Weekend reflections

Weekend reflections is hosted by James from NewTown Area Photo. The photo I show here I made about 10 days ago.It was the first springlike day. Everything is a lot greener now after real nice sunny weather.

Go here for more reflection pictures. http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Colourful

I love this fashion shoot featured in W Magazine celebrating admirable women in Spring attire! It's so colourful and so Bohemian and how gorgeous is that patchwork vintage style sofa in the picture above!

Photographer - Bruce Weber, Stylist - Camilla Nickerson

Skywatch Friday

 

For skywatch Friday I have these 2 pictures I made in the park two days ago. The weather was beautiful as you can see.

Both pictures have flying birds on it.

http://skyley.blogspot.com/ This is where you can find more skywatchers.

Black & Spiro One Day Only Sale

As we are about to embark on the remainder of our exciting renovations in under 2 weeks, we have decided to have a ONE DAY only sale.

The last famous Black & Spiro sale was approx 3 years ago so this one is definitely not to be missed!!!

All floor stock including furniture, lamps, shades and accessories will be heavily discounted, as well as a huge range of amazing fabric remnants reduced to clear. I am also throwing in some things from my own home so make sure you don’t miss out.

Remember, the sale is only on for one day!!!

Hope you can make it.

xx

Anna

Alphabe Thursday

For Alphabe Thursday hosted by Mrs Jenny Matlock we needed to choose words beginning with the O. So here we go.
We start with our national colour,
O is for Orange, and the colour of these beautiful tulips
O is for Onwards, the way these little lambs go with their momma
O is for Old. That is this house, very old.
O is for Odd, this odd couple.
O is for Object, this goat standing there.
O is for One little goat
O is for Opera
O is for Open space
O is for an Other Opera
O is for One lamb Only
O is for Oldtimer rented for a special Occasion.

 
Have a good week
Riet

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/Here you can find the list of all the participants.

Outdoor and Watery Wednesday

 

For outdoor Wednesday I have  two pictures of  these little baby ducks. They were strolling around in the middle of the road and didn't want to go back to their mamma who had given up running after them. Some people who were walking there had to chase them back. It was so much fun. Luckily I had my camera in my purse.

Now go back you lot.

And here is my picture for Watery Wednesday

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

My world Tuesday

For My world Tuesday I have this picture I made last week while walking in the park.

For more my world pictures go here. http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Flowers on Monday

Here are some pretty roses in blue and white ginger jars which I couldn't help taking a photo of at mum and dad's today. I don't think anyone has as many blue and white ginger jars as my mother and still she continues to buy more. Whenever we get new blue and white pieces in at the shop she just cannot help but take a few more home...and yes if you look closely {in the background} she does have a hot pink dining room!!

Boutiques Concept Design on Eyewear Gallery Store Interior

This stylish and natural unfinished wood interior design of concept fashion boutique and eyewear gallery store is designed and fabricated by Ilan Dei Studio. The store is located near their design studio and workshop in Venice, California. The design intention takes cues from a variety of inspirations, ranging from the Eames bent plywood processes and skateboard construction to the sand dune formations and ocean waves seen along the neighboring coast. moldresdes

Mosaic and Blue Monday

 

For Mosaic Monday  hosted by Mary from the Little Red House I made a white mosaic and for Blue Monday hosted by Sally from Smiling Sally of course a blue one.

For mosaic Monday go here  http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

For blue Monday go here  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

 

 

Second Roof

Hi all,
Second roof took the best part of the week. The first roof and wall assembly gave us a continuous air seal and insulation cavity without the punctures that rafters produce in the envelope.

Three reasons for putting on a second roof framing and foam:
1- Second roof is added to achieve a higher overall R value,
2- It eliminates the roof's cavities from reaching dew point and condensation within the cavities,
3- It achieves our 2 foot over hangs.

