As I mentioned a few weeks back here, we are doing some long over due renovations to our 90 year-old craftsman house, known as and blogged about as “The Brown House.” We have a green LEED certified contractor who has handcrafted oak carriage doors for our garage, made from wood he harvested himself, on the property where his brother lives.
Our garage, an original structure to the historic house, was rotting. So new parts were built to look like the old. Today, the long awaited day came when the doors were delivered. I went out to greet the truck at 7:30 am in my pajamas, coffee in hand. I wanted to kiss the doors they are so amazing beautiful.
The man responsible for building them is Simon Hodshon with Clinch River Custom Builders. I can’t not say enough wonderful things about these contractors, a company run by Simon and his twin brother Christopher. I have joked about calling them the double mint boys. But they are truly top notch guys with a passion for historic renovations.
I am, after all, a little crazy about our old house and resorting it properly.
Also included in this round of exterior renovations is repairing rotted wood on the house and a new paint job. Eye-yi-yee this decision of what color to paint the house has been harder for me than picking names for my children. And it seems everyone in our neighborhood has an opinion about it.
Our house is one of the oldest in the neighborhood. We still have folks living here who grew up playing in the basement with the family who lived here when red formica counters with chrome trim were all the rage. Hands down we feel like this house owns us more than we own it.
Yesterday the painter said he would be wrapping up the scraping and priming today, and planned to go buy paint by the end of the day. Nothing like a deadline to get my decision making process going in full gear! Wednesday at 4:00 it will be.
We laid out choice A and choice B, and started taking votes from workers, neighbors, bike riders and friends.
My oldest daughter kept a written record of the votes, hoping to get enough for the choice she was hoping for.
It’s almost 4:00. And I think the decision has been made. So what do you think? Will The Brown House become The Blue House? Will we stick to the traditional, safe choice, or try something new?
This has been a tough choice for me, and it’s what I’ve been up to all day – painting different variations of choice A and choice B, all over the house in different lights trying to decide to go for the new or keep the old.
You’ll have to wait for the next update to see.
