Still Here!

Things have been a little crazy since my last post - Fourth of July Weekend, a quickie trip to our nation’s capitol, massive heat wave, and preparations for moving.  When we were in Wareham, in addition to seeing lots of McShera friends and family, I picked up this beauty for 10 bucks - I am in love.  Ryan's Aunt Deb also gave us a beautiful set of copper kettles and one brass one that are going to look fantastic in the new house.

We did remove the pantry (doors were set aside for a TBD repurpose at a later date). The plan is to open the office space onto the kitchen via a large “doorway” and onto the front rooms with a half-wall to create a breakfast nook area. The kitchen is starting to feel quite spacious!

Every project leads to a multitude of smaller projects and decisions. Removing the pantry and opening up the office space (and removing the fireplace and chimney) means new floors. So, added to our list is finding cost-effective flooring we both like (no plastic). We’ve eyed cork for barn flooring, which might also work in the kitchen (not the front rooms where rearranged furniture might expose dented cork). I’m kinda feeling a painted floor in the kitchen – has a shabby chic/beachy feel to it, but Ryan isn’t sold on that.

We spent Monday of Fourth of July weekend working on our bedroom, which we’ve decided needs to be our shelter from the home renovation storm. It was pushing 100-degrees outside, so Ryan was happy enough to go shopping with me, debating the pros and cons of various window treatments and matching bedside lamps. We went with chocolate brown and a brushed nickle scheme, which will go nicely with our bed set and the lavender walls we've inherited (in an effort to avoid repeating work, we've decided to live with the paint upstairs until we renovate those rooms... my apologies in advance to any friends or family that stay in the Fire Engine Red guest room). We also installed our air conditioner to complete the oasis (a major FAIL on our part, as the ensuing week continued at 95 +/- degrees and that’s our only AC… oh well, we survived).

We’re working with an electrician to rewire the kitchen, re-install pot lights, and wire for a ceiling fan.

Once that’s done, we can start putting up this nifty insulation on the vaulted ceiling. We will run it right over the strapping and the R-rating (an indicator of how well it insulates) is pretty darn good!

In other sub-contracting news, our plumber neighbor Bob said he can help us out with the new hot water heater, which should also remedy the shower situation – magically, just like I hoped!

This past weekend, we ventured to DC to see our good friends Abby and Bry get married.

It was a wonderful wedding and we promised all our friends (many from NYC) to have the house ready for visitors come next summer and to take off a weekend from renovating come fall for a visit. Deadlines are good. So are weekends off.

The garden has been a complete casualty of the heat and weekends away. I’m hoping that we can bring it back to life once we are in Ipswich fulltime… which is Thursday. Yup, Thursday.

So, for the next three nights, I will be packing up Salem and Ryan will be working at the house. We caved and hired movers and are feeling very good about that decision.

We don’t have the kitchen up and running yet, but check out what I surprised Ryan with as an early birthday gift:

Ryan’s summer birthday always gets sandwiched by weekends away, weddings, and this year, it is the night before we move out. So, we had an early birthday celeb in Townsend when we went to pick up Tela (she stayed with the “grandparents” while we were in DC).

As you can see, we have a bit of work to do, so entries might be a little sparse for the next few weeks. We also are still working on things like um, an internet connection at the new place. Stay tuned…

Trips to Home Depot: 1… I think?
Trips to Bed Bath & Beyond: 1 (wildly unsuccessful)
Trips to Pier One: 1 (no window treatments!)
Trips to Target: 1 (successful, after I swore up and down that this would be an "adult" house and I would no longer decorate with items from said store... go figure)
Next up: MOVING

Rebuilding and Rethinking

We’ve hit the summer season of weekend obligations. It’s a great time of year, but a major impediment to our ever-looming July 15 deadline.

Ryan was down in Falmouth to toast our friend Bryan’s demise of bachelorhood on Saturday (lucky duck, he’s marrying one of my dearest friends Abby), so Tela and I hit the commuter rail and headed up to Ipswich. Tela did “okay” – we skidded by on her good looks and a liberal supply of treats (I imagine air travel with a toddler is not much different). The ride from Ipswich to Salem is very quick – 20 minutes, so it’s a viable commuting option when needed.

It’s been a hot stretch of days and the garden was feeling the impact. I quickly administered garden CPR. Look, Mom – I weeded!

The Bee Balm has popped and it looks so nice against the side of the barn.

For the rest of the day, I painted the bathroom cabinets. It made me all the more appreciative for Eric and Tatyana’s assistance earlier. For one, I found I’m not so great of a painter (semi-gloss is hard paint to work with, I’ve decided). To boot, three people and conversation certainly makes the work go faster.  (If you are reading this, guys, please do take that as my Cry for Help.)

Ryan returned early Sunday morning, dedicated Weekend Warrior that he is, and we headed back to Ipswich. I administered another soaking to the gardens, did a last coat on my cabinets, and Ryan continued along with strapping and framed out a wall at the far end of the kitchen.

The highlight of Sunday was a visit from John Bagley, a longtime family friend, and his wife Candace. John’s a contractor and in the past 28 years that the Thiems have lived at 11 Turnpike Road, he’s probably done work in nearly every room of the house (also an antique). Recently he did some beautiful work on the kitchen, exposing a cathedral ceiling and old beams which has in part been inspiration for our own kitchen work.

It’s great to talk plans through with others – it’s very easy to get stuck on an idea or start taking shortcuts. Like Frank, John encouraged us to consider removing the fireplace and chimney entirely. It’s more work and demo, but now is the time to do it. It will create an open plan dining/living room space and allow for more flexibility on the second and third floors.

