The first bouquet cut from the garden.

How did anyone plan a renovation before Pinterest?! It’s been so much fun browsing beautiful images for inspiration. Here’s a small selection of the photos that inspired me the most, and some pics of the materials & fixtures we’ve already selected.

The exterior will be dark–almost black–with crisp white window and door trim for contrast:

The interiors will mix textured white walls (formerly knotty pine!) with black steel accents and black door hardware:

The kitchen will have white cabinets, open wood shelves, and exposed wood trim around the cabinet doors and drawers . . .

With backsplash of luminous white hand-crafted “zellige” clay tiles . . .

And quartzite counters in “White Nile.”

The new bathrooms will have floors with encaustic cement tiles in graphic patterns of white, grey, and black. . .

With crisp white tile on the walls, and a deep soaking tub in one bath . . .

And a roomy shower stall in the other bath.

We’ll keep things feeling modern with the lighting. . .

And (of course) the woodworking bench-turned-bar will have a prominent place in front of the big picture window!

If all goes according to plan, I can make you a cocktail at that bar in late October or early November.

We’re not messing around here. With the building permit issued on a Thursday, we arranged for the demolition crew to start the following Monday.

But Lev just couldn’t wait–over the weekend he was determined to strip the overgrown pergola of years of accumulated vines and dead leaves. That’s him, on top of the damn thing, going to town with his loppers:

He got the job done in just a few hours–and without crashing through the rickety old wood slats.

But then the professionals took over. In just two days, they were able to strip the kitchen and both bathrooms down to the studs. Here are some shots of the demo in progress:

With one more day’s work, all the debris was hauled off. But not before I snapped some shots of my redneck front yard:

And then they dismantled the deck (unfortunately revealing the extensive dry-rot of the support structure underneath):

But hey, compared to the unpleasant (and expensive) surprises I encountered on the Scott Street project (new water service, new sewer line, new sidewalks), a little dry-rot doesn’t get me down!

Apparently, things move fast at Butterfly House.  I closed escrow on a Tuesday, and we had the building permit in hand on Thursday. A new speed record?

And with permit in-hand, we signed up a contractor–a super nice guy who’s done beautiful work all around Napa Valley. We got lucky that his “small jobs” team (yeah, this is considered small around here) had an opening in their schedule and were able to slot us in right away. So we are ready to roll!

As I’ve told anyone (everyone) who asks about Butterfly House, this sweet little house needs some serious TLC. Really. “Oh, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” they reply. “Oh, yes it is,” I say.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here are some “before” pics to give you a flavor of what we started with.

The exterior is peach—a color that was last in fashion sometime in the early 1990’s:

It’s got lots of knotty pine. On the walls. On the ceilings. So much knotty pine, and so dark:

Mom, you would have liked the frogs on the mantel:

Then there’s the dated bathrooms:

An old, rickety deck and an overgrown pergola (which made the house even darker, with all the shade it cast):

And the little kitchen was so sad, I didn’t even take any pictures.

But we are moving fast to turn this tired old house into a jewel-box of a cottage!

After three years immersed in the Scott Street project–which at times felt like a full-time job–we finally finished the house. It was fun, painful, tearful, exhilarating, frustrating. . . But in the end, I’d say it was a success. Here’s a link where you can take a look at the final product: Scott Street. With a mixture of sadness and satisfaction, I sold the house to a lovely family who I think will truly appreciate it (although I’m disappointed that they will only be using it occasionally as a vacation home). I wish them years of happiness, love, and fun on Scott Street!

So now it’s time for a new project. Well, to clarify. . . I’m not so sure I’m fully recovered and ready for a new project, but dammit, I need a place to live. So welcome to Butterfly House!

Tucked on a winding mountain road just outside Calistoga, “Butterfly House” is a 1960’s-era cottage on an acre and a half of land. Named for the gorgeous butterflies always flitting about in the lush English garden, the house is surrounded by woods, pine-covered hillsides, and vineyards. And our closest neighbors are a flock of chickens and a pair of adorable goats.

But the house itself needs some work. “Good bones,” as they say, but those old bones need a facelift. I’m scheduled to close escrow on August 5, but we’re already hard at work designing a complete renovation of the kitchen and bathrooms, and some minor cosmetic upgrades all around the house. So follow along here with my adventures in home renovation!

Other than some missing windows, the house is now “wrapped” — the waterproofing membrane is installed on the walls and the roof. Good thing, as we had some unexpected rain recently! (We desperately need any rain we can get after another dry winter, but it took us all by surprise when it came in late April.)

Until the siding and metal roof go in, we’re serving as a billboard for Hardie and Tyvek —

(Notice the last of the meyer lemons on the little tree? Both of the transplanted citrus survived the winter and are flowering again!)

Storm clouds are brewing —

I learned some more builder slang — “boneyard.” This is the term for a stash of tile many suppliers keep in the back of their shop or warehouse, which is an assortment of overstock, mis-ordered, discontinued, or returned tile that they offer at a steep discount. Lev and I paid a visit to the boneyard at Galleria Tile, and came away with an absolutely stunning mosaic that we’re going to use in the master bath shower —

And coming from the boneyard, it’s well under budget! We’ll probably pair it with this large-format tile on the floor —

Also well under our budget price! So far the hunt for tile has been relatively painless. Let’s hope it stays that way.

The contractor gave us a heads up last week that he would “stock the rock” soon. I had no idea what that meant.Translation: sheet rock would be delivered and stacked around the house, ready for install.

And now we got rock —

Some friends of ours introduced us to the phrase “volunteer” in the garden — a plant that pops up unexpectedly, sprouting from some old seed buried in the dirt. At Scott Street, I discovered a remarkable volunteer, emerging from seemingly nothing but gravel and concrete —

The offspring of some sandwich tomato tossed onto the ground last fall? Can’t wait to make a sandwich out of him this summer!