Paint it Origami White, You Devils!

With the drywall mudded and sanded, it's time to paint the interior. We decided to paint all the walls and ceilings the same color—a pale gray from Sherwin Williams called Origami White—and to add color with accent paint on the kitchen and bar cabinets in the great room, and on one accent wall in each bathroom. We volunteered to paint the one-story north wing, but left the two-story great room to the professionals. One professional, in fact. Thanks, Brandon.

Once Brandon had put two coats on the ceiling, electrician Sam installed the two fans that will, in theory, regulate the temperature in the great room.

Meanwhile, we prepped and painted the downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.

Testing accent colors for the bathrooms, to go with the pale blue one-inch mosaic tiles that will go on the floor. Feedback welcome.

The World is Mud-Luscious

Outside, the snow came down, then melted, leaving first puddles, then mud. Squish, squish.

Inside, the drywall went up . . . 

Downstairs master bathroom, with moisture-resistant purple board

You never know what, or who, might be down there.

Then the mud went on. Snick, snick.

One-hour drywall ceiling in the garage, required by fire code

Corner bead mud applier

Monty the Mudder

Kids in a Candy Store

The last two weeks have been all about conduit—for electricity, forced air, and water. And while it takes many people working many hours to pull all those wires and pipes and ducts throughout the house, the results are sort of hard to see in photos.

So, we're now on to the next big step: insulation, which can only be installed after the plumbing, electricity, and HVAC.

Here's a primer of what's going where: in the rafters, exterior walls, and crawl spaces (yes, we have more than one): spray-in foam (white). In the interior walls, fiberglass batting (pink). Put together, it all looks a bit like white chocolate-peppermint bark at Christmastime. In fact, the whole thing looks like candy.

Or marshmallow fluff:

Or like we let it snow INSIDE:

hence the coat.

The master bedroom on the main floor

The HVAC in the great room ceiling

This one looks a little like an 18.5' peppermint stick

The ascension window facing east

And this one a bit like that weird Duncan Hines strawberry cake mix that was so popular in the 70s:

And here's the sunset view from our would-be porch, which doesn't look like food at all:

Except maybe a little bit like foil wrapped Easter chocolates.