Holiday Festivities

lighting a tree outside

picking out the Christmas tree st Keith's Tree Farm in Acushnet




rainbow halo (hard to see)




ornamented






wreath made by beth


winterberries and narcissus


sweet fern

(invasive) bittersweet chandelier






(invasive) multiflora rose


Christmas dinner with 15!

Project - Storms

Our master bedroom was the only room in the house without any storm windows. Why? who knows. Our old windows only work so well and some are hard to operate or don't at all. We decided to go whole hog on the master bed windows and get new storms and completely renovate the windows in the hopes of having warmer nights where the cool breeze outside doesn't make the banner across the window sway, even when the window is closed.

Here is a before shot- it's hard to really see the windows but you can get a sense of the age at least.

We hired window restoration guys to come in and install the storms and take apart the windows. We are going to do the scraping, sanding and painting, and then they will come back and install them with new parts so that they actually function. Our hope is to be observant enough that we can take on the restoration of other windows in the house ourselves.

Here is the bedroom all plasticated while the window guy works.

The windows are out and the new storms really makes the old trim and wallpaper look bad.

Just having the new storms, even without the windows up, had made the room way warmer. They were installed right before the coldest night we've had so far- we were thankful.

Next steps are getting the windows back in shape for installation and probably sanding and painting the window trim as well.

Project - Master Closet

In late September, we started the master closet renovation project. We actually started with two closets- one decent sized but odd shaped one that is accessed via the upstairs hallway. In this closet you can access the attic hatch. The second closet was our very shallow, not very useable, master bedroom closet. The two closets shared a wall so we decided to take it down. In a corner of the hall closet the old chimney took up a decent piece of space. When we re-roofed the back half of the house we had the roofers take the chimney down since we don't have a fireplace and it's not being used for anything anymore. Between the additional space from the chimney and the wall between the closets coming down, we were planning for a nice sized master bedroom closet.

It started by Tim taking the chimney down from just under the roof in the attic to the first floor ceiling. These pictures are very blurry but they are the only ones we have during this stage...The first two are from inside the closet looking at the chimney bricks which are covered mortar. The bricks are now in a sculptural stack in the yard.

This is looking into the larger closet from the hallway. There are two mini doors in the back of the closet allowing for access into the crawl spaces in the bathroom and bedroom walls.

The next step was the wall between the two closets coming down. This is looking from the larger closet through the lathe and plaster into the small master closet.

After the wall was down you could see the door into the master bedroom-

Looking from the bedroom into the newly expanded closet. The hole in the floor is the space left from the chimney. The natural wood door is the door from the hallway open into the closet.

You can see the footprint of the old master closet from the flooring on the left hand side.

The ceiling of the closet was also demoed and Tim framed a new hatch door for the new attic ladder we will be installing.

Then, the plaster guys came and here it is after blue board and a thin coat of plaster.

from the bedroom....

next steps are the trim, the floor, and designing the closet space- it is much more useable than before but is still in the eaves and space needs to remain open for the attic access.

Project - Small Bedroom

Back in October, Tim and his folks spent a day doing demo work in our small bedroom. We decided to take out the odd-shaped closet in the room so that there would be more open space for a wider variety or furniture arrangement options. The closet was in the eaves so to access it you had to crouch down and walk through a small door and, while still crouched, walk along the back wall to access the shelves. The closet made a strange corner next to the radiator where there was hardly room for a chair and there wasn't a great space to put a bed.

These first few pictures are blurry but help to show the space at the beginning of demo.

This is the closet door. The closet goes along to the right and the awkward space by the radiator is to the left.

Looking down towards the end of the closet (on the left). There's a larger nook and another, regular height, closet on the right.

They make quick work of the closet wall.

Wallpaper comes off the walls around the rest of the room.

The old wallpaper, horsehair plaster, lathe, and old insulation...

Space! Light!

we got a wallpaper steaming, knowing it would come in handy in the future as well...

3 months later....

we got guys to come in and put up blue board and a skim coat of plaster.

blue board on the walls and ceiling-

the radiator will be rotated so that it is up against the wall. There is much more room now- a full bed would fit in the corner under the eaves and next to the large window.

next comes flooring and trim work and then sanding and painting!