Sexy Concrete

Oxymoron, you ask? No way. It's taken (of course) a bit longer than anticipated, but we finished the first two pieces of the kitchen countertops. They are a magical brick red color that blends beautifully with the redwood and fir in our cabinets, with a few interesting types of aggregate, and embedded antique watch parts (thank you, Creek!). The effect is nothing short of stunning...now a bit about the process.

First, we make a template out of thin fiberboard that conforms to the exact dimensions and angles, since walls are rarely as square as they should be. Then, Drew used the template to build the form out of melamine. This took a lot of fiddling for the longest section, since it includes the kitchen sink, and had to have a very precise cutout and holes for plumbing and such.

Drew and Aaron tape and caulk joints in the the form.

Once the form was built, he applied caulk to the joints of the form to create the desired round-over effect on the edges around the sink and the fronts of the counters. We also included an integral sloped area for the dish drainer. (No more water puddles, thank you!) We then added welded wire and rebar for reinforcement.

Welded wire and decorative aggregate in the form ready for pour.

Next was the fun part, placing the decorative aggregate and elements, exactly where we wanted them. We have collected shells and agates from the beach over the years with this project in mind, so it was nice to finally use some. We also used some black volcanic glass, and some red and yellow stones. Finally, we added watch gears, watch faces, and even some entire watch bodies, which when filled with epoxy leave all the gears and workings exposed in the surface of the counters. They came out beautifully!

Working the concrete into the form.

Once all this is done, then finally the pour. After they sit for 10 days or so, then we grind with a water grinder with diamond discs. It's just like sanding wood, where you use progressively finer grits to get a glass-like shine. We revealed a minimum of aggregate, and then polished up the slabs.

Polished, sealed, and glossed, and ready for install!

After we were finally satisfied with the results, we finally brought them indoors and sealed them with more Ecoprocote concrete finishing products: AcriSoy as a penetrating sealer, and EcoFlorz as a glossy topcoat. They shine beautifully after this treatment. Then at last, the install, which was a day without a kitchen sink, but well worth the wait. After a year of plywood with plastic tablecloths over top, I'm loving the wipe-able surface, and most of all, the rich color that blends so well with our cabinets. Now there's just two more pieces to make before ALL the kitchen counters are done.

Install day...

Ella's Room

We just needed to buckle down and finish up this room, and now we've done it...plaster is done, trim is done, floor is done, loft railing is finished, and over the weekend, we moved some of Ella's play scene into the space!

In this room, we tried a new floor finish product from Ecoprocote. It's a glossy finish sealer, and we love how it looks. It completes the fun variability of the basic stain. We also figured out how to appropriately use the glossy wood finish to make the redwood sills and trim really pop. I'm excited about the look AND the clean-ability of the end product here.

Glossy Floor

Glossy Redwood Windowsill, Ooo la la!

Drew spent a good bit of time building a beautiful loft railing out of cedar wood. It has mortis and tenon joints. He found he didn't quite have the right tools to do a perfect perfect job, but we are both happy with the results, and know that it will keep everyone who ventures upstairs safe (once there is actually a ladder...maybe when Ella is 15?) We are also still missing some closet doors and an actual bedroom door. That door seems important for her, once this new baby begins crawling/walking. Ella keeps a collection of chokables that are not to be trusted!

Loft Railing

Closet Trim

We're hoping Ella will want to begin sleeping in her new room soon, though I must admit, the thought is a little bittersweet. She's been right near us almost every single night since she was born over 5 years ago. People tell you that it's hard to let them go as they grow up, but I didn't realize how true that is until recently. Sigh. It's all a part of life. You nurture them and help them and hold them, and then you let them fly, and hope they fly back to you!

Play Space Ready for FUN!

Clerestory Finishing

Aaron installing window trim

The finish effect, with the beam now visible!

A few weeks back, Aaron built finish frames to go around the clerestory windows. He plastered the open drywall first and then put up the frames. Then Drew was finally able to take down the plastic drape that has covered up our beautiful redwood beam for almost a year. What an unveiling! Then Drew completed the final step, which was to install the low-wattage LED rope light along the whole clerestory, which provides a very low energy ambient light for moving about the house at night after dark. It's a small thing, but it's so fun to see parts of the house we've designed a long time ago come into fruition.

