Richmond Related
In The Words Of Burger: Roof
Our quick we’re-getting-a-new-roof post on Thursday elicited so many questions that even we were surprised. So we’re back with the info for you along with the before, during, and after pics. Hold on to your hats. It’s about to get exciting. But first, here’s our roof before:
You can see when you get up close that it’s one of those flat grid-like grungy twenty year roofs without any sort of dimension or crispness. And did we mention it was on its last legs (as in about to leak at any moment)?
And here’s our brandspankingnew roof (pardon the lighting inconsistency, we wish we could control the sun):
We were especially proud that we negotiated a great price but also scored free hauling of a bunch of demolition junk and old rotten wood that we had piled up in our garage (we sweetly asked while they were tossing the old roof into their dumpster if we could add our stuff to the pile). So there’s a tip for ya: think about killing a few other birds with the ol’ hiring-someone-to-do-something stone when you can (we looked into hiring a man with a van but got gunshy about the $100-300 estimates- so we happily kept that money in our wallets and came up with this odd-but-accommodatable request). Of course we volunteered to haul it all in there ourselves, so here’s John up on a ladder after tossing about twenty garbage bags worth of stuff inside:
We also negotiated a nice $15 price tag for each of the two low profile vents that they installed on the roof instead of our old metal whirly-gigs that stuck out so high from the backside of our roof that they were visible from the front (see ‘em peeking up over the roof line in our second before shot?). Here they are all installed and a lot more current and modern looking (it was a total of just 30 beans for this entire upgrade). We also considered adding a roofline ridge vent as well (for $325 extra), but we talked to a few friends and neighbors who had them done and actually never saw any difference in air flow. Plus our house has side vents and awning vents along with these two new top vents, so our attic is actually really nicely ventilated as it is.
And just because you know we love a progress shot, here are the guys hard at work on the top of our house in 90 degree weather. They rocked it out up there (while Clara and John did this inside).
But on to the questions that you guys shot our way last Thursday:
How did we save for it? For the past 24+ months we’ve been saving because we knew this day was coming. Our roof wasn’t leaking yet but everyone else in the neighborhood had actually reroofed already, and our inspector said we had about 3-5 years left on ours when we moved in back in 2007. We also learned that our sunroom already had a few compromised areas that were causing water to collect in the glass bulb cover on our ceiling fan (water + electrical = yowza) so it was definitely time to get ‘er done. Thankfully we saved enough to finally pull the trigger before stormy hurricane and acorn-pelting season hits in full force (which we’re sure would have done the old roof in within the next few months).
Did we get a deal for being Young House Love? Someone actually commented to say “I hope this company gave you a discount because they will receive a lot of leads from your blog. Mr. Sanders (your floor guy) said 50% of his business comes from you website.” That was definitely news to us! For those who don’t recognize his ironic name, Mr. Sanders is the guy we hired to sand and stain our floors, and we loved him so we’re happy to endorse his work on our blog and we’re happy to hear that he gets work thanks to our recommendation- nobody deserves more praise! He really did amazing work. So that’s what’s supposed to happen when people do a great job.
But to answer the question about if we got any special treatment or snagged a discounted rate because of our blog the answer is: nope. Nada. We actually were offered a free roof from two companies but we sweetly declined. We never mention our blog when we get estimates from local businesses, we just call a bunch of people in the phone book (and those who come recommended by friends and family members) and try to find the best people for the job (at the right price of course). It just feels odd to promise people “good press” or “lots of referrals” so we prefer to pay people for their work as any other homeowner would. In fact everyone who works on our house has no idea who we are and we like it that way. It makes it easy to endorse their work if they do a good job because we’re confident that they’re like that to everyone (and aren’t just being especially thorough or sweet to us since they want a good internet review). And we really liked who we found for this job. Read on for more deets.
Why we didn’t do it ourselves? We definitely like to take on our share of DIY projects. Especially the ones that sound like fun (like gutting a bathroom or running around on the roof). But after some heavy thought we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t something that we could tackle this time (there’s always next time though…). Basically, we knew our roof had such little time left before it started leaking and potentially damaging our house and our stuff, so we decided to leave this undertaking up to the pros. And it’s a good thing we did because the flat roof that we have over our sunroom stumped a few professionals that we had over for estimates (so it definitely reinforced the conclusion that we would be biting off more than we could chew this time). The good news is that we’d been saving for quite a long time, and we always believe in getting a ton of estimates to find the best people for the job (at the best price). Although one estimate came in at nearly 10K, the one we went with was around half of that price, and we loved that we could rely on a fully insured family owned local business who had been in the roofing game for nearly 60 years.