We stayed home Tuesday waiting for a rain that never happened. Next week we begin exterior treatment and hopefully get our composition roof shingles finished.
See you next week.........Terry

The plywood and all the framing members were sprayed down with a 10% solution of boron. Damp and dry wood termites leave their nest colonies and fly off every year to recolonize. They hit a building at all levels in mass looking for holes and cracks to crawl into and start a new family in wood fiber and darkness. First defense for a structure is no holes or cracks in the assembly. Second defense is to soak down all the wood with a boron base application. Boron is not a neurotoxin, like most insecticides, and does not directly affect the nervous systems of termites and wood boring beetles or humans or pets. Boron is an enzyme inhibitor. When termites bore into the wood they are forced to eat the boron as well. Boron messes with all the body functions of the critters including their digestive system and they sadly wither away with a host of problems.


Termites prefer to start their inward journey through end grain so we double soaked the rafter tails with boron before the facia was applied.

Second roof applied over our first air seal roof. Now we have two foot rafter overhangs. This layer does not need to be air sealed. The 2x4 "sleepers" were attached with a nail gun from the underside of the plywood. They are set in between the 2x8 rafters below to minimize the thermal bridging between the two roof assemblies.

3 1/2" polyisocyanurate (rigid foam) set in between 2x4 sleepers.

Sleepers and foam ready for plywood.

Encore from the musical tree, to celebrate arbor day!

Happy Arbor Day USA, Ok I know it’s a bit late, but ye should really make it a week like we have here in Ireland, that way I won’t miss it.

So another short and quirky post today as I have to go to work shortly. This post is for those of you who are (were) celebrating Arbour day.

This video is of a piece of music by Diego Stocco, a sound designer & composer, who creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques.

For this video, Diego said

In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it.

Well here is your answer.

Personally I feel a bit sorry for the tree, but it is entertaining and worth a watch.



See more of Diego's crazy videos on his website www.diegostocco.com/

Pink Saturday

Pink Saturday, another lovely day hosted by the gracious Beverly from "How sweet the Sound"  Yesterday during a walk in a park I  took pictures of this beautiful pink bush, great for this day.

For more pink Saturday posts go here. http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

 

 

 

Weekend reflections.

  Weekend Reflections is hosted by James from NewTown Area Photo. Today I was in a park where I saw this beautiful tree in reflection and all. So here it is.

Go here for more reflection pictures. http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/

White with a touch of navy...

I really love the navy high gloss material on these chairs and in fact I love everything about this image...the fantastic mirror above the fireplace is so gorgeous too. It is the work of Cortney & Robert Novogratz of Sixx Design...such a clever and dynamic design team. I just don't know how they do it with all of those beautiful children in tow!

Hope you all have an absolutely beautiful weekend!!

image via moodboard

Skywatch Friday

For Skywatch Friday I chose these  pictures of this beautiful sunny day sky.

 

 

For more skywatch pictures go here. http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Fun Chair & Update

I thought I'd share some photos of this fun chair we just had painted and re-upholstered for one of my clients. We used plain hot pink felt to cover the seat. We wanted to keep the chair all one colour and not cover the seat in a busy pattern. I can't wait to deliver it to my client. I am sure she is going to love it!

I have also had so many people ask me about the progress of our renovation and expansion. As usual, things have taken a little longer than anticipated. Upstairs is ALMOST done. I took these photos of the pink chair in our upstairs area. As you can see the cabinetry is almost complete and we are just waiting for our lighting to be installed. This should all be done in a week or so.

We will then be closing the shop for approximately 1 month from the 10th May to complete the renovation and expansion of the shop downstairs. So it is all systems go with a big re-opening party planned for mid-June! Oh and in amongst that we are moving house and having a baby so it is very full-on in my little world at the moment!!

