Glass House

Ok, so I finally got around to those pictures of the house I've been promising. It was a beautiful day today, with the knee-high grass blowing in the spring breeze.... Okay okay! Our lawn man's most basic tool was in the shop this week. He'll be by soon, I promise!

As you can see from the south side, it is a house of windows. And windows. And more windows. There are even (as you will see below) windows inside the house. I think the architect owned stock in Windex. The short-wide windows near the top are what we call the clear story windows, and they provide the bulk of our daytime light throughout the house. Starting on the left side of the house, the first set of windows (behind the weeds lush tomato garden) is the master bedroom, the next three (behind the green barrel composter) are the office, and the three beside that is a storage room that used to be a bedroom. The six tall windows that look black are the sunroom windows (if you squint you can see some plants). Just to the right of the sunroom, you can see the corner windows of the kitchen, and then farther over is the last room of the house, another bedroom. Currently it's storage, but eventually it will be a game room.

This next picture is from the northwest corner, off the back of the master bedroom. It shows the curve of the house, and the flat garage roof on the left. Not much to see here.

Here is a shot of the longest hallway in the world. This is the most dramatic view of the house's curve. The clear story windows on the roof above the sunroom are on the wall on the right, above the ones you can see on the left, which let light into the rooms behind that left wall. Here's a better shot. (Hey! You! Stop zooming in to look at the cobwebs!) The exterior clear story windows are higher than their interior pals so as to not be blinding all the time: there's plenty of indirect light to go around. Some of the interior windows are paned, some are open--in this case, that's a bathroom window, and it's open to let the steam out. The master bedroom is behind the camera, and we're facing toward the game room at the end of the hallway.

If you'll walk with me down this hallway, to your right you will see our living room, which is between the sunroom and the hallway. I had to include a picture so y'all wouldn't think I cheated on putting the kitchen back together. ;) Yeah, the fridge is still in there, but that is only until we get the grout in the kitchen sealed, because John put his foot down on moving the fridge more than once.

Well, that's our house! Um... the clean parts anyway. Maybe I'll clean the other rooms and take more pictures. Hah!

PS: Does anyone know anything about this? It's hanging in the hallway, and it's such a curiosity, but neither John nor I know anything about it. There's another one in similar colors and matching frame, but it is of a donkey instead. Drop us a line or leave a comment!

Awww, Look, It's A Kitty!

John's Pinky: the Update

Also, for those of you dying to know more about John's finger: He is now back at work and doing well! There's still some swelling, as you can tell from these pictures, but he's able to curl it up just like a regular (but short) finger. It will be sensitive for a long time (months at least), and the skin is still baby soft from the gallons of antibiotic ointment he's used, but it works, and looks mostly like a finger.

The Kitchen Floor

Well, the cat is sort of out of the bag anyway, so I guess it's time for the big reveal on Extreme Makeover: Burkholder home edition--that is to say, not so extreme, we just did the kitchen floor. It was much tougher than simply allowing ABC to buy us a two week vacation while leveling the house and starting from scratch. Though if Ty Pennington ever stops by, I'm chaining him in the garage until my house is perfect.

But first (keeping true to the format of the show), teasers:

Step 1: Completely destroy the current floor. Oh, say hello to Simon, the new kitty. Where did the stuff that belongs in the kitchen go, you ask? Why, the next room over, of course!

Step 2: Rock chalk, Jayhawk! Ok, not really, it was more of a chalk powder on a string, but that's beside the point. Chalk lines! Woot!

Step 3, 4, and 5: Slowly, carefully, lay your uncut tiles. Or better yet, pay someone to do it for you.

Step 6: Don't forget, kitties like to help!

Step 7: Plan your tile cuts carefully, then...

Step 8: Conquer!

Step 9: Grout, grout, and more grout! Oh yeah, and more grout!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, where Ty talks a lot more than he needs to, and then, we'll be back after these commercial messages... the big reveal!

Step 10: (I'm seriously simplifying things here.) Mop it, and put it all back. The island has carpet glued to the bottom of it, so it slides around to where you need it most today. Kinda nifty!

I couldn't stand not having a kitchen for more than two weeks, so I made the executive decision not to paint the walls until summer vacation, when hopefully I'll have more time, and possibly sanity, but we all know that's asking a bit much. ;)

Extreme Makeover: Your Home Edition is brought to you by the makers of Prozac and other fine pharmaceuticals, get yours today!