Little Boxes, Little Boxes...

And they're not made of ticky tacky, they're made of maple plywood and FinnForm. This feature was inspired by an article on the Google headquarters that we saw in Metropolis magazine. Turns out our friends (we hope they're our friends, because they probably know more about us than we know about ourselves, right?) at Google use stacked plywood boxes as bookshelves and general storage cubbies in their "office" spaces, and we thought it looked very cool and practical. Enter the amazing John DeForest, who designed these boxes to hang on that slatted wall that separates bedroom from living room, for bedroom storage. These boxes (with the exception of the 2 with red FinnForm) can be moved around to suit our needs (or whims). Remember that our house features a walk in closet/dressing room off of the laundry room, so we won't be keeping our wardrobes in the bedroom, and this arrangement allows for storage of things like books, alarms, and the nifty new windup emergency weather radio--necessary in our area as we may be out of the audible range of tornado sirens. Speaking of Google, if you don't recognize the reference in the title of this post, Google Malvina Reynolds.

This Little Light of Mine...

Or should I say: "these little lights of ours"? Tonight was the first time we were able to flip switches and turn on the permanent lights, in their permanent locations. It was also the first time we were able to turn on anything in the upstairs. Some temporary fixtures have been lighting our way in the basement for several weeks now, but we won't get into that. This lovely little fixture will help us find our way down the stairs to the basement. Note Dan's custom closet just to the right, which is immediately inside the front door, and will house coats, hats, gloves, keys, expensive jewels, large amounts of...oh, wait a minute, this is on the Internet, isn't it. Nevermind. Just kidding.

This shot makes it appear as if we're preparing for a major rock concert in our living room. That would be cool. This is taken from the loft, looking to the east, and featuring 2 of the 3 tracks that are positioned on the ceiling, and the ceiling fan. The rock star lights don't have their bulbs in yet, but we did try out the fan, which is quite quiet (I love those 2 words together) and effective. The Modern fan is more than just a pretty face. It will play a big role in controlling the interior climate, pushing warm air from the wood stove throughout the house in the winter, and disposing of warm air through the upper windows in the summer. It kind of looks like the prop from a WWII-era plane, don't ya think? The track in the foreground is just above the desk on the loft, and will illuminate that space, and the west side of the living room, and, I suppose, anything else we want to point the lights toward. You look mahvelous! These lovely lights above the lovely bathroom sink with the lovely Chicago faucets will help build our self esteem by making us look better than we really look. These are Prudential "Snap" lights, which is a new style this year. The mirror should be in place tomorrow, so then we'll really know how well these lights work. Other details out of the range of the viewfinder include the toilet, installed today, which works! This is one of those things we don't like to talk about on a rural property, so we won't. We're just glad it's there now, after all this time without it!

These Places Are Sweet Too!

Thanks to Brookester, and her Yum Yum Farm Blog observers in Ohio for their comments! We thought we'd take this opportunity to show just a few of the many buildings that we find inspiring. While our house doesn't really look like these buildings, we are influenced by the way that they interact with their environments, and create interior spaces that are either fun to be in, or provided protection from the elements while bringing the outside in. Or the inside out. Or, blurring the distinction between the two. One of the requirements for our house was that it respect its context, which is why it has a fairly traditional midwestern vernacular appearance on the outside. But, we are fans of modern architecture, and the creative use of space in modern buildings. Our friends in Ohio correctly recognize that the Yum Yum Farm house is small, but we (esp. John DeForest) have managed to pack a lot of utility into this modest space. You'll have to trust us, that it feels bigger when you are inside. As we mentioned in an earlier post, we are frequently asked if we are doing anything "Green". The mostest greenest thing we're doing is building a house that is not bigger than what we need! Take a look, and if you get a chance to visit these places, we encourage you all to do so!