What kind of roof did you end up with? We went with a 30 year dimensional roof (made up of GAF shingles) to add some extra definition and protection to the house (the previous roof that we were replacing was a 20 year one). Many roofing experts that we talked to said that although you could save around a thousand dollars going with a 20 year flat roof, the dimensional ones were a lot more in demand, so they’re great for resale. And to get ten more years out of a roof is definitely less wasteful and less work to deal with in the future – so it seemed like the smartest choice. When it came to the color, we went with “Pewter Gray” since we had seen other similarly toned brick homes with that shingle color and we liked the look. So we didn’t have any nerves about picking a color since we just drove around to find homes that we liked and then modeled our decision after our favorite ones.
Why not a white roof (or lighter more reflective color) for the eco benefits? We actually did a lot of research about light colored energy efficient roofs (lighter tones can reflect heat and light instead of absorbing it, which makes for a cooler house) but every expert we spoke to said that our property was far too wooded/shaded for the roof color to make any detectable difference. They also pointed out that in heavily wooded lots like ours, lighter roofs more easily show stains and discoloration which pops up thanks to all those trees dropping things on the roof. And because darker roofs show less staining/discoloration, that choice can actually extend the life of the roof and keep it looking better even longer (which makes for less waste and a longer life, so that seemed to be the more eco-conscious decision in our case).
Why not solar panels? Same reason as above. Unfortunately our property is just too shaded to get any sort of energy saving benefits from solar panels. Sniffle.
Why not metal or slate? We got more than a few quotes for metal and slate roofs, since they charm us to no end (seriously, I fantasize about them). But not only did they come in at two to ten times more (!) than shingles, they would also have priced our house out of the neighborhood. Since everyone else has shingle roofs in our area, we knew we wouldn’t ever recoup the cost of a metal or slate roof since it’s not a standard that has been set in our area. So it would have been amazingly gorgeous, but it was sadly out of our budget and above our neighborhood’s value.
So there you have it. A new roof and a ton of a’s to your q’s. Anyone else have any roofing going on at their house? Was anyone brave enough to DIY their own? Are you proud that I resisted the urge to work any raise the roof puns into this post? John is.
Store Crashing: Virginia Is For Clovers
We always love crashing a well designed house to get some inspiration and steal some ideas. But we also know that homes aren’t the only place to look for decor inspiration. Which is why we decided to take you shopping with us for some pretty amazing and totally implementable at-home ideas. Allow us to introduce you to Clover.
It’s an amazingly cool consignment shop for kids that just opened in Richmond’s Carytown district last month – and they gave us a sneak peek at the space before they unlocked the doors to the public. We scored the special treatment because the shop is a spin-off concept from our friend Lesley who opened the grown-up consignment version called Clementine years ago just across the street (both are now owned by two other fams). We also crashed her charming abode back in ’08, so we know she’s the real deal when it comes to having some serious style.
Oh, and you probably remember us mentioning Clover a few weeks ago in this giveaway because their floors sport the Sunny Goode paint treatment.
But the creative and inspiring decor doesn’t stop at those insanely amazing stenciled floors. Clover is full of playful DIY projects that are as adventurous as they are affordable – and it’s always good to remember that sometimes you just have to go for it to achieve that perma-smile-inducing look. It’s definitely not your typical kids clothing store:
Let’s start with what you can’t miss when you walk in: the dragon. This colorful Chinese dragon greets you at the front and weaves its way all the way to the back of the store. They scored it at Pearl River Mart in NYC (a store that Sherry often reminisces about- I’ve never been, but it was on Design Star this season for their first challenge). After Lesley hung it she wondered if it would scare any kids, but luckily they all seem to love the playful and imagination-inducing addition to the space. Maybe it’s that cheerful yellow color or those furry pink lips that keep the scare-factor down?
The front half of the store is split into boys’ clothes to your left and girls’ to your right. Each wall features an art installation that’s subtly gender-specific, but totally unlike anything that we’ve seen before. For example, the boys get buoys, which act as a colorful twist on the traditional nautical theme. The authentic buoys were a found on eBay for just $5.99 a pop (Lesley saved on shipping by making sure to order them all from the same vendor). The awesome 2″ thick braided rope also came from eBay – apparently it’s the same stuff you’ll find schoolkids climbing in gym class.
Over on the girls’ side was a 3D collage that was strangely fascinating and beautiful at the same time. Lesley meticulously pinned and velcro’d flash cards, paint swatches, playing cards, and even Pez dispensers into a wave of bright colors that anchors the entire wall (scroll up to the second photo to see it from afar). Even though there’s no apparent theme to the items, it’s somehow inherently playful and fun – and weirdly hard to take your eyes off of! Kind of like Where’s Waldo without the guy in the striped shirt. And we love that she used free items (like paint swatches) and super affordable things (like playing cards- 52 for $1) to cover a lot of ground without breaking the bank.