Alphabe Thursday

For Alphabe Thursday hosted by Mrs Jenny Matlock we have to find words beginning with the letter N. So here we go:

N is for that Narrow street
N is for the Naughty face of my granddaughter while trying on hats in the shop. Don't we all do that now and then?
N is for fireworks at Night in New years eve
N is for all that Neat stuff in the shop
N is for beautiful Nature in spring
N is for that lonely Narcissus
See you Next week

 
For more participants of Alphabe Thursday go here.

Outdoor and Watery Wednesday

Like every week I like to participate in Outdoor Wednesday and Watery Wednesday.

 

 

For Outdoor Wednesday go here.  http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

For Watery Wednesday go here. http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/.

Another Windmill

A week or so ago I posted an amazing windmill one of my clients found and had hung on her verandah wall. I was looking for a piece of furniture today for another client on Miguel Meirelles website and stumbled across this gorgeous windmill which I thought would look wonderful in a table vignette. It's available for sale on Miguel's website if anyone is interested...

My world Tuesday

 

It is My world Tuesday again. Yesterday we went for a walk in a little park in the neighbourhood. Of course I had my camera with me. Here are a few pictures I made  .

 

 

 

 

go here for more my world pictures 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From The {Old} Files

Whilst visiting Mum and Dad on Saturday night for a lovely home-cooked dinner, my mother handed me a pile of old magazine tear sheets she recently found in the cupboard of my old bedroom. They must date back to my early twenties. I pulled a couple out to show you as above. Isn't the last one interesting - I obviously loved blue, white and pink way back then and in actual fact, I think I might have pulled this one out of my mother's files originally!! I remember the top image as one from a story on Donna Karan...I remember obsessing over that table vignette for a long time...

Mosaic and Blue Monday

For mosaic Monday hosted by Mary from The little red House and blue Monday hosted by Sally from Smilingsallyblogspot.com I made this blue mosaic of pictures I made these last few weeks. So all springflowers.

 

Air sealing the exterior shell

Hello again,
Another good week. We finished air sealing the exterior shell, tested it for air leaks, installed the windows and got on half the second roof on and covered it for a pending rain. On Friday and Saturday more than 140 people, CLAM members and building professionals from all over the Bay Area, came out for the "See the Guts" Tour to see how the Passive House is put together from the ground up, focusing on the air sealing of the exterior shell.
See you next week..............Terry

Our first blower door test with no windows cut in revealed our "D" ring was too big and we got fluctuating read outs. For those who do not know what that means: a "D" ring is used in super air tight tests. I called up the manufacturer of the blower door company and they said "Holy ~*^- ! you guys are in "E" ring territory, we don't see that very often."

Here Bill is putting tape over our D ring in an attempt to make it smaller so we might get the LOW flash to stop going off. It worked and we got .11 and .12 CFM readings (not accurate but revealing). Again, for those who do not know what that means: you could not find a hole big enough to let a fly egg pass through.

After the first blower door test we cut out the plywood sidewall in preparation of the windows. We used Serious Windows with an R- value of 7 and equally as important, Serious windows are very air tight. here Jorge, Sebastian and Bill are tilting the window into a wet bed of caulk.

I did a second blower door test after all the windows were installed to see how much they leaked.The new test numbers showed a negligible difference, verifying air tight windows and installation. Note: I blue tape sealed the blower door shroud all around the jamb and tightened a bungee cord around the fan shroud to assure no leakage in the assembly. I also ordered the E ring for the next test.

Ready for next roof. Shell exterior air sealing is done.

Next roof- this time with two foot overhangs.

3 1/2" polyisocyanurate (rigid foam) in between the 2x4 sleepers/ overhangs.

James Bill of ZIA (zero impact architecture)and the Passive House architect for Blue2, explaining the coolness of the Passive House on the "See the Guts" Tour.

Charles of Mr Insulation showing a demonstration/sample wall section of insulation at the tour. We screwed up two sheets of ply, drilled three 1 1/2" holes and Charles blew in dense pack cellulose behind the plywood. We then pulled the ply off to reveal these packed cavities. We will be using cellulose for all the interior insulation.