The first is nearest (literally) and dearest to our hearts. This is Cedar Rock, in Quasqueton, Iowa, by Frank Lloyd Wright ca. 1950. This was built as a summer home on a bluff (that's the Cedar Rock part) overlooking the Wapsipinicon river, for Lowell and Agnes Walter. It is possible to walk out of nearly every room in this house to the lovely yard beyond. The "garden room", at the far right, is completely surrounded by glass, which allows views of the yard, woods, and river. It includes radiant (or "gravity") heating, which runs underneath the painted concrete floor, a bathroom design borrowed from a Pullman sleeper car (from the days when people travelled by train), and the original house plants from the time of construction. Following the Walters' passing, they bequeathed their house to the state of Iowa, with a trust for its maintenance, and it is now an Iowa State Park, maintained in beautiful condition, and free for anyone to visit.
Charles and Ray Eames built their home below in collaboration with Eero Saarinen (his John Deere world headquarters was featured in an earlier post) in California. This is one of the Case Study Houses (#8, I think). We love the playfullness of this home, and it reminds us of the feel of the Yum Yum Farm House. We like to listen to music loud, and just generally enjoy ourselves, and from what we've seen, the Eames' felt the same way. We had the good fortune to see a presentation by their grandson (Eames Demetrios) recently, highlighting his grandparents talent, creativity, and joy. Their home, too, allows easy access to the exterior, features bright colors, and has an open floor plan.

Philip Johnson's 1949 "Glass House" in New Canaan, Connecticut, is perhaps the most extreme example of a home interacting with its environment. It is beautiful in its simplicity, framing the stunning landscape while providing shelter, anchored by the sturdy brick bathroom/chimney core, and steel beams. Perhaps not suitable for raising a family, it appears to be an amazing place to relax and take in the gorgeous landscape on a rainy, or snowy, or windy, or sunny, day. This is on the "must see" list.

Finally, this is the Edith Farnsworth house, by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, in Plano, Illinois. This is located in the flood plain of the Fox River, and it so literally interacts with its environment that the river has run through it on occasion. We're not fans of that. But this design is another extreme example of blurring the lines between inside and out, in a particularly pretty setting. We're not too well versed on which architect influenced the other, but Johnson's work appears to be a logical descendant of his earlier home, though his work, even on his own property, is eclectic. He seems to have been adept at channeling and reinterpreting other masters. Mies' earlier and later work is characterized by the lines and materials seen in the Farnsworth house.

Like much of what we've written about on the blog, these are simplifications by someone who is no expert! But if you're interested, much is written about, and many pictures are taken of these gorgeous structures. We hope that someday it will be possible to check out a book from the library that features the Yum Yum Farm house!

Like A Rock

Many posts ago, we featured the Grant Wood painting "Stone City, Iowa". The picture below was taken at the quarry depicted in that painting, which operates today as Weber Stone Company. This lovely slab of Stone City limestone is about to be lifted into the back of the truck, and transported to the Yum Yum Farm to be used as our hearth. This is a 3' by 4' smooth cut bedface slab, which will be placed on top of the finished floor on the east side of the living room. On it will sit our Lopi wood burning stove. Why wood, and not, say, corn, you ask? We made the determination that wood is a good option for us, due to the abundant supply of said fuel on our property. In fact, we spent a couple of days, chainsaw in hand, cleaning up a very small area of dead, damaged, and fallen trees along one of the creeks on the farm, and yielded the better part of a cord of wood. Unfortunately, this wood is now underneath a blanket of snow and ice, and it looks like it may be some time before this solid water liquifies. As it turns out, corn is not quite as economical as it was when corn stoves first gained popularity. Seems that corn not only fuels stoves these days, but it's also propelling cars in the form of ethanol. So this year's crop brought record prices. Corn also tends to suck a lot out of the ground in which it grows, and since wood is so available on our property, we figured this is the best option for us. More on the wood stove when it gets installed.

