I know that Tobi Fairley can be over-the-top, but her interiors always evoke something in me, and I imagine that’s why she’s so successful. You can’t tiptoe past one of her rooms; you stop dead in your tracks.

And because I am obsessed with the idea of a teal velvet sofa, I stared at this photo for a lot longer than is probably healthy. Just look at this room! How luxurious yet convivial! What a clever color palette!

Yes, that’s exactly how I speak when addressing her work.

(Click to enlarge.)

Steadily moving forward! The soffits under the roof eaves are done.

Today we’re closing up the eaves with soffits, as you can see. We’re also removing the chimney and patching the brickwork.

Closing up the soffits was one of the things I did not want to do, because I wanted the rafters exposed, but the only way around that was to spend more money that we don’t have. Oh well, it certainly doesn’t look bad. It looks quite clean.

Fascia boards! Sheathing! Holy moly, we might be getting somewhere!

The old fascia boards are gone, and new ones are taking shape.

The fascia boards were actually the catalyst for a lesson I learned this week; a lesson which I’m not too happy to accept, but I know I have to try:

Sometimes, the thing you want can only be achieved by throwing more money at it. If there is very little money to throw at it—like maybe you only have a handful of pennies left, which is pretty much the case—then you have to accept that what you want is not possible.

Aspects of this project are not going exactly the way that I wanted. I wanted a more horizontal window, but that meant adding more supports. I wanted a metal roof that is neither brown nor gray, but that meant sourcing materials from out of town. I didn’t want to have to trim the entire house with a horizontal “stripe” along the top of the brick while getting rid of the boxed eaves, but that is the only way we can level the roof and keep the underside of the eaves consistent (long story). I wasn’t expecting any of these changes to my plan, but I felt like I could live with them. However, the one I’m having trouble with is the fascia boards. I wanted them to be slimmer, like you see in this Austin, Texas ranch house:

The only way to achieve slimmer fascia boards throughout is to replace all of the rafters, and we just can’t afford to do that. I’m pretty bummed. I may have cried a tiny bit. I may have even kicked someone. You will never know.

Work continues on the gables and eaves, this time on the other side of the house.

Well, here we go, getting rid of the worst exterior offenders:

Goodbye, gables that lean forward unnecessarily!

Goodbye, eaves that were flush with the gables!

Goodbye, old gutters!

Man, it’s like I was born to write a children’s book about remodeling a 1950s ranch house.

We haven’t been making progress on the house for one reason, and one reason only.

Cost.

Back in January, after some seriously heavy rainfall, our roof was still leaking—even after a roofer patched it TWICE. It became clear that we had to replace the entire roof.

Well, unlucky for us, we weren’t exactly planning for a roof replacement anytime soon, and we needed some time to figure out how we were going to pay for it. We finally decided to take out a loan, which is now in process.

Work on the roof begins this week.

Sooo, allow me to take you for a little walk around our house, since this is THE LAST TIME it’s going to look like this.

Has Mandy Moore always been this much of a fashion plate? Somehow I never noticed until now.

Mayflower Creations was on the verge of finishing their film, Mercy’s Blessing, when they contacted me for a logo design. Since their name was inspired by the may flower (not the ship, but the actual petal-and-stem kind of flower), they wanted me to use that for inspiration.

The may flower is delicate and pretty, but I wanted to find a way to integrate it into a film concept. A film strip? A camera? And then I got it. A lens shutter. Could I find a way to make a may flower look like it could be turning, like a camera shutter with an eye in the middle?

We were happy with the end result, slapped it on the film title, slapped it on some business cards, and voilá.

Since then, Mercy’s Blessing has won ten international awards, and counting. It was an honor to have been a small part of their project.