Blizzard Scenes

After a lovely Christmas in Townsend and Boxing Day in Southboro, we had a tremendous storm throughout the northeast for the past 24 hours.  

Ipswich got at least 18 inches and incredible gusts -- topping out around 40 mph on Cape Ann.  I'm still getting used to Ipswich's winter roads... like Vermont and out west, our chosen town lets the snow hard pack on the roads.  Ryan smartly guessed that it might have something to do with the river and not spreading ice melt; he also thinks it's "quaint."  I think it's terrifying.  (No picture as I was white-knuckled in the passenger seat.  Gosh, I rock at shotgun.)

Being along 1A, you can imagine plows had kicked up quite a pile of snow across our empty drive.  Took us a while, but we dug out.

Tela enjoyed a romp and then waited patiently while we shoveled.  

Season of Giving

Ryan and I both feel so lucky this holiday season to have our very own house in a great town that we love so much, but I must admit the kitchen renovation has been a bit of a slog as of late and it’s been a bummer not being able to have a tree up this first year in our house. After seeing a post on Facebook about Kiva and taking a look at the website, I was reminded what it really is all about, and how truly lucky Ryan and I are.

I’ve heard about Kiva for awhile and always meant to check it out, but never got around to it. I encourage all you readers out there to take a look! Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva partners with microfinance institutions around the world, who administer loans to entrepreneurs and individuals. The borrower ultimately repays the loan, which then the lender has the option to re-lend, donate, or be reimbursed for. Here’s a graphic from the Kiva website. Since I’m singing their praises, hopefully their web folk won’t mind me “borrowing” it.

Meet Humberto from El Salvador.

Ryan and I made a very modest donation to Kiva towards the cost of raw materials necessary to renovate Humberto’s home. (We are also familiar with the cash-flow challenges of home renovation.) He jumped out because his goal is to improve his family’s living conditions and to create a home that is “more spacious, orderly, and beautiful,” something we’re trying to do, too.

Anyway, reading Humberto’s profile and other profiles on Kiva put things into perspective for me quite a lot. Here I am, sad about not having a Christmas tree and worrying about if we will be able to afford new kitchen countertops (current answer is no), while there are so many people out there struggling daily, doing their very best to improve their family’s lives, and do good work.

PS - If you want to support Humberto, you can find his Kiva profile here.

Welcome Yule!

With snow in the weekend weather forecast, we scurried around Saturday morning to do a final run of construction debris and yard waste before it was all covered by snow and likely not addressed until the spring thaw.  I nabbed some (what I thought was) evergreen boughs from the top of the yard waste pile (at the town dump) and decorated our window boxes.  Ryan accused me of trash picking and said he was going to tell everyone, so I’m beating him to the punch.  Judge me if you must, the window boxes look fab.  (Turns out the boughs aren’t evergreens.  So, they’ll probably soon go brown and I’ll have to return “borrowed” boughs back to the town dump.  Oh well.)

Mom and Dad arrived at the house around noon, with overnight bags in tow.  Using Ipswich and the handy commuter rail as our jumping off point, we ventured into Boston for an afternoon production of the Revels and then for dinner in the North End, my old ‘hood.  Here’s Tela giving us her best Poor Me face as we left for our Boston Yuletide Adventure.  Girl knows how to work it.

It was great taking the commuter rail in.  I’m a huge fan. I frequently use the train for commuting between Ipswich and Salem, and even bring Tela.  Since it’s an easy walk on both ends, we’ve so far avoided buying a second car and hope keep it up as long as we can.  Salem also got Zip Car recently, which is a big help.  And so ends my public transportation plug of the day. 

Revels and dinner were both fantastic.  We ate at Taranta on Hanover Street; they do Southern Italian – Peruvian fusion.  Sounds weird, tastes delicious. 

After our overnight guests departed on Sunday (with granddog in tow), we addressed some minor drainage issues on the kitchen roof in preparation for snow.  I kept an eye on Ryan’s work through the bedroom window.  Makes me nervous when he’s up on the roof, but someone’s gotta do it.

Tela went home with Mom and Dad because we were headed to the 8:30 Pats game.  Wonderful time had by all!  Our layers upon layers of winter gear (and a propane-heated tailgate complete with a flat screen) kept us cozy and though they had us guessing until the end, Pats pulled out a win.

After collecting Tela from Townsend, we enjoyed a Monday off and the first snow of the season.  Happy Winter Solstice – the days start getting longer after this!

Nook Report Card

I’m giving myself a solid B+, and in parts maybe even an A-, on the nook walls. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready to have a B+ effort on our kitchen walls and the beautiful vaulted ceiling we’ve worked so hard to expose.  I’m glad I now know how to finish drywall, but I think at least for the rest of the first floor, we’ll be calling in the professionals.  

Here's an overall shot of post-round three sanding:

Because it is white-on-white, it’s hard to get a good shot of the walls.  For the most part, this is what all the large walls looked like after the third sanding:

But the corners get sloppy:

 

Oh, this is what Ryan and Tela did over the weekend while I worked on the nook (guitar is obviously a study break – he's been working very, very hard):

Ryan has his final studio presentation tomorrow night and then I know is really looking forward to some downtime between semesters.