By Popular Demand

Hello Friends! Finally, after nearly 7 months of building and blogging, we have some frank commentary on our blog from our dear friend Anonymous. Perhaps Mr. (Mrs., Miss, Ms.?) Anonymous is the same Yum Yum Farm fan who admonished us to "be nicer to snakes" in an earlier post (we have been nicer to snakes, by the way). You've had enough pictures of the ceiling? Fine. But please, allow us to show just one more, featuring the careful and expert job done by our friends at Cullen Painting. Here it is, and it speaks for itself. (Geez, now I'm like all self-conscious!)

And now for something completely different...a finished floor! One of the challenges we're facing toward the end of the Yum Yum Farm house construction is lighting. The days in Iowa at this time of year are about 7 minutes long (you would think that would limit the mudslinging among presidential candidates!), and without all of the lights installed, it's difficult to accurately capture the lovely textures, colors, and patinas of the finished surfaces. We were thrilled this evening to walk in and see the newly sanded and refinished main floor, which is gorgeous! You'll recall that this floor is a reclaimed subfloor from an old farm house near the Amana Colonies. Gray's Hardwood Flooring finished the floor with a product called Osmo Floor Oil, which, like old fashioned finishes, soaks in and protects the wood, rather than just creating a plastic layer on top. In the likely event that we scratch or scuff it (we're not the most graceful people in the world, nor are the four-legged members of our family), we can simply sand or buff out the scratch, and re-apply the Osmo. We can't wait to lie down on it, and take more pictures of the ceiling!

Look, Up In The Sky!

This certainly brightens things up! This shows the maple plywood applied to the ceiling, looking southeast from up in the loft. Many of the pictures that we gave John in the earliest stages of design featured cabins and houses that liberally utilized light colored woods on walls and ceilings. The feel is at once modern, clean, and warm.
Here's an up close and personal look at the maple ply on the ceiling in the dining porch. We especially enjoy this material here, as it mimics the colors of the landscape, and reflects the outside light. The holes in the ceiling will contain recessed or "can" lights, and the lovely Louis Poulsen pendant light will be hanging over the dining room table at the far end of this room.
Finally, we have contributed something to the Yum Yum Farm House! We picked up this shelving system last weekend, and installed it yesterday. What you're seeing is the south side of the wardrobe room, just off of the laundry room. This has been set up in this manner to reduce the amount of cat hair on dark colored clothing. Stay tuned for more details to appear in rapid succession over the next couple of weeks!

La Cage Aux Moumings

"The Wall" just seemed too obvious!

This is the slatted wall that separates the bedroom from the living room. The two openings will be fitted with plywood boxes for storage or display purposes, and the BluDot Couchoid will sit in front of it. The slatted wall recalls the interior of a barn or other outbuilding, and will create a "lantern" effect when lights are on in the bedroom. It contributes to the openness, which will help with heat circulation, and to make the space feel larger. These slats match the wood that will cover the ceiling, hopefully in the next few days!

Here's the view from the bedroom side. The framing on this side will remain exposed, but the manner in which the slats were beveled will allow storage boxes to be hung on the wall, and moved around as the need (or whim) dictates. You may be wondering if this arrangement will compromise the privacy in our bedroom. Not if you don't look!
This view looks in the bedroom door, and shows how the slats continue around the corner to define the bedroom "box". Cool.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Yum Yum Farm House

While there is obviously still some work to be done, these photos give a pretty good sense of the finished home. Imagine our delight as we crested the hill and saw the painted house for the first time!

A Breath of Fresh Air

This will be a one-photo post so you can zoom in. These little circular things allow air to move across the underside of the roof, to prevent condensation. This is a somewhat more complex method than what is usually employed in home building. Earlier posts showed gray styrofoam channels attached to the underside of the roof, but above the insulation. These vents are the openings that allow the air to flow through those channels, and keep the roof dry, and mold-free. This is the same thing as the vented soffits on most (perhaps your) houses. Look underneath your roof overhang, and you'll notice that the panels underneath have small openings. Those are a different version of what you see depicted here. We can all breathe easier now.

