Home on Tallmadge

Update- Welcome Nigel!

2010-11-29T09:35:00.002-05:00

It's been another long while, but wanted to share with my blog friends from days past our very happy news/update. Our son, Nigel was born on October 4th. This photo is from his first Thanksgiving. So much to be thankful for- especially as I think about all it took to get here. I've been busy with little house projects (the nursery for one) which I may post about... or perhaps "home on tallmadge" will reflect my current obsession and become Nigel updates. Most likely, though, this will be the happy sign off as I embrace my new full-time job being Nigel's mommy in our beautiful home on Tallmadge.

...been awhile...

2009-10-03T18:28:00.004-04:00

It's been awhile... I have not felt in the blogging spirit really. The momentum of the house being built really gave this blog it's driving force. That momentum and the (nearly) daily celebration of that positive was a huge part of what got me through that really difficult time. As friends and family know, aside from the personal losses, we had a horrendous time with our insurance company. Unfortunately that battle is still not completely over and I hesitate to completely "out" that company's bad behavior publicly on the internet until we're completely done with them. But I digress...

I'm posting because I got a really sweet email from a blog friend checking in because I've been so quiet for a while...

Aside from the fire, losing my dad and dealing with this pituitary tumor have also, obviously, not been the easiest things to deal with.... and the "rebuilding" from these two things is not nearly as celebratory. I can't separate the pain from the "recovery" in either case, if that makes sense-- neither is the "recovery" so glamorous or exciting to blog about.

I can't really even put words to the loss of my dad right now...

I'm basically fully recovered from surgery- and while it was "successful" in that the tumor was removed and there were no complications etc. etc., my cycle hasn't returned and I'm feeling increasingly dismayed about that. I'll wait another month before going back for more tests etc., but it's all starting to get to me. The promise of starting a family is something I've looked forward to for years... and has been another thing that kept me going through these challenging times. Moving back into our house-- everyone (ourselves included) were saying well, now you need some happiness, you need some positive news, you need some little ones to fill those bedrooms!! Well easier said than done.. I guess... or something....

I'm hopeful and worried. I'm sad and optimistic. I'm really trying to be patient but at times feel disheartened. I worry that we may be at the beginning of a long road while being hopeful that I'm wrong.

...and I don't really know that this blog is the right place to go into ALL that....

Before I sign off I do want to be sure I'm not misunderstood-- I am happy. I am so in love with my husband. I am living in an absolute to-die-for house. I have the most wonderful family and friends. There is So much joy in my life-- the little things like baking croissants, planting bulbs, teaching piano lessons, entertaining friends.... Please don't think I'm lying in bed with the covers pulled over my head lamenting about my woes! I like to think I have strength of spirit-- not intrinsic, maybe, but I've found it thanks to my husband, friends, family.. and- honestly- thanks to the challenges thus far. So maybe I'll pop back on to post about a dinner party or when I get the sewing machine up and running for the winter or hopefully (pls cross your fingers, toes and braid your hair) with some baby news someday.......

until then....

julia

Croissants

2009-08-30T21:46:00.006-04:00

Well, this blog is officially ALL OVER THE PLACE. It is struggling to find a new identity to reinvent itself, to figure out what it story really IS.... (not unlike myself of late.. .but i digress...). This weekend's forecast was rain rain rain. The effects of hurricane Danny(?). So I decided to make croissants. This was a three day affair-- as you'll see me in three different outfits. haha. I am so proud of the results. The taste test is tomorrow, but they look convincing and the whole house smells like a Parisian bakery!!

To make croissants, you must first make a yeast dough and a butter block. No joke, a BLOCK of butter. These are both refrigerated for hours so they reach the same temperature before you start rolling them out together and folding them (quite a labor of love, I must say).

Here you will witness the "first turn":

Removing the butter block and dough combo from the fridge..

Here I'm talking to dear husband saying "don't take a photo yet.. I'm just taking it out of the fridge!!"

Again, dear husband does not take heed, and snaps a photo of the dough transfer from cookie sheet to counter top.

The second turn being caught on "film"!

So after multiple "turns" which is basically rolling out the dough, then folding it like a letter, refrigerating it for hours and rolling it out again, folding it again etc.... Then it had to sit in the fridge for a number of hours. Luck would have it, today the rain cleared so we went to the pool! I came home in a frenzy to complete my croissant adventure tonight. I had to do the final roll-out and shaping of croissants in my bathing suit!!! haha.

I was worried that my inaugural croissant dough may have lacked in butter/dough layers. When I do it again I may take a different approach to the butter block. That said, I though my poor attempt at croissants might benefit from a filling! I whipped up an almond "fragipane" to wrap inside each one...

You then have to "proof" the croissants in a warm oven with a dish of steaming water for an hour and a half. The dough rises/expands and here's what they look like:

They are starting to look convincing!

Into the oven they go....

Wow, not that bad!!!

Yummers!

I am so pleased with the results. Tomorrow will be the true test-- an actual tasting! ... but I must say they look and smell very legitimate! We'll see how they taste and next time I'm thinking pain au chocolate or those lovely puff pastry elephant ears.... hmmmm....

Laughing out loud

2009-08-20T09:52:00.004-04:00

I'm here with my morning coffee and blueberry/yogurt/granola breakfast. It's 10am. Even though I'm about 90% at this point, I took this week off as vacation to save myself from commuting and take it easy. Turns out this "staycation" is the perfect medicine. I love waking up late, but in our very own bed in our new bedroom in our new house. It is so lovely to spend time here and really enjoy it. ...and I've also been catching up a bit on my blog reading.
Which leads me to why I'm posting. My most dear bloggy friend, Joan, at For the Love of a House just posted that today is her husband's birthday. This post has enlightened me on how some bloggers refer to their spouses. I've always gone with "dear husband" or M., but Joan informs that some bloggers go with Mr. Name-of-Blog. In Joan's case this would be Mr. FLOH. I left her a little comment signed with this new nomenclature and just about fell on the floor laughing when I realized that M. and I are Mr. and Mrs. HOT.

That might be a keeper... too funny.

Built ins

2009-08-15T15:22:00.006-04:00

Anthony came and finished the built ins the other day. I'm still playing around with what to put on the shelves but I'm so happy with they way the turned out. If you recall, this particular builtin was not in the original plans... but was a brainstorm of Anthony's to cover up the pipe you see in the photo (from January!) below.

In order to disguise the pipe which was too big to fit in the ceiling area, Anthony had two ideas. One was to do a tray ceiling in that area. We decided against this because we wanted continuity between the kitchen and dining room areas. The other option was to "beef" up that wall a little bit and add a built in around the window. I am so happy we went with this option. I think it looks fantastic!

Part One- something wrong.

2009-08-13T19:02:00.001-04:00

In November 2007, five days after our second anniversary, our house burnt down. A year later, the new framing and siding had gone up and we were assured that we would be able to move in come spring time. So, on our third anniversary, we symbolically threw away the rest of my birth control pills and looked towards the future of getting back home, starting a family and getting on with our lives. My obgyn warned that it could take up to three months for my cycle to become regular, so while I was disappointed at the negative hpts; I wasn’t worried that my period hadn’t come.

A little over three months later, though, and still without a period, I called her to express a bit of concern. Over the phone, she asked if I was sure I wasn’t pregnant (I was sure) and called in a prescription for Provera. Meanwhile, I had done some research online about the causes/treatments for amenorrhea (okay, extensive research). From this, I knew that Provera was basically synthetic progesterone which causes one to shed their uterine lining (producing a period) assuming that enough estrogen was present to have built the lining up. I had also read horror stories about the side effects of Provera and was uncomfortable with introducing more synthetic hormones into my body when the whole point was to get my body functioning normally. I researched the dangers of not getting your period which are related to low estrogen—basically osteoporosis and heart disease. From what I understood these become problematic over long periods of time without menses so a few months didn’t mean my body was in major danger. I speculated that maybe the reason I hadn’t gotten my period was the excessive stress from having our house burn down and having to deal with the nightmare of our insurance claim, moving around etc. I did more yoga, went to bed early, tried to be good to myself, I even tried five weeks of acupuncture (yes, acupuncture and I HATE needles!!!). We eat mostly organic foods but I switched to eating only organic for a few weeks.

Then
In the middle of May my father passed away.
It had now been seven months without a period.
I felt some silent clock ticking.
I started the Provera.

I didn’t have any of the awful side effects I had read about like raging mood swings, terrible cramping, heavy bleeding… but I also didn’t get my period. I called my obgyn who said to wait another few days that it could take up to a week after stopping the Provera. I waited- even while knowing myself enough to know nothing was coming. A few days later I called the doctor back again. She asked if I was pregnant. No. She said, “Well, we’ll put you back on birth control pills for a month.” When I questioned that she said, “Well we can try straight estrogen and then the Provera again.” When I questioned that further she said, “Well, I’ll mail you a script to have blood work done to check your hormone levels.” Though we finally arrived at a plan that made sense to me, I was skeptical that I had been the one to guide us to that point, that she had not called me in for an office visit but was prescribing things over the phone, and that 90% of my understanding had come from my own research not from my doctor’s explanation of what might be going on/why she was prescribing what she was prescribing.

M. and I agreed to get another doctor.

A short aside— I’ve come to learn that New Jersey hospitals have notoriously high rates of caesarians and other interventions in childbirth. The national rate for caesarians is a shocking 31% (medically justifiable rate set by the WHO is 10-15% based on a 2007 study in which higher rates of morbidity were found with rates below 10% and higher than 15%). The hospitals closest to us in NJ have rates in that range and higher—one at just under HALF of all births! Also the use of Petocin (to induce labor) is so common around here that I actually do not know of a single recent mom who was not given Petocin. I think we are very lucky to have these sorts of medical options when they are truly needed but I am increasingly skeptical of the prevalence in which they are used. In looking for a new obgyn therefore, I emailed a handful of doulas to see who they’ve worked with and been happy with—who they would recommend as a doctor who supports natural childbirth….

Through this, I found a new doctor with the first name Fred. I’ll call him Dr. Fred.

Dr. Fred was night-and-day compared to my old obgyn. One half-hour appointment and he explained everything in detail to me and talked through the shaping diagnosis. He said that since I had been totally regular while on the pill that I did not have an ‘outflow’ problem. Since I didn’t bleed on Provera it was clear that I didn’t have enough estrogen present… but the question he needed to figure out was what was preventing my estrogen. During the exam, he was able to express some liquid from my breasts which came as a huge surprise to me. Immediately he suspected that my prolactin might be elevated and ordered bloodwork and an MRI. He explained that there was probably a small tumor on my pituitary gland called a prolactinoma which was secreting prolactin (the hormone responsible for milk production) and that this would explain my loss of periods. He assured me that this was essentially never cancerous and while it sounded scary it would be fully treatable with medication.

Sure enough, when the bloodwork came back, all hormones were in the normal range except for prolactin which was elevated at 61. I scheduled an MRI and started Cabergoline which reduces the prolactin levels and shrinks a tumor that’s producing prolactin.

The MRI was scary for a girl like me who’s not a fan of confined spaces and hates needles. They had to do it with and without contrast which means ¾ of the way through they start an IV that injects dye into my bloodstream to my brain. On the suggestion of a friend, I asked my doctor if I could have some valium before the MRI and I highly recommend this to anyone who’s nervous about this sort of procedure. I was worried that the valium might make me really loopy or dopey, but in fact it just leveled out my nerves so that I didn’t feel like my heart would come pounding out of my chest and I would go running for the door. Another good suggestion I followed was to keep my eyes closed starting immediately when I lay down and did NOT open them until it was ALL over. That way I never really saw how confined the space is. Lastly, I kind of just focused on the sounds coming from the machine which were actually (and maybe the valium helped) kind of amusing and entertaining. All in all the MRI was not the most fun way to spend a morning, but not as bad as I had feared.

Dr Fred’s office called on Friday-- the Friday before the forth of July when many (myself included) were off work. I was out shopping for perennials when they called. Mike answered and they asked if we could come in. Mike reached me on my cell phone. Being called into the doctor’s office on the beginning of a holiday weekend to review results of an MRI was a little disconcerting to say the least. M. and I went over together. Dr. Fred greeted us with the MRI summary in hand. He said that as he expected there was a tumor on my pituitary gland however, it was larger than what he had anticipated. He said rather than it being a micro adenoma which is under 1cm, this tumor was a macro adenoma of 1.1cm. Dr. Fred was reassuring that this was just over the distinction for a macro adenoma, but never the less advised us to make an appointment with a neurosurgeon.

It is amazing to me that within two days, Dr. Fred had a solid diagnosis and proposed treatment plan. While a pituitary tumor was certainly the last thing I would have though was causing my amenorrhea, I do feel like my other doctor should have been more pro-active about the diagnosis. Lesson learned here is to do your own research- especially since the internet offers such a wealth of information. Secondly, don’t hesitate to switch doctors or see someone else. I think I may write a letter to my old obgyn—not to be accusatory, but just to outline why I left their practice and what my ultimate diagnosis was. Maybe next time they will err on the side of caution to complete a full diagnosis instead of a hit-or-miss prescription of hormones.

*to be continued*

update and trees

2009-08-09T11:29:00.003-04:00

I'm home from the hospital. Surgery was successful from what I understand, but recovery is going to be more difficult and longer than M. or I had anticipated. The pain is bearable (and the meds help) but I feel like I've been hit by a truck-- flat out exhausted. Basically I'm alternating between the sofa and bed-- reading, emailing, mostly sleeping... with the occasional lap around the kitchen island.

I'm realizing it'll probably be at least a week maybe two of this... which is kind of a bummer...

It does give me time, however to write/post on how I found out about this pituitary tumor and about the experience of surgery. Though it may not hold the same interest as paint colors, light fixtures or chandelier shades for those who check in here, it's possible that a sister or friend of yours might have similar symptoms some day or that someone may happen across this blog while doing a search for pituitary tumors. I am amazed at the sharing of information online and how helpful it was for me as I dealt with the diagnosis and the preparation for surgery... so I hope to give back a little of the same.

In the meantime-- and more in the spirit of this blog-- we had two trees planted yesterday. It was perfect actually because even in my diminished state, I propped myself up at the window and watched them as they dug the holes, set them in and mulched around them. It's special because we'll always remember exactly when they were planted and I am Thrilled with them and the thought of them setting down their roots deep and strong and reaching towards the sky.... just as M. and I will continue to do now home on Tallmadge.

Getting crafty- chandelier shades

2009-07-27T19:24:00.011-04:00

Distracting myself with the pleasures of home decorating for a moment...

I knew that I wanted chandeliers in the kitchen from the beginning- loved the elegance that they imparted to an otherwise utilitarian space. I was very happy with the ones we found- the sizing was right, the oil rubbed bronze fit in with everything and even the glass details picked up the glass cabinet knobs. That said, I was not thrilled with the way the bare candle bulbs looked...

Hence my latest craft project. Did you know they make chandelier shades that are especially for covering them in your own fabric? So exciting!

That said, it was WAY more labor intensive than I had anticipated. After employing a slightly different technique for each of the six shades, I still don't feel like I "have it down". The shades have a template that you peel off to reveal a sticky surface; I used the template to cut the fabric with a bit of overhang, but the trick/problem was making that overhang look good. The hot glue gun was imperative. At first I free-handed folding it over and securing it, but later tried the iron to crease the fold...

From a distance, they look good to me!

Up close, I see a million little flaws. There is no denying that these are handmade. Still, it's fun that we could choose our own fabric and ribbon and was still probably more cost-effective than buying each shade for $20 or more(!).... so maybe in a few years I can justify changing out the shades and work on perfecting my technique! In the meantime, I'm very happy with the way they turned out.