On Ryan’s suggestion, I sanded the walls once more before priming them, this time using a 120-grit sand paper.  My tools of the trade:

I also did a couple very small patches of joint compound to clean up a corner and one area where the corner tape was showing.

After sanding the patch jobs, tonight I primed all surfaces.  Forgive me all these pictures that look the same.  White-on-white is tough.  But I'm proud, so here we go:

As for my learn-as-you-go moments of this portion of the project:

#1:  I used the primer I bought way back when over the summer when I thought this would be a 3 month reno job.  Because we have some colorful walls (a purple to make Barney jealous and the red studio), I bought a 2-gallon bucket of latex primer Killz brand.  I think, however, the roller I used was intended for water-based paint because it seems to have left a slight texture on my previously butter-smooth, sanded to perfection walls. 

#2:  The paint seems to make those darn bubbles under the joint tape blossom – even ones that under layers of sanded compound had seemingly disappeared.  There really is only two cases of it, and one will be eventually obscured by the seat cushion, but gosh that is annoying!

Honestly, I’m not losing sleep over it.  It seems silly, but this little nook right now is giving me so much joy.  Lately, the reno has been wearing on me, I’m officially over not having a kitchen, and with Ryan understandably tied up with school, progress on the house has been limping along for the last month.  But right now, I don’t care.  We have [Almost] Finished Walls [in one small corner of the house].  And they don’t look that bad.

Next up, I’ll be painting the ceiling eggshell white and asking Ryan to help hook up a Just Perfect light fixture that I purchased in July (again, wishful thinking...).  Not only does this fab light coordinate with a great walnut brown/black fan for the kitchen, it’s important we get it installed before painting the walls, because after that, we will be testing greys for the nook and the front room.  Artificial and natural light both make a huge impact on how paint looks up on walls.  Never trust a paint chip.  And, after we select a grey and paint the nook, it will be time to work on the Cape Ann accent wall.  I have a plan to borrow a projector I saw Education staff at the museum using to make the process a little easier. Also on the nook docket: finding the right fabric for, and upholstering the bench, and of course flooring installation throughout the first floor.  Here I go, getting ahead of myself again…

I'm Dreaming of a Front Room... *

* to be sung to the tune of "White Christmas"

Deck the House

Alas, our Halls will go unadorned this Yuletide Season.  I drove Ryan crazy going back and forth on if we should have a small tree somewhere in our two-room efficiency unit (aka the second floor), but ultimately decided that we’d skip it this year.  Just one more thing for construction dust to land on.

That tough decision behind us, I ventured out this past weekend to find a wreath for our front door.  I found said wreath at Gordon Florist & Greenhouse in Ipswich, a delightful shop.  Not only do they have cut flowers galore, but also a huge greenhouse, and of course a large assortment of balsam wreaths, swag, poinsettias, and so forth.  I picked out a plain wreath and had the florist put on a cranberry bow to match with the house trim.  Et voila:

Earlier in the week, I’d put candles in the windows, so at least from the outside, the house is decked.  (An aside: I found candles at CVS that have sensors on them, so you don’t need to remember to turn them on and off.  So nice!  It’s especially nice to arrive home from work to cheery lights in the windows.)

No updates on the nook, which is patiently awaiting my return.  The rest of the weekend was consumed with holiday gift shopping, errands, a trip for me into Boston, and for Ryan, you guessed it – more schoolwork.

20 Pounds Lighter

My Photoshopped version of of the picture I posted a few weeks ago.  You can also see what the roof line looks like with the chimney removed.

Happy Turkey Day

We had a wonderful time celebrating with both the McSheras and Smiths over the holiday weekend.  This year, we are thankful for wonderful friends, family, a dog who tries so very hard to be a good girl, and of course, our new (old) house on High Street.

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Back at the house, we assumed our usual tasks of wiring for Ryan and finishing the breakfast nook wall for me.  I started by sanding down the fill coat I applied last weekend.  Everyone gets dusty when you're sanding joint compound.

Here’s the nook after sanding and the third coat of compound.

I ended up cutting out the bubbled tape and applying compound over it.  It’s getting there… we’ll see how it looks once I’ve sanded it down a final time.  I am now researching the pros and cons of applying a final skim coat to level everything out.  

Not too much else to report on for now as far as progress on the kitchen goes.  Ryan’s in his final push for fall semester, so that’s taking up a lot of time and I have my breakfast nook project.  I’m keeping myself sane through the framing and heavy construction phase of this project with this inspiration binder.  I have it organized by each space in the house and am continuously adding to it.  Here’s a couple spreads.

This gave me the idea to use tinted grout between our subway tile back splash.  I think it gives a little more interest and my savvy sister-in-law Tatyana once pointed out that it is a good idea to use dark grout between tiles so that over time, the white grout doesn't get dingy looking.

  

I've pulled lots of pages from House Beautiful (like the one above) and This Old House Magazine.  Here is a whole article with advice on selecting the right gray paint, our plan for the front rooms.