Kitchen Cabinets, Oh My!

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After!

Sink Area and Corner Run

Close Up of Cabinet Door

Almost two weeks ago, the delightful folks at Forbes Cabinets in Eureka came to install the upper and lower cabinets, upgrading our kitchen overnight from 2x4-plywood world into fantastic-functional-beautiful-awesome place. It didn't take so long to get used to, though we are still having a little trouble finding some things!

The cabinets were built by a local shop in town. We've been so happy with their service, and commitment to getting it right, while making it beautiful, all at an affordable price. The cabinets are vertical grain fir, and we added some redwood accents to allow them to stand out a little bit from our background plaster and ceiling. One of my favorite parts, beyond the pretty wood and its pleasing grain and color, is the easy-close drawer slides and door hinges that make the drawers and doors close softly at the end. Oh, and that all kitchen items are now in the kitchen and organized in a way that is easy to access.

Another feature that we are very much enjoying is the small built-in window seat/couch we designed into our kitchen. It's really the perfect size and has three big storage drawers underneath. You see it immediately when you walk in the door, and it just looks cozy.

Built-In Couch (Has yet to acquire a cushion)

Our next step now is to work on our concrete countertops. Drew has built the template, and now needs to move on to the actual forms. We're excitedly planning the colors and inlays. Our friend visited over the weekend with lots of small watch parts that we hope to include in the counter. I'm excited to see how that project unfolds. Beyond that, there are still several finish details to get to as well, like a backsplash, and plaster finishing above the cabinets and around the vent hood. All in good time...

Back in the Saddle

Gardner Thomas Rain Barber

born July 10, 2011 @ 12:07 PM !!!! 7 lbs. 12 oz.

It's been quite a long while since my last post. I wasn't doing anything much, just having a baby, keeping up with our garden, sending my oldest off to kindergarten, and continuing work on our house. It's all continuing, but life is settling onto its new routine after adding a new family member, and I have been missing my blog.

Plus, there are some exciting things happening in the house...here's a short list:

• the pantry is finished and moved into
• Ella's room is nearly complete
• the clerestory is finished
• our shower got tiled and the tub was installed, so we have a shower in the house now, and,
• we just got our kitchen cabinets last week (!!!!!!)

Oh, yeah, and we have this beautiful new baby, who is really interesting and fun, and so much joy. There's certainly no shortage of things to write about, so stay tuned for more frequent updates...

More American Clay Plaster

Me, in front of the East Wall of the Office/Music Zone

Today, we mixed up some more Enjarre plaster and got working on finish walls again, after three months off. I'm feeling pretty inspired about plaster right now because I just attended a American Clay application workshop on Saturday with Rick Kantor of Terrasanti in Penngrove, CA at Alternative Building Center in Eureka. I had a whole lot of fun playing and experimenting with plaster with a group of great people, and learned a heck of a lot, too.

This is our third application of Enjarre plaster, which is American Clay's more commercially-minded plaster. It's designed to be a one-coat application, and is intended, generally, to be applied with spray equipment and then back-troweled. That is, until they released a new product called Up & EZ, which enables you to literally roll the plaster on with a paint roller. (Link shows a video demonstration of the roll-on technique). Or you can trowel it on like usual, too.

The last few times we used Enjarre, we were having some difficulty getting it to stick on the roller, and applying it seemed more challenging than American Clay's workhorse plaster, Loma. One thing I learned this weekend was that we weren't mixing it wet enough. I made the mix a lot wetter today, and had much better results. Drew rolled the material on, and I troweled it smooth. Ella got in on the fun too, playing with a small trowel we usually use for compressing our clay once it's dry.

I had some captions in the photos in the original slideshow, which wouldn't show up in the movie. Essentially, they said things like "So easy, a four-year-old can do it", and "So easy, a pregnant lady can do it". The color of the plaster is called "Palomino Valley". What you see here is the wet color, it will be softer when dry.

Master Bathroom Cabinet with Countertop

The Vanity, with the Concrete Counter on top, and sink installed. The darker wood in the door panels is the pear wood.

The Tall Linen Unit

The Recycled Copper Sink, set into the countertop

Concrete Countertop, stained with "Espresso" SoyCrete

A few days ago, we installed the concrete countertop that Drew and Michael built. We poured it before we left on our vacation, because with the concrete counters, the cement needs to cure for around 40 days. So we left it in the form while we were away, and Drew unearthed it as soon as we got home.

