Peach Siding - Another Spotting

Yesterday evening, when we were working on taking down the other elm, I noticed some more peach paint peeking through on our siding!

The electric meter is there on the side of the house, but at some point, the meter was changed--  the meter that is there now is smaller and a different shape than what was there previously.

More peach!

Sicky Elm Tree - Update

So, our lovely treehouse elm has been taken down.  We cut it down on Friday evening, and today we dealt with the branches and logs.

There are no pictures, I didn't bother.  It wasn't fun and it wasn't exciting.
It was just sad.

Sicky Elm Tree

Oh, I'm so sad!  Came home today to find this note in our mailbox:

Our treehouse elm has Dutch Elm Disease and needs to be cut down.  Soon.
We had noticed recently that it looked wilted and a couple small branches had died off.  And what we just learned about Dutch Elm is that by the time the tree starts looking sick, it's pretty much too late to save it.

And here's the bright orange paint to go along with the letter...

 






















The first time we saw the house, even though there were a dozen trees around this house, we both looked at this elm and thought it would be the best place for a tree house for our kids someday.

It's a beautiful tree.  Verrry big.  The branches extend over the sidewalk and part of the street on the side of our property.  I think this part looks so pretty.

We want to replace the fence some day, and had planned to move it to the other side of the tree, to get this tree more "in" our yard. 
The view from the back yard...

Elm canopy meeting up with the backyard ash, far overhead...

*sigh*.....

Completed Garden Plot

I realized I forgot to post a picture of our completed garden plot!  We got it finished within a week, and I got my few little plants in there a couple days later -- basil plant from Trader Joe's, basil I grew from seed, a few radishes from seed, a couple green bean plants from seed, and a cucumber plant from seed that died off right away.

I plan to throw some catnip and dill seeds in there and see if I can get anything before the end of summer.  I realize I got a late start on some of this--  I'll be lucky if I even get any green beans!  But I don't really care.  It's just fun growing this stuff, and the herbs can be used right away.  For next year, I can make a better plan and take advantage of all the space.

At least it's done!  It gets great sunlight now that the tree is trimmed, and I've been making sure to keep up on watering.

It should last us at least a couple years, and by then we will have a better idea of how we want things in the back yard, so we can either move it or keep it here.

Design Plans - Update

I've been meaning to post these for a week or so...  I asked K to send me the sketches she made on Google Sketch-Up of her ideas for replacing the siding.

These pictures also include her idea for dormers on the front of the house.  With a flat roof on each dormer to give them a more modern look, rather than the traditional   ^  peak.  Though traditional to a Cape Cod style house, I thought that type of peak looked older and much less modern than we'd like to go for.

If we do end up going with the cement-board that we've looked at, our siding colors will be more gray and less blue than these pictures.  But it's easier to see the variation in these sketches, since they aren't all gray.

The palette, so far...

Lots of new siding, and lots of variation in the siding.  This will allow us to use up the little bit of un-returnable scrap that K has accumulated, and also play a bit with the color and design.  We're also considering rock for the bottom section.  And there's my Neptune Green door!

Her plan includes a small new porch off the front of the house, and off to the right side.  Since we took off the awning over the front door, we don't have a roof covering the door, and we are definitely missing that when it's raining or snowing.

Keeping the privacy fence on the right side of the house is a must.  Some bedroom windows face this side, and the fence provides privacy from the street.  The yard is also out of view of the busy streets, which makes it really comfortable back there.

Doesn't the house look awake and cute with those dormers??  K also widened the triple window in the front.  We will replace these windows someday, and we could make the side windows wider when we do so, creating a larger panel of windows.  The other window in the front is also larger than we currently have-- I think she wants to center the window in that bedroom.

Annnnnnd...  K gets her white picket fence.  It sounds like she's wanted one of these for a while, or maybe just for this house.  But I think it will look great.  And, it will do much better at keeping litter out of our yard than our current fence, since the boards are much closer together.

This side roof over the mudroom is about the only thing we could do to make a "Mod 50's" roof on our house, without drastically changing our second level (not that we're totally opposed to changing that.)

Currently, the peak of this roof is right in the middle, and there is a metal awning extending out past the door.  If we remove the awning, and if K builds out the step in front of the door, we can also extend the roof out at that sort of low "modern" pitch.

It's a possibility!  Not sure how or when we'll get to the outside of the house, but it's really fun to think about.

Stairs For The Patio Door

Ever since K put the patio door in last fall, we've had only a simple wooden step outside of the door.  It was just one step, so it was kind of a big jump.  And by this summer, we'd used it enough that it was becoming a bit rickety -- it wasn't really anchored in well.

The siding around the door wasn't finished, either, which didn't bother us much.  It was kinda ugly, but we figured we'd re-do the siding some day and it would get finished then.  But... our new insurance agency didn't like the un-finished-ness of the patio door area, and said we had to fix it because it wasn't "fire safe."  Hmm.  OK...  K knows the codes and didn't see a problem with the way it was.  But since we like our new policy, she said she could just fix it.  I offered to take a bunch of pictures so that our agent wouldn't have to run out to our house.

But, wow,  I'm glad she fixed it!!  I love our new step, and the house looks neater with just that simple white trim.

               Before:

                    After:

K anchored the steps into the asphalt and to the house, so they're really sturdy.

And the treads are made of Brazilian ipe, so they're really beautiful.  

Boy kitty enjoying the view...