We won't go as dark as the gray above, but I pulled this for the bright white trim and also the yellow.  Love gray and yellow together.  I'm also pulling potential furniture for when we get to that point.  

More front room inspiration.

We had a blue and brown bedroom in Salem, which I'm desperate to recreate and improve upon in Ipswich.  I love this idea of an accent wall, and plan on doing it once we get to the second floor.  But until then, we're rocking the lavender walls...  no point in painting walls if we are going to tear them down.

Also in the binder is some of the research that my mom has put together on Ipswich and our ancestor Thomas Dudley, who also lived on High Street from 1633-38 (I read that on the marker we walked by today).

The large plot highlighted was where his house was (the original structure is no longer there) and circled in red is our house.  How cool is that!?

I (and Ryan, and Tela) hope that everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving.

Social DIYers

Fitting in work on the house is just such a drag when there are just so many fun social events to attend (and recover from) instead.

On Friday night, Ryan, Tela, and I ventured to Sean’s house for a killer Beer Pong Tournament. We were out in two games, but definitely won the prize for team spirit. Sadly, I failed to capture on film our coordinated red-and-white ensembles involving knee socks and sweatbands (Tela also rocked the sweatbands). You will just have to imagine.

Saturday, Ryan had a BAC meeting in Boston and then an RMc meeting over on Marblehead Neck. Ask him about the project… it’s very cool!

By the time we got home, we hardly had time to turn around and head out to Southboro for a joint 30th birthday party. We stuck around for birthday cake and to sing Matt and Brad Happy Birthday, and then scooted home at a reasonable hour and woke up Sunday ready to move some mountains.

As frequent readers know, Ryan is well on his way to becoming a master electrician these days. While he’s been pulling new wires, he’s also been trying to make sense of the absolute rat nest of wiring in our basement. There were at least two phone lines, two bundled internet/cable lines, old wires that go nowhere, and yards and yards of speaker wire (huh?). So to help guide new work and future work, Ryan mapped all the wires out by hand and then drew it up on Auto CAD.

While he did this, I resuscitated the stove so that I can make Buckeyes, a Smith Family Thanksgiving tradition, for McShera Thanksgiving. (I’m also going to bring some over to our kind neighbors who’ve kept us fed through the renovation.)

Stove cleaned and covered, I turned my attention back to the breakfast nook walls. I had already sanded once, but I tried out a wet sanding sponge which minimizes dust, then brushed the walls free of lingering joint compound dust, and vacuumed the space. For the fill coat, I used a ten-inch taping knife and very carefully went over all the seams, corners, and screw heads with the same joint compound, trying to be as even-handed as possible. As you can see, it is very serious business.

It took me about two hours to complete this layer. I find that two hours is a good cap for detail-oriented things like this. I start getting sloppy after much longer (please see: the paint job in our Salem apartment bathroom). My hope is if I continue to be very patient and apply the compound in thin layers, and sand in between, it won’t look like total sh%t, but I’m still not completely convinced. There are a couple blisters under the tape, which seem to have become more prominent with the additional layers. I’m not sure how much can be done about them. I tried piercing one with a utility knife, but it didn’t seem to do much to help it. Any thoughts, readers?

So, the jury is still out on this project. After we complete the nook, we will take an honest look at it and decide what we want to do. I’m thinking of even painting it so we get the full effect. If the nook isn’t perfect, it’s no big deal – it’s dimly-lit, tucked away, the accent wall will draw attention away from slight imperfections, and the table and built-in bench will also dominate much of the space. But I’m not sure if the same finish can pass in our kitchen, the first room you enter in our house with a vaulted ceiling, which I’m sure will draw our guests attention upward. So, until we see the nook complete, we are not ruling out using a portion of our first time home buyer’s tax credit (praise be!) to have a professional come in and finish the walls.

Here’s the nook after fill coat number one – it’s definitely looking better!

After creating his amazing electrical plan, Ryan and I ran the telephone cable from the basement, through the crawl space, and up the nook wall (we are going to tuck it around the corner in the nook) so that I could seal up the space with another piece of drywall.

Besides this section, the wall above the counter tops remain open for wiring. We aren’t bringing the drywall down to the floor yet because we still need to pull up the linoleum and possibly install a new subfloor, which our lower pieces of drywall will sit on. So this run of drywall was the final frontier. And it was bugging the heck out of me. With Ryan busy wiring, I decided I would cut the drywall on my own. It was my first time and besides cutting a corner, it was surprisingly easy. All you do is score the paper on both sides and the drywall snaps right where it should.

I then had to locate a beam and the two-gang switch, and cut holes for them. I did okay.

We’re going to have to do a *little* patch job around the switch, unfortunately, but after spending a good hour measuring the wall and cutting the drywall, that piece was going up. I’m thinking a combo of spray foam and joint compound will do the trick...

While keeping one eye on my slow progress with the drywall, Ryan hooked up outlets...

This will be a switch to under cabinet lighting and a plug for occasional use. He’s such a pro.

We finished up at the house and headed over to the The Farm in Essex to watch the Pats beat Peyton… I mean the Colts. Half-priced apps for the game… yes, please!