Our Christmas Roof

12-23-14 Roofing in the rain

12-23-14 Rain, mud, roof

Roof Paper and The Swamp

12-16-14 Roofers!

The roofers have arrived. We are so happy!

On a another subject, I heard recently that the mill pond was not located where we are building. In the circa 1920 photo below (click to enlarge), I see logs, and I think I see a boat that was perhaps built by my grandfather. I also see a swamp. So, I guess I could rename our house Swamp Cottage but I think I will continue to call it Mill Pond Cottage, in memory of my grandpa and the early days on the lake.

Our lot, the swamp, logs and a boat, circa 1920

The family story goes like this: When my father Andrew Benedetti was a teenager, he worked with his father, my grandpa Fred Benedetti, building boats for the loggers working in the mill pond on Lake Sawyer. When pay day came around, the loggers were a little short on cash so they offered my grandpa a portion of the lake in trade. My grandpa said, "I don't want no part of this blankety-blank swamp!" And so, nearly 100 years later, my husband Jay and I have acquired the property for our new home, right where grandpa left it.

Lake Sawyer Santa Boat

12-13-14 view from the Santa boat.

Tonight Jay acted as Santa for all the kids on Lake Sawyer. He delivered gifts and HO HO HOs to docks for five hours. Fortunately this shot of our house in progress was taken before it got dark. OMGosh it looks huge...it really isn't.

2014 Santa Boat with Santa Jay

Santa Jay and his crew. Merry Christmas!

Fireplace Mock Up

We left home before dawns early light this morning to deliver doughnuts to the framing crew and to meet with our builder Chris, and our Site Superintendent Mike. It was light by the time we reviewed the mock-up of the fireplace Mike made for us. We selected the gas fireplace months ago (Heat & Glo 6000) and now it is time to envision it in the house with a cherry mantle and a raised hearth (recent addition by Jay). There will be cherry cabinets on each side of the fireplace in Craftsman style.

The little deck off the second story master bedroom is going to be a wonderful place for morning mocha overlooking the lake in warm weather.

Hooray for the framers who are finishing up Jay's garage today in preparation for roofing material delivery Monday. Jay, Chris and Mike made all the decisions about the garage second story interior framing while I wandered around outside. Sounds like Jay will have the window seat I always wanted. It will overlook the courtyard garden.

Taking shape

12-7-14 the view from Marci and Ken's lawn

We have sheathing on the roof! Next comes roofing and windows. It is starting to look like the house we envisioned. We walked through each room and imagined. Some seem larger than we thought they would be and some seem smaller. A room that began as a sun room then became Jay's office then became a sewing/spinning room for me is undergoing scrutiny by Jay - it may not get one of the walls or a door which would then make it a sunny "area." We meet with the builder tomorrow. Stay tuned.

12-7-14 the view from our dock

12-7-14 the view from the street

Snowy Saturday

11-29-14 Panoramic view from the kitchen

It snowed this morning at the lake. This is a panoramic view standing in the kitchen. Imagine a kitchen island between the two upright beams, the rest of the kitchen along the wall at right and straight ahead is the little eating nook designed around the round oak table my father made for me.

11-29-14 Panoramic view of our part of Lake Sawyer. 

Our property is in the "boot" of the lake. I noticed recently that Lake Sawyer residents now refer to it as North Cove. Below are several views from the second floor of Jay's garage.

11-29-14 Garage window in rec room

11-29-14 Garage bathroom window

11-29-14 Garage rec room windows looking toward street.

giving thanks

Thanksgiving is a good time to thank realtor Khristina Swanson who cheerfully showed us every property we wanted to see that has been listed for sale on Lake Sawyer since 2008. She also showed us property on Lake Morton, Lake Meridian and all the way from Hood Canal to Bainbridge Island. Khristina is the best!

