I alluded to it a bit in the "info that helped" section over the weekend. Yes, I know, I'm way ahead of myself... but, I've decided on a wine racking system! (ok, your eyes can roll back in your head so far right now they could get stuck) but, (I say again) it's really nifty. It's kinda like building some sort of honey comb or something. I like that it can grow organically to meet the needs (in as much as any consumer product can). Plus, it has a certain Lincoln Log appeal that really sends me back.
Right now there are 16 bottles in a test rack in the living room. Eventually I hope they move to the cellar (but for now, it is a rather Soviet display of вино). Of course that means that books and other packed up "stuff" will have to move out of the basement. Which means only one thing: renovation.
Now for those of you who have been playing along at home; I posted that lengthy fluff bit a while back on balancing different types of tasks. Maintenance, repair, renovation, recreation--this one-- I'm coming to a point I promise. If so, you may have noticed that since saying that most of what we have been doing is maintenance and repair, not a lot of what I would call renovation.
Alas! I think we are on the brink of a renovation schedule. There's still a lot of bits in play but let's just say we're honing in on two definitive approaches that, in the end, have reno work commencing. One has has us matched soup-to-nuts with a contractor (fixed fee) that takes the plans that we've posted here to a permit that let's the work begin. The other has us finishing with the new architect, working with a couple of expediters, that in the end delivers the permit to begin work. I guess it all comes down to cost at this point. Well, cost and hassle factor. With the contractor I'm hoping the "trades guy" hassle factor drops a bit as he controls the long term purse strings. But, that comes at a premium. Then there's the DIY piece-it-together-ourselves method. Basically meaning, all the cost we save is also more knowledge we gain. But that time line could but rather protracted [read: well into the summer before work begins].
Right now I am leaning on the advice that Kit gave. "There will always be lovely finish work for you to do, let 'um do as much as you can afford. It's worth it in the long run."
consuming stuff
Well, I don't think we will ever go that far but I did want to take a second to point out the category links we created in the right column. Basically we have written enough over the past few months to have critical mass. We have begun tagging the posts so that you can now track the developments of different categories of things. In addition to that, I also added the "stuff that helped" list a while back. Using those two lists in combination what we are going to try and do moving forward is this:
1) Only put literature that helped us to make or do something int he "stuff that helped" links. (I don't think it's the area for keeping my wish list.)
2) Tag all post about things that would be nice to have as "wish list" in the categories section-- sooooo, if you really want to help push the project along you can go there to garner up some ideas.
The first thing I am adding to this category would be bamboo floors. We have decided that attic will have a somewhat japanese nautical feel. Think "The Last Samurai". To that end we want to install bamboo floors. We are leaning toward the vertical cut over the horizontal. Holly says that the vertical is a lot more resistant to marring. I just think it looks better. Not the most costly of finishes, I think it's a keeper.
12:44 | Permalink | Comments (3)