Mike's New Grill

Mike and I went to Lowe's today to get him a new grill. Actually, his parents suggested it for his birthday this year. Mike says, "Thanks, Mom and Dad!"

Our yummy food was corn on the cob, grilled veggies, and burgers. It was all a success! I mostly prepared the food and let Mike have the "glory" in tending the grill. :-)

Kitchen

Now the kitchen is painted. We kept it close to the same color green that was there before, and I had painted the terra cotta color when I first moved in (to cover some marks on the wall from the attached table that the previous owners had). I had a new fan put in, and I bought new sheers to brighten up the kitchen. It's difficult to tell from this photo, but the kitchen is so bright now. I really like it, and it will be nice and bright in the winter.

I think when I go to sell the house, I'll have plenty of photos to give the realtor to post. :-)

This is where the exhaust fan used to be. This is by the kitchen nook.

Moroccan Sun Shines on the Porch

Chris just painted the porch the other day, and I think it looks great! Actually, a neighbor down the street now wants Chris to paint his house, and I've heard from several neighbors (unsolicited, by the way) that they're liking how the house is shaping up.

He also painted the front and side doors the contrast Moroccan sky color.

Grand Rapids Public Library

I joined the Grand Rapids Urban Explorers Meetup, and my first outing with them was a behind-the-scenes tour of the downtown public library. First of all, I love libraries, and this one is architecturally beautiful. Construction began in 1902, and two years later, the Ryerson Public Library was opened. An extension was built in 1967, and in 2003, restoration to connect the older and newer parts of the building was completed.

This is the main entrance, which was was part of the recent restoration.

Marble door frame in the 1904 part of the building.

Ceiling in one of the reading rooms in the 1904 part of the building.

Upstairs view of the 1967 extension.

Cool light fixture.

This clock is on the wall behind the cool light fixture.

Martin A. Ryerson, who completely financed the 1904 opening of the library, was a native of Grand Rapids and the grandson of a founding member of the Grand Rapids community. He also helped to establish the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.

Almost There!

We're moving into the final stretch, and Chris's paintbrush has now touched all the sides of the house, in varying degrees of completion. Here's the north side of the house, and you can see how the green looks with the "Moroccan sky" color, or as my neighbors call it, "orange."

Here you can see "before" and "after" photos of the downstairs area with the den windows (on the left side). We replaced the storm windows and painted the outside window grilles to match the trim. They were painted a yellow color, presumably to match the house. It now looks much cleaner, and another plus is that I can open all four den windows! :-)

Chris now has also started on the south side of the house, which was badly peeling before.

Chris still has a lot of trim, gutters, downpipes, doors, and the porch to finish, but he's getting there!

Yet Another Update

The upper part of the back side of the house now looks so nice! And I got the flat roof over part of the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, and the den re-done as well. It turns out that it wasn't done very well to begin with, which explains some of the leakage in the den.

Moroccan sky garage doors! Chris also replaced the wood framing the doors (and the sides) and painted that the trim color. Now we just gotta get that pretty green up there so we can see better how the three colors will look together. For now, use your imagination. :-)

Chris has his work cut out for him on the back and sides of the garage. The bottom and side boards are rotten, so he'll replace them with treated wood. I had a company dig out and dispose of some of the soil here, as it was pretty high, and we couldn't see where the grade of the garage was.

Here you can see where it's particularly bad. It's going to look so much better when it's all finished!

Latest Update of Front of House

So, this is what the house looks like now. Chris (the painter) is still working on the front porch, as he's had to replace a number of boards, such as the small horizontal boards connecting the pillars. Tomorrow, I think he'll continue with the second coat on the front next to the porch and then the contrast color, "Moroccan sky," which will replace the reddish colors here. The porch concrete will also be painted the Moroccan sky color, as will the front door and the garage doors, to give the green and creme trim a bit of interesting contrast.

I ordered new sheers for the kitchen, so once I get those, I'll post pictures of my bright and newly painted kitchen. We had a bit of an ordeal with the ceiling fan, requiring the work of an electrician. Apparently, this is not surprising, given the fact that this is an 80-year old house.

Oi! What's Behind the Garage?!!

It's kind of interesting and even creepy to find about what previous owners have done to your house. When I began this house painting project (that is, when I started looking for painters), the fact that the back wall of the garage had not been painted in years, leaving it a different color from the rest of the house and garage, was pointed out to me. Well, there's a fence back there, and I had had no occasion to take a look, which, believe you me, I definitely will in future houses! Anyway, I thought I should trim some of the trees back there to help the painter out. In doing so, I discovered that one of the previous owners had taken out carpeting only to discard it behind the garage. With great effort, I dug it out, cut parts of the individual rugs, bound them, and took them to the street to be picked up by the city trash removal service (with a fee of $7.50 per bundle, and there were three bundles). It was a messy job, and I cursed several times at the fact that I was removing things from this house that should have been taken care of years ago. Now I'm going to try to level out the soil behind the garage, so that the painter can paint the bottom boards. I hope I don't discover anything else back there!