Courtyard Design

I have zero experience landscaping cement pads behind row houses, but figured I'd give it a whirl. I used ghetto AutoCAD; hopefully it gets the point across.



I think the entire slab needs to be replaced, so while doing this why not upgrade things a bit. Right? This includes adding a decent planter bed, a place for my garbage cans, a grill, and a 6' block wall all around the space to stop the Baltimore City rats from invading my zen garden and keep the local yokels out of my view.

With the slabtacular boringness of concrete, I'm thinking about a few slate tiles or shapes cut into the concrete (shown in cyan) to help spice up the floor.



I also want to hide my A/C unit. Using all cinder blocks is a bit cold, so I'm thinking about a wood fence around the A/C unit, on the gate, and for a neato bench in front of the japanese maple. I'm hoping to use cedar, but I'm only at Phase 1 so there is plenty of time to reduce cost and scope as I head forward. I will do the woodwork myself, and par for the course, I have zero experience building these aforementioned items. I'm not sure if the plants will survive in the places I've put them, so a bit more research is required. I'm worried about the roots going through the temperature extremes of an elevated planting bed. Also, lights hanging over the courtyard would be hot, so I threw a few in.



I need some height on the left side of my boring left wall, so why not add some bamboo. Not sure how it will hold up there, but I like the concept of it. The planting benches could hold herbs, a small fountain, some bonsai trees, and serve as a lovely bar in a pinch. Some planter boxes with sweet potato vine could help brighten up the place in the summer. I would think about painting the courtyard too, but I am at a loss for what color would look good. I have a general hatred toward beige/taupe, so that is out of the question.

If I have someone just do the concrete and block work, I think I can fill in the rest of the blanks. If the quotes come in too expensive for this work, the yard will stay an ugly broken up slab. All or nothing baby!

Blame the Accountant

Yesterday I landed on the Community Chest square of life. Let me explain.

The (Beancounting) Queen is an accountant. She trusts me (wrongly) with all things enginerding, and I trust her on all things accounting. So the Queen did my taxes, and I got a little refund back. Nothing too much, but this was my first year of paying a full mortgage so I wasn't quite sure how big of a rebate check Uncle Sam owed me. It turns out that my employer made a boo boo on my W2's, and that I SHOULD BE GETTING ANOTHER $3,400 DOLLARS. Booyah!

Of course now that money is coming in I think for 5 seconds about how this can help me pay off debt, and 5 hours about all the cool stuff I can do with this money. While the bathroom upstairs requires some major love, I'm thinking maybe the backyard could be redone too? It is currently a 34'x13' slab of concrete, just waiting to be turned into a zen garden paradise. It just doesn't know it yet. I'm going to meet with some concrete guys to go over my fancy pants plan, and see how much they want to gouge me for. :)

While dreaming of a back yard I'm also hunting for houses with yards - I just can't give up on the idea of moving to a place with a pretty green yard. We have a conundrum of whether it's smarter to buy a house with a yard, or throw money at what I've got. Since we have to redo the upstairs bathroom before selling anyways, we potentially have time to redo the yard. It's just a matter of figuring out if this is worth throwing money and time at.

You know the hardest part about redoing a house? Knowing when to stop. Apparently I haven't learned yet.

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Also, this last weekend the Queen had a meltdown. After saying things like, "we'll never finish" and "I'm glad we didn't get the cottage" she pulled herself back together and got to work. She later rescinded both comments. Things get a bit overwhelming at times, but we're slowly making progress... I was proud of her for getting back in the saddle quickly.

On a Mission from God

After slacking for weeks, making time for purchases rather than work, planning a vacation, and a weekend off-site for work there has been little accomplished on the house. It is consumed with drywall dust, and Cat is not happy about it.

This weekend it's time to finish up the main work on the downstairs and make sure the place is ready for paint and trim. Once the paint is down I can order the new 50 inch TV, and the furniture is starting to show up next week. Time to get to work!

