Lisa Adams, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Lisa Adams
Kite day 3/16/2008 1:13:29 PM
It is beyond windy today as the temperature/weather again swings in some weird, shot-out direction. It's warm, but it's cold, but it's gusty - trees bending type gusty - but it's snowing but it's not....ha. Welcome to Nebraska in March.
Mel had a great birthday yesterday. We went to a nice restaurant and then went on a vortex travel adventure aka man stores where they have tools and such. He chose a Rotozip tool with attachments, bells and whistles and other manly birthday things. I thought the Kobalt tools were pretty, so I wanted him to get them - plus they have squishy handles...oh hell, I'm so way too girl for that stuff...except in New York, our first house. I did get busy and rip out walls, tear out wallpaper and learned how to use a kitty paw and little five-pound sledge hammer. It was fun. I would have really gone bust had I even attempted to buy something for him - although I did hit the jackpot with the snowblower...then again, I let him pick it out...see what I mean?
And damned if the architect in me and construction craftsman boy in Mel didn't emerge full force. Here's our dilemma: we live in a huge house - I mean HUGE - on top of this beautiful butte. Ha, ha, har dee har har...that's right, laugh it up; say, "butt"; then get over yourself. :)
And right now, our house looks like...a battleship. No joke, a battleship. It has a lovely forest green metal roof with a bit of lovely forest green shingle but below that....battleship grey siding if you can call it that.
I am a devotee of Frank Lloyd Wright and the prairie/arts and crafts movement without question - but I have really eclectic taste and don't mind making my own things like...doors, stained glass windows, shelves, etc. I'm actually pretty damned good at woodcarving. Mel is excellent at working any sort of masonry, especially river rock, sandstone, granite, you name it. He was a professional stonemason. He has one hell of an eye for beauty in nature and can bring it inside and oh, man, he is talented.
So this summer, me and lekshi (uncle) clay are going to have at the interior of the place while Mel goofs around with the rotozip and a whole new house will emerge from the ashes of the SS Chadron Battleship in a year or two. I'm all excited and want to start yesterday.
First thing: pull the up the entire first floor's expanse of grey, ceramic tile. I forget which story has our dog Sapa's photo in it, but you can see the tile beneath her. Although it is pretty, ceramic tiles have no business being anywhere but in the kitchen and maybe the dining room. And you never, ever use a monochromatic theme, especially a darker grey, in (1) an area of the home where as much reflected light as possible is necessary - it's the cave part of the house and yes, Virginia, every house has one; and (2) then continue the theme in the walk in shower walls and everywhere else occasionally alternating it with white.
Second: Lay pale bamboo hardwood throughout except in kitchen. I don't care if bamboo is "so out," it works for this interior and incoming light. And it will brighten the cave immensely.
Third: Eliminate the floodlights in 8-inch recessed "cans" and raise the ceiling the extra five or six inches used to accomodate these lighting fixtures. Anyone over 5'8" becomes claustrophobic because the ceilings are so low. This will allow room for installing "regular" windows with a nice strip window in stained glass above the panes. The south facing casements are not exactly wonderful when the winds pick up, which is often.
Fourth: utilize the space beneath the staircase in the "yellow" room by placing drawers with antique pulls - a pecan face will look lovely - into the spaces that will be staggered to look like brickwork. It will be SO awesome.
Fifth: utilize the dead space beneath the wood stove and install a door and floor in which to store???
Sixth: remove the large foot-by tiles in the walk in shower and replace with "nature" theme art porcelain tiles to better blend with the glass brick "windows" and maybe even install a frosted glass brick window directly into the exterior wall to eliminate the necessity of any interior lighting fixtures. The bricks can be placed in a strip higher than one's head.
Seventh: insulate the first floor's floor.
Eighth: replace baseboard moulding with a redder wood - cherry/mahogany/redwood to contrast the nbamboo and wall tone which will be a super-pale yellow, almost cream.
Ninth: Replace carpet in both guest bedrooms and paint with non-tox Mythic Paint. I toyed with the idea of making a casein-based "milk" paint - and I still might - but it is clear that outgassing from regular paint is not good for you. Colors? No idea yet. We shall see.
The window framing is really nice with rounded corners that, strangely enough, are almost adobe-like in both depth and "feel." I want to play that up painting the surface between wall and window frame a natural brick or red ochre.
The cabinetry is hickory and there is a really nice texture to the wood.
So that's the first floor. We are toying with the idea of installing either pine or oak beams to meet a central support beam, but we shall see.....
Next chapter: the second floor; veranda; hot tub (no, not fiberglass, a real redwood hot tub); deck.....ahhhhhhh. Better invest in knee pads and fast.
