Category Archives: House

Happy New Year

The Jewish Year 5767 began last Friday night. Any way you look at it, it’s been quite a year. I’m quite happy to see it go, really, and ready to start again.

This weekend, we did some more interior painting and a lot of furniture rearranging and are, for the first time, feeling things coming together somewhat. The new (ell) living room is mostly without furniture now, but we have ideas about what we need to get or build.

The old living room (I suppose we could call it the “den”?) is a real room now, painted and furnished and much comfier for TV watching and napping by the fire:

PaintedDen

PaintedRearrangedDen

We moved the small, writing desk from the office to the big window in the dining room (and moved the pine table previously in that spot to the entry hallway):

DiningRoomRearranged

I’m thinking maybe we’ll put a lap top there for more convenient web browsing (right now, the only place we do this is in the office).

Outside, the lawn is mowed:

LawnMown

And you can see that we’ve stacked at least half of the final two cords of wood beside the house. The wood on this side is for the Morso (the little stove in the ell).

Oh, the “to-do” list is still there, but it’s gradually getting smaller. Some day, we might even be done. It’s good to start the new year with a purpose.

Squirrel’s Tail

This weekend, we finally painted our bedroom. The color is called Squirrel’s Tail (ok, we partly chose it because we liked the name), and the color is a sort of brown/tan that we thought might look a little “beachy” and go well with the oceanic floors.

Bedroom Painted in Squirrel's Tail

It’s quite cozy.

When we finished painting, we also rearranged the furniture. A new perspective for a new season.

Painting update

I didn’t get a chance to post an update before we left for Canada, but we have made progress on the exterior painting. A friend of a friend gave us a great estimate for finishing the really scary parts of the house paint (base and trim), so we hired him!

Here’s one painter, sitting on the porch roof:

PainterUpOnTheRoof

No thanks.

And here are the stunning results:

PaintingByJavier

Now, I still need to do a second coat on all the parts I can reach, and a first and second coat on the trim I can reach, but this doesn’t scare me at all. In fact, I’m looking forward to it, even though, realistically, this might not happen until next spring.

Elsewhere on the property, Michael, Hyla and I (ok, mostly Michael), stacked the first two cords of wood:

TwoCordsStacked

And now, even though I don’t have a photo yet to prove it, a third cord is stacked, too. Two more to be delivered.

This year’s wood situation is a fun change for us. Previous years, we’ve had the wood delivered to the old trail (now part of our driveway) and Michael would stack it all there to season. Later in the year, he would haul it all, garden cart load by garden cart load to the front year, and then re-stack it all inside the ell. This year, we’re able to stack it all right near the house so it doesn’t require multiple haulings and stackings (probably not a word…). We don’t have a shelter for the wood this year, but plan to put a good week or two’s worth on the porch as we use it. Maybe we’ll build a wood shed next year?