And in case we didn't have enough furniture, we also purchased a nice mid-century chair and ottoman. We needed a chair, so figured it was worth it to get antique chair, as opposed to a new one that is boring and is devalued as soon as it shows up on the doorstep. In about three weeks, expect pictures of a swanky looking downstairs. The hardwood floors won't be in until after the upstairs is at least demo'd, but other than that the downstairs will be almost complete.

P.S. The cottage sold, so no more dreaming about it. :(

Swathchy McSwatcherson

Wanderluster inspired me with her swatches. To show off the main living space downstairs I threw together some pictures of the things we've purchased (though most haven't been delivered.

Top-Right. Hungarian shelves - since the Lack hack didn't work so well, and the walls are a bit out of plumb I figured these would work. And they are less work than other shelves. They will be painted white.

Bottom-Right. Arielle cocktail ottoman from Macy's. We special ordered one in white, which takes 26 weeks (woah!) to get here. We liked this ottoman better than the Corona ottoman, as it's aspect ratio will fit the rowhouse better.

Bottom-Left. Corona sofa in pear color from Macy's. We loved the mid-century modern look, it was comfy, and most importantly was on sale for $650. Score!

Top-Left. Captiva Mango Table from Arhaus. I know I've mentioned it before, but since we haven't had it delivered yet I wanted to drool at more pictures of it.

Middle. While the chairs that are shown w/ the mango table are nice, we thought some white chairs would make it look ever better. That and the chairs are Ikea and don't break the bank too badly.

We are currently on the hunt for another mid-century modern chair w/ ottoman - hopefully one shows up on craigslist or ebay.

Baltimore Landmark - Domino Sugar Mill

The Inner Harbor of Baltimore offers a great view of the Domino Sugar Mill. On a cold night a few months back I went out on a pier for some night shots. Looking back at pictures makes me think I should pick up the camera more often.



It looks better larger.

Back to the Drawing Board

After modding one Lack bookshelf I don't think they'll work. After all my cuts, and re-stiffening the shelf, it still wasn't holding up and it takes a lot of time to mod each shelf. Looks like the shelf design are leaning toward standard dado cut built-ins. I'm still on the hunt for decent designs and construction details... Anybody know of other decent options that simulate a floating look but could take the weight of books?

Built-In Bookshelves Drawing

To make sure I hung the shelves right, and to help decide what size TV to get I made an AutoCAD sketch of the built-in area.



To compare, here is a shot of the area before the renovation.



The framing and drywall of the area is complete, with an electrical outlet added behind the TV space, and a wireway created to the entertainment unit. Also, speaker wire has been run behind the TV to allow speakers to go unobtrusively on the shelves. Thus far, there should be no way to see any wires.

The shelves will most likely (read, if they work) be a white Ikea Lack, modified to fit. I bought a couple shelves to play with; hopefully I can make them work, as I really like the frameless look and I can only use the framing wall behind the shelves for bracing as a couple of the side walls are not structurally sound. The max load per shelf is listed as 18-44 lbs, but I am decreasing the depth of them by about 20%, and trimming down the length 15-25%. This should increase the load capacity, especially since I'll be stiffening up the frame too.

The television will be a 46-50" TV, wall mounted on a tiltable mount. The lines on the drawing show both sizes, which I'm town between. While I'm all for a nice big TV after living with a 20" TV for the last 10 years, I don't want to get too big from a height perspective. While the width is nice, the couch sits across from the TV about 10' away, so going too high means you are looking up at it. The bigger the screen, the more you have to look up. Gotta love the limited design trade space due to having a small space.

For the electronics storage we purchased the Ikea Tobo. We needed something to fit the electronics and had a way for the IR signals of the remote to get into the cabinet. The 19" depth and glass front accomplish these goals. While I would have preferred a more mid-century modern wood piece, the width of this indented area really limited us. If something nicer comes along we'll get it, but this will work for now.



The tile area in front of the faux fireplace will be tiled over with white subway tile (yay for $1.50 sq/ft tile from HD), and the mantel painted white. The hardie-board is laid down and I'm waiting to borrow a tile saw to get this project done. The ceiling fan in the above picture is also no longer. The light would have shone onto the TV and the width it gone and can lights put in the 9' ceilings are definitely more noticeable.