In Living Color

This is the first part of the Yum Yum Farm house to receive its finish color. This barn red has been applied to the north side, or the main entrance. I suppose this is the "front" of the house, because it's where we enter. But the south side feels kind of "front" like too. Whatever.

It's suddenly become very chilly in Iowa, as it often does at this time of year. It is, fortunately, still warm enough to apply paint, once the frost goes away, and the air temperature warms up a bit. The forecast calls for warmer weather the next few days, so we should be fine. You'll notice in the photo below wires for the porch light, door bell, speakers, and electrical outlet. For cryin' out loud, this porch is better equipped than any room in our current quarters!

This isn't the greatest picture, but it's as close as we could get to the main floor bathroom, which had its tiling completed today. The grout was just finished, so we couldn't walk into the room. Around the corner to the left is white tile surrounding the Zuma tub. The dark tile will be a dramatic background to the various materials that will be used in this room, including a safety glass shower wall, corrugated galvanized steel as a shower surround, and the rugged old sink you've seen in previous posts. There's even some wood in there somewhere!
Here's that lovely old bathtub from Ohio, in its permanent (almost) location. This pedestal tub will delight our guests in the downstairs bathroom, and we'll enjoy it too! We've found some gorgeous reproductions of hardware (faucets, shower head, curtain ring) that will complement this very nicely. It was necessary to move this in before all of the basement doors were hung, as it's a rather bulky fixture. While much work still needs to be done in the lower level bathroom, it can all be accomplished by moving the tub around a bit before it settles into its permanent home.

Lines

This is cool. This is essentially the finished house, without the paint. All of these different lines would probably make an interesting study in perspective in an art class. The vertical lines under the porch will be painted barn red, and the horizontal cedar siding to the left will receive a stain called "Oracle Sun". I wonder who came up with that name.

Still to come are the porch lights, and the concealed speakers.

We've Got Gas!

While it's not much to look at, this addition is very significant. The black circular thing in the middle of the photo is the lp (liquid petroleum, or propane) connection to the house. Lp gas will be used for the furnace and the cooktop. Our water heater is electric, in anticipation of the addition of a wind turbine in a few years. This type of fuel is common in rural locations where natural gas lines are not present. We will also utilize a small, efficient Lopi wood burning stove, set atop a one piece limestone hearth cut from the historic quarry at Stone City, Iowa. For those of you familiar with landscaping materials, Stone City is adjacent to Amamosa, hence, "Anamosa" stone. Stone cut from this quarry was used as the skin of the new(ish) Disney theatre in southern California, and many other significant buildings around the continent. So we figured it would be ok for our house.
One drawback of lp gas is that it requires a storage apparatus, which needs to be located in a conspicuous location so it can be refilled. But hey, wouldn't it be fun to decorate it? We've considered a few options, including a Yellow Submarine, camouflage, a "Have a Nice Day" smiley face, Extra Strength Tylenol, and probably others that escape me at the moment. Guess what? That's right...we'd love to hear your ideas! How about trying that "comment" link, and let us know what you think? We're not sure if we can even paint it, since we're renting it, but we'd love to hear your ideas! Maybe a Yum Yum Farm logo?

Oh Cedar!

We put this picture first so you can click on and enlarge it. This is the cedar lap siding being applied to the kitchen "bump out" on the northeast corner of the Yum Yum Farm house. If you zoom in you'll notice that the siding is precisely mitered at the corner, rather than having a trim piece to finish it off. This takes great care and precision, and yields a really cool horizontal wrap around effect. The framers (Jensen-Sedlacek, from Parnell--you remember, the suburb of North English and Williamsburg) are carefully completing this work. The portion of the dining porch below the windows will be covered in the same manner. Go ahead and zoom in, and you'll see faint red lines on the Tyvek above the cedar. Our craftsmen have carefully measured and snapped chalk lines for each and every board for precise placement. We're not worthy!