I do want to add another grosgrain ribbon around the top of each shade.... I just ran out of ribbon!

thank you.

2009-07-27T19:03:00.002-04:00

I have been reading and rereading the incredibly kind comments from my last posting. I have been so skeptical of the Internet as a social platform because I feel that people so often underestimate the public nature of everything from blogs to facebook and run the risk of sharing too much. With that said, I think I'm slowly starting to feel that the the pitfalls of sharing too much are actually outweighed by the benefits of having a wider network than one would otherwise have....
For example, I came across a couple of online support group/message boards for people with pituitary tumors(!) I casually perused the message board and came across someone who had many of the same symptoms as I did.... I decided to email her and we've been exchanging emails back and forth-- turns out she is about my age and a public school teacher in Brooklyn. It's been really nice to email with someone (even a stranger!) who is going through the same thing right now. I actually emailed her the list of questions I made and brought to my surgeon/endocrinologist so she could bring it along to her appointment and we've been exchanging info on the various NYC doctors.
... and while I hesitated to post anything about this on my blog, I'm happy that I did. Selfishly because I really do read through the comments when I'm feeling discouraged or down-- but also because maybe months or years from now someone will be newly diagnosed with this and looking for information or advice or a sympathetic ear....
With that in mind, I will continue to post about this pituitary tumor thing until it's (hopefully) resolved... but I wanted to say a sincere, heartfelt thank you to everyone that has left a comment-- it really has raised my spirits and bolstered my strength.
xoxo
Julia

Feeling blue

2009-07-17T14:00:00.003-04:00

Again I've let a terrible amount of time go between posts. I'll cut right to it- two weeks ago I found out that I have a pituitary tumor. The good news is that these are almost always benign. The bad news is that they grow and start messing around with your hormones and impairing your vision. Needless to say I'm still reeling from the news. The past few weeks have been blood work and and MRI and this past week consults with two different neurosurgeons. Yesterday I called to schedule my surgery which will be August 5th- about three weeks from now.

Even though the surgery is straightforward (as far a brain surgery goes), I'm still really scared. And while I hate being like this, I sometimes feel like calling "mercy"- to whomever is calling the shots because I feel like I've done a pretty good job of generally holding it together through the difficult times this past year... and now this. After the fire, really until we moved back home, I felt so distant from "normal" life... like on a completely different plain of existence than everyone else just going about their business. Being present for my father's final days and losing him.... it was maybe even more so- just so detached from the life that everyone else was living. I was just beginning to feel like I could emerge from that space back into the 'real world' when I got the news of this.

I can't really group any of these things together. They all feel so different but that feeling on the outside of life, looking in (or maybe the other way around) is similar. I happened upon a quote the other day, "life's beauty is bound to its fragility" and that resonated strongly with me.

I feel out of sorts... I think I will until the surgery is over. To cope, I've promised myself lots of gardening and lots of yoga. Today I bought delphiniums and hydrangeas to plant. Gardening is wonderful work- it's artistic, it's exhausting, it's rewarding.. but behind it all is a connection to life and that delicate balance between what one can control and what one can't. There's beauty in that balance. Yoga is similar. It's about accepting what "is" and living within it.

Life hasn't been so easy lately, but life is beautiful. I am profoundly lucky in so many ways and I know I'll get through this next challenge... but wanted to explain why I've been and will be absent from here for a while.

Wreath

2009-06-21T19:27:00.003-04:00

The colors appear a little bright in this photo... but here is the wreath on our front door. Turns out the black front door looked a little severe; it definitely needed something to soften it. I've been on the look our for wreaths and haven't seen anything I liked that wasn't so $$$. Well, one trip to Michaels solved that. The grape vine wreath was $3.99, the flowers were about $2. (Ribbon I had already and played around to make a pretty bow) Long story short-- for under $10 we made a pretty little wreath and I'm especially excited that I'll get to change out the decorations with the season!

Growing!

2009-06-19T07:04:00.002-04:00

We did it-- we grew a lawn!!! There are definitely an inordinate amount of weeds (less visible in this photo) but we're working on it. Also I planted some impatients around the holly and it looks quite nice. We're hosting a neighborhood get-together on July 4th weekend with TONS of kids. I'm relieved that the lawn is buffed up enough to withstand all their little feet running around!

This was how it looked just two months ago!In other planting news-- the East of Eden rose I planted in one of the boxes off the deck has the most beautiful flowers now. They are these heavy full roses that just look so romantic. Here are a few that are peeking through to "our" side of the deck.

House updates

2009-06-13T07:15:00.006-04:00

I realize what a long while it's been since I posted photos. Since my last house post- there's a handful of finishing touches that have been completed- both by our builders and by ourselves. First the kitchen:

The backsplash is complete. I'll admit, I wasn't in love at first sight, I don't dislike it- but it didn't really add anything for me. That said, dear husband loves loves it-- so I'm not giving it a second thought. We also lowered the chandeliers a bit-- I'm working on little shades which I think will soften the whole room. I also need a window treatment for above the sink.
Dear husband also chose the fabric for behind the desk and I think he did a fabulous job. The fabric covers what is essentially a bullitin board material so we can tack up memos or calendars or (someday) kids drawings behind the desk. (Right now the fabric looks so pretty I don't want to poke anything into it, though!) I'm thinking I might see about using a bit more fabric to cover up that switch plate..... I don't think the top of the desk was stained when I last posted and so that looks very nice- it compliments the floor and the chairs that are at the island.

We've also made some progress in the living room. Here the tile work around the fireplace is complete and this I LOVE. What's funny is that dear husband isn't as wild about it, so we joke that the backsplash is "his" and the fire surround is "mine". I'm just sooo happy with the way it turned out. Another side chair arrived (the cream colored one in the corner) which is nice because it's another comfy place to sit. Actually I'm sitting in it currently with my feet on the leather cube! The mantle is Very Much a work in progress- so just ignore that for now....

Lastly is the music room. The color in these photos is a little off and the room is small enough that it's difficult to photograph... but we took the rug from upstairs and moved it to under the piano which really ties the room together.
...and here you can see the built ins are finally complete (except for cabinet knobs). I'd like to get (or make) a little cushion for the bench, but already the bench was in use this morning by mother and son while I taught daughter her lesson.

It's interesting that which each little step forward, the house before seems so empty, new, and cold. It's nice to warm up all these spaces with little finishing touches. More to come!

Julia

Father's day.

2009-06-12T19:32:00.005-04:00

It has been awhile.. okay, a long while since I've posted. My father passed away on May 17th. When you lose someone you love so much it's like the whole world goes into "shut down" mode.... and everything still feels completely upside down. I find myself tentatively stepping back into aspects of my life- because re-starting each is an acknowledgement of things going on- without dad- and I still just can't quite come to terms with that. Blogging is especially strange because this blog has, for me, been such a celebration of optimism and forward motion with rebuilding our house and also because many if not most of the people who check in here are people I've never met in person so to share this deeply personal time is somewhat strange.

I spoke at my father's memorial a week ago. I had to prepare something. At first I was so completely overwhelmed- how could I possibly summarize in a few paragraphs, a few minutes, everything that Dad was and meant to us. Realizing that there was no way or expectation to do that... I sat down to write and it was one of those uncanny times that it just came together. I feel like in order to move forward with this blog I need to acknowledge this incredible loss in my life..... I don't know how to do that really... but I think the worst way would to be inauthentic, forced. So at the risk of being too personal, I'm going to post what I read at my dad's memorial because I feel like it best captures him and me and what an incredible man and father he was.

(my parents on my wedding day, November 2005)

Some of you knew my father for many more years than I did, but I’m one of the very select few who can say that I knew him my whole life. I feel so lucky to be the daughter of Peter Gray…. Particularly because as I understand it, he didn’t intend to have kids! Before they were married, he confided this to Mom, who, I imagine, gave her understanding and reassuring nod. A few years into their marriage, however, she presented him with a proposal- literally, on poster board- which lauded all the benefits of having children including, “Someone to bring you your slippers after a long day!” The presentation must have been compelling because here I am-- and seeing as my little brother came along a few years later, I take a certain pride in having further convinced my dad on the benefits of having children… of course, the other argument would be that I didn’t adequately fulfill my slipper-bearing duties, so they had to try again.

Dad was a phenomenal father from the beginning. He was in between jobs when I was born and reportedly put a call from a prospective job on hold, explaining that he was in the middle of changing his daughter’s diaper. (He got the job offer). Maybe that experience reinforced his natural instinct to put his family first because, as his family, we certainly always felt that way. Though my father spent many nights and weekends working up in his study while listening to WQXR or the opera, the door was always ajar—and my brother and I knew that we could knock softly and enter if we needed anything- a snack, to show off a new dance move, or for Dad reconcile one of our sibling disputes. Dad never missed a dance performance or school concert. He sat through hour upon hour of music recitals beaming with pride, he helped us decorate our bikes for the forth of July parades, went camping with the cub-scouts, put up with the giggles and gossip from my middle school slumber parties, read us bedtime stories, comforted us through late night thunderstorms, and bandaged up our skinned knees.

Dad always had a smile for his kids. Even as his illness progressed and he was unable to speak much, if I prompted, ‘I love you daddy” he wouldn’t skip a beat to respond, “I love you too kiddo.”

My dad had good veins and strong hands. He had thick hair with just a few touches of grey. He had “Gray family” eyebrows but only grew a beard once, when we were very young and he was in bed with pneumonia and unable to shave. My dad had soft brown eyes. He wore a suit and tie exceptionally well and his shoes were always polished. My dad smelled like Old Spice. His handwriting was not good, but I like to think that was expressive of his brilliance. My dad enjoyed good food and fine wine, but relaxed with a beer. He was not very good at braiding his daughter’s hair, but he tried once or twice to please me. My Dad broke his toe trying to teach us kids how to do a headstand in the den one night after dinner. He was always level headed- I can’t remember ever once hearing him raise his voice in anger. He was incredibly patient- even when attempting to teach his headstrong 16 year old daughter how to drive stick-shift in an old Volvo station wagon that kept stalling in traffic. My father loved music—one of my favorite childhood memories is him and my mom playing piano together in the living room and I remember them getting dressed up and leaving us with babysitters so they could go to their subscription at the New York Philharmonic. My dad walked me down the aisle and danced with me at our wedding. He was handsome, polite, and happy. My dad was also- hands down- the smartest man I’ve ever met.

No question- I only got through trigonometry and calculus with his help. At Exeter the math curriculum was taught without any kind of text book- as students, we were expected to deduce the theorems from the problems the teachers assigned to us. I’m sure my father would have excelled in such a curriculum, but I struggled a bit. Lucky for me, somehow dad and I coordinated a few 6am phone calls: Me, calling from the payphones in the dark echoy basement of my dorm and Dad patiently walking me through various problems between mouthfuls of cornflakes before he headed off to work. I even remember one especially difficult weekend of homework where Dad faxed some of his diagrams to a place in town so we could be looking at the same thing as we talked. My dad was super smart, but he also had a true gift for teaching. If I didn’t understand it one way, he would try another approach and another… until I got it. Then, to test my true understanding, he would have me “teach” it back to him.

When I was home on breaks from high school and college, Dad would schedule a time where just he and I would go out for lunch. These were some of my most treasured times because it was just the two of us and always gave me incredible insight into all the big questions of that time. Dad had a unique talent of framing an issue. After I poured my tangled teenage heart and soul onto the table, he would start, “What I hear you saying is this….” And somehow repeat all the key points of my tirade in a clear, sensible outline which suddenly brought the issues into focus for me. I remember one particular lunch when I was agonizing over whether or not to go to music school. Dad said something to me that one can only make a decision based on the information one has at the time. As such, there can be good decisions that have bad outcomes and “bad decisions” with good outcomes. In other words make the best decision you can and don’t obsess too much about the outcome. He also said sometimes you just go with your heart.

The support of my father to go with my heart was one of the greatest gifts and I imagine that my brother feels the same way. His wisdom in this matter allowed us to pursue our education, our passions, our dreams and even lead us to finding spouses with whom we share the same kind of loving marriage we witnessed between our mom and dad.

When we were young, each night after the full bedtime routine- baths, stories, songs, and kisses- we developed a little tradition in our family. After tucking us in, but before leaving us completely, Mom or Dad- or sometimes both- would call up from the landing on the stairs, “I’m at the bottom!” My brother and I, in unison, would call from the darkness of our bedrooms, “Goodbye, goodnight, and I love you. Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, sweet dreams and what can I think about.” Mom and Dad would then call back from the light of the landing, “Goodbye, goodnight and I love you. Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, sweet dreams….” and give us something to think about as we drifted into sleep—maybe what our Halloween costumes would be or what our favorite ice cream flavor was or our spelling words for that week, or all the places in the world we wanted to visit…

I can’t imagine never hearing my dad’s voice again… but that’s one of the things I can still hear him saying so vividly... and it’s been kind of going around and around my head lately as if there’s some voice in my head that keeps calling to my dad, “Goodbye, goodnight and I love you, sweet dreams, sweet dreams, sweet dreams…” and when I tune into it, I can just hear him saying it back to me knowing he gave us a whole lifetime of things to think about.

Time out

2009-05-10T18:52:00.011-04:00

I've been sporadic with blogging of late, but this is an official time out for now.

My father who has been ill for many years with what was diagnosed as an unusual presentation of Alzheimer's had a severe decline this last week. He now bedridden and not really eating or drinking. My brother has flown in from San Fransisco. I've been in CT with my family.

It is so heartbreaking.

I am so thankful that mom and dad made it to our house for easter. I am so thankful for having such amazing love in our family.... Everything feels so upside down. We're all sad and numb and tearful and doing our best to make sure dad is comfortable.

When I was little, we would vacation on Martha's Vineyard. My father loved to sail. He would take my brother and I out in the little sunfish individually and teach us some basics. He instructed me on how to deal with a change in wind, how to change the course of direction, how to travel upwind. His large hand atop mine on the rudder he would cue, "Ready about?" Gleefully I'd yell out 'Helms-a-lee!" and together we'd push the rudder away, duck our heads as the boom swung over us and the sail flapped in the wind before filling again with air to pull us in another direction.

Lately, these sorts of memories have flooded my mind and this is one that's stuck. I think because my father always looked so happy with the sun and the salty sea air in his face. I can picture the way his eyes smiled as he gazed out at the ocean or back on shore where my mom and brother would give us goofy waves. That was a perfect time and I like to daydream myself back there, wishing that changing course was as easy now.

Dinner Party

2009-05-03T20:07:00.007-04:00

We had a dinner party on Saturday with some close friends. It's fun to get the house all ready for guests. We decided to throw a table cloth on the table for this event and I bought some white tulips.

As we were expecting about ten people, we also set up the table outside!

Dear husband was excited because he got ALL six burners going preparing for dinner.

We planned a "pasta bar" dinner with three different serve-yourself pastas: linguine in a clam sauce with clams and shrimp, penne with lemon pesto and salmon, and campanelli with sausage in a garlic basil pink sauce. We also made a big salad and had fresh baked rolls and freshly grated cheese. It was a hit! Here we are with Brian who used his artistic talents to label the pastas dear husband created.

Brian's daughter is Chelsea. She's sixteen and has become a good friend. Here we are before we made whipped cream for dessert. Chelsea is going to both junior and senior prom this year and sews her own dresses for these events-- how cool is that?! I threatened posting this photo to facebook and she made me smile by saying, "Great, I'll tell my friends that that's a photo of me with my cool friend that can do everything." I said, "What do you mean, I can do everything?" She said, "Well, you can drive... you own your house... you can go to bars...." It really made me laugh. (and feel old! ;)

Dinner worked out perfectly-- some of us sat inside, some out. As it was getting a bit nippy, for dessert, (chocolate cake with whipped cream, strawberries, and choc. chip cookies!) we all came inside-- here's a shot of the table: Counter-clockwise from the head of the table: Brian; Anthony's wife, Megan; Dear Husband; Brian's dad, Richard; my piece of chocolate cake waiting for me!!; Brian's daughter, Chelsea; Brian's mom, Iona; Brian's wife, Janet; Anthony.