Once the form comes off, then there is a lot of grinding and sanding to do, with a grinder that connects to a hose. First, we exposed some of the aggregate, and then we sanded with progressively finer disks until the surface was almost like glass. The effect is almost like granite, though not quite as shiny. Once the sanding was done, we stained the counter with SoyCrete, and then put a coat of Acri-Soy sealer on it to protect it.

At last, we lugged it into the bathroom on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, while I was in town, Drew installed the sink and the faucet handles. By Wednesday evening, we had cold running water in the bathroom, and Drew and I realized that for the first time since we've lived together, we no longer needed to brush our teeth in our kitchen sink! Ella was first to try it out.

Our friend Michael Salbego built the cabinets, which I haven't showcased yet either. Drew and I shopped for wood, and after much deliberation, settled on maple frames with select pear-wood panels (these came from Willow Creek somewhere). The drawer panels are locally-grown and milled Pacific big-leaf maple. We were looking for a shaker-style panel. There is a tall unit for linen storage, and then a vanity, with doors under the sink, and drawers on either side. In between the two units, there is an empty space to hold our laundry bin. To finish the assembly off, Michael made some simple, hand-carved drawer pulls and knobs. We think they're gorgeous, and that Mikey did a fantastic job.

North Half Ceiling Complete

The finished ceiling with paint

Unprimed texture, over drywall

Aaron, applying the spray texture

Last week, we focused our efforts on completing the ceiling on the north half of the main room of the house. For a long time before our vacation, Aaron was working on mudding and taping the ceiling in preparation for texture. Once we returned from vacation, Drew and Aaron sanded the seams to smooth them out. Then Drew and I spent two days (!) masking and draping the walls. Well, it wouldn't have taken quite so long if I wasn't pregnant and Drew wasn't recovering from the flu!

Finally, we diluted our bucket of mud, and loaded some into the hopper to test the spray and see how easy or difficult texturing is. Turns out, it's not THAT hard, though there are some simple tricks that make it a lot easier. Like having thin enough mix, for example. Once we decided on a coverage amount and got the gun nice and clear, it was smooth sailing, though the boys' arms were very very sore by the end.

After we let it dry for a day and a half, we primed the ceiling with ASM's SafeCoat New Wallboard Primer. This is a very low VOC primer, considered non-toxic. The following day, Drew and Aaron painted the ceiling with two coats of Yolo Colorhouse Paint in Color Air.01. Yolo Colorhouse is another no-VOC, non-toxic paint product that we get at our friendly, neighborhood green building store, Alternative Building Center in Eureka. It's a soft, slightly yellow white.

Our goal for this project was to make the tape seams invisible. We mostly succeeded. You can see them in a few spots, but mostly, it looks really great. We're pleased, and NOW we can get on to finishing the walls in that whole area of the house...did I mention we're working on our bathroom, too? I'll make a post about that, it's looking really nice.

A Bed Off the Floor

These small things are so tiny, but so delightful. For many years now, our bed has been in a loft or on the floor. Not such a bad thing at all, especially when you have a little tiny person who could fall out of a tall bed. But it comes with it's prices. Changing sheets is a pain (especially with very close ceilings). Crawling around when you're 9 months pregnant isn't so easy, and a little hard on the wrists. And climbing out of a loft at 3 AM when you have to pee isn't such a holiday either.

So we're up off the floor, and the other awesome benefit is to experience the view out the window in the morning that I designed the room for:

The single largest window in the house frames this view of Moore Hill, the last hill before the ocean. Drew and I spent the beginning of our relationship staring out the window at Moore Hill from a different perspective. Ahhh, it's so lovely! It catches the sunrise light so beautifully.

Living In the House

View of Kitchen and Dining From Living Room

View of the Living Room from the Dining Room

Living Room

I have been waiting to photograph the house until the sun was fully shining. Today is January 2, and the last day we saw real sun was December 22. On that day, we hadn't moved in yet!

We moved our temporary kitchen into the house on December 23, the day Drew's mom came to stay for Christmas. It was a little herky jerky and disorganized, but we did it, thanks to the help of our friends, especially Ali, Everett, Aaron, and Chris and Jody, who showed up at the furniture moving moment. We couldn't have done it without all of the Christmas angels.

