Soldiering On

A few weeks ago I showed you around the Guest House. It's knee-deep in renovations and the mess continues to get worse before it will get better. But better it will be - a lot better! - by mid-summer, we hope.

When we started this second phase of work on the house, we planned to do only two rooms. But it soon became evident that while we were at it, we might as well go ahead and finish the entire house. Since the price of building materials continues to rise, doing the work now will be a little cheaper in the long run. And then there's the mess! Once I saw how much dirt and debris came from gutting only two rooms, it seemed wise to go ahead and gut everything and be done with all that demolition/construction dirt once and for all.

So, although the already-completed part of the house remains clean and usable (we had guests just this week), the rest of the house is definitely a construction zone. If you visit this week, bring your hard hat!

In case you missed the "story so far," or would like to refresh your memory, take a look at these posts:

Here We Go Again!

Demolition Derby

Three Inches At a Time

In Grandfather's Room, the dry wall is up and almost ready for wallpaper. There's still some trim work to do on the bead board before it's ready for paint. Now that the room is fully insulated, the propane stove is keeping it warm and cozy.

Upstairs, we started with that tiny back room, the smaller of two rooms Robin calls "Aunt Helen's Rooms." I had hoped to keep the original board walls, but the boards were pretty flimsy and would not have survived the process of being taken down and put back. And then there was that turquoise green paint! Consequently, we decided to put up new board walls. Here are some before and after photos. Remember, everything will eventually be painted (in a more pleasing color!), making it look more like the original than it does now.

Before...

and after. We built a new closet and added what will be open shelves.

The ceiling before...

and after new bead board that will be painted white.

The larger of Aunt Helen's rooms is becoming two new spaces. We needed to add a bathroom upstairs and this room turned out to be the only place that could happen. However, the room was too big for just a bathroom, and we needed access to that tiny back room without having to pass through another room. The answer was to use part of the room for the bathroom and the rest for a hallway. Watch for a post on that whole process soon!

Elsewhere upstairs, there's a big bedroom known as Lohr's Room. Thank goodness it was empty! All the plaster has been removed, some repair work done on rafters and such, wiring completed, and new insulation added. It's ready for drywall now.

One corner, before...

and during the demolition.

Another corner before,

and now. We took out the closet, which had been added many years after the house was built.

The main hallway of the house, which is open to both floors, has a beautiful staircase and banister. Here are some photos taken when we the house became ours in 2004.

Last week, the hall looked like this:

And today, it looks like this! It's hard to believe it will ever look like those first photos again!

This little "hut" is to protect the banister and stairs from being damaged by falling plaster. See that shovel handle? What you can't see is that the bottom is a very large scoop, which is put to good use in the big job of getting all that debris and dirt out of the house.

Even though everything is a huge mess, every day brings more progress toward our goal. Won't it be sweet when the entire house is clean and comfortable and pretty? Until then, we soldier on!

Old Hobbies Die Hard

This past Saturday it snowed. Hard. All day. In the end we had over 18 inches on the ground. Now, I know that is nothing compared to what Boston has, but around here, that's a pretty good snow. When it snows like that, I always want to do something I enjoy, like reading, sewing, baking, or what my aunts call "handwork." The women in my family have always liked to make pretty things with needle and thread, and this handwork takes many forms: quilting, embroidery, crotchet, knitting, and in my case, counted cross stitch.

I can't remember what my first counted cross stitch project was. Over the years I've made several. Some of them were for gifts, and others I have hanging in my home.

It's been a long time since I've done any counted cross stitch. The dates on these two pieces are 1992 and 1996! I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done any since the turn of the century - 15 years, or more.

When the snow started piling up on Saturday, I found myself itching to work with my hands, so I dug out a project I started way back when and didn't finish. It's an old-fashioned Santa whose arms are loaded with toys.

It can be tedious, but I really enjoy watching a lovely picture unfold as I stitch. I'm a perfectionist at heart, and although none of my creations are perfect, the process satisfies that need deep inside to strive for a flawless finished product.

I've made good progress in the last three days. I've noticed, however, that I can't see as well as when I started this jolly fellow, and so a magnifying glass is now among my tools. And after I've stitched for hours (it's hard to find a good stopping place) my neck and shoulder have a crick that didn't used to be there.

The magnifying glass is especially handy for taking out mistakes, as I found out on Sunday afternoon after I discovered I had done the outline stitching around Santa's face and beard with the wrong color.

I'm notorious for taking forever to finish such a project. However, since it is only February, I just might have this one finished in time to enjoy during the Christmas holidays.

But, even if I don't, it's so nice to be stitching again. It feels good and comfortable and right, despite tired eyes and a sore neck. It's one of the many things that make this life of mine a sweet one.

The Sweetest Time of the Year

For most folks, the sweetest time of the year probably comes around a holiday, or perhaps a favorite season. For some, it might be a birthday or anniversary. For us, the sweetest time of the year comes, quite literally, in February. That's because it's sugaring time!

My sweet hubby has been busy this week, with the culmination of what is, in some ways, a year-round event. From cutting wood in the fall to cleanup in late March, maple syrup is on his mind. But the fun part comes now, when the sugar water is flowing, and the sugar house is warm with wood fires

and a lot of steam.

This year's first run produced about nine gallons of beautiful, clear syrup. Making syrup that is pretty, just the right thickness, and delicious is an art, learned through many years of practice. Robin learned from his Uncle Lohr:

From the time he was big enough to carry a bucket of sugar water, Robin helped with the entire process, from tree to table. When we moved to Davis Run, Robin lent his sugar-making labor and skill to our wonderful neighbors for several years before venturing off on his own. Now, sugarin' off on Davis Run is an annual event enjoyed by neighbors, friends, family, and anyone else who happens by. In the end, when all the folks have gone and there's time to really look, a good run of syrup is really a work of art.

The trees have stopped running now, since the above-freezing daytime temperatures needed have been nonexistent these past three days. Once this cold snap is over, the sugar water should start to flow again, and Robin will be busy gathering and boiling. After all there are still two weeks of February left, and that means our sweetest time of year will last a little while longer.

Three Inches at a Time

Work on the Guest House continues. Grandfather's room is the focus at the moment. Since my last post, it's gone from this:

to this.

Insulation was added (yes!) and wiring was overhauled. Now the bead board wainscoting is going up. It used to be flat, horizontal boards...

but, I didn't care for that look. So, we're replacing it with vertical bead board. Much better!

That's Mark on the left and Cody on the right. When I checked on them this morning, I exclaimed, "Progress!" To which Mark answered, "Yep, three inches at a time." That's how wide the bead board is. It's a long way around the room, three inches at a time.

Upstairs, in the little back room that Robin calls "Aunt Helen's room," the insulating is almost complete, along with the wiring, taking the room from this:

to this,

and this

to this.

You can see that the once empty room is now almost filled with building materials. There's just no way to do all this work and keep things neat and tidy. But, it's all indicative of progress, and when it comes to finishing the Guest House, I'll take it any way I can get it.
Even if it is just three sweet inches at a time.