After dinner we all played Taboo. What a fun game! Here's dear husband and Janet. Janet took her clue-giving very seriously.

Anthony kept saying the keywords that you're not allowed to say. We were all laughing throughout:

I think Brian's parents had a good time with the game. Brian's dad, Richard was really really good at giving clues!

Would you believe the sixteen year old was the first to poop out?! Chelsea! You can see she was winding down in this photo (with her chin on our coffee table). As for dear husband and I, we didn't get to bed until after 1am!!! Unprecedented-- we don't stay up that late on New Years! It means it was a really fun party.

Did I mention that Brian is the architect that designed our house and Anthony is our builder? I am so incredibly grateful to have met such amazing, wonderful friends through the crazy experience of having to rebuild our house... and look forward to many more celebratory gatherings.

I pulled Brian aside at one point and said, "See? Is this totally the vision you had-- here we are entertaining- M's cooking up dinner, but we're all still a part of the party, in this gorgeous open-floor plan space...." Brian said, "Julia, it brings tears to my eyes; I couldn't be happier for the two of you." How's that for a good friend?

Few updates

2009-04-28T06:43:00.005-04:00

The exterior of the house is looking better and better. Our front walkway (bluestone) was laid about a week ago, I've planted some of the herb seeds in the front beds and outlined them with little stones for now so I could see where I planted what.
Our driveway was paved yesterday and you can see the faint hue of Green grass(!!!) that's germinated on the front lawn. Dear husband and I were up at 5:45 am to make sure we got the obligatory 20 minutes of watering before the 93 degree heat hits today. In this photo I'm holding up the mailbox and house numbers so Anthony can put those on today. I love the way our house looks this time of day- the morning light is so pretty.

Moving inside, our sign arrived today! M. picked it out to go in the large empty space above the doorway from the living room into the dining/kitchen area. We had tried to find an authentic antique or handmade sign, but the options were just too pricey.... if we find something perfect someday we can swap it out, but I actually really love how this looks in person:It'll be hung here:

It's great too because the black lettering picks up the armoire, the wood planks are so similar to our coffee table top and the turquoise picks up a bit of the chair!

Anthony was working at the house today. He stained the top of the desk and will be back today to put poly on it. It's pretty- almost the same color as the floor. The stain is Very stinky though and the catch 22 is when we open the windows we smell the freshly paved driveway!

Anthony also put hooks in the cubbie off the garage. (the missing one will go on today). I am SO thrilled with this cubbie area. Love love love the beadboard.

I have some gardening photos from the weekend to upload in the next day or so and have been doing some more thinking on the direction of this blog.... I struggle with how to balance where we've come from (getting back on our feet post fire) with our "new" life (being home!).... I have a couple ideas which I'll share when they are more solid. Anyway, having not been able to post for so many days, I'm happy to be back!

Sick computer

2009-04-27T09:44:00.002-04:00

Our home computer is sick... and we cannot log onto the internet. Funny to have a weekend without internet access. On the one hand it was sort of refreshing, but I did miss posting (and checking on my favorite blogs). Spent the whole weekend working on garden stuff so I have sunburned shoulders and photos to post once our computer is better. Stay tuned.... xo Julia

New dawn

2009-04-19T18:27:00.010-04:00

When my parents came for Easter they brought us a house warming present-- a climbing rose called "New Dawn". They hadn't realized the name-- but it's wonderfully fitting.

New Dawn is a prolific bloomer, reportedly pretty pest/disease resistant and is a very pale pink color. Since the inception of the trellis on the deck, I've pictured growing climbing roses up- so I was thrilled. It became apparent, however, that the placement of the two AC units made the area not so ideal for the roses. Also, planting them in the ground would mean they would have a LONG climb. Window boxes seemed the perfect solution!

I went to the Farm at Green Village-- which, I've decided is one of my favorite places in the Entire world-- and they had exactly what I'd envisioned. White boxes made of recycled plastic which means they will be as resilient as the rest of our deck. Thing is, they were NOT cheap.... I bought one, asked about their return policy, and hastily signed the credit card receipt while distracting myself with the gorgeous organic perennial display.

Dear husband had to take me to the hardware store to buy a properly sized drill bit (3/8") so I could drill the drainage holes... (thank you! my very first drill bit all my own!)

Then I had to mount the brackets to the deck... (Thanks again to the cordless drill my in-laws loaned to us for move in!) ... and finally I mounted the box! Looks great! Next step was planing the climbing rose.
Here we are, the New Dawn climbing rose in her box and me, looking proud! I had dear husband come out to take a look and he gave me the go-ahead to just buy two more boxes. His words were, "While we're still hemorrhaging money from the construction, why don't you just go ahead and buy them."

One box will go in between the two air conditioning boxes and the other will go right next to the one I've already installed. I'd like to get one more climbing rose and a couple of clematis to climb with them.

(This photo also shows the holly bush I planted today. It seems that our landscaper missed one- thinking it was a goner maybe. I think it stands a fighting chance, so I threw it in the ground. Worse case, I'm digging it up again next year... but fingers crossed it'll take.)

Here's New Dawn roses along with clematis... pretty combination, right?

The good news is that with the amount of money I spent at the farm this weekend, I got some "Farm dollars" good for my next purchase. I think that more than justifies a trip next weekend and I'll have to remember to bring my camera... it truly is a heaven-on-earth place that I could get lost in for days!

thoughts

2009-04-15T09:43:00.003-04:00

whew. I just got chills looking at the last posting alongside the photo of our 'old' house.... I'm struck by how similar they are and what comfort that brings, but it's also this bizarre reminder of how long ago that 'before' seems.

Once we're a bit more complete, I'll need to post a completed exterior photo on the sidebar. With that thought, I'm realizing I'm soon going to have to re-envision just what this blog is going to be. I'm beyond relieved to be closing the chapter of "rebuilding our house and our lives, post fire" but where will that leave my little blog....?

exterior updates

2009-04-15T09:33:00.004-04:00

What a difference it makes to have shutters on the windows above the garage. Now I'm anxious to have the front door painted!
They've also seeded the lawn. It smells a bit like a farm near our house-- the good farm smell of wet hay. The lovely mulching job on the beds around the house was done by none other than dear husband during his spring break last week. Both the seed/hay option and the self-mulching were ways to trim down our budget as we come to the end of this job... but neither, I think, sacrificed quality.

Here's a view from the back (pre-seeding) but you can see how the deck has been finished with the lattice-work privacy screen on the left-hand side. We also have the grill set up- which we bought with credit card points! The downside was we had to assemble it ourselves which took hours struggling with bad directions-- but I'm proud to say husband and wife worked brilliantly together and the grill actually works! ;)

...and last night I snapped this photo of our deck furniture. I can't wait for it to warm up so we can have dinners outside. They have yet to build a bit more support into the lattice work. My parents gave us a "New Dawn" climbing rose for easter which I'm thrilled about because my idea has always been to grow some climbing roses (perhaps along with clematis) up the lattice work.

There is a strong possibility that our backsplash installation begins today.... so stay tuned!

How to make a house feel like home...

2009-04-12T18:47:00.004-04:00

This was a big weekend. We invited our builders and their families over for dinner to celebrate being (almost!) done and then my parents came for Easter. This meant that we had to get the house looking the best it could.

We made up all the beds.. which warmed up all of the bedrooms.

We hung the curtains and one of our prints in the music room.

Fresh flowers around the house make ALL the difference.

Look at how lovely one of our Janet Hill paintings looks framed and hanging in our dining room.

But a house really starts feeling like home when it's filled with friends and laughter...

.... and kids running around the kitchen island in their PJs after dinner...

... and a few days later, Mom, with a glass of champagne and an Easter bunny, toasting to all we've been though, how far we've come, and that we're home.
... and dear husband looking relaxed. That's the best way to make a house feel like home!

Shutters and Settling in

2009-04-07T21:33:00.009-04:00

SHUTTERS:
In addition to the lights- they hung one pair of shutters and installed the little corbel detail under the front overhang. I LOVE how finished it's starting to look/feel.

Initially the electricians had installed these standard-issue plastic doorbells. We went to restoration hardware and for $8 bought this lovely one which really finishes off the front entrance. Due to the texture of the stucco, it didn't fit flush, so they put a little bit of azek trim behind it.... it's kind of pretty the way it frames it.

So imagination is still definitely needed here. Picture a painted front door, some door numbers, shutters on the windows above the garage, a bluestone front walk and of course some greener landscaping (minus the orange cone, extension cords etc.)....

SETTLING IN:

Switching gears completely, i couldn't resist snapping some photos of our kitty cats making themselves at home over the weekend. Here's Zin looking out the sliding doors off the dining room. I just love the way the sun streams in.

Here he's contemplating jumping onto the built in... (This was the built in that was done in order to cover the pipe that stuck out above the window. They did such a wonderful job with it, the molding details are incredible.)
This photos' awfully dark, but this is Zin checking out my seedlings in the window sill. (You can see some of the deck railing- actually the stairs going off the deck- through the window)

Yep, they are cute little baby seedlings right now.. but not for you to eat, Zin!

Meanwhile Caelyn, found a lovely bit of sunshine on the coffee table to curl up in.

let there be light!

2009-04-07T19:05:00.004-04:00

Apologies for not posting in over a week. Truth be it known, I've been a little out of sorts because work slowed down so much after we moved in. Our builders made such a big push to get us in on March first... but then the past number of weeks there hasn't been so much change and there's still alot left unfinished. We were getting antsy. I'm not a fan of clutter so the unpacked boxes are driving me nuts.

But today the electricians came back and installed our light fixtures... and wow what a difference. It's like getting all dressed up to go out... and THEN putting on your fanciest earrings. That metaphor might work most especially given the sparklies that adorn many of our fixtures. Here's a little tour.

The front hallway. What I call a bell-jar light from Hinkley lighting.Our master bathroom. The sconces are from Restoration hardware and the chandelier is ABC from a store in town.

I'm so happy with our chandeliers in the kitchen. They need to be lowered but they are exactly what I envisioned. This photo really doesn't do them justice....

This is the chandelier in the blue bedroom. Again, apologies for the terrible photo.

Upstairs hall light (Same as the downstairs hall). We agonized a bit over these hall lights but I am Thrilled with how they look....

The chandelier in the yellow bedroom. Dear husband picked this one out all on his own. How can I say no.... my only thing is to change out the candles to white... but it's a really pretty fixture.

I'm amazed at how transformative these lighting fixtures are. I was just starting to worry that our home had a bit of that 'new construction' feel... but the chandeliers instantly warm it up and give all the rooms a bit of old world flare. What I can't adequately capture in these photos too is the romance each room has (even the hallway!) due to the fact that they are all on dimmers.....

...on that note, I'm signing off to interrupt my personal chef (aka dear husband) with a kiss.... A husband that cooks + fancy chandeliers in the kitchen... ooo lala. Which reminds me I need to work on window treatments for this room ;)

Settling in

2009-03-30T06:53:00.004-04:00

Little by little- even with the plaster dust and drop cloths and wood glue and tile samples-- this house is feeling like a home. I planted some herb seeds last night which made me exceedingly happy. I really, really missed gardening while we were displaced for a year and a half so am excited to get back 'diggin' in the dirt'! I may do a later more detailed post on this project later...
Also, this weekend I baked cookies for the first time in over a year! I really loved baking and this was another thing I've really missed- although I was also traumatized by my last attempt which was just after we had gotten settled in the first apartment post-fire. The apartment was new construction which appealed to us because it was clean and looked great-- but there were SO many things wrong with it- the worst of which were faulty smoke detectors (of all things!) that went off at the slightest thing. We ultimately learned that you had to put the fan on High in order to even boil water on the stove top. Anyway- this was about two months after the fire; I had the idea of taking a "mental health" day to settle in and bake cookies for the fire department as a thank you. Everything was great until I opened the oven to check on the first batch and smoke alarms went off and I couldn't get them to stop.... I'd press the reset button and not two minutes later they'd start blaring again. Long story short- I opened every window in the apartment, eventually in a fit of despair threw the cookies (sheet and all!) into the snow-- and with my nerves totally fried, literally shaking, took the train into work just to get away from it all....
Sooooo this was a MUCH better experience! The blue star convection worked wonders and I made up a couple of little cookie packets to leave for our builders to take home to their families.

Lastly, in the evenings we've been letting our kitty cats out to explore (after we vacuum and wet mop the plaster dust up!) It makes me so happy to see them out and about. Caelyn, our little black cat is a little camera shy-- but here are a couple of photos of Zin:

They both love all the windows in the house-- good for checking out the birds and squirrels and sittling in patches of sunshine. Here's Zin looking out the window between the builtins in the dining room.

..and here's where he sat while we watched a little television last night. I'm so happy that all four of us are slowly relaxing back to being home.

Ideal Tile

2009-03-28T18:44:00.004-04:00

Anthony met us at Ideal Tile today to help us with our backsplash decision and fireplace surround decision once and for all. (How awesome is a GC that goes with you to help with design decisions?!)

Great news!!! We've settled on a backsplash! It's a pretty, classic porcelain tile with a crackle finish. There's a mix of colors- all gentle neutrals: bluey greys, greens, and browns. The backsplash will be the subways shown here. Behind the range will have a tile molding around framing a the square tiles placed on the diagnal.

Here are just some photos of me playing with the sample Vinny let us take home.

Here's a close up of the tile. ooooo it's so creamy and pretty!

Next up was the fireplace surround. Anthony built this to-die-for mantle which you can see close up here. He is truly a master carpenter-- the detail on the mantle is not lost on us. We looked to him to take the lead on what to do for the surround (within the mantle).

We settled in on these slate tiles. We already have a soapstone hearthstone.... The idea for this will be to use the harlequin (diamond) tiles for the top right below the mantle and above the fireplace. This will be finished off with the black marble pencil molding you can see here too. Then going down either side will be the simple square slate tiles (two across on each side). I am SO excited about the harlequin pattern... what is it with me and things on the diagnal?

Vinny spent so much time assisting us with our selections. He also drew up a mock up of the fireplace design. Here he is! We are so lucky to be working with such masters in their trade.

bathroom updates

2009-03-28T18:35:00.002-04:00

Our masterbath shower door is installed. It looks so faaaaancy!

...and most of the hardware in the shower is installed. The whole bath is gorgeous- can't wait until we can actually use it! We did run into a snafu with a couple of the handles of the RH Dillon faucet and diverter. After a lot of worry and a lot of phone calls we hope it's resolved. RH is sending out replacement handles and hardware which hopefully will arrive soon. That's the only thing holding us up from being able to use our bathroom.

See that hole in the wall above the main shower faucet? That's where the diverter is suppose to go which will switch the water flow from the overhead to the handheld.Also, here you see our sink.. with sadly only one working faucet. Still, I can be patient, the bathroom LOOKS amazing even if it isn't yet functional!

and talk about life changing--- we got a towel bar and tissue holder installed in the guest bath (which is what we're using until we 'move' into our bed/bath). What a difference that makes! No more hanging our wet towels over the shower curtain bar-- no more reaching around to the back of the toilet for the tissue roll. It's the small things that you can sometimes be most thankful for!

not done yet!

2009-03-23T19:04:00.007-04:00

The area rugs we ordered from overstock.com arrived. We have two of them in the kitchen (both in red) and one in front of the door to the deck- the same style, but in black. They are indoor/outdoor rugs which should clean up well in these high traffic areas.