Though we have been puttering and slowly organizing things and figuring out new systems and patterns of movement in space, we've mostly been relaxing into our new space, and enjoying it. It has been largely rainy and gray since we moved in, and we celebrated Christmas comfortably even though it rained 4 inches outside. We had 4 guests for dinner, and we could still talk, and we enjoyed the fire and food and drink. We had many guests for New Year's Eve, and there was plenty of space for many more. I am looking forward to many more gatherings, opening up this space for unexpected community needs.

My favorite part of living in the house right now is that I don't need to go outside if I don't WANT to. Living in the yurt, there were so many needs to go outdoors, each one requiring shoes, a coat, and moving things around, and often Ella wanted to come, which required SHE get suited up too. Now I can do the laundry without putting on my shoes, nor balancing up and down steps and ramps while holding a full laundry basket. And I can even do it if it's raining outdoors. Wow. Life under one roof. It IS all it's cracked up to be!

The Master Throne

And did I mention the flushing toilets? Now that is something. For the last eight years, I have lived with several outhouse situations. Some of them were rather deluxe, but for the last 4 and 1/2 years, I have been doing my business into a pickle barrel with a seat. With no roof. When the weather was nice, I didn't mind this setup one bit. But when it was pouring rain AND the middle of the night, I would curse the barrel and vow to build a roof each coming spring. Which for some reason we never did. I'm sure it goes without saying, but I am deeply enjoying using the indoor plumbing, especially with all this cold and rainy weather. Especially in the middle of the night. It is true luxury. I had forgotten how nice.

Moving Day

The Living/Dining Room at Winter Solstice, Walls and Floors Done!

View of Kitchen From Living Room

At last, the day has come. A few more details, a few more items to assemble, and we move our life over to the new house. I realize it will still be a process, as the final configuration of things will slowly unfold, but a basic, functioning kitchen will be in place by tomorrow, and the furniture and trappings of a life will all vacate the yurt. What an amazing Birthday-Solstice-Christmas gift to arrive at this moment.

We've been sleeping in our amazing bedroom since a week before Thanksgiving, and this has been a huge blessing. We have had an extremely wet December, with lots of rainy, stormy nights. I would have enjoyed significantly less sleep during that time had we not been over there at night. But the back and forth each day, just before bedtime and first thing in the morning, has been a challenge for me in particular, as we are now expecting our second child (!), and I am needing to eat at odd hours of the night, as well as first thing in the morning. So this move is a very welcome and relieving prospect for me!

I'll take some more photos once we move everything in, and set up our Christmas tree. Game on!

Cozy Sleeping

At long last, we moved our bed into our lovely, finished bedroom, and have been sleeping in it, in the room, since Sunday night. It's a simultaneously WOW feeling, and also just a quiet, smooth transition into something we've been waiting for, literally for years.

How ironic that even sleeping in a much anticipated space, it's difficult to sleep in a new space! There are new sounds, new routines around going to bed, getting up in the night to pee, and all that. But there is a deeper quiet.

It's been my feeling for a while now that Drew and I suffer from a long term lack of deep sleep, created by a constant awareness of ordinary sounds heard through yurt walls: calm sounds like owls hooting, birdsong, and coyotes howling, as well as deeply and instinctually stressful sounds like 50 mph winds, pounding, needling rain, and cars, generators, and the like. I'm finding that I can hear a lot of the sounds in the house, but they are markedly quieter, and the inner stress level is so much less, because the house feels so solid and secure. I'm looking forward to catching up on deep-level relaxation in sleep.

Once this rain stops, we are ready to move all of our clothes over to the closet, and we are also soon to get Ella her own big-girl bed, so we can have our bed back to ourselves, after 4 and 1/2 years. I salute that!

It's Full Steam Ahead

Though I have had several days of low motivation, our crew is still moving all kinds of things forward with the house. Last week, Jemma and I plastered the big wall in the living room a lovely yellow color. This afternoon, in the sunset light, it was a magnificent, glowing gold, so I couldn't resist photographing it.

Living Room Wall Plaster in Golden Sunset Light

Also, our bedroom trim is done, and we're working on the doors so we can install the last of it in the entry and in the bathroom/closet. Today, Drew and I plastered the laundry closet with Structolite, so that when we move over to the house, we can move our washing machine, too.

