Color combo for future house...love!

I really love this color combo for our house, but I'm afraid the dark colors will fade fast....thoughts?

Here are our future plans for new home. I'm trying to get my mind back where it should be (thinking positively!)...last night we got news my brother is back in the hospital getting better from an infection...he received a bone marrow transplant a few weeks ago, so writing about this new place doesn't take priority over him getting better...that's my biggest dream is for him to have full recovery...! However, it's baby steps and writing about this new project helps...so...

The story about our house on Paris is that it is scheduled for demo for October with a possible burn project through the City of Menasha/Neenah. The house was based on buildings from Norway: very symmetrical, high pitch, concrete slab throughout (with radiant flooring), 2 art studios, open kitchen and living area, mud room, laundry room, bathroom, and a guest bedroom and master bedroom. We haven't touched upon the little details of the color of the exterior or what we need for interior. We will have polished concrete floors throughout...! Small build around 1500 sq. feet. 

Picture 1: is the outside of the house...on the south wall...two sets of double doors and windows on top. Ceiling height will be 12 feet in the living/dining and to the right is my art studio with high ceiling and a possible sky light and french doors that lead to the back concrete patio (which is not on this picture)

Picture 2: North side of house...it's not on the picture but we will be adding a back concrete slab for our cars to park on...no garage. AND we eliminated the overhang on the west side of the house, since we are not made of sugar and won't melt. 

Picture 3: interior layout: all private areas to the left of the plan: 1 guest bedroom with closets and 1 master bedroom with closets...we flipped them in the final plans - it doesn't show this in this plan. 1 bathroom, 1 laundry room, 1 utility room, and 1 mud room. To the right is the open kitchen and living area (12 feet high ceilings) and to the east my studio with french doors to outside and pauls' studio (his studio is larger but has lower ceilings because of the upstairs loft

Picture 4: a ships ladder will lead to a playful upstairs loft...used for reading, yoga, visiting guests, lounging, yoga...etc.... with skylights! The loft will overlook onto the kitchen / living area. 

Scheduled build is for late summer 2013! First we have to sell our beauty!

Karla reporting. Today is spent getting ready for our future sale of our lovely home on 423 4th street, so my hands are full of paint! I'm getting ready to stage our current bedroom, downstairs, into a study. Paul cleaned some windows and is now out and about doing some errands and then plans to go fishing. 
The schedule is to meet with the city on Monday and figure out when the City of Neenah/Menasha Fire Dpt. can use our building to practice a burn. They are happy to have a building they can practice on...we plan on taking pictures of the event. Demo is slated for late October. Our first excavator gave us an estimate but then backed out on the project, but we got lucky and Paul's best friend Mike has a brother who is in the business...so we know he won't disappoint.
 We received our first bill from our Architect for the schematic plans (GULP!), so we are on our way. Our extreme frugal living for over a decade (no going out to eat, no vacations, no clothes from the mall - only thrift, and only used cars (paid off!), has paid off..our dream is getting closer. Enclosed are some pictures of current place so if you know of anyone who loves a character home in the Fox Valley area please contact us! Also, the next post will be the schematic plans of our next home! pretty exciting stuff! 

Day Two Removing Siding

              Today we made it to the half way point I think. I could never have done this without Mike.

 The back of the house just before we took off the last of the siding, which is the small white section on the left.

The back of the pile is aluminum, and there are approximately 22 garbage bags filled with about 30 lbs each of asbestos siding. The yellow jackets! At one point I had a can of 22 ft. range foaming wasp and hornet killer in one hand and a can of flying insect killer spray in the other. I also put out two containers (ice cream pails with lid and a small hole in the side.)with mountain dew in them. By the end of the day there must have been at least 70 yellow jackets drowned inside. Of course this doesn't effect the population around the house in the least.

Taking The Siding Off The House And Catching A Walleye

 Thats Mike Abendroth up on the roof taking what we believe to be asbestos siding off. I had the place worked over by a professional exterminator and we still had to do constant battle with yellow jackets all day. Mike found more nests as he took off the aluminum facia. He's a life saver. I'm repeating myself I know, I'm very allergic so naturally I'm afraid of the little devils.

After working I went to the Menasha dam and caught this nice 21" walleye on one of my hair jig creations. It was dark as I was landing the fish without a net and my hands were dripping blood not water afterwards. These fish as well as some others have razor sharp edges along their gills. Tomorrow (today) I'll take a net with me. I'll try to post again Thur. night.

Salvage

 Monday I cut copper from the water heater to the bathroom sink, shower and commode. The faucets are brass so I cut these off too. I found out today that the copper going into and out of the faucet needs to be taken completely out of the faucet. I'll have to heat up the copper inside the faucet and see if I can get it out.

Time To Call In A Special Forces Unit

Iv'e been trying to deal with a nest of yellow jacketed terrorists for a couple of weeks and they have held their ground. Today I called the guys who have the WMD to blow this terrorist organization off the face of the earth. Tuesday they will be in Hornet paradise with 40 pupa for every martyred yellow jacket.

As a last resort I will try to poison the yellow jackets

 I put one half can of cat food, 1/2 tablespoon grape jelly, and 3/4 tablespoon of boric acid together and mixed them well. The plastic container is an empty icecream pail. According to instructions you must be very careful not to allow small animals access to the inside of the pail. I glued the can next to the wall on the cantainer and put pieces of lead around it for extra weight. The entrance is very small. I duct taped around the lid and taped a 20 lb weight on top of the trap.

According to instructions from youtube this poison bait will be taken back to the nest by the workers and given to all members of the bee cult in the form of purple Kool aid and viola! no more yellow jackets. I do not seriously believe this will eliminate the nest, but I hope I am wrong. I have to cut the lawn once again and with so many heavens gate members flying around in their John Belushi bee suits I am not looking forward to it.

Maple from 1910 and where it came from

                              The last of the maple came off this hallway in front of the bathroom. I have approximately 115 square feet of it. I think we will have it planed and then use it for a wall in the new place.

The bottom piece is a nice example of birdseye maple. The maple flooring has this information stamped on it:                 C.J.L. MEYER'S, I. X. L. POLISHED HARDWOOD FLOORING
                                             Wisconsin Land & Lumber Co.
                                              HERMANSVILLE,   -   Mich.
Sorry for the poor quality photo.

Maple Done, Bee's Not

 Some of the traps I've put out with the hope that I could rid the place of those nasty yellow jackets.

After numerous concoctions that get some yellow jackets, I found a recipe to poison the nest as the workers will take the poisoned bait into it and others will eat the poison. I'm allergic so I have to try and get rid of them. I will probably have to call an exterminator later this week.