It's always nervous-making to order things sight-unseen, but I'm very happy with them. I like this photo-- I can't quite believe it's our kitchen. Even though the rest of the house is in disarray with so much continued work (and the dust that follows it)-- these little vignettes make me happy. It's amazing how the elements come together from the linen white of the cabinets and the door style to the hardware and soapstone and the sink and the latest touches of textiles.

That said, here are a couple of the things I'm so anxious for them to finish up. The built-in's in the dining room:

The doors on in the laundry room to cover the washer/dryer instead of having them propped up on the walls.

Clean up the dust (from wood, tile, drywall... and goodness knows what else) once and for all. We're fighting a losing battle here! Every night when we get home we vacuum and wet mop everything... but it's back the next day. Worst is Saturday mornings when the sun is streaming in....

Change out the diverter to the correct one and replace the tile in the hall bath. Oh and uh finish our masterbath and bedroom so we can move out of the guest room!

...and here I was going to point out that I'm longing for the fireplace surround... but I have to put that on hold... doesn't the mantle painted white look just heavenly? For as anxious as I am for them to finish... I'm even more happy thankful to be here at all.... Surrounded by such an amazing house- it is much easier to be patient.

Placing plants

2009-03-22T07:43:00.005-04:00

Greg our landscaper came early yesterday morning before any of my piano students arrived so we could set the foundation plantings. He'll be back on Monday to stick them in the ground!
It was really cold out, but the sun was shining-- giving me just enough of a taste that spring is going to be here soon.What do you think of something like this for the front? In and among these boxwood foundations is where I want to plant my herb garden... but I like the way these add some permanent interest and frame our entrance way. It's starting to look like a "real house"!

Here are the "contractor's boxwoods" to cover the gas meter. These and the dragon lady holly were the only things we purchased-- everything else was salvaged from our previous home.

You have to use your imagination here, but I'm thinking hydrangeas on either side of the chimney and that's a full/low boxwood in between. I of course have visions of filling this out with perennial and annual plantings, but these are the foundation plants.

Here's another view with a larger boxwood on the corner of the house. I do love boxwoods....

Again, please use your imagination, but that's a hydrangea on the corner of the deck-- some peonies in between that and the stairs. Those large posts on the deck are where the lattice will be and I'd like to grow white climbing roses and clematis up there. Still figuring out how to hide the two air conditioning units in front...

Here's the back yard. On the far right is forsythia, next a Japanese maple which looks like it has a fighting chance and then two plants which really may or may not pull through. We're going to stick them in, give them some love and see if they take... but if not, we'll hoick them out.

Another view of the side/chimney area.

And of the front...

This view is from our neighbor's yard so you can see the side of the house. I like it too because it has some grass (where our yard still looks like a giant mud pit!)

Here's another view of the back... use your imagination... I think I could potentially frame out our whole back yard with beautiful perennial borders and have a gorgeous private retreat....

Another view of the back.... I have never liked that jacob's ladder plant and it's not looking good. out it goes!

Here's the side-- more boxwoods interspersed with azaleas. Again, these will be the foundations but I'm excited to plant some sun-loving annuals on this side of the house too.

This was one of the most fun mornings-- I was running around like a little kid-- pointing, "Let's try that holly over there!" and, "What about the hydrangea here?" and carrying the smaller boxwoods to the front of the house. I still have to figure out where the rest of the peonies will go... and take another look to make sure everything is in place before tomorrow.

Resiliance

2009-03-21T18:11:00.002-04:00

Would you look at this? I could not believe my eyes. These little beauties are showing their glory in our front yard. M. and I had tried to dig up all our bulbs last august before demolition knowing how destroyed our yard would be... only to have the landlady of our apartment throw them all out. I was devastated.

... but here are a couple we missed.... who also somehow made it through all the construction. It fills me with such joy.
... and these may even fill me with greater joy!!! They don't look like much.. but you may see that bit of pink popping up there... they are my PEONIES!!! Greg found them and they are sprouting already. Who knows how they'll fare once they are back in the ground, but I'm just glad they weren't too torn up or gone missing. I love these peonies.

Front of house day dreams...

2009-03-20T20:00:00.026-04:00

Hydrangeas are among my absolute favorite flowers. They were in my wedding bouquet and I adored the ones on the side of our (old) house. I love the shape of the flowers, the color and texture of the leaves...and the dried flowers are to die for. I've been thinking, dreaming of a pee gee hydrangea for the front corner of the house. I love white flowers and I think the white and green would look stunning against our house.

A simple google image search of pee gee hydrangeas is enough to make me drool:

I'm thinking on the corner by the music room window- kind of where that piece of plywood is in this photo:

Can you imagine this display of blooms in real life?

I would like to ground the landscaping in the front of the house with some other foundation plantings that would maintain their interest throughout the seasons. Perhaps some of our salvaged boxwoods (who look very sad on the side of the house right now).

...and then my real plan for the front of the house is to start a (mostly perennial) herb garden!

While unpacking I came across my all time favorite seed catalog from seed savers exchange. A (non gardening) friend joked to me once, "what is that? garden porn?" I don't think it was the look of pleasure on my face that made him ask the question- but rather the high-gloss, absolutely sinfully gorgeous color photos of heirloom vegetables, herbs and flowers. So I've been trying to figure out what my garden budget is going to be and make my wish list.

I had initially planned to do raised beds in the back and try my hand at square foot gardening. I've been pouring over the book for months and sketching out my plans... but ultimately I realized I should simplify this year.... I realized since so many of our shrubs didn't survive the fire, transplant and winter... some basic landscaping had to take priority. So I've tabled the idea of my raised bed vegetable garden for now and am focusing my energies on an herb garden in the front!

I love that herbs can be both functional and highly ornamental. Favorites first. Lavender is one of my all-time favorites... a definite for my garden. I've grown Hidcote from seed before but I'd also like to try English (true) lavender... and maybe even a couple other strains...

Sage is anothe obvious one. Look at how stunning this border looks (with swiss chard in the back- gorgeous!)

Tarragon. Love tarragon.

Rosemary is a favorite that we've grown before and actually had success overwintering. I love the smell of rosemary- and the taste! Also it's a pretty plant whose spiky texture will compliment the softer foliage of the other herbs.

I've never grown chives before but would like to try. Their flowers are pretty and the shape of the plant is conducive to my vision.

I've also never grown hyssop before. There is also a variety with white flowers which I might prefer.

Wormwood is another new one to me, but I love the shape and texture of the leaves.

Anise would be a new one too, but I like the flavor and the green and white goes with my vision.
Bay leaf is gorgeous.... not sure if it'll be difficult to grow where we are...?

Parsley- check. Both curly and flat leaf, please.

Bee balm. I think I just love the name. I'm not sure of the uses for this herb... I'm pretty sure it's not for any culinary uses, but it does attract bees and the flowers are pretty!

Another name that I quite like is Lamb's ear... and look how pretty the silver leaves are in a border.

We'll need to plant some chamomile I think.

This posting is becoming rather long... and I'm still not done with my herb seed wishlist, but I must add this photo. Basil is an obvious one for our herb garden and we've grown genovese basil and lemon basil before. This year I'm dying to add one of the purple basils to our list-- look how pretty they look together!

Now I just need the builders to finish in the laundry powder room (where I will be doing my seed growing) and for the soil to warm up!

dragon lady

2009-03-20T06:52:00.006-04:00

How's that for a blog post title! haha. Dragon lady is the kind of holly tree we got for a natural privacy screen on the back of our property. It's a narrow holly that can grow up to 8-12' high and 4-5' wide, but also responds well to pruning. It has the glossy dark green leaves of most holly but they are not as spiny as some. Deer tend not to like them so that's also a plus. It looks nice to have the back yard cleared out and leveled a bit...

This is the view from off our deck. We have a small property with neighbors right against us on all sides. The idea is to create natural sight barriers. Those plants in front of the shed are the ones that survived the initial transplant.... we're still deciding where exactly they'll end up.

I wish I had a photo of the front yard because it's a MESS. All the shrubs that didn't make it are in a pile on the front yard. It looks pretty awful.

But the backyard is getting there...Behind the dragon ladies will be a french drain. I think Greg graciously left the pile of dirt to the right in this photo because my precious peonies are somewhere in there. The plants all died back in the winter-- but the tubers are in there somewhere. I have a feeling that as soon as it warms up a bit, I'll be out there with my trowel to hunt for them.....

Exterior updates

2009-03-18T19:18:00.002-04:00

They put some beautiful molding around our garage door today, installed the weatherstripping and a keypad. It finishes it off so nicely.

... and here's our deck in progress.

What's so amazing about this product is these little caps that go over the nail heads so they all but disappear.

Tomorrow Greg is coming to regrade our property, deliver a bunch of topsoil and build in the drainage. He'll wait to seed and hay until the soil warms a bit more, but we may start seeing some basic landscaping on Saturday. Meanwhile.. I've got my own gardening plan in the works.

Mattress mistake need advice!

2009-03-15T10:21:00.005-04:00

If you recall when we got our mattress and boxspring delivered we were a little, uh... surprised by how TALL it was. It was something that honestly I just couldn't deal with for the first week it was in the house. We've been sleeping on a full bed in the guest room while they finish our master bed/bath, so it was out of sight/out of mind. But everytime I went in there I had a bit of an anxiety attack about it.

.... so one night this week while husband was practicing piano downstairs, I decided to go in and actually investigate. These photos don't adequately show how GIANT this set on our bed is. I'm 5'2. Literally the height came to about mid-torso for me. I tried climbing up onto it and that was something, but then getting Off the bed was even more ridiculous. We had joked that I would need a trampoline or step stool to get on and off the thing, but turns out it wasn't so much of a joke. It's one thing now, but can you imagine when I'm pregnant or when I'm 65? I'd need an automatic lift to get into bed! Also, I was not happy with the way it took over the whole room.

Our bed (from the Valencia collection from Pottery Barn) doesn't need a boxspring. I had just assumed that since we had a boxspring before that we would want a set again, however it's clear that our old mattress which was a real cheapo kind had a MUCH smaller profile.. suddenly with a high quality mattress it was overwhelming. I decided the boxspring had to go.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... SO much better.

The whole room opened up again and I don't fear for my safety when I think about going to sleep in this room. In comparison it looks a bit low now, but add a fluffy duvet and some pillows and it will be perfect.

Now you can actually see the lovely settee from the other side of the room. Okay so problem solved.... except we now have another problem on our hands..... we have a queen size boxspring. I could really kick myself because had I just ordered the mattress alone in the first place we would have saved $$$. After weighing all options, we had decided to go with a high quality, Royal Pedic all organic mattress set.... so it's not your standard boxspring either.... On Monday they are going to call back and let me know for sure, but on speaking with the vendor, they basically said that the cost to ship it back is so great that we won't really get any refund at all. So here are our options-- please, please weigh in-- we've been going back and forth all weekend.

1. Try to sell it. We had a nibble on craigslist, but for literally pennies on the dollar for what we spent. The pro of this is it would be off our hands and we could put it out of our minds. M. said if this is the one expense mishap in our whole rebuild it's relatively minor.... still it's painful to take such a financial hit on-- jeeze-- a mattress mistake!

2. Donate it. Pro is I think we could claim a deduction for the full amount. But it seems somehow a bit strange somehow to donate such a high-end unopened... boxspring.

3. Keep it. Here's where things get tricky. We have a full size set for the guest bedroom, but we could buy a queen mattress for this boxspring and have another fully-functional guest bedroom. In future years, though, these guest bedrooms will hopefully have permanent residents. I know plenty of kids grow up sleeping on full size beds... but to have a queen size in a kids bedroom....? Especially being that these are not huge rooms and we don't have a basement or other playroom area.....

Argh. I've now flip-flopped once again on this.... opinions are welcome and I'll keep you posted...

stucco and decking

2009-03-11T19:33:00.003-04:00

Sorry I've been out of touch for a few days.... been sick with the most horrendous stomach flu. Got to be very good friends with our new Kohler, but I'll spare you the details....

On the brighter side, I realized I had not yet posted a photo of the exterior of our house. Here she is-- the stucco is all done, the exterior lights are up and all we're waiting for is some nice black shutters to finish her off and the front door to be painted. Oh, and, some landscaping would be nice...

Speaking of landscaping-- here are the few plants we did purchase. Some dragon lady holly for the back (my new nickname with dear husband has become dragon lady) and a couple of contractor boxwoods to cover the huge gas meter on the side of the house.

They started the deck the other day.... (Seen from out the french sliding door off the dining room). Pretty hardware, no?

...and here's a view of the deck (in progress) from the outside.

Friday evening photos

2009-03-06T19:25:00.005-05:00

Anthony started working on the fireplace mantle today. Wow. It's big!! but so beautiful. i think it fits the room perfectly. I can't wait until it's finished with the surround and painted. Also I'm getting increasingly excited to unwrap my curtains, but it's probably best to allow some time for the dust to settle....

...and he's been hard at work at the cubbie in the mudroom (hallway) outside of the laundry/powder room. I am SO happy with it. The attention to detail is just amazing. The beadboard is gorgeous.

....and our masterbath shower continues to come along. Look at the niche has the same subway as the border surround. It looks great.

Again. this photo makes it clear that we're in a state of construction, but you can get a basic feel for how the rooms flow from one to the next (this is taken from the kitchen).

...here again... kitchen-dining- family room view. Still a major work in progress... but we're getting closer every day!

Thursday evening photos

2009-03-05T19:29:00.002-05:00

Our master bath shower is coming along. I still can't believe we have a niche for our shampoos etc. The marble tile is so shiny you can see your reflection in it! I like the detail of the border of subways that Anthony came up with. Also the floor (the basketweave) is gorgeous.

Here's looking from the bedroom into the masterbath.

This is the disarray that is our master bedroom. That's where the settee will reside, but it will look much better once the room is finished.... (pls excuse the pile of laundry on top of the padded mirror on top of the dresser.. nevermind the lamp without a bulb or shade....

Our mattress arrived yesterday and the joke is that I'm going to need a step stool or a trampoline to get into bed! I'm not thrilled with how it looks from the bottom of the stairs, but think it may look better once the plastic wrap is off and the bed is made. Also, once the area rug is laid it may not be So evident that it is so tall....?

They just started installing our banister and balusters going up the stairs. I have to say that it's not quite what I was expecting. Had I been paying a bit more attention I would have chosen something more simple.... these are a little more ornate than I may have liked, but I do remember signing off on it from the picture. I think in a couple months I won't even notice the difference, right?

I took this photo because I think our door knobs are out-of-this world. I woke up Sunday morning and just stared at the door knob thinking, "wow, that's a beautiful door knob". Sad, maybe, but true!
Here's the stairs going up. To get everything to code, there will be a railing on the left-hand side of the stairs... but we may opt to then remove it while we're young and able... we'll see...

Mom, this photo is for you. Here is a better glimpse of our cabinet hardware... the mixture of knobs and pulls we decided on.

They are starting to put the crown molding around the dining room. They had to do some searching but they found molding that exactly matches that in the kitchen. It's this kind of attention to detail that makes me just adore our builders!

Not the best photo, but here you can kind-of-sort-of see our dining room table in position with one of the windsor chairs. It's all very cluttered right now and I'm getting really eager for a backsplash to finish the kitchen (one of the more difficult decisions for us!)... but I think it will all come together eventually....

As shown in these photos, dear husband has been bustling about, getting dinner ready and we're about to eat! I'll try to continue to post updates... life feels a little crazy these days! ;)

Family Room

2009-03-04T06:41:00.002-05:00

My mother pointed out that she couldn't see the area rug in the last photo posting.... so here you can see it. What's funny is that obviously the whole room centers around the fireplace mantle which, as you can see, is not finished! (no, we're not keeping that lovely aluminum surround! ha). Also we're getting a couple other side accent chairs. The windsor chairs you see here will go around our dining room table.

