Author: admin

100 years old

 For the past twenty years I have carried the nerve-wracking responsibility had the great pleasure of keeping my great-grandmother’s engagement gift plants alive.  These two plants lived in her apartment on Staten Island, then at my grandmother’s house for many years… they moved to Connecticut with my Aunt, who I lived with for four years while I went to college and started my “adult life”.  When I got married, they came to live with me. (gasp!)    I have no idea what they are, and my Aunt and grandmother couldn’t identify them either.  They have no blossoms like the smaller peace plants in front of them… any of you green-thumbs out there have a clue?   We’ve just moved them to the front porch of this old house, where they will stay until early fall, moving inside when the nights get too cool.
This is what my family’s refrigerator looks like before we “live” out of it. 
The barn/garage siding is almost done, painted a dark brown, as was the original.

One Step at a Time

  The stairs in the family room heading up to the loft should be completed by today…

Uh…. Houston, we have a problem.
Snappy Di , the Blue Ridge Gal created this signature for me. I saw hers and complimented her on it
 (OK,  I said “I WANT ONE!” ),  and within hours I had many of my own to choose from.  You see, that’s what I love about blogging… all the awesome people I have met, the friendship, sometimes the comiserating, the laughs, the creativity.    Thank you Diane –

Wagon Wheel

 Now that the stonework is complete (Thank you Steven Seely, awesome work)  on the familyroom/loft fireplace, the wagonwheel chandelier has been installed. I think this is one of my favorite features in the house… funny that it brings out two completely different reactions…visitors either love it or they hate it.  

  Next is completion of the wood floors in both the family room and the loft/pool table area and then stain and  tung oil throughout the house.  Still aiming for a July 1st move-in date… it’s getting hairy.

This is the backside upstairs side of the fireplace, a bar will be to the left and couches and TV to right…
Pool table here…..
Mancave is now closed in, no more side entrance for bringing “stuff” in….
And these are my new washer and dryer.  The old ones were so old they have rust around the rim, I’m not kidding.  These are stackers and will go in the hallway laundry closet in the background of this pic.
My husband is the one who gets all excited about appliances… all I care about is that they work….and the absence of rust is always desirable.

Ben at the Beach

  We live in such a great area for walking, hiking, and biking. Today I took Ben down to the beach to meet up with my sister and her friend for a walk along the bike trail.  The beachroses were in full bloom and the scent was heavenly. 

Ben notices the Bishon being worn as a scarf around his owner’s neck… thinks maybe I should give him a lift back to the car also….  I told him I’de sooner throw a saddle on his back…
I love when a park provides for the canine crowd. Dog owners seem to be very respectful here too.
Wild morning glory, didn’t know there was such a thing until today…

Less is More

….will somebody please remind me of this atleast once weekly from now through the rest of my life?  
I’m serious.

The barn/garage  moves forward…. Gaeton is back on the job to start the siding. 
 There is something remarkable about these next  two photos….
He just had major rib-cracking open-heart surgery five weeks ago.  He’s crazy like that. 
Below are Dominic(Mike’s long-time electrician) Mike, and Gaeton.
  
Inside the barn, Dominic is wiring…….
Wayne and crew are staining….
…and the adirondacks await a new coat of paint… a much lighter shade of green.
Joe is back to help Steve finish the second chimney.
 They’re now up on the roof, which means we can finish the flooring inside.
Ben’s “pasture” is now just about finished with black link to ensure the dogs stay “in”.
Most of the remainder of the lawn is seeded and hayed. 
 Let it rain!

I could get lost

..in an antique shop for hours. I ‘m not talking about the kind you find in the wealthier sections of New England where “that bench over there is from the Ming Dynasty so don’t let your kid sit on it, M’am, or it’s yours for $25,000.”     I’m talking the mom and pop shops,  the guy who loves old stuff and just keeps collecting, the garage full of family hand-me-downs, or that funky red house with the white trim down the road owned by the woman who’s fifty-seven but trying to look twenty-seven and I’ll be damned if she isn’t actually pulling it off sort of!   Well, her sign read “Open” the other day and so I wandered in.  Oh, what treasures to behold!  And alot of crap too.    I found a few pieces for this old house.
 The plates will hang over the sink on a part of the wall that looks too plain and NEEDS something…  It needs a chicken or two also… but I haven’t figured that out yet.
I actually walked away from this silver huricane lamp the first time I visited the little red house. But I kept thinking about it, and you know how that goes…    so I’m going to have the wiring gutted because it’s a very old piece and I don’t trust that the wires won’t burn the house down when I plug it in.

