Agh! So much happening! The head spins. Since the last post, the electric and plumbing has been mostly wrapped up and inspected. The amazing guys at Closed Cell Structures (yes, shameless plug, my husband’s company…
https://www.facebook.com/Closed-Cell-Structures-158240120898340/?fref=ts) have spray-foam-insulated the entire new portion of the house, as well as any exterior walls that we had to replace (such as a couple in the living room and those in the kitchen).
A hot second later, our walls were delivered, and they have already been installed! I got home from work the other night and nearly fell over when I peeked into the house. It’s almost like real rooms now…
kitchen, with new doorway to the breezeway
another kitchen view, and back stairway
The wood stoves have been installed into the living room and our master bedroom. The other large hearth downstairs will remain an open-flame fireplace and we had some sort of chimney magic done to it so that it will work as such. It is in a room will eventually be an office/library. There are two more fireplaces (one in the long upstairs hallway, and another in the den next to the dining room downstairs) which will not be functional…just pretty! Eventually.
living room hearth with new wood stove
master bedroom fireplace with wood stove insert
The fireplace in the den has to be shored up a bit, it was literally crumbling onto the floor. For years, it had been totally hidden behind a wall, so seeing it exposed has been really cool. In a perfect world, we would rebuild the entire thing brick-by-brick and leave it all exposed and cool-looking. Maybe that will happen someday. As I’ve said before, there are a lot of things we would do if we had all the time and money in the world. For now, we need to just seal and stabilize it so that we can live in the house without any critters wandering in. We did manage to pick up a great antique mantle for that space. Makes me think of the back of a ship!
More exciting news: the hardwood floors are being ordered today and will be installed after the guys finish plastering the walls. Then we can work on putting the kitchen together. I can’t believe how fast things are moving now! I’ll try to be a bit more timely with my updates the next few weeks ?
Hi guys,
You know this reminds me–are you doing anything with the little bomb shelter in the basement? I thought it would make a great wine cellar–invite certain “friends” over to try my cask of Amontillado.
Also, did you have to do anything to fix the garage? To my eye, it looked to be leaning some.
Bob
Hey Bob! Sorry for the delay in response. Isn’t the bomb shelter so fun?! I’ll have to post about that at some point. I am absolutely planning on utilizing it as a wine cellar, pending any apocalypse, of course. I just have to keep wine around long enough to start a collection…can’t seem to accomplish that endeavor!
The garage has certainly seen better days but seems mostly stable for now. Once the majority of the house has been done, we plan on shoring it up and doing the roof over. That roof! I joke that it’s the “starving whale in the back yard” – the sinking roof over the framing has created a grim appearance of ribs haha…
My aunt and her husband were owners of this home at one time, my cousins grew up in it, my sister and I along with our mother (who is the sister of our aunt) were fortunate enough to spend a winter here in 1960 or 1961, I loved this house and everything about it. I think my favorite were the fireplaces, I have pictures of us decorating the Christmas tree in the main living room, having a lobster feed in the dining room and playing in the snow.
I’ll never forget waking up just before the sun came up, looking out a bedroom window and seeing the undisturbed snow covering everthing for as far as I could see, It was so beautiful also ice skating on the pond and our afternoons spent at the the horse stables down the street, can’t seem to remember the name of it.
Viewing you photos and reading your blog brought back some wonderful memories for me of my family and a beautiful home I loved.
I’m very excited to watch your progress in its remodel and I can tell from your blog you love this home too.
Cheryl! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Your message made me misty! You must be talking about Robert and Priscilla? If so, I must say we owe so much to them! It seems they basically renovated the whole house just like we are doing now. I hardly know anything about them, but I love them! I am so happy you have such wonderful memories from here. It truly is a special place. If you are ever in the neighborhood, just shoot me an email and I’d love to have you over. It is probably much different now (between our work as well as the school being here before us) but the bones of this house will surely never change 🙂
Yes I was referring to Priscilla and Bob, she was my favorite aunt, Priscilla and my mother were sisters, my mother passed in 2009 and Priscilla just passed last year. I was born in Salem, Mass. we moved out to California in 1952, I have memories of your home that far back, sad to say we left our whole family in Massachusetts, I don’t know how my parents did that, my sister and I have always felt a deep connection to New England though. I love our visits there.
I know our aunt would love what your renovation because it looks like your restoring what she loved about this house. Your doing a wonderful job! I love it and really enjoying following your blog.
Thank you so very much for responding and epically for your invitation to get in touch with you, I certainly will on our next trip back.
Cheryl