This is the view the other way. Isn't the light just beautiful? The dining room table is over to the right hand side. It will be going lengthwise across the room but this has been a high-traffic area thus far which is why it is pushed to the side.

sneak peak

2009-03-03T15:50:00.005-05:00

Okay, we're still moving out of boxes and things are in disarray, but here is a sneak peak at how things are shaping up. Here's the family room which is the most finished. I LOVE the armoire and the chair.... the curtains are tied up to get the pleats right, but the fabric is perfect.

Across from the armoire is the sofa. (Okay this was not so neatly staged)... but was my little curl-up with a blanket and check email station last night. I'm so happy with the rug and the sofa and how all the fabrics work together....and here's dear husband doing a silly dance in the kitchen last night... The settee to the right will actually be going in our bedroom....

Here's the music room. We'll be moving the piano out from the walls a bit. There are pocket doors that close off this room when we're teaching lessons and the wall opposite the piano has built in bookshelves.

Here's a photo of our wedding print that will be hung between the built ins in the music room. We had everyone sign the mat instead of a guest book and this hung above the fireplace in our old home. The night of the fire, around 3:30am when the fire was contained, two firemen brought this print out to my husband and I where we sat on the curb. I wept as they gave it to me... and it brings tears to my eyes now to think about. I am so happy to have it back.

..and here's our downstairs powder room. The washer dryer is on the opposite wall behind bifold doors. I joked with M. that the room is so glamorous that I could do laundry in a ball gown!

More photos in coming days.... but wanted to give you all a sneak peak. I am exhausted, a bit sore, and still a little nervous/frantic about moving and all..... but I am very, very, very happy. This house is beyond my wildest dreams gorgeous... and I can't believe it's ours!

Moving

2009-03-03T15:31:00.004-05:00

The past three days have been an absolute whirlwind. The morning of our move there were so many people at our house getting things ready... Thankfully it was a beautiful day.

Here they are taking the piano off the truck. We lost our beloved piano in the fire-- this is the piano I grew up playing. My parents sat us down and said that it would get played so much more in our new home. It makes me sad that it's no longer at their house, but we've already played it every day since we've been home. It is incredibly special to have it here.

Meanwhile there were three wonderful woman cleaning up the massive mess inside. I swear there was three inches of dust all throughout the house-- from the wood, from tile cutting.... I don't know how these ladies did it, but the house just sparkled when they were done.

... and here were all the salvaged boxes which we unloaded into the garage.... and spent the weekend going through. After the fire, this company came in and cleared out anything they thought was salvageable. They cleaned it and packed it and it's been in storage ever since.

It's amazing because these boxes contained some things that were destroyed, some things that had no value to us and real treasures.

At the end of the day we were exhausted. We finally got the cats moved out of the apartment and into the yellow bedroom. We set up our bed and made makeshift curtains by hanging a duvet cover over the window. This photo makes me smile. It's our cat, Zin, finally at home. You can see our funny curtain (actually I'm thinking I might use the fabric for some pillows or something) and that lump... that's dear husband passed out asleep.

Apartment

2009-03-03T15:16:00.002-05:00

Before I share some photos of the move and our beautiful, unbelievable, amazing home. I thought I'd share some lovely photos of the apartment we've spent the last number of months in... just for kicks and laughs. In truth we were very thankful for a fully furnished place nearby that was month-to-month and allowed kitties. That said, it was definitely a character-building living experience.

Here was our kitchen. The cabinets you see. That's it. We stored our dishes in the dishwasher so we would have a place to put food. We once ran the dishwasher after dinner and were awake with the giggles because it was SO LOUD. It was definitely better used to store the dishes than wash them.

Yes, that is a fake plant on the fridge. Came with the place.

Lovely bright red accent wall in the kitchen with an even lovelier painting. The phone did not work. Like the island range? There was nothing on either side of it.

This is one of my favorites. This is the dresser that dear husband and I have shared for the past number of months- we each took a side. He generously let me have the center top drawer too.

Uh yeah, so needless to say we did Not sleep on these sheets, but this is how the bed was made up when we first saw the place. Also, the mattress was literally like sleeping on marshmellows and made a bo--iiiing sound when you sat on it. We knew it was bad when we stayed over at my parents' house on their 20 year old fold out sofa and thought it was the most comfortable thing around.

The sofa. Also please note the industrial carpet and the closet we shared in the back.

Here's standing in the kitchen, looking through the living room (the sofa is to the left) into the bed "room".

Okay. I'll now post some more pleasing photos.....

TODAY!!!!

2009-02-28T06:52:00.003-05:00

We woke up at 5:45 and dear husband is on his way to CT to meet the movers at my parents' house (where our boxes have been in storage) and I'm suppose to be packing up the apartment a bit and running errands etc. I'm sure builders are already at our house-- there are many things left to be done but the bottom line is we and our kitty cats will be sleeping there tonight.

Yesterday was Very exciting... so much so I snuck out of the office around 2pm bc I just couldn't take it any more! We took a TON of photos, but then left the camera at the house :( so I don't have anything to post.

I am going to be in big trouble :) if I don't get crackin with my jobs, but I just wanted to leave a quick post to all my friends who have been checking in here to say THANK YOU for all your well wishes and support and encouragement and excitement and I will try to sneak some time in today to post some photos. We're (basically) HOME!

xoxoxooxoxoxoxox
julia

two more paintings

2009-02-27T07:12:00.002-05:00

... and I purchased two more beautiful Janet Hill paintings. I'm thrilled.

Thursday

2009-02-27T07:08:00.006-05:00

See the exterior lights that dear husband left on for me. Amazing to see lights when you drive up to the house!

Here's an up close:

Wednesday evening

2009-02-25T21:51:00.004-05:00

They framed out our deck yesterday. Those large posts will be for a privacy screen of lattice work. We live on a small block where the houses are close together. This will shelter the deck just a bit. I hope/plan to grow clematis and climbing roses up the lattice work.

Oh WOW. Our washer/dryer. I'm excited that we went with the black which was dear husband's idea completely. We had gotten into a small tiff on our way there because I had written the directions down completely wrong and gotten us very lost... so when he said black, I didn't even think about it, I just agreed. Turns out- I love them!

Here's the vanity in the laundry powder room with the sconces on either side. This room is turning out really, really well. I love that it feels so formal. Did I mention all the lights- even in here are on dimmers? I joked to M. that I could do laundry in a ball gown ;)

Our bathroom takes my breath away. They hung the mirror and it's pretty amazing.

They are putting a niche in our masterbath shower for shampoos and things:

...and here's the bench seat in our shower:

Whew. The hall bath looks stunning. They grouted the tile in the bath/shower and put in some of the fixtures:

I never dreamed it would look this amazing.

We have a working refrigerator!!!!

... and here she is: the blue star. I think we should actually give her a name. Dear husband is completely ga-ga over this babe. I'm pretty smitten myself actually.

We move in the day after tomorrow. It's been a whirlwind week-- lots of little details coming through and falling through. I think we're doing a good job of staying above the fray.... even if we're sleeping on the floor (our mattress delivery is one question mark) and showering at our neighbors (though this should be fine)... we're just so happy to be getting home.

More photos from yesterday

2009-02-25T06:48:00.003-05:00

They started cleaning up our yard a bit. The trailer is completely gone so you can see the front of the house for the first time in months. The dumpster's time is limited too....

Our masterbath floor was grouted. It gives me goosebumps to look at... it's so pretty... I really cannot believe it's ours. I love the base detail.

This is hard to see, but they laid the tile for the back mudroom (well, hallway) and laundry/powder room. We had wanted to do slate, but as this is going to be a high traffic area and also to save a bit, we went with a porcelain look alike. It looks great.

... and we ordered our knobs and pulls yesterday after deciding on the larger glass knob (here) and counting up the number needed about a million times. We'll do these knobs on all the upper cabs (probably in the placement shown, rather than higher) and also on the top bottom drawers which are smaller.

On the larger bottom drawers, we'll put this 6" pull. This pull will also be on the garbage and panneled dishwasher.

A couple more photos of the kitchen which I'm just over-the-moon about:

I love love love the panel on the side of the island. It finishes it off so well.

I think, once we're home, will just sit down in each room for a couple of hours with our mouths agape in awe, pointing out details to one another. I'm so happy with the way the supports on the island turned out.

Look!!! under the cabinet lighting!!!!!

Here's the desk; you can see the drawer style.

Lastly, here is a (sad) photo of the landscaping plants that didn't make it.

But here are the ones that did that will be replanted. Any questionable plants of which there's a couple, we're going to throw in the ground and hope for the best....

four day countdown

2009-02-24T18:37:00.002-05:00

It was a flurry of activity at the house today. I took off work to meet with the insurance adjuster and be there for the appliance delivery.. so I had the joy of witnessing it all first hand.

It was the first I had seen the floors in person. Dark walnut is gorgeous, perfect, just what we were hoping.They have a bunch of mats down to protect the floors now.

The appliances arrived early afternoon. They backed the truck right up to the front stoop to unload the appliances.

Meanwhile they were breaking stuff up to fit more boxes/plywood etc in the dumpster. I'm laughing looking at this photo bc it looks like Anthony is flexing his muscles standing on the dumpster.
Alan teased me, you ordered the blue refrigerator? (its stainless under that wrap!)
Can you see her peaking out from behind the island? That's the blue star! Dear husband is going to be soooo excited. Also look at all the bottom cabinet drawers. It looks so pretty in person, I was about speechless.

The electricians were busy. Our ceiling fans are installed as is all the recessed kitchen lighting. Yes, that's our powder room vanity in the middle of our living room... and it looks amazing!

Here's the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I Love how the dark floors brought out a little more grey in all the paint colors.

Here's the blue room. I think once we add some furniture and an area rug this will look really soothing and nice. I was a bit worried that the grey blue was too blue and too bright.

Look how grey it looks here though! Pretty, no?

I have loads more photos from the day to post, but have to run to meet dear husband who has not yet been to the house! We're four days from move in... amazing.

my babies

2009-02-22T21:48:00.003-05:00

It's late but my head is spinning with what lies ahead this next week... gearing up to move and all. I realize I haven't mentioned two of the other most important guys that have gotten me through this past year and a half-- our kitty cats, caelyn and zin. This photo is from our funny current apartment, but here's how they spend the better part of every day- wrapped up in one another. When we're home, though, it seems all that love and affection comes our way. How many completely sleepless nights would I have endured if it weren't for Zin cuddling up and purring me to sleep...? Thank god we all got out of the house okay... and thank goodness we'll all be back home soon....

A painting!

2009-02-22T07:54:00.004-05:00

I have been after one of Janet Hill's beautiful paintings for months now. She posts about one a day and within minutes, I kid you not, some lucky soul snatches it up. I'm on there every afternoon just waiting to pounce, but someone always beats me. Until now! Yesterday was my day; this beauty is soon to be ours.

The first thing I noticed about this painting was actually the pretty turned leg of the table, but my eye was immediately drawn up by the line of the table into this lovely space.

It's entitled 'Mimosas" which is fun. Given that one week from today I'll be waking up in my own house, I feel like we should be toasting! I love that this painting combines some of my favorite "janet hill" elements. A gorgeous interior space is a given, but I like how this one combines both a living area (the camel back sofa) with a dining area. I love that there is a bunch of flowers and some of the lovely bluewhite china that has appeared in some of her other paintings. Lastly, I like that there is a scene ready to be played out... four glasses of bubbly, some pastries, a bowl of fruit.... Soon the party will begin and this scene will change- but for this moment it is still, frozen in time, a small captured moment of perfection.

I (really) hope I have a couple more of her paintings to post about soon. We're under the gun for our personal property deadline and have a few pieces of artwork we need to replace.... and I long to have a mini collection of Janet Hill's work.

exterior lights

2009-02-22T07:46:00.004-05:00

Though we can wait on a number of our interior light fixtures (they'll just put bare bulbs in to get us started) I knew we were coming up on the deadline to purchase our exterior lights. Leave it me-- I made a spreadsheet with twenty-some-odd options with their measurements and pricing and gave it to dear husband to peruse. We narrowed it down to four and called the lighting store to see if they had them in stock for us to see.

We wanted just a classic black lantern look, approximately 12". But, like everything, it is amazing how many options there are: finials on top, clear glass vs bubbled glass versus crackled glass, rounded vs square. Anyway this is what we found we liked the best in person. Looking at the photos, it wasn't my favorite, actually, but in "real life" it was the clear pick. We got one for either side of the front door and one for over the garage.

patience

2009-02-19T06:47:00.003-05:00

The floors are being stained this week so we're not allowed in the house. As might be expected, I'm having a hard time with this. Last Friday I went around and took a ton of photos to keep me occupied and Saturday we peeked in the sliding door to see how the first coat looked.

It's starting to feel like we're in the home stretch. We're slated to move in on February 28th, Saturday and we're literally counting the days. Once the floors are done, next week there will be a flurry of activity to get things set for our temporary C of O.

landscape

2009-02-16T09:01:00.007-05:00

Today we met with the landscaper to talk about a plan. With the dumpsters moving out in a couple weeks (whoa) and the driveway scheduled to be repaved in the next two months... there's a crucial window of time to regrade the property and figure out what plantings we're able to do. To be honest the meeting today was a little bittersweet because with every step forward it's also a little bit of letting go. We had attempted to transplant alot of our old shrubs before demolition... but very few survived. I am sad about this because while we inherited the landscaping and some of it wasn't to my taste... it was sure alot easier than starting totally anew.

Aside from not being able to play the piano or bake anything in the past year and a half, one of the things I've missed the most about "home" has been not being able to "dig in the dirt". I really loved tending to the plants around our home, adding new ones.. even mowing the lawn.

Two of my favorites were our hydrangea plants and these gorgeous peonies. The summer after the fire, the plants didn't know any better and presented this beautiful show of blooms despite being surrounded by a terrible dilapidated house. One afternoon- with the house looking (and smelling) so awful and burnt, I cut a bunch of the peonies and delivered bouquets to our neighbors to thank them for their kindness and understanding. I really hope these peonies made it....

The summer before the fire we had just planted a couple of lilac shoots:

..and started a shade garden on the side of the house:
We had an extensive container garden on our back deck. We grew everything from seed-- lots of herbs and flowers and vegetables:

I hope that the landscaper numbers come back okay. I think our priorities are to have the property regraded, get the lawn back in presentable shape and get some foundation plants that then I can plant around with perennials. Our property isn't large... but starting from a construction site with lots of mud and machinery and dumpsters... it's hard to picture any different right now. All that said, these old photos remind me how wonderful it is to watch things grow, to nurture plants and enjoy their beauty. I'm filled with optimism and hope that we'll again be able to enjoy this aspect of homeownership.

kitchen knobs and pulls

2009-02-15T07:47:00.008-05:00

Here are the glass knobs we have our eye on from Restoration hardware for the kitchen cabinets:

Here dear husband models them:
What to do on the drawers is more tricky. They make glass pulls:
but we're not so wild about them and we would need something larger/stronger for the dishwasher pull...

So we were thinking maybe pulls like this from RH.

jen4265 from the gardenweb forum has these same knobs and pulls in her kitchen only it looks like in a polished nickel finish.

Another option is to use two of the knobs on some of the drawers:

(edlakin's kitchen on gardenweb)

(...another unknown gardenweb poster's kitchen)

Cup pulls are another (popular) option and one dear husband likes. What I don't like about cup pulls is: 1. they are big. the glass knobs on the top have such a small profile that I think this would look bottom heavy. 2. you always have to turn your wrist to open a drawer. 3. i feel like they'd get dirty inside and would be hard to clean. To me, they are also not quite as classic somehow.. definitely not as formal.

