A Modern Tree House

Well the kids are back at school so it's time for another project!! 

Ever since we moved bought our house (two years ago) these huge trees behind the carport have been begging for a treehouse to be built between them.

They were COVERED in English ivy (as is most of the woods behind our house) so the first step was clearing it off.

Next these two 2x12 boards were screwed into the tree.  And I mean SCREWED in with 6 inch BOLTS!!!  8 of them!
Ernesto built the platform in our driveway.  It was BIG and HEAVY.

If only I had a picture//video of us moving it with one corner on a skateboard!  😅
We leaned it up against the trees and I left thinking he would be asking the neighbors to help him get it up on the boards ...about 10 feet up!

Nope!  He came in the house dripping sweat chanting "That's right! That's right!"

He still will not tell me HOW he got that platform in place.  He just says "you doubted me."

I didn't though....I didn't doubt, I just assumed he would need help.  The two of us could barely get it to the trees, how in the hell would he lift it by himself?!?

 

At this point we weren't sure of the design of the treehouse.  Ernesto had ordered this book on Amazon where he found the "plans" for the platform.  

 We were debating a shed roof (me) or an A-frame (him) for the design.

Spoiler alert: I won.  I thought the shed would be roomier for the kids. BUT! I loved the look of the A-frame.  In fact, I now can't stop looking at A-frame houses and I STILL think Ernesto could/should get his chance to build one....maybe on a lake???? 

 We He could TOTALLY build this!!  Right after he renovates our airstream! LOL.  Hey! I have always been a dreamer guys but ....it's possible!

Anyhoo, back to our CURRENT project!! 

These guys are already good at climbing up and down ladders-even while carrying things! They are going to make great Christmas Light Pros!

Maybe we don't even need proper stairs?? (just kidding mom!)

The walls were constructed ON the platform.  Painting was also done before walls were put into place.  We went with the same color as the "main house" Slate (by Behr) or maybe it was Dark Night by Valspar.  Either way its black! 

 

Here I am holding up wall #1.  Look at those muscles!!

The carpenter added the support boards and it was on to the next wall.

 

Yes, wall 2, then wall 3...Here is where you will have to use your imagination.  
It's a slanted roof, so the front wall is taller than the other three.

Roof boards were next and plywood over top....I won't bore you with the details.

If you are here LOOKING for details, you need to check out ModFrugal .  After we decided on this design and had the platform built we came across their blog and TOTALLY used their detailed instructions/suggestions.  No need to re-invent the wheel here. Hopefully imitation makes them feel flattered in this case. 😬

All of a sudden we had a "structure!"  And I was LOVING it!!  Just like the black on our house,  I think it just blends so nicely in the woods.






































Before the front wall was finished, railing was a priority because #crazykids




 
Ernesto whipped up a secure kid corral with hog wire. Bigger and heavier duty than chicken wire.
It's secure, and Im loving the look.
With the black painted railings, I'd say it looks pretty modern, right?
 
Still no stairs but my kids are sooooooo good at climbing ladders.  I guess that is good because, well, they will be working on ladders soon enough.  #futurechristmaslightpros

The kids helped when they could, but mostly just kept papi company outside.  Mateo was very into hammering the little nails to create the door.

We plan to have a proper sliding door, but the screen door (above) is an attempt to keep down the number of bugs trying to move in. Ernesto added little screens on the openings where the roof meets the walls as well.  

Above is the view from our neighbor's house....below is the view from our living room windows.

Next up:  proper stairs and our first campout ...probably not in that order. haha

My hopes for the treehouse are that it is a space the kids WANT to hang out in...so what suggestions do you have for the inside???  (Mateo suggested a TV 😂--Not happening, but boy...that would do the trick, wouldn't it?) 

The Mid-Century Modern Deck House

It's funny, when we first looked at our house with our realtor, Ernesto was totally underwhelmed. What is going on with this place?  Little windows on the front, traditional kitchen remodel, original bathrooms with "upgraded" granite and horrible light fixtures.  All those things stuck out to me as well, but my mind started racing immediately to all of the things we could do to improve the mix matched style.

