Merry Christmas

Blessings from the Riggenbach family

Beautiful sunset #24

December 23, 2011, 4:41 PM

Coincidentally, December 23, 2010 provided one of the best sunrises I've ever recorded, which you can find here.  I think I'll keep my eyes open again next year on the 23rd.

Time for another bathroom update

Until we added the bathroom in the basement this summer, this bathroom near the bedrooms served as our primary bathing facility.  Sadly, it had not received a lot of attention when we remodeled several other rooms before moving in four years ago.

The sink and counter top are original, over 50 years old.  Cabinets: original.  Mirror: original.  Window: replacement, about 20(?) years ago.  Wall paint by previous owner about seven years ago.

The blue print around the window is wallpaper (original?) that was covered by trim boards (which I removed just before these pictures were taken).  A previous owner painted over the wallpaper and added the border near the ceiling.  The toilet is probably less than 10 years old, and I believe the floor tile was added less than 7 years ago.  The tile around the tub is one of the few changes we made four years ago.

Karen found the stained glass a number of years ago, and it finally found a place (of sorts) in this room.

Here's another look at the tub and tile.  When we bought the house, plastic shower walls and a sliding door surrounded the tub. We removed those and added the tile, curtain, and rod.  The tub is another original -- cast iron with a porcelain coating.  Unfortunately, the coating was getting very rough on the bottom of the tub; so rough that we had to address the issue.  After investigating a few options, it was apparent our most economical (and lowest risk) option was to simply replace the tub.

The door is original, although we painted it to match the white trim in the hallway.  We also added the robe hook on the door.

The view from the toilet.  The light in the soffit is original.  The wall decoration was our addition.

This is the "after" picture.  As I mentioned, the tub had to go.  The floor was installed improperly and was cracked in many places.  The "before" pictures are very flattering to the cabinets, which were pretty sad in person.  The plumbing had issues on both the supply and drain sides.  The window has been leaky since we moved in, and typically received an extra layer of plastic in the winter.  After removing the plaster from the outside wall, it was apparent that our insulating efforts four years ago were only partially successful.  In the end, it was easiest to simply remove almost everything in the room.

The hole in the floor in the corner was where the toilet used to sit.  The tub used to sit in the right foreground, with a wall in between.  Not much left at this point!

In this image you can see the wall between the tub and toilet has been rebuilt, some plumbing vent pipes have been installed, and styrofoam board insulation has been added to the outside wall.

More plumbing drain and vent pipes on this side, and additional outlet boxes.

In this view you can see the can lights in the ceiling where the soffit used to be.  The light fixture on the wall in this view was only temporarily mounted for construction lighting.  Construction has progressed since these photos were taken, but that will have to wait for another blog post.

A small collection of beautiful fall sunsets

I've been waiting for the perfect sunset this fall, so I could photograph it and enjoy it indefinitely. Alas, you won't find that image in this post, as the sunsets that I would rate even more beautiful than these were enjoyed without my camera at my side. I'll keep my eyes open and camera handy for the rest of this fall and winter, but for now I hope these will suffice.

October 18

October 23

October 27

November 10

November 18, 4:51 PM

November 18, 4:56 PM

(aka beautiful sunsets #17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23)

Construction update #38

It's hard to believe that Construction update #37 was over a year ago, but it is appropriate that this project follows that post from last year.  Just as I had sympathy for my guests last year, my sympathy stretches to another section of the yard this year.

Since the driveway in front of the house is not very big, our visitors occasionally have to park in the parking area to the south of the house.  I think that parking area is much improved over its state four years ago, but the trip to the house still required either a detour to the path by the barn, or a saunter over the lawn.  Most of our visitors chose the saunter.  Since we sometimes have damp ground when friends come to visit, I felt bad that their trip to the house was less than ideal.  So one Saturday in late October I decided to do something about it.

After a few hours of moving dirt and gravel, the trip to the house suddenly looks a bit more civilized.  Note the curve of the path, intended to provide our guests with an idyllic stroll to the front of the house.

Looking back at the house from the parking area, it's not hard to imagine why our guests were sometimes in a quandary about how to gracefully reach the front door.

Now the path to the front door should be obvious to even the most obtuse, and above all, I hope it says, "Welcome to our home!"