After John’s visit and finishing up for the day, we retired to the Old Spot, our favorite pub in Salem, to mull over new options. We find these decisions are much easier to make with a frosty beer in hand. While the front rooms are currently on hold (kitchen takes precedence), we are leaning towards taking down the chimney. We also discussed removing the built-in “pantry” in the kitchen (with salvaged doors from a local post office) and opening up the small office space onto the kitchen to create an area for a breakfast table or nook and perhaps a cabinet to house the stacked washer dryer, which would then free space in the bathroom to put in a tub… whew – anyone else exhausted?

Post to be updated with pictures later – we’re back at it tonight!

Runs to Home Depot: 1 mid-week
Next up: Framing the vaulted kitchen ceiling, more demo???

Putting things back together

We are awfully good at taking things apart, but we are now triaging our efforts focusing first on the kitchen and then the two front rooms and putting things back together.

We only had a few hours on Sunday afternoon to do work this weekend, but in that time we finished hanging the new ceiling joists and Ryan got a start on the strapping.  Seeing the strapping go up helps to visualize what the new ceiling height will be like. 

In other news, I learned how to use the nail gun and reattached the hardware and doors on the freshly-painted kitchen cabinets.  They look so great!

Runs to Home Depot:  0  (fear not, we are headed there tomorrow night after work!)

Next up:  Strapping on the kitchen ceiling, painting bathroom cabinets, painting built-in kitchen cabinets

Weekend Rundown

Wowie.  The amount of work you can get done with four weekend warriors instead of two is nothing short of amazing.  It was so great to have Eric and Tatyana come see the house and spend the weekend with us.  After a quick tour, somewhat limited by plastic sheeting still up for kitchen demo (no access to the stairs), we got down to business.

With Eric and Tatyana’s help, we washed, sanded, and painted – two coats – all upper and lower kitchen cabinets.  All that’s left is what’s built in, which we will do at the very end when dust is no longer flying.  We did the cabinets in the same colors (a celadon green with teal interior) in a semi-gloss finish.  They look so great and fresh and shiny and new.  And yes, I genuinely derive that much pleasure from freshly-painted kitchen cabinets.

Before E&T showed up, Ryan pulled down the remaining kitchen ceiling and we got started on debris removal.  In between painting stints, Eric helped out with the “man’s work” of debris removal.  By noon on Sunday, we were pulling down plastic sheeting and shop vac’ing. 

The plastic came down just in time for Rick, Denise, and Meghan to visit.  Not only did E&T get to see the rest of the house, so did the visiting McSheras.  I was clearly not on my blogging A-Game, as I failed to snap a pic of the crew from Southboro.  However, Denise did bring a gorgeous clematis that we planted and trained on the pergola, and I did get a picture of that.

With the kitchen cleared out and the full peak of the roof exposed, Ryan (with some consultation from his rather demanding client yours truly) figured out where we will set the height of the new ceiling.  Despite my initial protests, we are not leaving the ceiling fully open to the peak for a variety of reasons.  This includes the need for insulation, electrical considerations (recessed lights with a dimmer are going back in, as well as a tasteful fan much to the architect’s chagrin), and plans for an eventual master bedroom addition over the kitchen.  To squeeze out as much as possible for ceiling height in the kitchen, the future addition will be four steps up from the floor height of the two current bedrooms.  We decided that was the maximum step up we could do that wouldn’t be totally wonky.  In the end, we’ve increased our ceiling height from 6’-10” to 8’-9”.  It doesn’t sound that high, but it feels so different and in our petite house and itwill make a huge difference.

With that all hashed out, Ryan determined our lumber needs and made a Home Depot run.  It was a small miracle that we made it until Sunday afternoon before visiting our friends in orange at the local Home Depot.  When he returned, I was happy to have Eric assist with hauling said lumber.  The Smith Clan kids were running out of steam, so Ryan entertained us with his handyman skills and made a few saw horses.  We finally christened the compressor we purchased for the roof project and never used.  In other news, Tela dislikes the nail gun and compressor immensely.  We’ve decided to add a dog house to our project list.  Tela-girl needs a home base up at the house – she’s a bit lost amid all this renovation and noise.  

We then had what can only be described as a small hurricane event at 84 High Street.  Cait’s parents arrived with E&T’s boys (ages 3 and 5).  After we explained the rules of a job site, the boys took a whirlwind tour of the house.  They love the attic, but were a little skeptical when I suggested Ryan was like Bob the Builder.  Cait’s mom arrived with more plantings, identified a slug situation in the kitchen garden, set up a beer lagoon trap, and deadheaded the window boxes all in the space of 90 seconds.  Cait’s dad got debriefed by Ryan on progress in the kitchen and our choice to vent the furnace through the foundation.  And just like that, a child exchange was made, Cait’s parents were back in the car, and E&T were off.

After the hurricane, I got my first taste of framing under Ryan’s very patient tutelage.  Ryan measured out the span for our new ceiling joists, cut them at the same pitch as the roof, and after we snapped a chalk line across both sides, we started hanging joists!  At 6:30, we decided our neighbors had probably had enough of the nail gun and compressor and called it a day.  We hope to have the ceiling rough framed over the course of a few upcoming weeknights so that we can meet with an electrician and get to hanging drywall.  We are very good at taking things apart, but with a month out from D-Day (move-in), we need to start putting things back together.

Runs to Home Depot:  2 (1 mid-week)

Next project:  Framing the new kitchen ceiling, reassembling kitchen cabinetry, painting bathroom cabinets

Zen moment of the day

In the words of Ryan (my infrequent partner in blogging), "THIS is why we live here."  He suggested it be added to the blog and I agree.  Makes the horrors of last night's demo almost disappear.

Sunset on Little Neck, Ipswich, Massachusetts