Bienvenido a la casa de Yum Yum! Here's the long awaited front door, a lovely maple surrounded by side and top glass "lights". This is a Dutch door, or as I call it, a Mr. Ed door. Notice the seam across its midsection. This is one of those 2-section doors that will allow us to open the top while the bottom remains closed, so Mr. Ed can stick his head in and report on the goings-on-about-the-farm. Another mix of modern and traditional!

Southern Accents

The influence of the Yum Yum Farm House has spread far and wide, as evidenced by this structure at the wonderful Museum of Appalachia, in Norris, Tennessee. But seriously, this is a good example of how the house mimics a traditional shape found on farmsteads throughout the country. What were we doing in eastern Tennessee, you ask? Well, thanks for asking! Joanna's aunt Wanda, who resides in nearby Clinton, Tennessee, many years ago came into possession of three pieces of furniture that originally belonged to her (Joanna's) great grandparents. Turns out aunt Wanda and uncle Bob are moving, and didn't have a good spot for the lovely old pieces. So, Yum Yum Farmers to the rescue! Not only did we have a wonderful visit with Wanda, Bob, and Joanna's cousin Paige (remember the earlier post: "This House is Soooo Rad!"), but we now have a comfy chair, rocker, and loveseat with more than a century of history in the family! You'll see them in future posts. We can't wait for our beloved hosts to visit us and the heirloom furnishings in the Yum Yum Farm house, which is now in its final stages of construction.

How could I forget? Watching cautiously as the furniture is removed from the house is the newest member of the family, Barney. The entirety of our family has a weakness for felines, and we are honored to celebrate his arrival! Since the kitties in our family don't travel very well, this is probably the closest he'll get to a visit to the Yum Yum Farm. Welcome to the family Barney!

Break on Through...

Interior work continues on the Yum Yum Farm house, including the Doors (you get the reference in the title now?) in the lower level. Note the light cast on the center door. Is it a flash? Is it a candle? No! It's a light bulb, operated by a light switch--another step forward! These maple doors are what you will see throughout the house, on both levels. To orient you (or orientate, if you prefer), this photo is taken from the end of the central hall in the basement, looking north. The center door leads to the stairs, and the door to the laundry/dressing room is just beyond to the right. On this side of the door are two others. The one on the left is the mechanical room, and on the right, the guest room. Right now, the guests that have been enjoying the lovely downstairs accommodations have been of the eight-legged variety, and, like the bull snake in an earlier post, capable of devouring a grown man in a single gulp!

Look at this lovely old farm building. This is a great example of the Yum Yum Farm house's traditional look, rendered in modern materials. The board and batten siding is Hardie Panel, a cement siding that has been applied to resemble old barn boards. These will be painted barn red to complete the traditional look, but will hold the paint better than wood. The nice big window up in the haymow is one of those amazing H Windows, featured in a number of earlier posts. This window allows light to enter the loft office space, and opens like an awning to let the hot summer air escape, and seals more tightly the stronger winter's northwesterly winds blow.

A Warm Outer Layer

The Yum Yum Farm house is getting its skin applied this week, just in time for some cooler temperatures to arrive. The siding is James Hardie's Hardie Panel; a cement fiber board. When all is finished, this will resemble a traditional board and batten barn siding, painted barn red. Exceptions are the dining porch, and the kitchen "bump out", which will be finished in horizontal cedar siding. Long lasting materials means less time with paint brushes in our hands.
And here's another look at the architect's rendering, now that completion is drawing near. Despite the fact that John is from Seattle, he neglected to include all the rainfall that has visited the Yum Yum Farm this year in this drawing.

In The Sweet, Sweet Summertime...

