posting this, but I've continued on with my Design a Day Challenge. I will post for Friday and Saturday now and hopefully be back later with something splendid for today. It has been one crazy past few days. First, on Friday, I decided that it made perfect sense to sit in 98 degree (106 degree heat index) weather for 3 hours at Oriole Park for the O's vs Angels game. To make matters worse, our closing pitcher gave up a grand slam in the top of the 9th inning making me wonder even more if even the super cheap $6 ticket I bought using my outdated student ID was even worth it.

Follow that up with Saturday spent in 102 degree (114 degree heat index) weather at a stone and masonry store trying to pick out pavers for our back yard. Andrew decided it was a good idea to keep going back and forth from one section to the next in the blazing sun for about an hour and a half-- of course at the hottest time of day at that! After our masonry adventures, in which I inevitably picked out the most expensive thing, we had planned to go order new dining room chairs. So we had to take our sweaty selves to a super classy furniture store in which the woman helping us proceeded to tell us that she was recently married. In addition, her new husband had just given her a blank check for furniture for their 3rd home (5,400 sq ft of it) in which she spent $20,000. AND that was the third blank check he had given her. Meanwhile, I had sweated my butt off at the stone store and looked a hot, sunburned mess-- she probably thought I was far from classy enough to be purchasing dining room chairs from her.

Needless to say, after all of that, I was done and didn't really feel like sitting near a heat generating computer to upload these fabulous designs:

Two totally different styles of designs, but I love them both! Hopefully that was worth having to read through my furniture lady story! Happy lazy Sunday everyone!

Blues and Browns for a Guest Bedroom

The fence and pergola project is making some progress, but nothing to document at the moment. So instead of an update, I thought I'd show you a different project I've been working on. You could say it has been an ongoing project, but not nearly as painstaking and the back yard. When we moved into the row house, I decided that I was going to do a complete overhaul of our decor. Our guest room in the apartment really had no decor as it served as storage and office as well.

While our new guest room in the row house was temporary storage for a few things we needed to get rid of, we took care of that last weekend when the dumpster for the rest of the back yard concrete arrived. It felt good to purge all of the other junk from the house that we'd been waiting to take to the dump-- most notably 4 floor lamps that were lined up against the wall in the guest room. With those out, I feel as though I can finally share the progress.

I've turned to one of my favorite color combinations-- blue and brown. While the room is not finished and needs a coat of paint to get rid of the boring white, here is what I've put together so far.

Everything in the room has just happened into place one at a time. I found the clock at Uncommon and immediately knew it belonged. The dripping dark blue pitcher is a pottery piece I had thrown a while ago that somehow showed up on the night stand. I decided it worked so I let it stay. The bedside lamp was an impulse $14 buy at Target. I used a frame that was a Christmas present for a paper cut piece that I made to coordinate the room. The photos are my own originals that I framed using old frames I found around the house. The night stand was a cabinet we used in our tiny bathroom at the old apartment. I needed something for the guest room and it just happened to fit in that space perfectly. And finally, I sewed the accent pillows from fabric I found at JoAnn Fabrics-- they match the luxuriously soft and silky bamboo sheets I picked up on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond.

The next project for this room is paint. In fact, I'm hoping to choose some paint colors in the coming week. And one lovely part of this room that I failed to show you, is the exposed brick wall-- such a contemporary feature for an old row house.

Contractor vs Architect

Finally I feel as though I have something good to write about when it comes to the fence. Remember way back when? A jackhammer had arrived and then there were fence posts put up. Then a whole lot didn't seem to happen because it happened so slowly. I grew up in a house that always had projects going on. My dad is a woodworker and he spent a lot of time building houses as well. So when I thought of a DYI backyard project, I imagined a few weekends and we'd be good to go-- that's what always happened when my dad was building things. Give him an afternoon and he'd have an entire room trimmed out arts and crafts style.

That's a craftsman. I guess I didn't consider how architects approach things. No offense (and I don't think any will be taken because all architects I know openly admit to this), but architects are too nerdy about the design for their own good. When I suggested to Andrew that we use an old door instead of building a fence gate, I was immediately shot down. The second time I suggested it, I was shot down. And the third time? You guessed it.

I told my dad, now I finally know why he used to always complain about the architect when he was in construction. And now I finally know why contractors and architects are seemingly always at each others' throats. My dad, joking about the door situation, said something like, "You know what your problem is? You didn't put in a change order with the architect."