(rmkitchen from gardenweb)

So since Dear husband loves the glass knobs and the orb pulls, I think that's where we'll end up. Once we're allowed back in the house (they are doing the floor stain this week, so we can't go inside!) we'll have to take a real look at the cabinet/drawers and see what we'd like where.... I do think it would be nice to do the two-knob option on some of the smaller drawers. We'll see!

my (true) valentine

2009-02-14T09:55:00.013-05:00

dear husband, michael,
you sweep me off my feet everyday

life with you is a dream.

...and we're almost home!

My valentines!

2009-02-13T18:47:00.006-05:00

Okay, this isn't the best photo of any of us (Anthony, me and Alan).... but do you love the silly Valentine's Day banner I made for Anthony and Alan (and all the other AJD builders)? While dear husband distracted them, I taped it to the lovely yellow dumpster in our front yard to suprise them!

I cannot say enough about these guys and the work that they do. They've built this amazing, gorgeous house that we will call home..... After all the hardship and heartache of the past year plus-- these guys have really turned it around for us. We are so grateful for their hard work and their friendship.... We love AJD builders!

master bath

2009-02-13T18:38:00.003-05:00

Look at these beautiful floors:

and dear husband and our friend Adam picked up our vanity which had been in another friend (Don's) garage for the past, oh, six months!

Pretty spectacular, no?

I cannot believe that these spaces will actually be ours... our everyday life... I am just so amazed and so thankful.

hall bath

2009-02-13T18:18:00.003-05:00

The hall bath looks Amazing!!! There are a few elements that aren't quite right and are being changed-- the paint (yellow, currently) is all wrong (everyone is allowed one paint mistake, right?) and we're going to change it to the same "Paris rain" that's in our bedroom. This will pick up some of the greens that are in the soapstone. The other thing is the vanity will not have beadboard-- it will be a standard raised panel. Okay, that stuff aside... the tile is out of this world. Out of this world! I love the combination of the diamond pattern with the subways.... and the tile on the floor is gorgeous... the basketweave is beyond my dreams and our builders had the incredible inspiration to do the base molding with the pencil rim in a black honed granite to match the soapstone. stunning.

I cannot wait to take a bath in this bathroom. ahhhhhhh. heaven....

Here's the soapstone countertop and sink in the hall bath.

...and here's an up close of the tile. look at the detail-- the way all the lines match up and that lovely detail on the side of the tile in between the diamond and the subways. It is sooooo beautiful!

I don't love this photo because the vanity doors are wrong and the yellow is really irking me... but look at that lovely pencil molding on the base. wowy!

evening update

2009-02-12T20:36:00.002-05:00

Dear husband is so good to me. I had to work a little late tonight but he agreed to meet me at the train station with camera and flashlight in hand so I could go see the progress. We're home now at 9pm and he's cooking dinner while I upload my photos. They redid the masterbath floor and I must say it looks SO much better now that everything is symmetrical.

And they started tiling around the bath tub in the hall bath. It was so long ago, I almost forgot what we had decided, but this diamond pattern will be on the bottom with subways on top. This was a compromise-- I love the diamonds and hubby liked the subways:

The built in's are framed out. Here's in the music room. The idea is these will be bookshelves on either side with a bench seat in the middle (where kids can sit while they are waiting for their lessons or I can sit with my glass of wine in the evenings while dear husband plays me love songs ;)

Here was one of our inspiration photos:

...and here are the built ins being framed out in the dining room. This will be a kind of built in hutch.

Similar to this:

Last but not least... our toilets have arrived!!! They are sitting in the garage in big boxes currently... I can't wait to see them when they are in!

guest bedroom

2009-02-11T07:01:00.004-05:00

Here was my original inspiration photo for our guest bedroom... which is kind of making me chuckle because obviously there is no vaulted ceiling or room for a four poster bed or a whole slew of other things. Mainly I like the deep reds and yellows. We have a beautiful quilt (which has been "living" in our volvo for the past five months) which is this color and while in Vermont over the holidays we bought a serene watercolor of a winter scene with a barn that's the same deep red.

But somewhere in my plan the room turned decidedly more yellow... especially with these new finds (from craigslist). (Two throw pillows and yellow linen window treatments). I'm wondering now whether to embrace the blue/yellow... or will all these colors work okay together without looking like too much. Do I put the area rug in this room instead of the blue room?

another craigslist find

2009-02-08T18:30:00.002-05:00

If you remember, we found our gorgeous farmhouse table on craigslist. I've just had another lucky find. A woman was redoing her entire living room and selling everything from a gorgeous custom sofa, two side chairs, this rug and window treatments. We bought this pretty all-wool rug along with two custom yellow linen window treatments and two throw pillows. I think this rug will probably go in the back (blue) bedroom. I'll try to take photos of the pillows-- one is a really pretty blue/yellow toile.

fireplace sketch

2009-02-07T15:02:00.002-05:00

Look what Anthony is working on:

backsplash- long and photo heavy!

2009-02-07T08:53:00.020-05:00

When we first went to the tile store last summer to work on our bathrooms, I was drawn to these gorgeous accent tiles. I just thought the glaze on them was gorgeous, I love the kind of botanical themes they had and the colors were so pretty. They've been in my mind ever since so you can imagine my delight when Vinnie, tile extraordinaire, who was helping me with our backsplash, pulled the creamy subway tile from this collection down as an option.

This photo does it no justice, but the subways on the left are a creamy white which nearly perfectly matches our cabinets (the one on the right is too grey, but did have a pretty crackle pattern in it). That's a sample of our countertop we were also using to see how they would all work together.

White subway tiles are a popular choice for white kitchens with black countertops.

Our builder is gently nudging us towards other options, with the worry that a plain white subway in our kitchen may look a little "boring".

My argument would be that there's a fine line between boring and classic. Going with something more unique might seem fun right now, but we could be fed up with it in five years and the backsplash is not something we're going to change. That said, I can see from these inspiration photos how the backsplash doesn't really add any pop to these kitchens.

This one looks especially bland, but if you put some cheery window treatments and barstools with cushions and even put some more everyday clutter ;) on the countertops, it would look so sterile. This kitchen, for example, is gorgeous. It has the same dark floors that we're planning and it looks like someone actually Lives there. So while the backplash isn't adding a huge design element to the room, it's certainly not taking anything away either.

We could also try a porcelain subway in a different color. Something neutral but that would give a little more pop to the space:

If we did go with a plan subway, it might be fun to do something like this- a herringbone pattern- above the range. I like the subtly of it but it adds a little interest.

GLASS TILE:

Anthony, our builder, was throwing the idea out there of a glass tile. Glass tile has a beautiful shine to it that would really pop and the color options are endless. Glass tile does, however, add a distinctly contemporary feel... while our tastes lean more traditional. That said, here's a photo of a beautiful, classic white kitchen with exactly this sort of backsplash. pretty!

All the glass tile options I saw yesterday, though, seemed way more contemporary. This was the closest contendor, but I just think it looks too modern for us...

Another options we're considering is a natural stone backsplash.

MARBLE TILE:

This looks pretty in a white kitchen similar to ours:

This tile is gorgeous. I loved the greens and blues and greys in it and the movement is stunning. In a way the marble is somewhere between the total classic/traditional porcelain tile and the more modern glass tile. It would definitely add some interest to the kitchen and a part of me feels like you can't go wrong with natural stone.

That said, I think I'm still leaning towards the creamy porcelain. If you told me that was going in tomorrow, I would be fine with it-- any of these others I'd need to think on. I would be thrilled if we could incorporate some of those pretty accents.

I think I'll drag dear husband back to the tile store today and see if we can't come a little closer to a decision on this one. Any thoughts would be welcome!

Soapstone and crown molding

2009-02-05T19:50:00.002-05:00

We were all smiles tonight with the amazing progress. Here's a photo of dear husband. I'm standing on the landing off our master bedroom looking into the hall bath (with the gorgeous basketweave floor!) Look at the baseboard molding in the hallway... and I think the hallway color is going to be just fine.

I realize I didn't post a photo of the front bedroom. The yellow at first made me a little nervous, but I think it's going to be pretty. I am over-the-moon about the crown molding in the bedrooms. wowy.

..and this is the back bedroom that I've posted before. I think it will make the most perfect little nursery at some point. Again, how gorgeous are the base and crown molding.... I'm in awe...

So we knew that the soapstone countertops were going in today... so we raced over to the house immediately following work. We let ourselves in and use the flashlight to plug in the extension cords to the construction lights. I was speechless just staring at the beautiful countertops. A good ten minutes later, M. exclaimed, "oh my goodness, they put the doors on the cabinets!". I hadn't even looked up. It's all too much to take sometimes!

Here you see the stunning veining in the soapstone. Also I'm so pleased with the cabinet doors and the hood detail (which we designed). I like that it's accented without being too pronounced.

Here's from a wider angle. Oh my goodness... it doesn't even seem real. I'm so glad I insisted on symmetry around the hood/stove. In hindsight I should have been there for the templating... the island was meant to be rounded off a bit more... but I'm thrilled with the way things are coming together.

Look at this gorgeous stone. This is the slab to the left of the range.

And our Shaws sink is out of this world. I'm happy with our Vinnata faucet and soap dispenser too.

I truly can't believe how amazing our kitchen is going to be..... It's more than a little overwhelming actually.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from work. In the morning I have to meet with the inspector from the bank. Then my mother is coming down from Connecticut to see the progress on the house. I'm SO excited to share it all with her.... It means so much that she's making the trip down. I'm also going with our builders to pick up the vanity and bank fixtures that our friend has so kindly stored in his garage... and later in the day I'll head over to the tile place with them to talk about backsplash options. Exciting day really. Sure beats work ;)

really FLOORED

2009-02-03T19:21:00.003-05:00

WHOA!!!! The bathroom floors are gorgeous... The basketweave is beyond my expectations. I actually love all the greys in it. We agree that we're going to do a different color in the hall bath (rather than the yellow you see here)-- one of the other colors we're already using in the house... that better compliments it.

Okay, hold onto your hats. We had hoped/planned to do a 12x12 carrera floor in the masterbath with the basketweave for the shower floor. Our builders figured out how to make that happen and then up'd it to a whole new level.

Stunning, no? I'm over the moon about it. The photo doesn't even do it justice. I actually called the office of our builders expecting to leave a message, but instead I got Anthony on the phone. I told him that it was so beautiful that I was contemplating sitting down and just staring at it for the rest of the evening. He laughed and told me to go home and have a glass of wine. So I'm following his instructions.... but considering staring at these photos for the rest of the evening. Here's one more:

Absolutely to die for. I'm floored.

calming down

2009-02-03T09:00:00.002-05:00

Well it was snowing this morning so "day light" was a stretch.... I was again poking around the house with that giant construction light. But I think I'm calming down about the color of the hallway. Though it's brighter than what I was anticipating, if anything it's just a bit more cheerful. It's not offensively bright or anything... it's just not exactly what I was anticipating. That said, if I've learned anything this year it's that I can adapt! Here are a few photos from this morning.

I think partially it's just another swell of being overwhelmed by the process and putting this pressure on myself to have everything Perfect. I've been extremely stressed this past week with insurance and banking stuff but have to push through that..... so my emotions came to the surface with the paint color (something I have more control over).

Look how different the color looks even depending on the flash/lighting. This photo I took with the paint sample up on the wall. It doesn't look as yellow at all! I think also I had grown so accustom to the grey wall of the sheet rock... that seeing any color was a bit of a shock. As soon as we get in there with some furniture, fabrics, art on the walls it won't look so much like these giant blocks of color.

Here it looks a bit more yellow, but the added irony is that for a while I was contemplating a yellow hallway! I'm not 100% feeling better about this, but I'm above 85% at this point and no longer considering calling my GC in tears. (I really didn't want to be that person!)

...and the really great thing is, I still caught my 7:28am train!

floored

2009-02-02T22:15:00.002-05:00

It's six thirty am. After a bit of a sleepless night, I'm not feeling any better about the paint situation. If he had gotten a delayed-opening or a snow day, dear husband was going to go with me to the house come sunrise, but he's running off to school now. I'm on my own. I really really hope it looks better in day light. In the meantime, I'm moving onto the floors.

Here's the stain we're currently leaning towards, "dark walnut".

Here it is again:

...and here in a white kitchen

At first we were drawn to "english chestnut" but I think it's too red and not dark enough:

More on this later-- the sun is rising and I'm headed out!

hall color

2009-02-02T21:57:00.003-05:00

Trying to find photos of what the hall color kind of looks like... this is the closest I come. Don't get me wrong, these are two inspiration photos (origins unknown, sorry)... and it makes me feel a little better... how the color blends in with the other patterns/colors/textures of a room-- but it was just not the color I was envisioning... and it's not like there's SO many other things in a hallway. sigh. I need to go to sleep and just see it in the morning- it's just my obsessive brain won't slow down....

anxiety

2009-02-02T19:49:00.005-05:00

They put the first coat of paint on the walls... which would be exciting except I'm having major anxiety about the colors. I feel kind of sick actually. It looks like a circus to me-- too many, too bright...

Dear husband has tried to calm me down by saying that I should go over in the morning, take a look with the natural light. It's not fair to judge colors by a construction flood light. He's right. Right?

Here's the worst of it. This is the hallway and the blue/grey music room. The music room color is fine, a little more purple and less grey than what I thought... but fine. The hallway is really making me nervous.
It's the hallway color that I'm most worried about. It looked orange.... way too much yellow pigment in it. I was hoping for a softer Shaker Beige color and instead it seemed (at least tonight) to have WAY too much color. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but I'm ready to call it out as a (major) mistake and see if they can fix it. I think the colors of the rooms off the hallway are okay, it's just that the hallway being so bright or something makes the whole thing look like a circus.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but dear husband is a COLOR guy. He'd go for the deep reds and all... I wanted muted, calming tones... but tried to compromise by doing green and blue and yellow.... now I'm worried it looks claustrophobically colorful (I don't expect that to make sense to anyone else). I would have been happy with white walls honestly.

I'm trying to comfort myself that it will also look different when there's furniture and Stuff inside... I'm trying to remind myself that color moves. I'm trying to look at my inspiration photos and see that there are colored walls.

Focusing on the positive. I like "alpaca" in the kitchen/family room:

I love "winter solstice" in the back bedroom:

I love "paris rain" in our bedroom.

Less sold on the "filtered sunlight" in the front bedroom, but I think it really comes down to the hallway. If it were more neutral, everything else would be okay.

We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. I just looked it up and sunrise is at 7:15am-- so I'll be there. Worst case scenerio, it's a mistake that has to be fixed and we'll figure out how to fix it... right? I'm really trying to talk myself into feeling better about this one.....

living room rug

2009-01-31T21:16:00.004-05:00

Here are the window treatments we're thinking for our family room (from Ballard Designs). I really like the grosgrain ribbon detail. Though I hope to make some of the other window treatments for the house, there are certain rooms where we need something up immediately for privacy. I'm happy with these for the family room.
We're leaning towards these slipper chairs (also from Ballard) in the family room to provide additional seating. We can order it in a cream color sunbrella fabric which is extremely stain resistant.

Here's the accent chair we've already purchased.

Today we took a rug sample (from Crate and barrel) to the store to try to see if it might work with the sofa and accent chair fabric. While the colors are complementary, we ultimately decided that it was just too much blue and too busy.

We're now leaning towards this area rug for the family room. It's less expensive and fully reversible. I think it will be beautiful with the pieces we've already purchased.. thoughts?

Powder room vanity

2009-01-31T21:02:00.007-05:00

Here it is for real. We had to stop at the cabinet place to confirm the hall bath vanity and I was able to stap a photo of our exact vanity (they sold us the floor model at a discount!).