We decided to go for it though because it was UNIQUE and although not exactly what we THOUGHT we wanted, it was a good size house, in the location we were after AND fit the "mid century modern" criteria we had been hunting for. (built in 1963)

It wasn't until MONTHS after we moved into the house that we discovered what style it was.  We knew it was a POST AND BEAM...because, that was obvious from the ...wait for it...post and beams.

BUT! I literally stumbled upon a house that looked like ours while searching Google images and found out it is called a DECK HOUSE which was designed and built by a company called....wait for it again...Deck House, Inc.

A ‘Deck House’ is a pre-fabricated Mid-Century house developed in 1959 by two architects who studied under Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They formed the Deck House Company in Acton, Massachusetts, where it still operates, now called the Acorn Deck House Company.

Deck Houses were/are widely popular, but more so in the northeast, not Georgia.   The architectural basis for a Deck House is post and beam construction, which uses large and solid timbers to hold up the roof. These eliminate the need for supporting walls and allows for an almost unlimited amount of glass.  How cool is that?  Renovations should be easy then right?

Ceilings are exposed Douglas fir beams and tongue-and-groove vaulted ceilings.  (Sadly ours were painted) 
The exterior could've been stained at one point as well....which I LOVE! 

Many of the deck houses I have seen have a front carport or a side deck off the kitchen/dining area.

Like most mid-century modern homes,  the goal of the deck house is essentially combining form and function.  With all the glass, deck houses are almost always used in a natural setting.

It feels very exciting to now know what our house could (and SHOULD) look like.   I even found a FB page called "Deck House Owners" and they have let me in even though it's quite possible that our house was not actually BUILT by Deck House Inc.  (I called the company, and they could not verify by our address but said "that doesn't mean we didn't build it because there were many houses built in the 60's that we don't have records for.")

 A "deck house" has become an all encompassing name for this style of house (like kleenex for tissues) Our house is definitely in this style, though, and honestly I don't care WHO built it, I am just happy to have been enlightened about our homes' history.

My mind is in overdrive after looking at other Deck Houses (inside and out).  But that is the case with me and houses.  Inspiration and ideas are always flowing.

More importantly, Ernesto's inspiration has been sparked and he is excited to make changes and possibly sit back and enjoy this house for longer than he initially thought.  ("2 years and we sell" is what he was saying when we moved in)

As you can see with the other houses pictured here, the windows are not aluminum single pane. (notice the dark ones above)  And hopefully sometime this Summer, ours will not be either.  I love how many of the houses have different sized windows on one side of the front door than the other (I have always loved asymmetrical design.)

Also note they all have transom windows above the doors.  Yep. We are going to follow suit with that too.  I can't wait.  How awesome is this entry??

So much to share with you in the upcoming months/years.

New exterior paint color choices are being mulled over.  We were considering these two colors and I posted on Insta for opinions.  It was about half for Tricorn Black and half for Urbane Bronze.

We have pulled some other samples since this photo and are leaning towards SW Sealskin which looks like black/the darkest brown.

Also, a front patio is in the beginning stages...I'll have a separate post with our "plan" soon.

One of the front landscaping beds is ALMOST complete.

All this (and more!) coming to you right here on VivaCindy.....right after we spend a month in San Diego this June!!!! Woot woot! 

See you back here soon!!

Our House: FINALLY- Paint Goes On!!

Ok, well we have been in our house for a total of SEVEN months now and I have not posted anything house related here on the ol' bloggy blog..  You might think you have a lot to catch up on, but noooooo....oh no.  Since we moved in a just a few weeks before the Christmas lights started up last year, we didn't get anything done.  

I lied.  One thing.

Ernesto whipped up these bunk beds for the boys.  I showed him a picture for inspiration and he ran with it. God I love having a handy husband.  

Obviously not finished here.  There is a bottom bunk, and the ladder is on the short end of the bed.  Of course now they sit unpainted (or stained?) in an unpainted room.  Turning this space into a fun and functional place for the boys is on "the list" of things to tackle this Summer.

Ok, maybe one more thing happened before lighting season.  Painting the ceiling and beams.  This was a job we actually hired out, something not too common for us.  It was going to be a tedious job though with caulking all the boards; it sounded overwhelming.  They are tongue and groove, but over the years, cracks have emerged and I feared it would look "Shabby Chic" with cracks.   

