I love this wallpaper – it looks like it was the first layer, so it’s from right around 1845. It looks like woodblock print to me.
Before we began putting things back together in the Final Corner, we headed out to run some errands (dump, building materials, sustenance), and check on an RMc project. The project looks great and there was lots of progress since we last visited. Ryan was particularly taken by the restoration job the carpenter is doing on the stiles of the all-wood windows original to the house (around 1920 or so). The material of choice: Bondo (like for at-home collision repair). Who knew! I love this picture (taken by Ryan).
The windows at High Street are keeping Ryan up at night. If he had the time, I’d ask him to write about it because this particular obsession hasn’t really rattled me (I’m instead fixated on pendant light placement and color schemes). Ryan would like to salvage the existing windows (certainly more green and less expensive than replacements), but the way that the windows have been set in the framing is posing a problem. I, on the other hand, am in favor of all-wood replacements. While I probably should say that cutting down on heat loss is my primary motivation for this, it is in fact a hope that double pane windows might cut down on the noise from High Street, which is unfortunately a nice way to say Route 1A. I also have concerns about the time and skill level required to restore the windows. It looks like because of the framing problem, we may have to eventually go the replacement route, though it is not the architect’s first choice.
While we were out, we were also lured in to an electronics store liquidation sale. Another problem we haven’t quite yet come up with a solution for is our entertainment system wiring. Consensus is we need a new receiver and speakers. We also are eyeing Apple TV. We would use this primarily to set up a wi-fi network of our two Mac Books, iPhone, and iTouch so that we can play all the music we have on iTunes through the stereo system. The sale had some attractive prices, but we didn’t pull the trigger. We need to discuss with an AV expert and take our time on this one. Thoughts/recommendations are appreciated!
Back at the house, I began work on insulation and Ryan finished off the strapping on the dining room ceiling and added a bit of framing to the Final Corner (if only it was also the Final Countdown …)
Saturday evening, we headed over to an Irish pub we like a few towns over in Georgetown, Rory O’Connors and were pleased to discover live music.
On Sunday, I continued with insulation and Ryan was on sheetrock duty. Earlier in the week, Ryan met with a contractor out of Gloucester who gave us a very reasonable quote on finishing the sheetrock in the kitchen and front rooms. So, we are on a deadline to get the sheetrock hung so that the contractor can come in. Ryan and I have taken some time off from work at the end of the month, and hope to be able to install the hardwood flooring (but need the sheetrock finished to do so). This is all tied to the project phasing I mentioned before and is really my first crack at being a project manager for RMc! At least the clients we’re working with are nice.
Ryan finished all the sheetrock he could by the fireplace (stay tuned for I suspect a colorful future account of us learning to cut and hang cement board, which is fireproof and will enclose the gas fireplace framing) and then turned his attention to installing two accent lights on the dining room side that will eventually highlight a painting by my grandfather and a TBD piece of art.
The “wall washers” look fantastic installed. We picked an oil-rubbed bronze surround, which will match other hardware in the kitchen and front room and will look great with the dark floors and exposed beams.
Sunday’s temps reached the high 50s, there was some light rain, and best of all it smelled like spring (love that!). Certainly all signs of spring a-comin’! Another harbinger of spring was the (preventative) sump-pump I set up in the basement, as well as a dehumidifier. It will be interesting to see just how, um, humid our basement gets this mud season. At least we are prepared – mentally and mechanically.
Back upstairs, Ryan moved on to the track lighting for across the fireplace/built-in. The track also has a dimmer on it, which makes me unreasonably excited. Here's a shot of the installed track.
We’ve decided that we will need to extend the track on either side to eliminate the shadows the spots are casting, but are overall very happy with the result. We’ve gotten a bit ahead of ourselves with the light fixtures, but since we didn’t quite know how they attached to the ceiling, we had to actually put them in to cut and hang the sheetrock properly and at that point… well, you might as well just go ahead and hook up the whole thing!
Another Very Important accomplishment of the weekend was the christening of the kegerator. Can you guess what the “M” stands for?
After pouring ourselves a few (very fresh) cold ones, we finished off the day by hanging two more large pieces of sheetrock on the dining room side ceiling.
I had some hesitations about how the sheetrock ceiling on the dining room side would “talk” to the exposed beams on the living room side, but all appears well.
This week, we’ll be nailing down the taper’s schedule and next weekend, we hope to finish up the sheetrock/cement board to make way for the professionals!
(Last weekend my digital camera succumbed to I suspect demo dust, so this weekend we relied on Ryan's iPhone camera, which really isn't that great as you can see. Next weekend we'll be back and running with a Nikon digital camera I nabbed on Amazon for a bargain... I also bought a case and will be exercising a little more restraint when it comes to demo documentation.)
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