As a chilly October night descends over eastern Iowa, I thought I'd share some fond remembrances of the Summer of Yum, that have made this process so enjoyable for us. One of the happiest visitors to Yum Yum Farm was our beloved neighbor, Piper. Piper lives with her human companions Richard and Rachel on the other side of our duplex (which they have named La Casa d'Amore). Piper spends a lot of time in the gardens behind our house, so she felt right at home here, in the future Yum Yum Farm kitchen garden. She is in a thick growth of medium red clover, a legume we planted to fix nitrogen in the soil. This has since been tilled in and planted with buckwheat, which was also tilled in and replaced with Austrian winter peas. These were soil building hints from our Amish friends. We'll see how it works next summer. Richard, Rachel, and Piper are wonderful people (or beings!) who are dear friends, and we will miss them very much when we move to the country. Piper seems to have a clear preference for the new garden, however, and will certainly insist on regular outings to visit her friends on the farm!

This lovely piece of pottery enjoying a sunny day is our downstairs bathroom sink. Since we chose not to include a utility sink in our laundry room, we wanted the bathroom sink to be more utilitarian than the typical small sink formed into the vanity countertop, so we found this design, which is actually a small kitchen sink. This will sit atop a pedestal that is being fabricated to resemble the larger unit in the main bathroom. Chicago Faucets will mount on the wall behind this sink, and should still be working many years from now as the pages of this blog turn yellow and brittle.
We were so impressed by this UFO as it hovered over our backyard, that we decided to adopt it as our pendant light over the dining porch table! Soon, this lovely fixture will be spreading a pleasant light over the dining table, but its flat profile will only minimally obstruct the view out the windows to the south. And, it's pretty cool looking! This is Louis Poulsen's PH 4/3 pendant, if you're curious.

A Natural Beauty

The floor on the main level is now complete, and while this photo may not provide the most expansive view, it is quite clear, and if you click on it, it will expand allowing you to see the wood in greater detail. Just do it! This is taken from the west end of the dining porch, looking north into the bedroom. The salvaged floor covers the living room, dining porch, bedroom, and alcove between bedroom and bathroom. We are thrilled with the appearance of this material. It is at once rustic, elegant, old, and new, but mostly, just beautiful. Thanks to Bob and Dave K. (good to see you after 20 years, Dave!) of Gray's Hardwood Flooring for their care and craftsmanship.

Here's another view, looking west from the living room into the bedroom. The framed wall you see between living room and bedroom will be covered by wood slats with small reveals that will allow light to filter through, creating a type of "lantern" effect. The slats will be cut in such a way that plywood boxes can be hung from them, for storage and displays. The method of attachment will allow us to move them around according to our wants and needs, or just leave them where they are.
This picture shows our sample piece of flooring, with the finish applied. We will be using a product called Osmo (you're welcome, Osmo staff), which soaks into the wood, rather than creating a clear coat on top of it. I'm not going to waste too much time talking about specifics of the finish, because I really don't know much about it. It sure looks pretty though! The floor as depicted in these photos has been milled, but has not received its final sanding, or, obviously, its finish. It will be covered for a while, as other work progresses inside. There will be much activity over the next several weeks, as cabinets, trimwork, outlets, switches, plumbing fixtures, tile, lights, appliances, etc. will be installed. I hope blogger can keep up with us!

Everything Old Is New Again!

Imagine our delight when we stepped inside to see the first part of the salvaged wood floor installed. One of our challenges in maintaining this construction blog is to convey the richness of the materials, location, and landscape through digital means. So if it's not clear in the photos, you'll have to trust us that this flooring is really gorgeous! I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

Making the Grade

Bob from Iowa City Excavating rides into the sunset while doing the finish grading around the Yum Yum Farm house. By the way, typing "Yum Yum Farm" is really awkward. Try it. Anyway, the dirt (or "spoil") from the original excavation has been sitting around, growing weeds, and providing king of the mountain competition facilities since the construction commenced in May. Bob has used the spoil, some of which is topsoil, to backfill against the foundation, level the drive, create a grade on which the garage/barn will eventually be constructed, and to make a flat area outside the basement walkout for our outdoor enjoyment. He has also expanded the drive next to the main entrance, as you can see in the foreground, to facilitate vehicle turnaround.

