T minus 5 days and counting....

Drove down to Mystic yesterday to check progress & drop off our new sofa. Met the hardwood floor guy & painter to write a few checks. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I wish the wife & son were with me. The fumes from the oil-based polyurethane barely left me conscious, so the decision to not have them join me, was a good one.

The wooden boat show was going on across the water. It must have been the awards ceremony as I could hear applause from the Seaport. It was a quick trip, with some great progress shots on the kitchen and the side bedroom being completely transformed via the floor sanding. The kitchen has a permanent water stain in front of the sink that will be covered with a runner. I'm think a 'FLOR' product will go well in there. So regarding the kitchen, once the butcher block counters go in, we should be all set in there for the time being. So far, all that's left to do is finish carpentry in the TV room, rear hall, and rear stair. I'm chomping at the bit to find some vintage brass sailboat fittings, some 1 1/4" diameter vintage rope, and to bang out my 'sailing modern' handrail in the rear stair.

Starting to feel like we're in our home and not someone elses.

This past weekend was by far the most fulfilling trip regarding progress on the house. I had no idea what a difference removing old wallpaper could make in the 'feel' of a place. In retrospect, it's obvious. A southern facing room with huge windows is probably going to become breathtaking once the heavy curtains and navy blue wallpaper are removed. I guess I just didn't realize to what extent. The woodwork never struck me as special until yesterday. Now that it's sanded to it's core and has 3 coats of new oil base paint, it's true beauty has come out. I feel like I've liberated this aspect of the house. It's more simple now. It's cleaner. Visually and literally.

The kitchen has the furthest to go, but should be the greatest transformation. With 3 simple things: paint, new butcher block counters, and new appliances; I'm expecting a renaissance. The floor sander came over (on Father's Day) to look at the job and really appreciated the old character of the existing wide pine and was looking forward to maintaining all that is worth maintaining.

Few of the decisions of the prior owners were good ones. Very few. Among them, the paint color in the front/ formal bedroom. We matched the old colors and re-painted. I would have never picked the colors..... and love them. Very dramatic. The walls a faded, chalky, pale green with slate gray, matte crown mouldings. Additionally, the stair treads were painted between second and third floor. Sort of a burgundy/ merlot color. Somehow it works well. We're redoing this also.

I have some designing to do. Minor, but design. The old wormwood paneling room, also called the fireplace room, also called the future TV room, needs to have a mantel designed. The room is getting sheetrocked for now, with 1x6 v-groove, vertical paneling down the road. This will go up two-thirds the distance up the wall with some fancy-pants detailing the top. Again; phase 2. So for now,....... I am thinking a wood surround, classic mantel, with perhaps 2 sections of raised paneling dividing the space left b/n the mantel & the ceiling.

Mowed the lawn, did some minor weeding, and picked up 2 el cheapo lawn chairs from CVS which we already got our money out of. Made time to shoot some hoops at the cottage with my new Father's Day present my wife bought me. The day somehow didn't rain on us. Rained the whole way from Boston to CT, and back again, but barely a drop at the house. The winds were another story.

Misty took her first ever dip into the Mystic River and could not have been happier.

Need to decide on the exterior painting soon. The exterior sills are raw wood and in dire need of attention. Marceo the painter is delaying his return trip to Brazil until "House is finish", or I run out of money; whichever comes first.

More later.

Sunday Update....

Swung by the house today on the way home to Boston from NY. The painters have made some good progress, but have a lot of work ahead of them. I had them take down some cheap 1/4" fake wood paneling only to find there was nothing but studs behind it. Now, I've seemed to have opened pandora's box. Do I hang sheetrock? Do I hang beadboard and get a carpenter in there? Do I update the knob&tube electrical since the walls are open now? It's causing me to go slightly mental. I told my Father tonight on the phone that if I were to work full time on this, and do a full renovation, then it would take me 4 to 5 months. And we're expecting to be in there in 2 more weeks? I guess my idea of simply stripping the wallpaper, scraping the lead paint, and re-painting everything was not so simple. It's impossible to do JUST that. So when you do wind up doing more, where do you stop? Do you not put smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in for the safety of the fam-fam? Of course; and then do you......well you get the idea.

It was a beautiful afternoon today. I only wish we could have spent the whole weekend there. There is a massive rubbish pile on the back patio, that I'm sure the neighbors are looking forward to seeing it go away (especially before the Garden Tour next weekend).

Now that we pulled up some old linoleum, we need to re-sand. Since we're re-sanding, do we replace a broken old pine board....etc., etc.

The garden looked beautiful! I'm having my old friend Dann, remove the rubbish and cut the lawn this week.

We picked paint colors. The painter mistakenly removed the wallpaper in the front hallway on both the first and second floors (that's the price I pay for not being there to manage them). Now that all the wallpaper is down, the house is really starting to lighten up, and it's true character come out through multiple coats of white primer. We need to order blinds soon, decide which floors will be sanded, and get ready for living there. I wish to god I could send one of my Irish carpenters down there to whip the place into shape. It pains me to be away from my pet project.

Enough for now. I want to dream of a white slip-covered couch that is somehow dog & kid proof.

Now the real work begins.....

It's official. We're now proud owners of our new home. Last weekend was pretty cool, as we spent the night on an air mattress to christen the house. We slept surprisingly well with the cool coastal air being nature's sleeping pill.

Already, I replaced the 4" vertical, cast iron waste pipe between the 2nd floor and basement. As the home inspector suspected, it was cracked over the whole 9' and needed to be fixed prior to the 5 painters living and working there (they started yesterday). Otherwise, we mowed the lawn, weeded, and did some minor safety work on the electrical wiring.

The painters are stripping wallpaper, taking up carpet and vinyl flooring, and skim coating the walls. Their job there should be mostly prep and is expected to take 3 weeks.

We discovered a tiny little boat launch exclusive to our neighborhood that should be a great place for Misty to cool off.

Closing Update

Closing in 2 days!