Downstairs Bathroom

Finally, at last my dream is coming true. I know, who would think a pile of rubble and plaster dust in their house is a dream. Well, me for one. The crowbar is going to take out our lovely circa 1968 (thank you newspaper folded in the walls!) bathroom. My favorite is the neon green and copper fleck masonite wall covering.

Nice huh? Think the Jetsons would approve.

Blind window, they added the kitchen on in back of this window with a great view of sheetrock.

More great stuff. Actually the removable shower head is very handy for washing dogs.

Cute "Colonial" copper light fixture. Wave it all goodbye.

Here is Cy going to work! Goodby badly finished ugly sheetrock. Goodby silly window. Welcome piles of trash. Maybe a visit to the dump today. Think I can recyle the sink. Not for me but someone might like it.

What a mess, but I love it. Progress is being made!

This I can hardly believe. Here is a picture of the ceiling, where they added strips of wood over the original plaster and hung badly finished sheetrock. How silly is that! We are taking off the wood and doing a little plaster repair, and voila, original 18th plaster ceiling.

This is the wall behing the sink. What a joke, not a straight 2 x 4 anywhere. If you look you can see the back of the sheathing boards on the bedroom beyond.
Well this is the first installment, check back for more progress, hopefully next week, then a break for Brimfield.

"New Room" Part 3

This is before. Remember this? If not see New Room Parts 1 & 2 on this blog. This is the structure of the ceiling of the new room. If you remember we than had spray foam sprayed in so we could get insulated in this drafty old house, and still see the nice old beams.

After the insulation came the long grueling job of covering the foam ( fire regulation) with plaster. Because the sprayed on foam is wavy and hilly, we had to use a tiny trowel. All hand plastered and all hand sanded, two coats no less. Took all winter. Here is Cy helping out with the sanding.

Oh, my gosh its done! But don't the beams look great? Wasn't it worth it? After the plastering and sanding came the painting and antiquing. Yes, more work.

After we installed the 18th window sash, and Cy made the trim.

Next, we have to enclose the heat duct that runs through the ceiling. We're going to enclose it in wood, so hopefully it'll look like a big beam. You should see the fun Cy is having making the sides to fit up next to that wavy ceiling plaster.
We'll that's all for now. Love to get this room done, but the garden is calling!

Hawaiian Vacation Part 1

I promised everyone pictures of the trip to Hawaii to see our son get married. I had never been to Hawaii before so it was very cool to get to go. Good job, Jesse and Satomi for choosing Hawaii for their wedding.

Here is Cy looking very satisfied with his convertible we rented for the trip. You have to rent a convertible when you go to Hawaii, right? We came a week early and stayed in Kailua, which is a beautiful bedroom community NE of Honolulu. If I was moving to Hawaii, I would move here in a heartbeat, I felt right at home immediately. We had a cozy studio exactly 1 block from the beach, so every morning of course we had to walk down to the beach. You would walk down the road where there were all these people running and walking their dogs, and there were little access pathways to the beach which is public between the million dollar homes on the beachfront. Something for everyone! Several mornings we saw the crews of the outrigger canoes going out for a run, and once we saw a couple getting their wedding photos.

Of course the first thing we do in Kailua after our walk and a hearty breakfast of pancakes with macadamia nut sauce, is check out the antiques stores. Yes, there are a few antiques stores on Oahu. Here we are in Heritage Antiques a font of traditional antiques. The owner is holding a pair of beautiful prints from the '30s.

Among my favorite things we found were these traditional poi bowls made of Koa wood.

Who knows how this carving of a buffalo landed up in Hawaii, wish it would have fitted in my suitcase.

Lots of stuff in this store. This is where we found the stone fruit, and well, a few vintage Tori Birch dresses for me.

More typical wares. Fun for your kitchen.

Next day the drizzle started, but we headed out to the Ahoha Stadium Flea Market anyway. Of course I had to buy a cute umbrella in a Hawaiian print. Here we just had to stop for a fresh coconut.

This is how they cut them open. How come they don't cut their hands off? Skill and talent I guess. After you drink the coconut water, they scrape out the soft coconut meat for you to eat.

Muumuus!

Rainy the next day so we decided on a field trip up to the North Shore to see the surfers.

A fun Mexican restaurant on the North Shore.

And we just had to stop at the best shaved ice place on the island. Here is the young man above making the icy treat.

Cy looks happy. Who cares if its raining.

Yes, rainy again. We drove to the east coast of the island, and during a letup in the rain, went to a beautiful botanical garden built in a volcanic crater not too far from Diamond Head. This side of the island is quite dry, so the plantings reflect that.

So pretty here.

 I think this was my favorite place. I wish I could remember the name. A small botanical garden on the south side of Kailua using native plants is being planted on a native Hawaiian spiritual place, it looks across the largest marsh on the island. So peaceful here.

