A Bit Of Wallpaper

The main bathroom here has vintage tiles and tall white walls with high windows facing North. To help integrate the strong blue tiles, we will hang a pale Norwall 1.25" stripe wallpaper on the angled vanity & toilet wall. The colors mimic the tiles and are subtle enough to "warm" the room. Norwall offers a great vinyl coated paper which is prepasted and inexpensively made in Canada. Home Depot: $24.91/roll from the book "Simply Stripes 3".

My favorite pattern is blue & white stripes which our boys all wore at times.

Christian's powder room wallpaper; big pattern, small room...

Christian's bedroom & small striped spread, big room...

Christian's living room has part of one wall papered in RL chinoiserie.

Visualizing A Floating Vanity

After opening up the vanity wall in the main bathroom, it was obvious where things would have to go - although building a mock-up cardboard vanity was crucial. I built a complete box which could fold down flat and pop open in place with a cut-out for the drain pipes. The cut-out rests on the pipes making it 32 1/2" high which feels great. Most vanities are 30" to 34" high according to builders/architects, and ours have been 31" which does not crowd a room. The clearance space below the floating vanity will be about 8" which is also good to visualize.

The floor tile is 1' X 2' Carrara Marble Porcelain which is modernly "stacked" & a perfect fit.

Existing studs dictate the vanity will mount in the corner of the room, which also gives the toilet as much space as possible but means the light fixture & mirror will move 1 1/2" to be centered over the faucet. The wiring was notched past a stud and the mirror will be hung vertically now. Leif has added Rockwool to exterior wall cavities before Bill helped sheetrock after updating plumbing.

We have chosen the Glacier Bay Dual Flush Elongated Toilet with a soft closing lid for both bathrooms here since it is modern, low and narrow with a "10 min. hook up". After snaking the exit pipe from the septic to the house, we installed one already. Best price Home Depot: $179. Floor tiles: Lowes $63 with a Large Wet Saw rental: $75 from Home Depot.

Painting The Master Bedroom

Bill painted the ceiling beams here, high gloss Hollandac Brilliant "White Dove", mixed in "Fine Paints of Europe" (marine quality paint). The bedroom walls are "Decorator's White" in matt & satin trim like the kitchen.  Below are FP of E examples via Pinterest and Christian's fireplace surround.

Acorn Deck Houses have 4" X 12" solid wood beams painted dark brown which many owners have wrapped in new wood or stripped. This paint makes them wondrous & highlights the knots. Bought from Ricciardi's, Morristown, NJ, $165 for 2.5 liters.

Bill Solo

Where there's Bill, there's a way.

Bill has been working with an array of ladders, a bucket of shingles, stapler & plane in pocket, and tool/nail belt to cedar shake as high as possible here alone.

He also installed repair work around a newly replaced skylight above our bed. The fixed Velux FS MO4 skylight is their most popular at 30" X 37" of mostly glass and no exterior wood parts - which eventually wear. We will replace all 6 skylights here when reroofing in 5 yrs. All our skylights are rarely opened in cathedral ceilings, so this is a smart change at half the price with more glass surface & vinyl sides. Best price: $398 at Home Depot.

Bill has additionally shingled the South side of Old Farm's garage while on vacation there. Below is a couple of days work after replacing some trim. Having a table saw on wheels here is great and old shingles were burned in a fire pit.

Bill visits Old Farm once a month for a long weekend of house projects and family or beach visits. This new wall faces the kitchen window. The last photo gives a glimpse of our Sweet Autumn Clematis covering a 100' fence to the right of the garage, and a bed of daffodils bloom below the new siding.

Summer Ends

Uncle Leif up on a roof ...

Alex lives on the top floor of their building with a roof deck above & lovely views.

A nice party place with grills & private spaces. Uncle Christian is grilling & this little couple shares swim lessons on the first floor.

Bill is at Old Farm this holiday where he & Alex installed an electric car charging unit on the side of the house. It was installed inside the bedroom closet next to the fuse box, and mounted discretely outside. Alex has an electric family car now, nice.