The wall art isn’t the only non-traditional element when it comes to the clothing areas. Even the racks themselves are a unique creation for Clover. They took metal plumbing pipes and had them fashioned into double- and single-level racks to house a slew of consigned clothing at the exact heights and lengths that they needed. We think it’s so cool that they didn’t go the expected route by defaulting to a basic wire rack. It adds just a glimmer of edge to this kids store, which keep things from veering off into the sugary-sweet territory.
And speaking of shelving, to house some of the non-hanging items, Lesley scored two of these wicker and glass shelves on Craislist for $45 each, then painted them a bold watermelon color (leftover from the floor) to fit seamlessly into the space. Sherry was especially enamored with the chic criss-cross back:
Back in the dressing area (little kids need to try stuff on too, right?) they converted a closet space into a private changing room with some clover-esque Ikea fabric ($8/yard) that they paired with a colorful backing (see the stripes reflected in the mirror?) and embellished with some red pom-pom trim. Lesley even loaned us some leftover fabric for one of Clara’s weekly photos. Score!
Next door to the dressing room is a little spot to entertain tiny shoppers, complete with two pint-sized chairs scored for $10 at a yard sale and painted a bright cloverly green (with already-owned paint). I picture this as the spot where exhausted baby husbands rest their feet while their baby wives try on outfit after outfit (at least there’s a nice little flat screen TV for watching Sportscenter Sponge Bob).
And of course there’s the spot where money is forked over. Clover opted for a simple teacher-style desk (which was scored at a local thrift store and painted black) to act as their check-out HQ, which is especially perfect for pre-teen purchasers who are just learning to pay for their own things.
Above the desk hang two pendant lamps that Lesley actually fashioned out of $10 industrial lamps from Home Depot topped with red bushel baskets (the top of the lamps feature a ceramic resting point for the basket so they never threaten to overheat the woven buckets). So simple and smart, right? And the DIYed pendant lights fit right into the color scheme thanks to some red paint (applied by none other than Lesley herself).
On the desk itself, they had a piece of glass cut to size and underneath it they laid some fun patterned fabric. But it’s not just any fabric, it’s custom Clover fabric that they had made by Spoonflower.com. We hadn’t seen any Spoonflower fabrics in person before Lesley’s, but we’d been in love with the concept for a while. Basically you can upload your own design (any design! the sky’s the limit!) and get it turned into custom fabric for as little as $16/yard. You can even check out a sample swatch before finalizing your order to make sure it’s perfect. We love unique and thoughtful touches like this- especially because Lesley only needed two yards of fabric and now has a desk that she literally “designed” to take Clover’s decor to the next level. Plus the desk was such a cheap thrift store find that she didn’t flinch when springing for the custom fabric to finish it off.
Last but not least, we’ll take all of you organization nuts ’round to the “employees only” part of the store where Leslie worked her magic again to beautifully arrange all of their extra inventory and supplies (despite it not really being directly visible to shoppers). They created an awesome workspace with butcher block counters (which they snagged on discount from Lumber Liquidators, who knew you could get a countertop there?). We love how clean and organized it all looks – and of course the fact that Lesley used more steel piping as fabric rods to close off some of the compartments below has us especially enamored.
And how could we not share a close-up of the über-organized baskets with charming tag labels that pepper the space. If you can believe it, the baskets were from Walgreens of all places (small ones were 2 for $5, big ones were 2 for $10). Doesn’t it almost make you want to work at Clover – just so you can bask in the beautiful order of things?
So that’s our spin around all the inspiration that is Clover. We hope you guys spotted as many fresh ideas in there as we did… maybe even a few that you can adapt for your own home! If you’re here in Richmond you’ll totally have to swing by (they’re near the Galaxy Diner) to see it for yourself – especially if you’ve got little ones to clothe (or just entertain for a while). And a big thanks to Lesley, Lyn, Jill and all the other Clover-folk for letting us pop by to enjoy all the amazing DIY details.
Did you guys spot anything in particular that caught your eye? Let’s play the always entertaining what’s-your-favorite-part game. And feel free to share any retail stores in your area that also boast unique decor. Who knows, if it’s not too far from Central Virginia we may just swing on over…
A Yard Sale, A Small World, & An Open Marriage
Isn’t it a small world? Especially with the World Wide Interweb at the center of it all. So we thought you guys might enjoy this funny story about where this crazy blogging train takes us sometimes.
The Backstory: Last spring I went to a local writing seminar because our friend Noah (who’s also a published author, award-winning blogger, and all-around-good-guy) was speaking and we wanted to show our support. Sadly Sherry missed out because she had a conflicting “make-up party” to go to with my sister. No lie. Anyways, on the panel was another Richmond-born author named Jenny Block. She was very funny and the story about getting her book published was very interesting indeed. Naturally it made me curious to read her book, so I made a mental note and headed back to pick up a sure-to-be-heavily made up Sherry from her party (she did not disappoint).