We took advantage of a break in the weather, and took a drive out to an overlook where you can see whales. Well, maybe a stop for ice cream. Here is my green tea and coconut ice creams. Yummy!

Here is where you start your hike up the hills. Hope the rain holds off!

Here's the view part way up.

What a view huh?

Well get out your magnifying glass. There are whales out there. We saw a momma and baby and a single male. Well parts of them anyhow. Hey, a flipper is good!

Well, we couldn't leave Kailua without a visit to Pinky's Puupu bar. I had my first MaiTai and some Puupus (appetizers). Tomorrow we're off to Waikiki, where the wedding will be. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip.

Hauling Brush, or Why We're Not Getting More Done On The House!

Several people have asked me lately why I'm not showing more progress on the house. So I am showing you why. In the picture above you see the before. Look at all the broken off branches, the result of the October storm.

Here is the area right below those trees, broken wood all over the place. You can see where we have cut the branches off the firewood tree parts.

Above are two views of our road frontage, where we have hauled the brush for (hopefully!) the city to pick up. This is just the brush from the approximately 1 acre meadow next to the barn. Think of what remains to do on the other 7 acres. Yes, I am using this meadow now for an agility field for my fabulous Aussie Freckles, seen above. She is wondering why I am standing in the middle of the road, not playing with her.

 Above you can see Cy pulling down a "hanger", a broken off tree top of limb. Some of these are quite large, and called " widow makers". Hum, maybe having Cy do this work is not such a great idea.

 Here's the mess in the back of the meadow, fallen wood everywhere. We use the lawn tractor to haul the heavier branches up to the road.

 

You can see what a long fun process it is just to clear up. More work waits when we get to cut and split all the firewood. At least we won't be cold next winter!

October Snow Storm!

Here's what my house looked like the morning after the big storm.

Here's our road.

Here's the meadow and outhouse to the north.

Here's our beloved heritage apple tree, which covered our deck in flowers in May. R.I.P.

Look at the motorhome! We don't think there is any damage, but will need to wait for the snow to melt to do a good examination of the roof.

Its such a mess in CT. There are trees and limbs down everywhere. I don't think we have 1 tree without damage. Especially the oaks, they still had their leaves so they are all damaged. We will have a years work to clean it up. No power, they are saying maybe 2 more weeks! No internet or cable. We have a good wood stove, so we're toasty here, but no water. There's no power in town, so you spend a lot of time driving around looking for a gas station that has power and has gas, then you can wait in line. The PO is open, but no power for the scales so you can ship. Costco was sort of open, the whole store running on a giant generator, if you can believe it. The city plowed the snow, and came and is cutting and pulling the downed limbs that are in the road. There is a shelter for heat and showers at the Middle School. So we'll get along, but boy it is an eye opener. Who knew how vulnerable our society is.

House Progress "The New Room" Part 2

OK, OK I admit progress has been slow. Traveling, making a living, all conflict with working on the old house. However, things are moving along. Here are some pics from last March. This is the SW corner of the room with the floors insulated and down, and the washer and dryer and well pump installed.

 Here is the same corner today. We've begun to enclose the appliances with some great 18th feather edge paneling we found. Too short to use on a wall, its great for this project. The only hold up now is to find pintles that will fit these great turnip ended old hinges. Did I ever show you the wonderful old 18th C windows we put in? Aren't they fine? OK the white paint has to go. I wish you could see all the bubbles in the glass, we've been saving this glass for a long time for something just like this.

Here is the SE corner of the room, with Cy's new TV. We stabilized the wall behind the TV with some left over wood so we could wall mount. This too will be enclosed with the paneling.

Here is the NE corner, still in March, sheet rock and insulation and wiring done, ready for some mud.

This is in April. We hired the foam guys to come in and spray closed cell insulation on the ceiling, so we could be warm and still see our old beams. Here they are covering the beams to protect from the foam.

How's this for a great picture? The guy is in process of spraying foam. Man, I'm getting out of here, its really smelly!

Almost done!

Starting the clean up. They are using wire brushes and claw hammers to release the duct tape covering the beams which protected them from the spray.

Looking cozy? Should be a nice warm winter this year.

Fast forward to August. Since the foam must be covered by fire code, we choose to hand plaster it, rather than put up sheetrock. There was really no way to fasten the sheetrock without hiding the beams. So we spent a long painful summer working on our ceiling. Because the foam left hills and valleys, and is not by nature smooth, I used a teeny tiny trowel to put up the plaster, working along with the grain of the foam and going in between the beams. Here you see Cy putting the final touches on the long sanding process, all hand work, no sanding blocks would work here.

And of course what do you have to do after you sand a lot of plaster? Vacuum it up of course. I am now deliriously happy, because the next step is putting up lots of masking tape and buying paint. Yeah!