Here's that future garage site. This is just off the northeast corner of the house, and will probably not have a garage on it for a while. These building ideas take shape slowly in our minds, and go through several incarnations before we settle on something. Any ideas? Here's a look at the grading work behind the house. Bob had the very good idea to use some of the spoil to create a larger flat area directly behind the house, which sounded very useful to us. Our guest room will be located just inside the basement doors, so a nice level backyard will allow vehicles to pull up right next to the basement to unload luggage and guests. It could also be a great surface for more gardens, a badminton court, picnic table, or just a nice place to kick back and enjoy the bull snakes!

A Shining Example

Go ahead, click on this picture. The chimney just over the peak of the roof will give you a little wink! This photographic miracle was accomplished by accidentally being in the right place at the right time. Kind of like the house--last night, the tornado sirens went off rather unexpectedly, and the super duper triple ultra pinpoint 24 hour doppler radar indicated a tornado to the southwest of Yum Yum Farm, heading toward it. While there apparently was a brief touchdown to the west, and some strong wind and rain, damage was minimal, and the location below escaped with only a lawn chair blown off the deck. We got nervous when the storm tracking software zoomed in so close that we could actually discern our little gravel road, so we didn't know for sure what we'd discover today. So, either the Yum Yum Farm house is incredibly sturdy, or the rotation didn't touch down around it. Nevertheless, the newly completed standing seam roof kept it dry. Nice work, Leon!

Here's a view of the shiny roof from the southwest (or the tornado's point of view). If you're ever flying in to Cedar Rapids from the south or south west, there's a good chance this will be visible. So have fun picking out this shiny-roofed building from every other shiny roof on every farm you fly over! Something about this view makes me want to put a pond right off the back of the house, and a ladder up to the peak of the roof. Yum Yum Water Slide!
This is the last part of the roof to be attached. The overhang above the east deck will keep weather off of the sliding door to the living room, and the kitchen window, and will conceal outdoor speakers. It also unifies the kitchen "bump-out" with the plane of the rest of the house.

Work will be accelerating now, with painting, floors, cabinet installations, piles of clothes, junk mail, and dirty dishes soon to follow!

On This Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon, as you know, is the full moon that occurs closest to the painting of the Yum Yum Farm House interior, which commences next week. In some cultures, however, it is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. Whatever.

This picture was taken from the east deck on a beautiful September night.

This is the view out the other side of the house within minutes of the last photo. In fact, if you were sitting at our dining room table, if it were in the house, you could look out the east window to see the Yum Yum Moon, and out the west window to see this lovely sunset. This is a particularly pretty time of year, as far as views from the dining porch are concerned, because the sun is setting due west of that part of the house.
This is likely to be the last view of the house we'll have looking like this. The drywall is complete, sanded, and ready for the finish surface to be attached or applied. The sloped ceiling pictured here will be painted black, then covered with strips of maple plywood in a staggered pattern, with narrow reveals that will create the illusion of depth behind the pretty wood. This is recalling narrow openings you would see from an interior view of a barn roof, realized with more modern materials. The west wall, with the window, will have a light texture, and a finish color that is attractive, and allows the different materials to make their statements without detracting from them.
Here's a fun little trick we played with the camera, and some of the finish materials we'll be using. From top to bottom; a piece of Sheetrock, a strip of scrap wood, and a sample of our floor. The Sheetrock is painted with the wall color, the scrap with the trim color, and the floor is the floor. These were placed against a piece of wall, then we zoomed in to get a sense of how this color combination would work with the salvaged wood floor. This photo is a bit dark, but can give a sense of the process. In case you're interested, in natural daylight, we were very happy with the colors. While they may look a little plain here, remember, they are a part of a pallette, that includes salvaged flooring of vertical grain douglas fir, maple plywood, Anamosa limestone, FinnForm, stainless steel, and the various colors of the furniture, and the landscape that is visible through the ample glass space. Next week's posts should show better views of this.