How’s the weather?

 

It's beautiful here! I'm not dying of heat exhaustion either!

 

 

I'm glad you finally sold your old house. I know that can be stressful.

 

It was really stressful on the wife. And you know how the transference property of spousal stress works.

 

I finally got around to painting garage doors. Progress pic and finished product.

 

That looks great.
It's a project that's somewhere on my list. We want to re-do all the shutters & garage doors in either a darker brown or possibly black.

 

Honestly it turned out better than I thought I was capable of. It took a long time -- 11 hours altogether. Painted by hand with a brush, 2 coats. Overcast skies were very welcome on the second day.

Used almost one gallon of Sherwin-Williams all-surface exterior acrylic enamel, satin sheen.

Maybe someday graphene paint will be an option.

 

I've probably got about the same area of door space to cover, but 3 single bay doors.
Ours are also stained wood on the outside. So, that'll be something to figure out, whether to strip the stain & paint over, or stain with a darker color.

 

Wood is a tougher surface for sure -- at least with a metal clad door I know what I am painting on.

There's probably some kind of varnish on your door that will make things much more work and limit your paint/stain options considerably.

 

Well done. Your place looks awesome.

 

I had a lady come and faux finish to make my old place look like wood...she let me pick the wood grain size and color etc...
best $500 we spent on that place.
BUT, yours looks fantastic.

 

Looks great.

 

One of the nice things about new houses is they sometimes need less work.

My wife has been working from home, and so we swapped offices and desks -- she took the downstairs office with the window and larger desk, and I have an upstairs space without windows. So I've replaced her entirely inadequate pair of 2' x 4' desks with a nice U-shaped station and drawer unit, along with a coat of paint on the walls and floating shelves. Work surfaces are WilsonArt Studio Teak laminate on particle board, the rest of it is mahogany that I got for a song and still have plenty of left.

The furniture suite isn't done -- still going to build a tall bookcase and a tall credenza.

 

Really like that desk, looks great there.

 

That is one huge desk. That is a great looking wall color and it goes well with the deck.

 

It's a great size for me. 72x36 on the main desk, 21x48 return, and 24x72 on the back. It gives me a lot of space to spread stuff out.

Wall color is Benjamin Moore Aura paint, color "Mysterious" in matte finish.
Right now there is a paint-by-number watercolor in progress under the reading lamp. I got this done and then promptly retired.

 

Now in progress elsewhere in the 2nd floor space are about 30 of these cabinets, 2 runs of 15 each. Right now I have 4 completed, 2 in progress in my shop. Leveling them is going to be fun.

 

That desk is huge! Very nice upgrade!

 

Freya thinks this is a cat superhighway. She is only part right.

Got another project in the books ... 27 feet of storage shelving in the second-floor space over the 2-car garage stall. This was my first time designing, building, and installing a run of floor-standing cabinets.

It cannot be understated how you have not lived until you have leveled 27 feet of cabinets by yourself.

Cabinets are 4' tall and most are 2' wide. The center unit with only 2 shelves is 3 feet wide. Material is MDF with a thin laminate (Dakota shelving from Menards). Each cabinet uses 2 8' x 2' boards, 240 or so dowels, 16 Konfirmat screws, and 4 leveling feet. Cabinets are attached to each other using barrel bolts and to the wall using 3" cabinet mounting screws into the wall studs. My Jessem doweling jig and Milwaukee drill got a real workout.

There will be a complementary run of cabinets but only about 22' long on the other side of the space (which is just 10' wide with 7' ceiling at the max height) but I haven't figured out what the configuration will be yet. Probably a few more 3-foot wides and some single-hang for seasonal clothing.

 

Wow, I forgot about this thread and just scrolled back through, gorgeous place; any updated pics? Still loving it? Anything you would have changed?

 

Not too much I would change, and only a few updates that I've made. I'm making my way through painting inside.

The backyard fireplace/patio isn't getting the use I thought it might, mostly because it is so very windy out here. We are planning to build a pergola over the patio and put some raised garden beds around it to shelter it some. I also would have gone with a standard 7 ft front door and put a couple of sidelights next to them. The water system can be taxed by running a dishwasher, washing machine, and irrigation at the same time so we have to be conscious of when the sprinkler system is running. A higher capacity well pump and pressure vessel would probably have prevented that for $$$. We have one bedroom that is too cold in winter and too hot in summer, but no one uses it regularly so I haven't addressed it. A few more outlets in the storm room would have made it more useful and more around the main part of the basement as well so I'm not constantly running long extension cords for things like grooming the dogs.

 

You inspired me to look back through the thread as well. My renderings were pretty darn good.

The two dogs in the pictures have both since passed away. I miss them all the time. We currently have two cats and two dogs. The cats are youngish, the dogs are seniors and we will most likely lose both of them within the next two to three years.

Here's the result of painting the master bedroom -- color is Benjamin Moore Cinder in matte finish Aura paint. I am a huge fan of this outlandishly expensive paint. The paint takes on different hues at different times of day because of the huge amount of outdoor light that comes in. Much richer looking than the grey that was originally on the walls and I think the reclaimed wood really pops against it.


Evening light.

Morning light.

 

Argh, sorry to hear about the dogs. I looked through my old house thread and found pictures of our two dogs that both passed, made me sad.

I bought a lot of paint for our current house, I painted the outside and every wall and ceiling inside, started with expensive paint. I was buying for the promise of one coat coverage, which didn’t work so I went back to mid grade but that color is gorgeous, maybe I’m just basic and didn’t explore enough.

Love to see the updates, now go use that outside space!

 

The Aura is great paint, but not because of one coat coverage. I get "coverage" in one coat, but there are differences in texture everywhere that is obvious when viewing from an angle, and that all gets taken care of by a second light coat. It is very easy to cut in (with a good brush -- I use a Purdy ClearCut), it has a primer in it so coverage over another color is easy, and it does not drip or sag easily at all.. The matte finish forgives small imperfections in the walls and is easily repaired by spot painting.