Tag: House

Walk This Way

  We’ve got a crew here this week putting in the brick walkways and patio in the back…they work with lightning speed, I’m amazed. 

Jeff Klausen is back on the job installing cabinets he made at the shop, beautiful craftsmanship.  This one will hold glasses and have a counter underneath… located between the kitchen area of the ‘keeping room” and the dining room table area.

This corner cabinet is now located in Mike’s office, or what used to be the parlor.
The stairs are near completion…
Front of the bar in the loft sided with old barn wood….
Behind the bar…. Pool table will be in the back left corner of this picture…

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.

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!

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…

Don’t Fence Me In

 Actually, this particular fence is my favorite kind. A large portion of the back yard and into the field behind the house is being “split-railed” to give the dogs a big area to run without being able to run away.  A fine black mesh will also run the length of the fence so they can’t get through the split rail.  Sounds unattractive but it’s almost undetectable unless you’re right next to it.
In the above picture you can see the old well, re-installed and almost complete…
The backyard is shaping up quickly, Mike’s done a great job laying it out and getting it done.  He’s got significant motivation, you know….  he’s trying to avoid muddy dogprints tracked in from the yard and so he wants that grass to GROW… like YESTERDAY.  My transplanted perennials are still happy, so I think they’ll live.
Kitchen is coming together…..
A few more lights installed…
And today we start moving boxes over to the cellar….. ooooooh joy.

No man is an island…

 It took many men to put this house back together, and while it’s true there have been glitches and bumps and fist fights  disagreements along the way, there has also been a fantastic collaboration of real talent among these men to make This Old House what it is becoming. I see the weariness in their faces now… many long months of working on top of and around and underneath each other, and when the going got tough, sometimes the tough got psychotic   coffee!…  but look what they’ve done.  I hope they know how good they are….how well their talents are coming together.  

Jeff working on trim …

and island issues….there were a few.
The Klausen crew in front of one of their works of art…
Steve Seeley on top of his work of art…. he’s almost through the roof!
Pete, Mike’s right-hand man ….
Mike S. is new on the job…here he is installing shelving in the kitchen pantry.  Hey Mike.. a word to the wise… don’t move Steve’s rocks, like..ever… or ask Jeff to move his truck. 
Just sayin.
We’ve tried to find fixtures that were vintage looking….
Floor grates…

Taken for Granite

Yesterday the granite was installed in the kitchen and I love it. We opted for the “leather” finish, which really means it wasn’t polished to a high sheen, left in its more natural state.   The granite guy was aghast at my choice because he said it had alot of imperfections..as in huge veins and blotches of different stone and colors within the granite.  That’s exactly why I love it.
I found these funky reworked wood mirrors in the restoration hardware catalog.  Installed yesterday in the master bath. Now that the floors are laid down, the vanity has been installed too.
This morning I hijacked various perennials  from my current garden….
and put them here…
Thank you, Advil, for making it all possible.