bedroom lighting

I'm not a fan of a central overhead light fixture in rooms...especially the bedroom. We have 3 switches in each upstairs bedroom. One to the outlets on either side of the bed; one to the wall sconce and the third to an outlet above the walk-in-closet. I have a string of Christmas lights up there and love the way they bounce light off the ceiling. The other thing this shelf above the closet does is make the room appear a larger. If the wall went straight up to meet the ceiling the room would have felt more closed in.

The walk-in-closet goes the whole length of the room and is quite large. Large closets are key these days. In the middle of the wall, we placed an outlet and on the other side we have a cable outlet, so a flat screen can be placed here with hidden controls. Or a nice painting.
It gives off such a nice glow. My mom made the lamp pictured here. She also made the afghan on the bed. That was one of our wedding presents. It's very warm and the cats love it when it's on my lap. I just read the Pillars of the Earth which has been on my bookshelf for a few years. What a treat. I was completely absorbed for 2 weeks in the 12th century.

pendants

The light over the dining room table was our last fixture purchase. It was bought at Seattle Lighting. I had my eye on it for awhile, but was still looking around, just in case. We had debated whether or not to do a pendant or a track with pendants as we did over the bar. I'm glad we did just the pendant. Over the bar the track allows flexibility to add another pendant or a spot pointing into the kitchen if needed.

morning light

What a beautiful day it is here. Waking up in this home fills me with happiness...especially when the sun is streaming in like this morning. I had bought this orchid at the Northwest Flower and Garden show this year and it's perfect in this window. It gives off a slight fragrance which to my sensitive nose is just subtle enough.

I added this bathroom window specifically to catch the eastern light and it's fun to see the shadows and reflections bouncing off the shower glass.

We are to have a sunny spring weekend which is what I need to finish planting the 8 flats of ground covers I had bought.

built green - insulation

Many of the points we received for Built Green are for items not seen now that the house is finished. One of the big things that makes this house energy efficient and comfortable is the extra insulation we used as well as the air sealing. We used BIBS (Blown-In-Blanket-System) which is much more effective than push-in batt insulation in the walls and provides for a higher level of insulation (R23). It is far superior to batt in the walls because it fills in all around the electrical wiring and plumbing pipes. "Tests show that a mere 4% void area from a poorly installed batt causes a 50% increase in heat loss. The Blow-In-Blanket® System eliminates voids and does not settle." It also provides better sound control. Looking at this picture you can see how Neil used some advanced framing techniques. Simple things like insulated headers and ladder framing at interior to exterior wall intersections, increases the insulation area of the wall. The blocking to the right of the window is for the convection heater and there is insulation behind it. Also if you look closely you will see caulking along the plates and wood intersections. This seals the wall cavity from air leaks from the exterior to the interior of the house and is one reason we did so well on our blower door test.

We used scissor trusses for the roof structure and because of this had extra depth to increase the roof insulation up to R-49. Here we used EcoBatts. Since the cavities were not filled with mechanical items like the walls, it was fairly straight forward to use Batts. We had Chris of the O'Brien Company out to inspect before we put the gypsum wallboard.

home office

I have a bit of commute to work (a little over an hour including a ferry crossing), but what helps is working from home 2 days a week. I am using the 3rd bedroom which is on the main floor as my office. Having a laptop helps keep it neat and portable. I need to clarify that the bookcases here were designed and made by me BEFORE I met Neil. On close inspection, they are not quite up to his standards...I've been told my carpentry skills are a bit "sketchy". Having this main floor bedroom with a full bathroom downstairs, gives one the flexibility of having one story living or using it as TV room, guest room or as I am, an office.

a crawl space to show off

My first 7 years in Seattle I worked at Geise Architects and we did mostly remodeling work. The one part of my job I always dreaded was going into crawl spaces or attics to find out what the existing structure was. Mostly it was my fear of the spiders lurking in the corners, but typically they are not places one wants to be. One of the best extra $1000 we spent on the Karina was to pour a slab in the crawl space. The increased height (about 3'-6" to bottom of joists) also helps. This is the place we are keeping the screens for the summer, extra bathroom tiles for the future, and plenty of space for storing sporting gear. We have 2 access panels to get down there. One in the back room closet and one under the stairs behind the secret door.

spring + fence

Here in the Pacific Northwest, it's spring time. Lots of trees are blooming and people are inspired to get out in their gardens. I was driving between our two homes yesterday and drove past this guy and did a double take. I had to back up and take some pictures...I have never noticed this before and hope it was just recently done.

And then I was about to leave and I noticed his friend.


Each weekend I've been taking a stab at our own garden. I picked up some more Nandina-Heavenly Bamboo and a bunch of grasses.
Our fence was installed recently and it really transformed our side yard. We are thinking of putting a trellis along the top. That is why the posts have been left long.