Keeping a journal is something that I have always wanted to do, but never really managed to find time for. This beautiful Garden Journal from lf’n Books is practically begging for someone to pick it up and start writing out their life history. Illustrated by Jen Corace, this journal is a limited edition, with only 500 being printed. It contains 144 colorful pages, and is hardbound and screen-printed by hand.

Available from Mahar Dry Goods for $24.

With our loan in place, we can finally start on our addition. We spent some time carefully marking out the exterior walls of the addition for our excavator. You can see in the picture above the outline of the addition. It was crazy to see it all marked out, it really is going to add a substantial amount of room. The next morning the excavators came. It isn’t a whole lot of trench to dig, so they figured it would take about 4 hours. Much to their, and our dismay, they were way off. The ground is so frozen that they ended up having to use the jack hammer attachment to break through the first 18″ of soil, that made for some slow work. They were able to get the whole north side (left side in the picture) done, and they should be back tomorrow to finish things up.

More pics of the action after the jump.

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So this weekend, I was battling a bad cold, but I still had time to work on the shower a little bit. It was actually a multiple day project that started last weekend. First I had to install all of the floor drains. There is one inside the shower area, and one just outside the ofuro tub as well. The second will act as a drain for the tub overflow, and will be covered by a wooden shower mat eventually. After putting the drains in I had to frame in the ofuro tub, which meant ripping it all out again, and building a frame for it to sit in. After I got it all framed up, I poured a 1/4″ skim coat of vinyl concrete to level the floor out. Next layer will be some sort of waterproof membrane, and a drypack layer to get the slope right. Last will come the tile.
I also got our shower all plumbed. Until now all the plumbing in the house (except the radiant) I have done in copper. There were a couple angles in this project that made it impossible to do with copper, so I ended up doing it all in PEX. I have to admit, it was a lot easier and a lot faster. I can see why most people are crossing over.
The walls all got a layer of 30 lb building paper, to help waterproof them, and then durarock paneling. Last will be the tile, and we will finally have a functional bathroom.

More pictures after the jump.

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CB2 always has some great stuff. They are a great alternative to Ikea when you are looking for something that is both modern and affordable. Point in case; The Silo Pendant Lamp shown above is only $39. That is a total steal for such a classy chrome pendant. The floral wall art shown above is also another great example. While not quite as good of a deal, they still aren’t too expensive at only $9 each. I wasn’t really sold on them until I saw them in the room shot shown above, now I think that they look pretty sweet.

Available from CB2 from $9 to $39.

We finally got around to buying a shower. We used some left over Christmas money and splurged a little bit. We ended up with the Danze parma tub/shower combo shown above. We obviously don’t need the tub part, but that lets us use the diverter that is below the faucet handle to switch the water over to the handheld faucet that is mounted on the bar. Total price for everything was close to a staggering $370. Now all I have to do is get it all installed.

Over in the forums, rjr is looking for a little help deciding what to do for the exterior of his house.

I posted this before several months ago and received some good feedback. But I still can’t decide what do with the exterior of this house? I figured posting a picture of the house in it’s setting might help. I would like to go ultra-modern, BUT the roof is pitched and the overall style of the house is not very modern. It’s covered in snow right now, but as you can see it’s a mountain location. So I need some mix of mountain and contemporary to make it work, especially since I plan to sell it when it is done. The roof half-way done and it is metal (black charcoal color). The windows are in now and they are white vinyl (unfortunately.. I wish they were black or aluminum). So basically I’m debating between hardipanel, hardiboard, stucco, etc. I was thinking off-white stucco or smooth hardipanel, with the dark grey metal would look nice. But I’m afraid it might not work with the white vinyl windows, unless the siding color were ultra pure white with some kind of creative window trim… But again, this might not fit up there in the mountains with snow half the year. I need some type of rugged contemporary with some wood or stone mixed in some how… maybe expose the bolts on the hardipanel, but use wood somewhere?

Head on over to the forums and help him out!

We had to re-work the elevations of our addition the other day. We were planning on using hardi panel ripped down to 9 3/4″. Turns out it is a lot easier to get Hardi Trim so you don’t have to spend all that time cutting it down. Unfortunately the Hardi Trim only comes in a 7 1/4″ width, so we had to change the window sizes a little to get it to all line up right. Doesn’t look to much different, but I thought I would post a pic anyway.

Last night I was at a friends house helping put up some trim, and we were listening to The Shins. They are one of my favorite new bands, along with the Decemberists. So if you are a Shins lover, and have never heard of the Decemberists, click on the picture to get a taste of their goodness.

What other music are you guys listening to?

The search for a good rocking chair for my wife to rock our baby in has not been an easy one. Most of the choices are way out of our budget. The Rocco Rocking Armchair is a new kid on the block as far as tasteful rockers go. Great mid-century design teamed up with the glider motion all for $650 make it one of the more affordable modern rockers. The only thing that might not be the best when it comes to rocking a little turnip head is those sharp wooden arms.

Available from Pier 1 for $650.

(comments are open on original post)

For some time I have been double posting everything to our forums, thinking replies would be easier to search there. Some people still are commenting below the posts here.