The Yard Sale: Fast-forward to June and I spot Jenny’s book, Open, at a local yard sale. Sherry seemed a bit worried when she saw me grabbing for a book subtitled “Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage” but I reassured her that my sole interest was in seeing how this witty speaker’s voice translated on to the page, NOT in opening our marriage to others (and I realize this sounds like a typical guy duping his wife, but trust me here – I’ve seen enough episodes of Big Love to nix that idea).
The Blog Post: After the yard sale we blogged about our finds in this post. Along with the post, we shared the picture above, where you can clearly see the titles that we purchased. The small worry that someone would recognize the title and start wondering if Sherry and I were becoming, um, “adventurous” did actually cross our minds…
The Email: Well, someone did recognize the book. A friend of the author’s emailed her the link which prompted an email back to us from Jenny herself: “It looks as if you bought my book at a yard sale! I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad since that means the original owner no longer wanted it. LOL. But I’m glad someone scooped it up! If you want to drop it in the mail to me, I’d be happy to sign it to you and send it back.”
So we did. And she did. And now we’ve got this:
Oh, and I’m about halfway through the book and it has been a very interesting read. And I can say with the utmost confidence that I’m more than happy to keep my marriage closed! So that’s our latest small world story. Do you guys have one to share? Or any other good reads that we should put on our list?
In All Fairness
We love the state fair. Call it what you will, but for some reason (maybe the fried gutbombs on a stick? or the array of non-chihuahua animals?) we just get a kick out of going every year. So when the State Fair of Virginia rolled around again this year, of course we were there.
We honestly didn’t expect to see anything blogworthy there - since photos of us stuffing funnel cake down our traps doesn’t quite qualify as “decor inspiration.” But as we snapped pictures of our trip for our own little album we kept coming across cool shots that had us saying “Man, you could almost throw a frame around this and call it art” (which you know we’ve been known to do).
So with that in mind, here’s some visual fare from the fair that we think could be frameworthy – especially if you happen to be better photographers than us.
We snapped these at a vendor selling bulk candy. We didn’t buy any (bummer, I know) but we at least treated ourselves to these colorful close-ups that could brighten up a kid’s room or be a sweet addition to an office (or kitchen!). Though I think I put on a few pounds just looking at them…
If our last name was Eatersik or Neatersik, these snapshots of lighted carnival letters would make great, punchy monogram art for our house (and you know we love a good monogram). Maybe if we’d looked harder we would’ve found a sign for Pie or Pumpkins. I guess there’s always next year.
In keeping with the circus theme, we found the bold stripes of the tents to be quite interesting – almost sophisticated with the right color affect on them (picture it as a graphic high-contrast black and white print with a large white mat in a sleek black frame).
And since it wouldn’t be the fair without farm animals, we risked life and limb to get this close-up of baby ducks (actually, the one in the foreground did poke our digital camera with its beak through the cage. We survived, thank goodness). Who knew ducklings huddled under a heat lamp could be such a nice pop of soft and fuzzy yellow art? And the one in the foreground is really connecting with the camera. Tyra would be proud.
But if ducks are too cutesy for your space, Sherry snagged this pic of bees on honeycomb at one of the agriculture exhibits. Our shot was thwarted a bit by the protective glass casing (not that we’d have it any other way), but the resulting blurriness still had an interesting look to it (we picture this blown up huge in a modern space). Buzzworthy, no?
So that’s a sampling of the potential art we uncovered at the state fair. The lesson? You never know where taking the time to tote your camera along could result in some free wall art (well, it may cost a few bucks to get it blown up at CVS or Kinkos but it’s still majorly affordable- plus you get the pride of saying you snapped the shots yourself). And of course we got this non art-worthy obligatory shot of me in funnel cake heaven. Ahhh, the powdered-sugared memories. Sidenote: do you like how I powdered my pants and struck my best Zoolander pose?
Anyone else been to this (or another) state fair recently? We know our Facebook friends seem to be big fans, but would love to hear if anyone else has discovered some inspiration there as well. Even if it was just your mouth “discovering” some strange-but-delicious fried treats.
PS: The State Fair of Virginia runs through this weekend (October 4th) if you want to check it out for yourself. Sherry and I were quite wow-ed by the new location too. And don’t forget your camera!
Richmond Represent.
For anyone who’s wondering what it’s like to live here in Richmond, here’s a heelarious video all about our beloved River City. Granted, it may be one big inside joke. But if nothing else, hopefully you’ll get a kick out of watching a couple of white guys rap – plus there’s totally some sweet auto-tune action at the end.
It’s probably heavily inspired by the DC area’s Arlington Rap, but we love this one more because it’s about our hometown (and they mention three of our favorite restaurants). Plus it’s definitely already stuck in my head… “statues, statues, statues comin’ atchu”…
