We had our first snowfall. We’ve had flurries, but yesterday there was finally enough snow to stick on the ground for a few hours. The time for outdoor work is coming to an end, and I’m glad that I crossed painting the mudroom door off my list a few weeks ago.
I chose a grey-turquoise, Knoxville Gray from Benjamin Moore. In pictures it looked like a nice, dark, saturated, not too bright turquoise. On the BM website, it looks grey. (And on a dim snowy day it looks quite blue.)
As I started to paint, I was questioning my choice. It was grey.
I had nice weather. It was a preschool day, so I had time.
I. Was. Painting. The. Door.
I envisioned speeding into town to get the can retinted to more blue, more green, more colour.
And then it started to dry. And it wasn’t grey. It wasn’t blue. It wasn’t green. It was the perfect nice, dark, saturated, not too bright turquoise.
Phew.
Next up, painting the rest of the mudroom (an inside job that will hopefully begin this week).
Who else has questioned their colour choice mid-paint job? Do you have any outdoor projects you’re trying to finish? Have you had any snow yet?
I so wish I could say, “We have doors!” in this garage/mudroom update. But all I have to keep it singular. After waiting four months for the doors to arrive, we have to wait a bit more.
Our contractor came with the doors last week. But, the door between the mudroom and garage was wrong. Argh.
It swung the wrong way.
Going all the way back to my initial scribbles, I always had the door swinging into the garage and toward the back wall. Our official blueprints show this configuration. Our contractors and I also discussed the door swings a couple of times.
The door that showed up last week swung into the garage but toward the front. That meant that I’d have to walk around the door every time I wanted to go in or out of the garage.
I’ve been told the right door should arrive this week. However, after a four-month wait for a 6-8 week order, I’m not entirely confident.
On the topic of doors we do have some things to celebrate though.
The garage doors are in (this happened a couple of weeks ago). I’m happy with the simple profile I chose, and best of all, I’m happy with how the colour looks with our board and batten siding. Phew. We are still waiting on the decorative handles and hinges to give them a carriage house look.
The person door that was correct is beautiful. This door leads from the mudroom directly outside. I chose to have a big window in this door, and I’m so glad that I did. The view through the glass and the light coming into the mudroom is better than I hoped.
The other high point of the week is that the contractor finished all of the trim in the mudroom (aside from the casing for the missing door).
I chose to use the same baseboard that we used in the basement. Ultimately, I’d like to change all of the baseboards upstairs to this trim.
Rather than going with the matching profile for the door casing, I decided to use a simple flat stock instead. With the panelled walls, I felt like trim would be too busy for me–even though the basement casing is very simple. I asked for a butt joint with a little overhang on the top piece, which appears a bit rustic to me.
Some more flatstock finished off the top of the walls where they meet the cedar plank ceiling.
The room is looking so much more finished. Just ignore the sheet of plywood over the one doorway.
What reno mix-ups have you experienced? Anyone else enjoy the power of trim? Who else is a fan of windows in doors?
Foundations are in for the garage and mudroom. I’m hoping everything will be backfilled this week–and maybe the pool finally filled as well.
I’m trying to do my part of keeping the renovation moving by making decisions about what I want.
After thinking about and planning for this renovation for so long, I thought I knew exactly what I’d choose. But now that it’s real, I’m finding out that sometimes my mental picture isn’t as clear as I thought it was.
I’d appreciate your input on a couple of things.
Garage doors
A carriage door style feels appropriate for a farm. These doors have fake handles and hinges that make them look like old-fashioned swinging doors.
However, the carriage doors I like the most are all overlay doors. In an overlay, the panels or strips are applied by hand. This translates to more expensive. As well, there are sometimes issues with getting the overlays to line up between each section of the garage door.
I can get the carriage door look (hinges and handles) in a pressed door. In this profile, the design is pressed into the steel and there are no applied pieces. However, the profiles that I like the best (the two-panel or Zed above) are not available. I’d go with a simple shaker style panel to get as close as possible.
I’ve spent a lot of time gawking at garage doors, trying to figure out if I dislike the pressed profiles enough to go for an overlay door.
What would you do?
Lighting
Lighting is still a while away, but wiring will happen soon. So I’m thinking about how many lights we need and what they should look like. We could have as many as six lights (if we stretch all the way over to the living room patio door) or we could go with three, or somewhere in between.
They could all be the same, or we could switch up the style.
I’m leaning toward a lantern style light on either side of the garage. This graphic from Farmhouse Facelift shows two options that appeal to me: a traditional lantern and rustic wood design that I haven’t seen before.
I’m also considering goose neck barn style lights (though their trendiness makes me want to avoid them). We drive past a house that has used them beside the garage doors, rather than above (which we won’t have room for).
The living room has a big patio door on the south side. It gives us great natural light, which significantly increased when we removed the sunroom from the side of the house. I loved sitting on the couch in the fall, watching the leaves change colour.
But the beauty of fall is followed by the cold of winter, and I knew the patio door was a big source of drafts. I had felt that the sunroom provided some thermal buffer (perhaps wishful thinking). But with it gone, the cold air had a direct path through the door and into the house.
So at the end of the year (fortunately on a mild December day), we had the door replaced.
Of course, like so many things in this house, the door was “special.” It was right between five and six feet–the two standard sizes for patio doors. We went with a five foot door, and the installers built out the jamb and added some extra trim inside and flashing outside to cover the difference so it’s not noticeable.
Ellie plays in front of the patio door every day, and most lunchtimes are a picnic in the sunbeams that now stream through the window.
The feature I’m most excited about is the screen. With the sunroom in the way, we had no incentive to open the old patio door. We would have just smelled stinky old sunroom. Also, the door did not slide well and it didn’t have a screen. Now, we have a screen and a door that opens and closes smoothly. I am looking forward to fresh air as soon as the weather is warm enough to open the windows. For now, I’ll be enjoying my new view.
Anyone else dealing with winter drafts? Or enjoying winter sunbeams?
Home on 129 Acres 