half a year has passed...

Which I guess is what happens when your son had brain surgery.  More to come.

Really, has it been over a month?!

Things have been crazy and I need to get back on this... keep posted!

Another 6 inches? Stop slowing our progress, Mother Nature~

When I said I wanted high ceilings I did not mean.....

Our "resident" home inprovement guy was painting the living room.  This was supposed to be a simple project to keep him busy during the winter when it is freezing out and to brighten my mood.  It is hard living with brown walls and the color was intimidating. As he was on the ladder he realized that the ceiling was brutally cold and the pot lights were allowing a ton of cold air into the space.  Then he noticed the floor... when you walk into the space the floor is level from left to right but when you get to the windows there is a 2" step at one end of the room.  Half the living room was once an enclosed porch...

The next thing I know is that the floor is coming up and that the door is being removed....Right now you can see the basement from my living room and the living room from my basement.  I know this is important and I am thankful BUT I was not prepared for this.

Slow and careful progress..

When I get frustrated at the pace of things around here I have to pause and reflect on how far we have come from when we bought the place.  Photographs are useful.  We took so many on that 40 degree day in March when we had our home inspection.  Here is one of the fireplace that is in the "fireside room" the room that is right ouside of our dining room.  The chimney is not quite a central chimney but is in the "middle" of part of the house.  It currently is free floating which creates a small space into the living room and a larger space into the living room on the right hand side.  The place where the real estate agent is leaning is slated to become a closet, and the ugly insert has been removed.  The plaster and lath are off and the room is thankfully no longer red.  I will post more photos as I go along but this space has changed and even though the fireplace is s-l-o-w-l-y coming along it IS changing.

Add keeper of the home fires to my list of things to do.....

Last October, when we realized that there would be no way in hades that our fireplaces would be operational by the winter, we opted for a woodstove in the unheated breezeway.  Purchased on Craigslist, this Midnight Blue beauty keeps us warm and cozy in the breezeway, kitchen and family room and is helping with our oil bill, fairly dramatically. Not to mention it is beautiful.

My concern over the stove was that we would all smell like a firesale as we have experienced in other places that have heated with wood, but so far, we are flamemeisters... no smell and great ambiance.

The breezeway project

After..... the bluestone effect- stamped and stained concrete

Before... after the carpet and the lino was lifted

When we purchased the house the breezeway had a nice camel color carpet.. the carpet itself was lovely but the stains were beyond belief.  Not to mention the room always had a funny smell.  We tried stopgap measures to make the floor look better but finally resorted to hiring the big guns..

Incidentally the smell was mold growing on and around the carpet.  Carpeting with out a vapor barrier on untreated concrete is a recipe for disaster.  Since the carpet had been removed my migraines have gone away.

Dining Alfresco- a chimney repair in October...

Well, we came close to having this massive brick structure topple on the roof.  By the mason's estimate we had one nor'easter left on the old chimney.  It should stand for the next 100 years.  Now that the chimney is fixed and the roof is almost done I can't wait to get rid of the vinyl and the god-awful shutters... one day at a time!

Pumpkin Pine!

This is from last March ('10) and a few dumpsters ago.. what we found under the 1970's carpet in the front parlor....  We plan on lifting this floor, putting plywood down and shimming the underside of the logs that hold it up to create a more level plane and hand sanding and reinstalling the pine.  This will likely be the next room done in our home.

Cast iron insert for the parlor side fireplace!

Faced with the question of how to turn the old coal firebox in the parlor into a working fireplace, I decided (with Ben's rubber stamp) to go with an English Cast Iron insert.  I kept finding great ones on websites and when I would research price, they were all in Great Britain (that makes sense).  I finally found the one I wanted in the US and have ordered it.. can't wait to see it installed.

The mystery fireplace

The depth of the fireplace is the first clue that somewhere along the line the original firebox was modified or rebuilt. There are many different vintage brick and rubble stone evident in the construction.  Will be posting a photo of the insert tomorrow from the website.  The house was built in 1805, but a brick removed from the fireplace is stamped 1917.  I love clues!

Progress on the work in progress

We have lived in our home for 2 1/2 years give or take and every day the 200 year old house reveals another side of itself to us.

I was inspired to start blogging because today was revelation day... what I suspected from the time I first went into the front room of the house is now visible... our second fireplace!

The mason pulled out a ton of old brick that was obscuring the firebox.. and dumped a ton of soot in the hosue but there, in front of us was a working, drafting firebox which was used for coal....  and a brick dated 1917 :)