Here's a close up of the countertop.

Here you can see the farmhouse sink.

So it's all in one place- these are the sconces that will go on either side of the mirror.

And here are the shades that will go on each of the sconces.

Kitchen island

2009-01-31T19:30:00.002-05:00

Look at the beadboard in the back of our island. I'm also thrilled with the way the supports turned out and love the trim along the top of the cabinets.

Bedroom setee

2009-01-31T19:25:00.001-05:00

We just purchased this settee for our bedroom! Two chairs were just going to be too big and neither one of us loved the idea of doing a desk there. We found this a couple of weeks ago, hugely marked down and it's been in our minds ever since. When it was still there today and the measurements worked, we took it as a sign and bought it!

Many thanks to our dear friends who will store it in their home for us until our move in date. It's pretty funny how many pieces of furniture we have scattered around-- a farmhouse table on a friend's sunporch, the dining chairs being delivered to my inlaws, a rug in M.'s choir room.... It will be a fun day running around collecting it all.

I'm thinking I can sew some pretty throw pillows to break up the monochrome a bit....

nightly progress report

2009-01-30T06:51:00.006-05:00

A couple photos from last night.

For the floors, 12x12 carrera with a basketweave border. The basketweave will also be the floor in the shower.

For the shower walls, the same 12x12 but with a subway tile border going around to break it up.

There was a giant mound in the middle of the back bedroom, M. swung the flashlight over and I lifted the dropcloth-- paint! (well, primer) so that must be coming soon.

This is not a good photo, but it's our soap dispenser and kitchen faucet inside our beautiful Shaws.

Looking forward to Saturday to focus in on more home stuff. Not too much time to spare when we're working- so Saturday is our day. On the high priority list is floor stain, LR area rug, ceiling fans, and exterior lights. We also have to stop by the cabinet place to confirm the hall bath vanity.

more kitchen progress

2009-01-28T19:58:00.003-05:00

They started the moldings on the top of the cabinets. Looks beautiful...

Also, our Shaws farmhouse sink is in place!!! Boy is it something to behold-- stunning. I'm just over the moon about it.

I'm just overwhelmed with happiness about this house. I told M. that I feel like the little kid that woke up at 3:30am on Christmas day and peeked under the tree. Now I'm lying in bed, knowing that the dreamed of new bicycle is sitting there along with a bunch of other treasures that Santa brought.... just completely overwhelmed with the anticipation... and gratitude... and excitement....

kitchen cabinets

2009-01-27T18:11:00.003-05:00

I'll let the photos do the talking tonight... because I'm about speechless at this point. The more progress is made, the more surreal it all is. The kitchen cabinets are going in and they are gorgeous.
View from behind the island-- as if your back is to the refrigerator. I love the bookshelf above the desk-- perfect for cookbooks and the pull out drawers in the pantry closet are beyond my dreams. In the old house our kitchen was a tiny corner. Our "Pantry" was on wire shelving that was on exterior shelves down to the garage. You also had to go down those garage stairs, through the garage, to get to the laundry room (actually the utility room with a W/D in it). More than once the laundry basket would send a can of soup rolling down the steps and, stooping to pick it up, I'd drop clean clothes onto the dirty, cold garage floor. To have our pantry and laundry all inside is just incredible...

Here's the view from the dining room. The stove will be in that empty space beyond the island. Desk is to the left.

Close up of the desk/pantry area.

Another view from the dining room. The empty space in the island is where our microwave will go.

View from the other side of the dining room into the kitchen. The hood surround is beautiful-- I'm so glad that linen white worked out for us!

Meanwhile they are busy hanging doors. When I left this evening around 6pm, Jay(?) was still working on these. This is the view entering through the front door. To the left are the pocket french doors into the music room. Straight ahead are the mini french doors into the kitchen. I love the ORB hinges-- can't wait until we get door knobs.

They are templating for soapstone on Thursday and the painting might start ahead of schedule because the kitchen install should be done(!!) tomorrow.

cabinet install begins

2009-01-26T19:34:00.001-05:00

I joked with M. tonight that we're going to have to tell our builders to slow down because I'm getting overwhelmed and simply awe-struck. When we walked into the house last night all my giddy excitement again quieted and I was aware of my heart beating. Alan had called me earlier in the day to report that our kitchen cabinets had all arrived and were being installed, three guys where there working on the trim, and he would be meeting with the painter to talk schedule and believes that the painting should all be done by valentine's day. We talked door stops and floor stain and I told him how thrilled we were with the progress, even admitting that I had woken up at 4:30am unable to go back to sleep because I was filled with excitement that our kitchen was arriving.

It is so bizarre and wonderful to see all our cabinet frames in our house! One gets a sense of how that space will feel when it's built in. They leave the doors for the very end so they don't get dinged up, but the one thing we could see (mind you, with a flashlight) was the hood cover and it is GORGEOUS:
I am happy and relieved that linen white looks like the perfect choice!

Here's looking into the kitchen. M. walked over to the corner cabinet and said, "I mean this surface alone is how much bigger than any counter space we've had, ever?" The big box to the right is, of course, where the refrigerator will go. The trim will bring the cabinets all the way to the ceiling.

And the windows are almost all trimmed out. Here's in the family room:

...and here's in our master bedroom. The beauty of the trim does not come through in these photos. It is stunning.

two of my heros

2009-01-24T21:58:00.003-05:00

Okay, so these guys were not so keen on being photographed. They were too modest and too hard at work today (saturday!).... So these aren't the best photos, but I wanted to post these anyway because they are currently two of my favorite people in the whole world. They, along with our incredible architect, Brian, are responsible for rebuilding our house. Here is Anthony, cutting some of the molding to trim out the windows:

And this is Alan, hiding behind the saw, with dear husband (right).

I can't say enough good thing about these guys.... I told them that things started looking up for us once we met them, and it's true. They are masters at what they do. It amazes me how they've coordinated this build-- from the ordering and delivery of material to scheduling the subcontractors, and meanwhile always being available for our questions/concerns. They have put up with my... uh... attention to detail. They have, thus far, brought the massive project in ahead of schedule and under budget. They are also just amazing people-- truly at the end of all of this, I hope we can call them friends. It seems we share similar taste in home stuff- which is reassuring on this build, but also I think they share our sense of humor and love of life. We have utmost respect for their work ethic but I also feel a keen sense of affection for these two-- they are putting their hearts and their hard work into making this house into our home. They are building the spaces where we will celebrate holidays, where we will entertain friends, where we will raise our family, where we'll call home for many years to come..... It's a pretty special thing and I hope even after our build is complete these guys will come hang out with us!

all in a day's work.

2009-01-24T21:04:00.006-05:00

We had a long, but productive day today. About to have dinner, but here's the quick run down:

We went down to Gardenstate Soapstone and chose our actual slabs for our kitchen counter top. One is honestly more beautiful than the next, but we knew almost immediately when we saw this one. They had oiled down the stone for us previously so this time they just sprayed it with some water so we could get an approximation of the veining. When I uploaded this photo tonight, it made me laugh because you can see our reflection. Anyway I'm really enthused about our soapstone-- one more (big) decision down!

Another decision we have ahead of us is floor stain. We would like to go on the darker side, but not too dark or too red. Our neighbors recently did a large remodel; we loved their floors and they were kind enough to let us stop by today to have another look, with our fan deck in hand. Here is their adorable daughter (our new floor designer!) posing with our fan deck. We're currently between "English Chestnut" or "red Mahogany". Ironically of the two, "English Chestnut" appears more red. Anthony and Alan (our builders) said they can put a portion of each on the floor when the time comes (soon!) to help us decide.

Alan and Anthony were at the house today starting at 7am-- hanging doors and working on the trim. They were still at work when we stopped back at the house at 5pm. Here's one of the windows all trimmed out. It looks amazing....

And here are two of the doors-- this is in our master bathroom....

It's incredible how quickly things are moving at this point. Tomorrow (sunday!) the spackle guy will be back to complete the kitchen because on Monday our kitchen cabinet install will begin. Alan said he expects that Jay (from gardenstate) will come up around Wednesday of this week to template for the soapstone-- meanwhile they'll continue to install trim and the tile guys will start soon. My head is just spinning with it all... and M. and I are trying to focus in on replacing the things in the claim which were highly depreciated-- everything from mattresses and furniture to a vacuum, television, artwork....

The plan is five weeks from tonight we'll be home. I have to pinch myself to believe it at times.....

something to stand on

2009-01-24T07:59:00.003-05:00

We were actually speechless as the door swept open to reveal..... our hardwood floors! A. (our builder) had called me at the office around noon and I said, "Hey I heard the floors are going in today?" He responded that they were already done-- they had five guys over at the house starting early and they were finished by noon! I was giddy with excitement heading over to the house with M. after work... but seeing the floors was weirdly overwhelming. M. said his heart was pounding as we walked around and we only spoke to one another in the hushed tones you might use in a large cathedral. (Usually we're laughing and excited and running around like kids in a candy shop).

So this was a bit odd.

I think, honestly, even after a year and a half we're still in a bit of shock over the whole thing. I was saying to my mom yesterday how there's still a phantom house in my mind-- our old house-- that some part of me thinks that we're headed back there.... seeing this new house is sometimes, well, overwhelming. Wonderfully overwhelming, don't get me wrong, but it's funny when emotions bubble up to the surface that you're not expecting. Another thing I said to my mom is that with each step of this progress I've felt a weight lift off my shoulders that I didn't even know I had been carrying around. Seeing the hardwood floors... wow, big weight lifted. It looks more and more like a real house.

View into the kitchen/dining/family room.

Front bedroom.

Master bedroom.

I don't even know what else to write except: wow. I really would have been fine living in the glorified tree house (before the sheet rock was even put up) this, now, is like beyond beyond. I can't imagine what I'm going to feel when the kitchen starts going in (on Monday!!!) or the tile.... or paint or, my goodness, when our furniture actually goes in.

We're headed over to the house now-- our builders have been there since seven am. They are hanging interior doors and trim. Then we're heading down to the soapstone yard to hopefully actually pick our slab. I should have lots of photos to post this evening....

Master bedroom odds and ends

2009-01-22T19:34:00.011-05:00

We got the new Pottery Barn bed and bath yesterday so I took it on the train to peruse. Here are a few things that caught my eye for our master bedroom:

I love toile. Not all toile, some is way too over-the-top for me, but I like the gentle toiles like the Matine toile that Pottery Barn is featuring currently. This light blue/grey would be a pretty accent in our "paris rain" colored bedroom. My plan is to buy two roman shades to cover the windows immediately and then sew some panels once we're home to add to it. As much as I like this blind, I anticipate we'll probably do a natural woven blind, but I have room to daydream about what the panel might be... and maybe there's still a good way to incorporate this fabric-- a pillow, or a bed skirt, or...

I've had my eye on these frames for awhile. I clipped an inspiration photo awhile back that has the frames all actually touching, in a kind of geometric line accenting a corner and it was stunning. I think the finish on these is lovely and I like the contrast of the thick and thin boarders. I could see a small grouping in our bedroom with some of our favorite black and white photos.... Again, I think it will look particularly nice with the paint color we've chosen for that room.

I'm stumped on what to do in front of the windows in our bedroom. It's the perfect place for a little scene.. but there are a few options. One is to have a single upholstered chair like the one above (from PB), along with a floor lamp (for reading), and a little side table. I like that the chair above is slip covered and I think the pleated skirt on it is pretty. I could imagine curling up with a book (or a design magazine!) in a scene like that.

Option number two is to do two upholstered chairs similar to the one above from Ballard designs, with a small table between them. This is the way I was leaning-- thinking we could play a game of Scrabble, say... but then I got to thinking that 1. it might be too crowded for the space. 2. would we really sit there together ever? 3. it's not the greatest chair to curl up with a book in by oneself.....

Another option is to do two smaller chairs like this slip covered Parson's chair from Ballard on either side of a table. That lessens my concern about it being too crowded.... but still has the other issues as above. Yet another thought would be to do this chair with a desk. M. has his eye on going for his PhD in the next few years and talked about where his work station could be-- it would be a perfect place to pen the book about the past year that I would like to write-- but is our bedroom the best place for this?

The weird trickiness that we have is our insurance claim.... which basically is set up to define our furniture allowance. If we don't spend the amount that our old furniture was valued at, then we won't receive that full value back... and we have to submit all our receipts at the beginning of March which is right when we're suppose to move in. All's to say it's a unique challenge... to completely furnish a home in such a short time span and without having actually lived in the spaces.

wreath

2009-01-22T18:54:00.004-05:00

So my little sketch lead me to the idea of putting a wreath over the fireplace. I was feeling a bit of pressure to find the perfect piece of artwork to put up there. Since it's an open floor plan this area becomes a central focus for all three areas (kitchen/dining/family room).... and it was difficult to even imagine what an appropriate piece would be. As I was sketching I kind of threw in the wreath and it seemed to fit. When I showed M. the drawing it was the first thing that caught his eye, "hey, a wreath, that's a great idea for that place!"

So look what I found from Napa Valley Grapevine Wreath Company. Here's from their website, "At the Wood Family Ranch in Napa Valley, winter brings a second harvest. The pruned cuttings from Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines are gathered, stripped of leaves, and bundled. Talented craftsmen take great pride in their work... they weave the recycled grapevine canes in a traditional style known for its symmetry, consistency in thickness and durability."

M. and I love wine (our one cat's name is Zin -- short for zinfandel)-- so I love the idea of the wreath being made of actual grapevines! I also like the idea of decorating it with xmas tree lights during the holidays or little springs from our hydrangeas (i really really really hope they survived their transplanting) in the spring...

a little sketch

2009-01-22T13:47:00.005-05:00

Here's a little sketch I attempted on the train last week. It's my vision of how our living room might look. Now that I've scanned it, I am noticing all these things that are off like the fact that the line of the ceiling is way too high and the windows are too small, the back wall too far away and the side walls a bit too close..... In my own defence I wasn't working from a photo or anything-- just from my memory of the space. I tried to put in the pieces of furniture we already have (sofa, chair, the armoire, coffee table, and two ottomans). I still have to add in "M's" chair, window treatments and figure out the rug.
This was a fun little exercise for me though. I googled how to draw a room in perspective and learned about vanishing points. I have room to improve (as it were!) but I'm proud of this little sketch. I had to point this out to dear husband, but I even put a game of scrabble on the coffee table (we play all the time). It was also how I got the idea to do a wreath over the fireplace...

tape, mud and flooring

2009-01-21T06:47:00.003-05:00

We had our fingers crossed and sure enough when we checked in on the house last night, they had started taping the walls and our flooring had been delivered. Mind you, when he picked me up at the apartment, dear husband looked exhausted after a long day. Amazing how a stack of wood can change one's outlook:

This was kind of funny- look at the stilts in the corner. They must use them to tape the ceiling- a heck of a lot faster than dragging a ladder around, but it wouldn't have occurred to me. Now-jovial husband wanted to try them out (I put my foot down on that one). Actually they reminded me of dancing in Balanchine's "The Nutcracker"-- for a few years I was one of the children who came out dancing from under Mother Ginger's skirt. The scariest part was trying not to get stepped on my Mother Ginger who wore stilts much like these along with a giant, heavy, dress! If he (yes he) stepped on you, not only might you break a toe, but the potential was there that the whole thing would come toppling down! ...anyway back to the house: Doesn't it look great? The upstairs was less complete and I guess they sand it down and do multiple coats, but progress!

This was actually taken before the weekend, but it's been an on-going laugh since. I got so excited when I saw that we not only had a garage door, but our garage door opener had been installed. I noted the name of it and started singing, "The LiftMaster-- it raises my garage door and my spirits!"

We have heat!