Put a ladder anywhere near this one (and the other boy for that matter) and they will climb. 
 "Ok, paint one board."

For the beams we sampled a couple colors.  I LOVED SW Urbane Bronze (left below) but thought maybe I would put another color (more brown) next to it for comparison.  Status brown (right) looked like poop.

Urbane Bronze is tricky to describe.  It's kind of charcoal-ish but with a lot of brown.  I didn't want it to look gray, and I don't think it does.  It looks nice against the white, not stark. (See bad iphoto below)

Once the the holidays were over and we had a month to recoup (ie: sit around and do nothing!), we got to painting. One of our lighting guys who has been working with us forever is a professional painter (in the off season) so we booked him to get things rolling.  Ernesto painted WITH him most days.  

Having him show up everyday at 10am was just what we needed to motivate us.  A plan!

I went with a white paint everywhere and the transformation was instant and BEAUTIFUL!  Good bye horrible tan paint everywhere! Walls, ceilings, and BEAMS!? UGH! No no no!

You would think white is simple but on the contrare..... I had a horrible time deciding.

I am not a color expert, nor was I SUPER worried about all this "undertone" business, but just google "choosing a white paint" and your head will start to spin.  The more you look at pinterest and the like, the more confused you will be.

Under pressure (painter was at our house waiting for paint color) I chose Sherwin Williams Pure White for the ceilings. It was the whitest white  of alllll my samples.

Ok don't go picking any paint colors for yourself based on this horrible picture, but you can notice the color undertones easily.

It took me several days to decide on the adjacent wall color.  I wanted to just say "screw it, paint everything Pure White."  But I kept feeling like it would be too stark.. This is my first time going white and I was confused and second guessing.  On a side note, I remember yeeeears ago saying that I would NEVER paint my walls white. "With so many good colors WHY would I pick white?"

Moral: never say never)

 SW Alabaster kept coming up as a softer white and color match to the ever-popular BM White Dove.  As soon as the first wall was done, I new I had made the right decision. Whew!

A little difficult to see here [in my iPhone pics]  but there is a little contrast with the two whites and I am really digging it.  Needless to say, the house was a little disheveled during the process, but I am so happy with the results. (I will have to get better pics to reeeeally show you.)

I had a gallon of SW Shoji White (see sample above) on hand because I thought that was "the one" after seeing it on a blog that I love.  Yep, I just went and bought a gallon.  Rookie mistake. 

Anyhoo, although not the right shade of white for our living areas, it really was not a mistake.  This warm white is very nice and perfect in Paloma's room.  The cutting in was not finished here, but you can see the difference from the tan paint, and it's much better.

I have a vintage Persian in there with bright pinks and some great colorful art (yet to be hung) and this is the perfect neutral backdrop. 

Also, remember the fabulous Craigslisted armoire I scored and painted turquoise (when I was pregnant with Mateo!)??  Well, it has a new life.  She is now a beautiful shade of pink. SW Koral Kicks to be exact.  This peachy-coraly-pink gives a subtle pop against the soft white walls, and it's not sugary sweet.

I LOVE it.  It's not quite finished.  Painting those front cutouts is time consuming to say the least.  Yes, it's taking me MONTHS to get to all of them. Whew!

The only wall with COLOR upstairs is our bedroom and we only painted the wall behind the bed. (the tallest wall)   I wanted to have some color opposite all the windows.  I debated again with several swatches on my walls.

I was really inspired by a couple catalogs. Both West Elm and Cb2 were showing dark teal and I was loving it.  I bought several samples, throwing in some greens because I was also considering something forest-y.


I ended up with Ben Moore's Oasis Blue. (top right color in photo above)

It is beautiful!  

Before the wood headboard didn't stand out at all.  

Ok, lighting has everything to do with that in this pic, but.....still, you get the point. 

I LOVE how it turned out! Very rich but not super dramatic.  Now, wood headboard pops.

So obviously you need a whole bedroom shot, but Im not ready for that.  Take this little sneak peak (frog tape and all) for now, and know that a full reveal will come!