11-26-14 House in foreground, garage on left

Thanks to our son Toby for coming along yesterday as our photographer when we met with builder Chris to go over windows for the final order. We have changed sill heights and the way they open and even omitted windows from my studio to give me one wall for paintings to hang paintings salon style if needed. Our meeting started when the framers were just ending their day before nightfall. We were thankful to see our trusses! These framers are very fast, Chris is very thorough, patient and knowledgeable.

11-26-14 Studio windows

11-26-14 Studio decisions

11-26-14 Looking toward the studio

For me, one of the most exciting parts of our new home will be the patio and flower garden outside my Studio. Imagine a privacy fence along the north property line (at left in this photo) that will help create a courtyard when stepping out of the studio.

11-26-14 View from the master

By the time we worked our way upstairs to the master bedroom and the French doors that open onto a small deck, it was quite dark and more beautiful than we imagined. We have never been at the lake at night. No one has ever seen this exact view before (the original cabin was one story). We are thankful! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

a little wet

11-23-14 the sun room has been added to the second story

When I arrived at the lake Sunday it was raining more inside the house than outside. Nice reflections in the water on the floor which is apparently perfectly level.

11-23-14 NE corner of the great room

11-23-14 the entry hall through the kitchen and great room to the lake beyond.

11-23-14 standing in the kitchen

Looking Good

It has been dry weather all week but rain is expected over the weekend so we were happy to see the plywood floor of the second stories on both the garage and house. That should keep some rain out, shouldn't it?

Standing in the kitchen looking into the great room and out to the lake. A sitting area in front of a fireplace will be at left.  French doors and dining room table on the right side. We're happy.

one color leads to another

It began with my niece Lanie showing me a photo of her bedroom color, BM Water's Edge 1635. She said it makes her feel happy. Happy is good so I tried to envision it for our new master bedroom and bath.   As I continue with this story, keep in mind that neither of the paint samples shown above is true to color but it will give you the idea.

As a test, I painted my current studio this lovely grayed blue and I like it a lot. But, I'm not sold on how the two large walls in the master would look in this color - I think it might be too much. How about if I use it in the bath only where each large wall space is broken with Sherwin Williams (SW) Dover White 6385 window and door trim? That leaves me still needing a color for the master bedroom walls.

Then, while playing with my SW color fan, I came across the color 6170. I love it! I do not love the name of it. As much as I loved the words Water's Edge, I dislike the words Techno Gray. Techno? Really? What is techno? Either a 1980's abbreviation of the word technological or a style of fast, heavy electronic dance music, typically with few or no vocals. Huh? I will refer to it as 6170 and try to forget the name Sherwin Williams gave it.

 

Would the master bedroom look good that color? I needed another test. My laundry room, which also serves as our back entry/mudroom will need painting before we can rent this house so I bought a gallon of SW 6170 and started painting over the gold/orange walls. Jay's first comment was that he missed a bright entry so I plan to paint the new house entry Ralph Lauren Mexico City Yellow (the color of our upstairs bathroom). I finished the laundry room this morning and both Jay and I love the color. However, when I stand in the laundry room and look into my blue studio, these two colors aren't great together for the master bedroom and bath.

SW 6170 is a little lighter and cooler than the color I planned to paint the great room so I think we will use it there with the main floor trim color, SW Navajo White 6126. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about BM Water's Edge as the exterior color for the french doors on our new house.

The results of the two tests:

BM Water's Edge 1635 - forget the master bath, use this color for the exterior of french doors. I will like the way the 12 lite panes will break up the color.

SW 6170 Blue/Green/Gray (Techno) - Great Room, main floor

SW match for Ralph Lauren Mexico City Yellow IB65 - Entry, main floor

I still need a master suite color. I'm eyeing our guest bedroom for a test!

thinking about water

A cold, bright mid-November morning. Thoughts on water.

what a difference a day makes

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage Garage

Our Saturday morning visit and we were surprised and happy to see the framers working - perhaps to catch us back up to schedule after the power outage day. Jay's garage has exterior walls now.

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage Studio

 Surprise! The house had three exterior walls when we arrived. This is the view approaching the house. The doors and windows West wall belong to my Studio.