The next day, I told Andrew, "That's it-- I'm putting in a change order. The gate needs to be redrawn as a door in your blueprints." And I got my way.

Maybe my dad was right after all.

In other news, despite the slow, thoughtful process of the architect in constructing our backyard, things are finally going in the right direction and we're nearly done! Here are some other photos to enjoy--

Punch List

1. By now I am sure you can tell that I'm ecstatic that summer vacay has arrived! I think teachers enjoy it more than any student ever could!

2. My goal this week is to try three new recipes. So far I've made one, with the next coming today. Monday night I cooked up these fantastic taco stuffed shells that were ridiculously tasty!

3. Two summers ago, a few co-workers and I had a photography challenge called The Daily Dose Picture Post. The four of us decided that in order to keep our photography skills fresh we would use our summer vacation to post one photo a day until the beginning of school. This challenge inspired me to do the same sort of thing, but this time with design. Today marks the first day of my Design a Day Challenge I wrote about yesterday, so stay tuned later today for the first design I've got in store to share!

4. With the arrival of our first time homebuyer's tax credit, we have looked to our trusty list of items to purchase or save for. Aside for saving money for travel and other various things, the first item was a new set of cookware. Say hello to my new set of Le Creuset pots and pans (and I splurged and got bakeware too!) in Caribbean blue!

5. There is nothing more refreshing and tasty on a summer morning than iced coffee! I've been enjoying quite a few of those over the past few days.

6. I've started my summer reading and the first book I will be reading is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. One of my students read this YA book and was in love with it so I'm taking his recommendation! What are you reading this summer?

7. I call this little list "Punch List" because I'm constantly making punch lists of my own. Summer is a great time for all of those catch up projects. Next in store-- rehabbing a couple sets of plantation shutters I found at the architectural salvage yard.

8. Speaking of projects, our cedar fence is coming along quite nicely!

9. I'm trying to get back into my yoga routine. This summer is all about relaxing, but not getting too lazy!

10. The latest thing I've been trying to convince Andrew on for our back yard is to take out the lower deck and install Moroccan cement tiles in its place for a beautiful outdoor courtyard feel. We'll see how that goes over with architect Andrew.

The Beginnings of a Cedar Fence

Progress on the fence is now noticeable, and noticeable progress is the kind that I like to see. Andrew's parents were in town for the weekend with the intention of getting the ball rolling a bit more. While it was expected that more would get done than did, there was a bit of a road block. Two steel posts needed to be removed and apparently they were installed very well with about 3 feet of concrete going down. So the jackhammer arrived once more. Steel post removal and new cedar post installation ended up eating an entire day's worth of work.

Sunday was spent beginning to install the back wall of the fence-- I stayed out of the laborious portion for fear that I may not do something right (which is often the case in the other half's mind) and let Andrew's parents pitch in. It wasn't a job that required four people anyway, so I just enjoyed catching some rays of sun and documented the progress. As for today, the project came to a standstill with 100 degree weather keeping us inside to enjoy a cool air-conditioned house. The fun will continue next weekend.

Here's the progress:

 

 

The Cedar Has Arrived!

All of the concrete that was sitting in the back yard is now gone. It has been replaced by a heaping pile of red cedar. Not only does it look great, but it smells great too! The lumber truck arrived yesterday afternoon, trying to squeeze through our narrow alley. That was not meant to be-- unless of course the truck didn't mind losing a side mirror or two. So the wood had to be carried plank by plank down the alley to the back yard.

The next step was digging post holes. This is clearly not as loud of a project as the previous one only by default because it didn't involve a jackhammer. Three foot holes were dug out and 6 by 6 posts were set in concrete. 6 by 6! Yes, rather large posts though the plan is to have a pergola on one side of the yard for some shade. The pergola will cover about a third of the space. The hope is to get some fabulous flowering vines to creep up around the pergola for a cozy green space. I currently have a Black-Eyed Susan started in a large pot with a trellis. I am beginning to think that this would be fully appropriate as it is the Maryland state flower. Their flowers are such a vibrant bright orange and when I think about the other options such as wisteria or roses, I would rather lean away from the frilly pinks and purples.

Needless to say, the back yard and fence is making some progress bit by bit.

Post hole-- don't fall in!

Cedar and cement mix ready to go.

The tools-- spade and post digger.

Red cedar

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