After really thinking about our house colors and knowing that we can’t really repaint the whole thing we decided to do what we can — we repainted the shutters and the door. Above is an end result photograph. We’re very happy with how it came out.

I was never a fan of a burgundy accent colors that the previous owners have chosen. It made the house look drab and old fashioned.

After a good amount of consideration with picked a bright red color for the door and fairly dark gray with some hints of blue color for the shutters.

We also considered taking the shutters off completely, but raised ranch houses really do not look right without them. We saw how that looks in the process and it looked really wrong and boring.

It took us six day of hard work to get everything done. And then some to actually finish the accents off. We took the shutter down and gave them a good power washing. We took the door down as well. We acquired a paint gun for the job as it was way too much work for a brush and an end result would’ve looked much worse.

We primed everything at first. Then we put several coats of paint on. Two coats for the shutters. And three coats of paint on the door.

With the door we had a bit of a color debacle. The first color we picked looked red on a sample, but turned out to be quite orange. Then we went for a plain red and that turned out to be orangy as well when combined with the first layer.

And then finally we put a third coat of paint called Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore and that really did the trick. Perfect color in the end that we were going for. Even though it looks darkish on the sample it comes out just right.

The color for the shutters is called Raccoon Fur, also by Benjamin Moore. It really has a nice subtle blue hue even though its a fairly dark gray. We’re quite happy with the choice.

We also got rid of ugly gold old fashioned hardware on our door and replaced everything with silver colored modern looking locks.

On a side note we made an interesting discovery. When I took one of the shutters off I almost jumped off the leader. There was a pair of bats sleeping under it. They left for the hunt in the evening and didn’t come back. We bought a bat house that we’re going to attach to the house and hope for their return.

I love living in our house and all the things we’ve done to it to make it ours. However one thing that I think could be improved is the interior color — I’m really not in love with the current scheme.

And even though we have no actual plans to do any of this in the foreseeable future, I thought it would be fun to experiment in Photoshop and see how it could look like.

So here is a selection of options. I like the red door in most cases. Which overall combination do you like? Any other combinations?

Windows and doors repainted in red. Same exterior color.

Changing the color of shutters to black. Keep the same exterior color and red door.

And now change the exterior color to light gray, keeping the red door and black shutters.

Keeping the same light gray exterior, we change the accents to red.

Keep red accents, changing the exterior color to gray-blue color.

Now changing the color of shutters to black and keeping the red door. Exterior stays in blue-gray.

This is just a crazy combination which has zero chances of actually happening. Our favorite theme of orange-teal.

As far as my choice goes I’m between black shutters, red door and ether gray or blue-gray exterior.

Approximately one week into my iPad ownership I started looking for a nice leather messenger bag that I could carry my iPad in. Starting from day one and to this day I bring my iPad with me into the office, but carrying it in my hand was not practical and I didn’t want to drop it accidentally one day.

The first bag that I found that I liked was Knomo Kilkenny. I wasn’t 100% sure on its look and while I was thinking it went out of stock everywhere. I figured — oh, well, wasn’t meant to be. All this time I kept coming back to look at more bags and nothing else looked even remotely nice in the size that I wanted.

I had few simple requirements — I wanted it made out of brown leather, I wanted it to be a messenger bag, since I find it the most comfortable, I wanted it to be pretty small, since I would mostly only carry iPad in it, but I also wanted it to be big enough so I could fit a magazine or a file with A4 pages inside if I had the need for it and finally I wanted it to look nice.

So after months of searching I stumbled upon a post on Mac Rumors forum that discussed iPad carrying options and somebody linked to a company called WaterField that designs and makes their bags in San Francisco and their Brown Leather Muzetto bag seemed like a perfect bag that I was looking for.

They don’t mass produce anything, so we had to place an order for the next production run which was supposed to happen on September 15th, and it wasn’t even a middle of August yet. But Alёna did place an order and it arrived at the end of August, several days before my birthday, which was perfect, since it was my birthday present from her.

iPad fits into the front section that is done in a soft fabric to prevent scratches. The bigger main section has a gold liner that is designed to make it easier to see things inside as opposed to having a black liner. It has one zipped pocket inside of it. And there is a back section for additional stuff. The bag has colored nylon inserts, red in our case. As far as the size goes we ordered the 11″ version to meet my magazine and A4 file requirement.

The bag is perfect. I totally love it. The look, the feel, the functionality.

We’re at it again — apartment redesign. This time though we’re just adding some finishing touches to what we started in October of last year.

We wanted to fill up the corner that was occupied by our monster TV earlier, but now with the expected arrival of a 4th family member we figured we need to better utilize the space in our hallway as well. And as the last time we started with some planning in Google SketchUp.

Then with a huge help from Misha over the weekend we started implementing the plan. Misha drove us to IKEA in his minivan and back and helped me carry all the stuff upstairs. Some of it was just incredibly heavy that there is no way I would be able to do any of it by myself.

At this point the living room is updated and the hallway is waiting for its turn, which is going to be this upcoming weekend. The table has also been relocated to its new place in the living room.