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage, three exterior walls

Jay and Annie walking around in the house on this bright, cold November morning.

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage Garage, West, North and East walls

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage view from the dock

The silt fencing has moved toward the lake and it looks like our lawn dirt has been cleaned up and graded. Neighbor Marlene's pedal boat has drifted over to our dock and neighbors Marci and Ken will paint their house two beautiful shades of gray soon. Standing on the dock, our garage at left and house near the big maple are beginning to look at home here.

November 15, 2014 Mill Pond Cottage lake view

Power On

It is sooo exciting and encouraging to see upright lumber! The power is back and the first walls up are the garage. Yay!

North side of the garage, first floor.

The house has a floor!

Power Out

The past two days have been cold and very windy in our area. As I was counting our blessings that we still have power here at home, we received news that our building site has been without power since yesterday. The plan is to rent a big generator to power the framer's tools so we won't lose our crew to another project.

As of 4:30 p.m., crews have restored power to more than 188,000 Puget Sound Energy customers. Around 26,000 customers remain without power as of 5:15 p.m. The map above shows our building site as the red dot. The other markers are power outages.

Sunday visit November 9, 2014

A dark and rainy November Sunday afternoon at Lake Sawyer. After a couple days of framing it looks like all the floor joists are in and the slab in Jay's garage is marked for interior walls and stairs to the second floor.

Day 2 of Framing

 

Lumber! I love it. My father was a carpenter and I have fond memories of the smell and feel of lumber. I even drew pictures on his lumber scraps. This photo was taken standing at the NE corner of the house. You can see the home of our neighbors Marci and Ken to the South. They are about three months ahead of us in the building process. The change of direction of the floor joists in the great room is where the fireplace will be.

This photo is looking North and gives an idea of how our house sits in comparison to our North neighbors, Marlene and Matt.

These pillars look like free standing space modules (if you read my previous post) but actually they are the supports for the sky bridge that connects the second story of our house to the second story of Jay's garage. Torrential downpour this morning so we have standing water on the new garage cement slab and lots of lovely mud. Click on these photos to enlarge. Annie found a plastic water bottle.

Let the framing begin!

Good news today! Framing has begun. Our builder, Chris, encouraged us to visit often because each day there are big changes. I hope we can go take a look (and take photos) tomorrow.

A little about the Craftsman Cottage style of our house. In the beginning, we considered a very modern style - boxy with big expanses of glass and clean lines. Then we fell in love with our old favorite, the Craftsman - at least it will look like that from the outside. The design of the inside of the house began based on duplicating the kitchen remodel NCompass did for us three years ago when we thought we were going to stay in our current house forever. We love our cherry cabinets (Baywood) and our stainless KitchenAid french door refrigerator and dishwasher. I do not love my JennAir downdraft range. The gas burners are great but I have never bonded with the gas oven. My new range will be dual fuel so I'll have my electric oven back.

I'm working on selecting exterior paint colors; the interior colors will be much easier to imagine when we have walls. I knew I wanted the exterior of the house to be a sagey green and I love the Sherwin Williams color, 6207 Retreat. While looking at Pinterest photos with that color, I found a blog called Life on Sunset Hill. The blog is several years old and is about building a home in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Unfortunately, most of the blog images are missing which prompted me to email the blog author, Cheryl. She graciously sent me personal images of the house so I could see the color. Yesterday Jay and I were in Ballard and I had a chance to see the house in person. A beautiful home and I love the color!

I just finished painting my studio Sherwin Williams 1635 Water's Edge and love it. I did this as a test to see if I would like that color for the Master bath. I think the Master bedroom will be a little lighter, maybe 1634 Santorini Blue, the same color planned for a ribbon of color detail as shown on the sketch above. The main trim color will be 6385 Dover White. Our original plan was to have the cedar shingles on the house be natural cedar color but I am struggling with the fact that they will eventually fade and turn gray so my latest plan is to just paint them the main body color. Any or all of this may change.