Here's the Bedroom with Trim, All Done

A Bathroom Door

Stair Trim, Just Like Tetris

Last week, Karl and Drew had Cedar here with his trenching machine, and we ran phone cable to the house, propane line from the pad to the house, water lines and power lines. Karl is working hard to get all those utilities set up before he leaves in a few weeks. We've ordered new batteries for our off-the-grid power system, and we're looking forward to that purchase arriving. Our current batteries were used and cheap, and they have certainly done their duty. But they are no longer working very well, so we're excited for batteries that perform properly. Karl is building a little house outside the house for them, as well as the inverter and other electronics that operate our power system.

Hmmm, what else. Aaron is mudding and taping on the north slope ceiling, getting it ready for texture. I moved some window bucks along towards readiness for plaster. Jemma has been cleaning and oiling all of our window frames, including the clerestory windows. And the list goes on. There are a lot of steps!

Our bathroom sink arrived, as did our vent hood for the kitchen stove. We're lining ourselves up to do plaster and floors in the kitchen/living/dining, so that we can create a temporary kitchen.

Maybe we'll actually move into our room THIS weekend, we'll see!

Our Beautiful Concrete Floor

Bedroom Floor with Leather Brown SoyCrete Stain

Floor Closeup

A Preview of the Trimmed-Out Look (the trim won't go in till later today)

Bathroom Floor with Espresso Concrete Stain

I spent all last week laboring over my bedroom suite floor, and at the end of it, I gave birth to a richly varied, stained concrete that warms the feeling of the entire space. As with using any new product in a new context, I worried and fretted over whether I was doing it right. I experimented in the closet first, and it's a good thing, because I don't like the results in there. The second space I completed was the bathroom, which turned out much better, and finally, the big main bedroom, a spacious pallet of color.

The process is multi-step: meticulously scrape all visible remnants of joint compound splats, plaster residue, and structolite off the floor. Sweep and vacuum, leaving as clean a surface as possible. Apply a concrete etcher, to clean and open the pores of the concrete (Ecoprocote EcoEtch), allow to dwell for about 10 minutes, then buff with a floor buffer. This process impressively cleans the floor, which by this point in the house project contains nearly two years worth of construction dirt and activity.

After buffing, vacuum up the wet stuff and rinse, rinse, rinse. Allow to dry. THEN, the fun part. Apply the stain (EcoProcote SoyCrete) with a foam mop, and work into the surface of the concrete. Once dry to the touch, buff with the floor buffer (a rather squirrely machine!) to smooth out the application marks.

A day later, apply the penetrating sealer coat, Acri-Soy. Finally, enjoy the fruits of your labor, and experience the drastic transformation of a blue-gray concrete slab into a lovely, mottled, warm-looking, homey floor.

The Ecoprocote products are a pleasure to work with. Ultra-low VOC, they don't stink, are safe to work around without safety equipment, and clean up with soap and water.

Finish trim details, and MOVE IN. Coming soon, this week.

Lots of Projects

We are on a mad mission. Karl is only here a few more weeks, and we are pushing to get as much done as possible. And we are really doing it. Making lots of progress. Every day. It's really thanks to all the great people we have working for us. Yay team!

To start, we are VERY close to being done with our bedroom! We slept out there for the first time last weekend, and today, I am about to stain the main floor. Karl did the ceiling trim and it's gorgeous. Also, a sill for our little recessed lighting cove with this amazing curly redwood. I think he did an awesome job here.

Ceiling Trim and Curly Redwood Sill, look how beautiful!

Meanwhile, I was designing our cabinets for our bathroom and kitchen. We mocked up the kitchen to approximate the locations of the cabinets/counters and the island. I spent a few days on the computer, which was hard on my back, but yielded a solid overall design.

Kitchen Mockup

Then this week, I began base plastering the remainder of the main room walls, and started on concrete staining the bathroom and closet floor, while Karl and Aaron were installing the wood ceiling in our guest/massage room and the entry way. Done, done, and done.

Living Room Base Coat Plaster

Guest Room Ceiling Done

Bathroom Floor with Concrete Stain

It's fully into the rainy time now, so there's nothing to do BUT work on the house. Indoors is the place to be.