2009-01-16T19:32:00.010-05:00

No photo to share, but it is FREEZING COLD tonight in the garden state. Home from work, we went over in the dark to the house, pushed open the front door-- and it was warm inside. Incredible. They also cleaned up alot of the mess (nails, saw dust etc.) from hanging the sheet rock. I was getting worried that we might be behind schedule, but I confirmed with our builder today that we're still on target for a March first move in. (Huge sigh of relief.) Tomorrow we meet with the painter first thing and then we're escaping to VT for the weekend with friends... I'm bringing my design magazines and fan deck and house plans (i go no where without these!)-- but also my crocheting, a book, and my snowshoes. It will be nice to have a little break.

Okay, I can't Not post some photos. Today the window treatments and sconce shades arrived from Ballard. The sconce shades are for our powder room. I've posted this before, but our vanity/sink looks like this (only in a cream color, not black):
Here are the sconces from RH that will go on either side:

And these just in (literally!) the sconce shades from Ballard. They look really great in person. I had ordered a fabric sample and the brick red is so pretty. We'll have a kind of slate grey floor in there and BM "alpaca" on the walls. I think it will be a nice country-esque yet refined look.

interior, exterior updates

2009-01-14T20:17:00.003-05:00

Lots of updates to share!

Here you can see the lath(?) that the mason has attached to the outside of the masonry walls. It's this metal mesh stuff that's bolted into the wall. The stucco will be attached to this. I joked to M that it looks like our house has armor!

Here's our giant gas meter. We'll have to figure out some creative landscaping to cover this guy. That said, we're thrilled that the gas company finished their work and tomorrow the heat will be turned on! This feels like a real turning point... it means that the interior work will be able to really start up.

Here's our electric meter. M. wanted me to get a photo of it reading zero since tomorrow the electric will also be put to work.

Here's our garage door- newly installed!

... and we bought the sofa... plus the accent chair and the lovely accent pillows! We flew into the store fifteen minutes before the closed, I had M. sit on the options and I checked to see if the accent pillows could work on the tan sofa. We are thrilled to have gone through a local store especially with the current economy. We're also so happy with the price we got- and they have no problem holding the items for us until we move in. I'm really happy to have one more (large) thing down. It's a funny thing, I didn't even realize how much stress I was holding until it starts to diminish with each decision made.... with every little step I have reassurance that we're going to be okay, that we're going to be back home. I'm really happy with the sofa and accent chair; I feel like our living room is really coming together!

futher (sofa) thoughts and building updates

2009-01-12T11:11:00.000-05:00

....I think I dreamt about sofas last night. Is that normal? I did have a thought around 3am though-- I want to go back to the store and take the gorgeous blue pillows from the blue sofa and see what they look like on the tan sofa. That would mean tan sofa plus blue accent chair. Is there a chance this might work? I worry that we may need to lighten it up the sofa even more with some more light-toned pillows or even a cream colored throw. It's highly likely this won't work at all, but it's worth a shot, right? Stay tuned....

In the meantime here are some photos taken over the weekend- in day light! It makes such a difference taking photos without having to balance the flashlight.
View from the kitchen into the dining room and then the living room.

View from the dining room into the family room where the sofa will go in front of the box bay windows.

Similar view into the family room with a view of the fireplace.

Also I just spoke with our builders. Our garage door was delivered today and the stucco work on the outside has started. Please send us warm thoughts that the heat will get turned on this week (we've been waiting on gas and electric for what feels like eons!) because then they will be able to start taping/mudding the drywall. There's a good chance we'll meet with the painters this weekend so they can price out what we're thinking. All good updates. Admittedly I'm getting a bit impatient. Actually M put his finger on it exactly-- the interior, especially the second floor looks and feels eerily like our old house. I think I'm anxious to have it trimmed out so that it feels a little more different somehow and cozier. I'm eager to move in and put photos and artwork on the walls and cook dinners and make music and have a home again...

Sofa sale

2009-01-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I was narrowing it down, I drove by one of my favorite stores "J&M" (which I think is also fun because its the initials of dear husband and my first names!) and they are having a big sofa sale. Here are a few that caught my eye as serious contenders.... even though they don't have the fully stain treated fabric, the lower price point is very appealing (they are reduced further than the prices on the tags) and they are lovely pieces.

The fabric on these pillows is just gorgeous. The blue/gray sofa is also beautiful; I really like the welting. For my notes this sofa measures 82L 38D 37H. Even though it really changes my original vision for the room, I am seriously swayed. Even more so by the fact that with this sale we could probably also swing this gorgeous matching accent chair/ottoman.

I love, love, love this chair. The blues would still work with the wall color and the fabric I was thinking for the window treatments in the adjoining dining room. I think it would also work with the armoire and coffee table. The trick would be figuring out a rug to go with these. We've gone back and forth between a natural fiber rug and something persian. I think we'd probably want to go with the former if we turned blue with the upholstery. Oh dear, I am so easily influenced! The two big negatives are that the sofa has "feet" and even though it looks like it has a loose back, the back cushions are actually attached. This is not ideal for us at all.

Here's another option that is more in keeping with the original color scheme of creams/blacks and tans. This sofa is also a bit more comfortable somehow than the blue one. I also really like the skirt on this sofa. No gorgeous accent chair in the show room with this one, but perhaps in the future we could do one with fabric of our choosing... and though it looks a bit drab compared directly to the lovely fabric above, one could add some great accent pillows to dress it up. Sofa dimensions are 84L 40D 36H (maybe it's the increased seat depth that makes it more comfortable....)

I also really loved this sofa. (77L 36D 37H) It's slipcovered which initially I wasn't considering because it sometimes looks too informal to me, but this cover fits so cleanly that it has the relaxed slipcover look without looking sloppy. The slipcover is also appealing because it can be removed to clean. That said, I'd still be really nervous to go this light-colored without any stain resistance on the fabric.... (I don't love the idea of cleaning the slip cover constantly). Also even though this is a cream colored sofa like my initial vision, it's got blue and green grey stripes. Really pretty, but majorly changes the whole idea of the room in a way that I haven't wrapped my head around yet.... That said, the style of the sofa is so close to what we've been aiming for and dear husband says of the bunch this would probably be his first choice.

Here's the accent chair they have it paired with in the show room. I think it's very pretty but it doesn't really speak to me like that blue fabric above....

Well I have some thinking and some number crunching to do tonight....

An honor

2009-01-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

For the Love of a House (photo above) has recognized me with an award! It is such an honor from a blog I sincerely admire; Joan is documenting the progress of making an old New Hampshire farmhouse into a home. I have to admit that I'm secretly taking notes because restoring an antique farmhouse is a little dream of mine and Joan knows what she's doing. This recognition is so humbling to me-- I really never dreamed that my blog would be read (let alone recognized!) by anyone other than close friends and family. As I wrote to Joan, I started this blog when the began demo on our sorry, destroyed home as a way to post photos for friends/family who were eager to see the progress finally being made. Then (admittedly around the time we had to choose a benjamin moore white for our kitchen cabinets) it became a place where I could talk through decisions/ideas without driving dear husband completely bonkers. It was around that time I started discovering all these amazing design blogs-- from women of most superior taste and I started checking them for daily inspiration... but what was so unexpected and most incredible is when some of these women, in turn, found my blog and began leaving words of encouragement and advice. I am so thankful for such friendship and it's been one of the things that has kept me going.

So here's the "award":
This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to some bloggers who must choose some more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So I suppose it's my turn to bestow this award to blogs of my choosing. I have to say I'm a bit bashful about this because these blogs are all so established- so well thought out, carefully crafted where as mine is still a bit home-grown as it were.... nevertheless I'll use this an excuse to thank these particular bloggers as ones who have given my blog something to aspire to while providing me with endless inspiration and motivation. In the spirit of this award these bloggers have also left comments on my blog making little 'ol homeontallmadge feel welcome in this world of design blogs.

Velvet and Linen- Brooke is a superstar. Her blog has been recognized most recently online by the washingtonpost! She has superior design sense and taste and I love that she is such a prolific blogger (i can count on daily inspiration!) Her work is gorgeous, her blog is amazing, and I was silly-jumping-up-and-down excited when she first left me a comment on my blog! Her comments are always so thoughtful and it means a great deal to have a note from someone who's work I so admire.

The Stamford Wife- First off, I get a kick out of the name of this blog and immediately felt a certain affinity since Stamford neighbors the town I grew up in and where my parents still live. I also have fun following her blog because we seem to be in the same sort of stage in life-- buying our first house and making it a home, looking towards starting a family (though she is ahead of me there-- congratulations Teresa!) Teresa has a wonderful eye- I particularly love following the work she's doing on her in-laws' home; it's where I discovered the paint for our masterbedroom- paris rain. She generously gave me wonderful feedback on using 50% of the color for ceiling paint.

Wind lost- I absolutely love Terri's taste and design sense. I get so excited when i see that she's posted because I know there will be beautiful photos and thoughtful words. Though many of the other blogs I've come to follow are designers by profession, I have a special affinity for Terri's blog because she, like myself, has her "day job" separate from her passion for creating beautiful spaces. To that end, I'm curious to see where our north stars lead us in 2009 but regardless her blog is a wonderful source of inspiration to me.

getting some perspective

2009-01-10T18:46:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to teach myself how to draw interior spaces in order to imagine what rooms will actually look/feel like. Having read up on vanishing points and all that, I gave our family room a try last night on the train-- let me tell you, the hour commute flew by, and I'm kind of proud of how it turned out. (I may, just may scan it to post here if everyone promises to be kind! ;) I've never drawn a sofa before, much less a sofa in perspective-- the whole exercise was kind of a cool blend or artistic experimentation (I tried a wreath over the mantle and M. agrees that might be a cool way to go!) and a way-more-challenging-than-sudoko puzzle.
But I'm also writing that I think I've gotten a little perspective having priced out a glider chair at the design store which came out way more than I thought it would. What's a bother is that the fabric I chose is inexpensive at about $18/yard-- it's the actual chair that is $$$ than I had anticipated. So now I'm thinking to go Crate and Barrel on this one. I'm bummed because I really, really liked the fabric and the color and had even picked an inexpensive trim for right above the skirt. I don't know... I have a dangerous way of justifying the expense of things when it comes to rebuilding/refunishing our home-- but I think this may be a place where I have to deny myself the "splurge". I wish I could show you what a gorgeous green/grey fabric I had chosen. It even had a great name: "Willow" and the thought would be it could be in the back bedroom until it was outgrown and then either move to our bedroom or even the living room.... but here's the Crate and Barrel alternative.

Which it's fine. It's more than fine. Honestly it's still a little splurge in and of itself..... Well, we'll see.

sigh... sofas....

2009-01-10T18:18:00.000-05:00

I spent basically all day at the decorating/fabric store-- my new favorite place... and I'm learning alot and think (maybe?) coming down the home stretch on deciding on a sofa. The things I knew already- we want three cushions, it needs to be 84" - 86" width. We're leaning towards a box cushion (but we could be swayed on this one). One thing I learned is that we do want to go with a skirted sofa after all. It makes sense-- since we'll have a coffee table and accent chairs and even the armoire now on "feet" we need something to ground the room. Otherwise as the owner, L., put it, it would look like those Disney movies when the furniture gets up and just walks away! I'm also slowing learning the different names of arms... most of which I've already forgotten but here goes:

This is a basic sock arm. Fine. It's classic. But the longer I look at it the more it looks a little cartoonish. This is also skirted sofa but I think it will look better if the skirt started up a little higher; it being so low kind of contributes to the chunkiness of this sofa. This sofa has box cushions (I think that is what it's called). Basically the seat cushions are completely boxed in by the arms. So honestly all in all, this is a very classic, nice looking sofa-- the problem is that I've been looking at sofas for weeks (okay months) so now my taste has become more... refined?

Moving on, here you have a skirted sofa with a rolled (?) arm. This is not a box cushion (see how the ends kind of wrap around. The skirt on this sofa also looks a little short or something to me.

Here's a sofa with an English(?) arm (maybe this is even a saddle arm?). The one accent chair we think we're going to do in this room has a similar arm to it, so I think we're leaning towards a rolled arm for the sofa (don't need to be too matchy-matchy on arms, right?). Something about this particular pictured sofa I really, really like. Maybe it's the mildly contrasted welting. I also like the way the skirt is a bit higher... and even that the back cushions are a little lower and I think the way they are constructed is different. Note this does not have boxed seat cushions though.

Here's another rolled arm sofa (ignore the fabric) which I like though the skirt starts too low and it seems a little.... too upright? or something? I'd want to sit on this one. I don't know the depth measurements on this, but it looks like it might be not deep enough for dear 6'1 husband.

And another English arm sofa... which i do really like.... hmmmm.

more sheetrocking- almost complete

2009-01-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

Sheet rocking looks to be almost complete. Now we really need the heat to be turned on so they can "mud" the sheet rock and bring the hardwood floors inside to be acclimated. We put in the gas request in October(!) and they've been out twice already. I guess they have to put in a whole new line (rather than just switch us back on); on Monday they dug up our driveway (uh, repaving a driveway was not in the budget!), but still no heat. Also waiting on electric but that should be any day now.

The family room. Our architect was so inspired to do the vaulted ceiling here. I love it. I'm strongly leaning towards painting the whole room and ceiling one color.. but more on that later.

Looking from the music room to the stairs going up. These walls are new-- this is where the pocket french doors will be. I also love how the stairs are now open-- in our "old" home, the wall went all the way up.

Here's the view from the entry into the kitchen. The short wall on the left will be where our refrigerator goes, beyond that is the dining room, followed by the living room (you can see the fireplace).

Here's our master bedroom. We wanted to make use of the storage space in the eaves, but were worried that a door that's clearly for storage would look. Here's why I love our builders, A. came up with the idea that he'd build a kind of built-in bookcase for that area, that would have a discreet latch where we could open it. I think that will be so lovely- a perfect place to have our favorite reads and definitely the best hide-and-seek place in the house ;)

Here's our master bedroom windows again, with the cut out where the bookshelf/storage door will go...

bright idea

2009-01-07T07:02:00.000-05:00

Some time ago I found this wood chandelier from shades of light and clipped it for my inspiration folder. We don't have any place for something so large in our house, but I liked that it was made of wood and thought the lines of it were so pretty. It's simple without being too rustic and it has an understated elegance to it which I like.

Then yesterday the new Pottery Barn catalog arrived and low and behold- look at what a similar chandelier they are featuring. I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I feel my taste has been validated if such a big store has picked a similar style. On the other, I'm kinda bummed- like, 'hey, that was my taste!'

That said, Pottery Barn clearly missed some things. For one-- this is not made of wood. Secondly, look at how the ends are truncated. I don't mind this so much at the bottom , but the top of the other one was so gorgeous, the way it kept the eye moving up and down the piece. Actually the more I look at them together the more compelling the lines of the original one are to me.

Anyway as I said this is a funny thing to blog about because I don't figure we have any place for either one, but there we are.

sheet rock(s)!

2009-01-06T19:54:00.000-05:00

Got home after dark and the wintery mix was just starting to sprinkle down... stopped at the town deli to pick up some batteries for the camera, then to the apartment to pick up the camera and flashlight before walking home.
Heard from our builders that the second floor bedrooms had been sheetrocked today. It's remarkable what a different feel it has. The house feels familiar-- that same cozy sense we loved when we first bought it.

The back bedroom. They fixed the window (was mistakenly eight lites over eight, now it matches the others!)

The second floor hall way- looking from the front bedroom. That's the hall bath on the right and the back bedroom straight across.

View from our (master) bedroom from basically where our bed will be, looking down to the second floor hall and hall bath.

Our bedroom from the front windows looking back towards our master bath.

Our bedroom's front windows.