Gardening has begun . . . sort of . . .

We're in a holding pattern on landscaping until the backfilling of the foundation is complete and we put some top soil around the house. Our cunning plan is to just let most everything go back to nature and here we see Kim starting that process. She's taking blueberry bushes from the woods and replanting them in some of the bare area nearer the house. I guess letting things 'go back' really means helping it along.

While I was out watching Kim work I took this picture of some exposed ledge behind her. Now this is the look we're aiming for ... may take a few years to get right though.

Spring may actually have arrived ....

I took this picture the other night.  It's the view out the back of our house around dusk on a misty evening.  Nice to finally see green.

Dinner with Silvia, Owen and Tom

Silvia, Owen and Tom came over for dinner last Saturday night, which is house building related as Tom created our kitchen, bathroom and mudroom counter tops out of concrete. It was an informal get together but both Kim and Silvia created some great dishes. These are some shots of the Kim's appetizers before out guests arrived. Should have gotten a photo of Silvia's spectacular Fromage Blanc and salad!

And here is a shot of the happy family right before we headed into dinner. Robbie took advantage of the empty room and started the dishwashing by licking the remaining dish clean.

Mother's Day

So ... on Saturday I left Robbie and Brie on the corner down in Kent and they walked down to the Kent Greenhouse to pick up some plants for Mother's Day.  Now,  I told them that they were for the Barn window box, so the plants needed to flourish without direct sunlight.  Well ... they just weren't listening and got ones that needed a lot of direct sunlight, so Kim and I had to go back on Mother's Day and trade them in.  Here's Kim trying to hide behind the new plants.

On Monday, Kim, Robbie and Brie put them in the flower box ... they look great!

Snow in June ... it can't be

I talked to someone who's been in the area for a long time ... the conversation turned to the weather and that it was going to be 30 degrees tonight ... I was about to start joking about how it may snow in May but he stopped me in my tracks when he said .... "hey, that's not unusual, I remember it's snowed as late as June 9th". 

Since I started thinking of being in a snow parka to get the mail in early July, I thought it best to do a little research for the Northwest Hills of Connecticut:

• May 9^th is the average last day of frost in Northwest Hills   
• October 6^th is the average first day of frost in Northwest Hills   

Not bad ... warm enough from May to early October to really enjoy all the outdoor activity this area has to offer without bundling up ... and maybe, just maybe this has been an unusual winter.

What is this . . .

So, we're settling in.  I had big plans to set up my office in the basement, but that's not going to happen for a while so I set up shop in a large upstairs closet.  Probably the only room in the house with limited power and no Cat 6 cabling!  But ...  I like it.  I'm thinking of building in two desks with some nice recovered wood and hanging three 22" USB monitors on the wall as my screens.

This picture though,  is just a random accidental shot of my desk this afternoon ... a pot of coffee, some club soda and a monitor in the background.

If you look carefully on the right hand side above the coffee pot, you can see the right side of a picture taken from the trip down to Florida in March with a couple of fraternity brothers and our wives.

The Penguin has arrived . . .

And no, I'm not referring to the fact that it's May, the temperature outside tonight is 30 degrees and only a Penguin would feel comfortable up here.  I'm referring to the Christmas present that Grace and Mia gave Kim and I ... it's a Penguin that makes seltzer ... saves money and less recycling!

I made the first few bottles with way too much carbonation ... gas in ... gas out ... that's probably why I'm up blogging and Kim's locked herself in the bedroom.

What focus . . .

Kim is now a non-stop painting and staining machine .... She's painted the master bathroom, mud room, kitchen, upstairs hallway and the guest bathroom.  She's also stained the trim in the guest bathroom ... lot's more to do, but she'll get it done ...

Timber or Firewood?

After a successful day of fire wood gathering,
Wayne now wonders if his easy finds down Gorham Road might have been Carter Smith's house timber ...
















p.s. Anyone in the market for a bulldozer? It's difficult to move on from our 'Construction Period' when this is the first thing we see every morning.

Guest Bath Room Complete!

One room down, nine to go! It all started when I found a consignment shop Lillian August side board and decided that it would make a more interesting base than a built-in countertop. That set the exotic tone for the room.

Next I met with Tom, who did our other cement countertops, and we decided on the color and size of the countertops. We decided on a width of 14 inches, to extend the top of this narrow piece, without compromising on looks. Next, I searched for 14 inch wide sinks - not easy! I looked for an oval shape to make use of the long length of the countertop, and found these recycled hammered copper bowl sinks on the web (www.coppersinksonline.com).

There was a pipe showing in the ceiling above the sinks, which was a problem that created a lighting opportunity. I stained extra pine barn wood we had, and bought some thin molding at Home Depot. The electrician (Ray from Hantsche) added two overhead recessed lights, and Strid Brothers Carpentry cut and installed the piece.

The carpenters also made a seat for the chair in the picture, that Wayne’s Mom picked up seatless at a church sale. I bought a yard of material and some stuffing, and stapled the material to the underside of the seat., and finding an excellent tutorial on youtube.com

We bought the Capiz shell mirrors and toilette light from lampsplus.com. All the other things in the room came from different rooms of our previous home. Any thing that seemed exotic was evaluated, and lots of things, from baskets to artwork fit well. I’m hoping it will be a nice treat for guests.