I love the little details in this lamp…
 THIS little conglomerate of junk  stuff… is my next project for the kitchen… a chalkboard in an old frame with a sawed-in-half teacup glued to the board to hold chalk.  The old frame has just the right distressed vintage look. Anyone have a tile saw I could borrow? 
  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Memorial Day

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood
To tell you the truth, I wish no one had to go to war whether at home or in a foreign land to defend anything, ever.  In a perfect world, no one should have to lose their life to defend freedom and rights or protect us, sometimes from ourselves.  Our world is so far from perfect, or even sane…  so to the men and women who gave their lives, and also those who are living and have served and sacrificed for our nation …
  Thank you.

Well, well….

 This Old House had a well right in the courtyard next to the kitchen. Back in the 1800’s that was a good location so that the main water source was close to the residence for cooking, bathing,etc.  Because we made the decision to move the house back about 40 feet from the road onto a new foundation,  (it used to sit right next to the road)  the old well would have been obliterated.  So Mike dismantled it and moved it back along with the house.   It is now fully functional again…

   Here are before and after pictures… this photo shows you how far we’ve come with the house in a year and a half, too….

Tile we meet again….

 Remember the tile scene?  Well this is how it turned out…. and  I’m thinking it looks pretty OK.  Maybe I should e-mail this photo to the wonderful saleswoman who loved her job so much she practically gave it to me.

 The granite for the island has been installed, and I love it beyond reason. (that’s true)   Readers of my original blog might remember the granite warehouse expedition…  that day was nothing short of an arctic adventure, parka required  -and nobody told me that-  so I chattered and shivered my way through the isles and isles of slabs of stone for atleast 100 hours before we succumbed to frostbite  agreed on a slab.  It was worth it.

This is the pantry next to the kitchen, with a window from the old house now used as a pass-through.
Mike decided last week not to put in the garden this year because there was no way in hell we were gonna have time to tend it while moving in and settling down this summer.   Well , hell found a way…because when I came after work to see the day’s progress, there were two raised beds, ready to rock n’ roll.  Tonight we planted tomatoes,  eggplant, cucumbers, basil, mint and oregano.  The soil is rich from the back woods which used to be rich farm soil, but to start the garden properly we will rototill, lime and feritilze the beds the right way in the fall.  For now it’s a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing, because sometimes that’s how we roll.   I did mix in some organic fertilizer. 
I love a campfire, a firepit, a fireplace… wouldn’t be home without atleast one of these. The smell of woodsmoke on a cool evening is one of my favorite scents. Somebody oughta bottle that and make it a men’s cologne.    This is the firepit in the backyard, design courtesy of that TV show “Ask This Old House”.  Theirs was a more modern version, but the simple drainage system was easy and our simpler stonework fit This Old House better.  We have four Adirondacks that we’ll place around it.
….and THIS…. is my awesome antique find. $75. at a local antiques warehouse. It sits in the downstairs bathroom where it will be installed above the pedestal sink, which hasn’t arrived yet.
We’re getting there…

Blazing Saddles

  Baby, it’s hot outside.  Well it was yesterday.. .last night’s thunder and lightning storm dropped the temps about 20 degrees.  
  My daughter and I horsed around for a while and the ring felt like a dessert.  When we were done, Opie got a bath… as did we.  You can’t bathe a horse without wearing the water, soap and grime that accompanies it. 
Ben stayed indoors with his Teddy Bear most of the day. He’s still mad at me for taking away his manlyhood.  So are my husband and son… (not theirs, his!)   Men sure are sensitive about that particular subject.
 Lots happening at the old house, more later…