Check out our $4,000 bulletin board!

Oh yes, today was a busy day....see we can't get into the new house to do anything yet....& as those that know me can understand, I'm climbing the walls.  I can only haunt antique stores & shop the Internet for items & ideas for so long!  I needed projects!

Scott (for those of you that don't know), could be described as a wine connoisseur (this is a bit under stated perhaps), but anyways being a wino, you end up drinking a lot of wine, which results with accumulating a lot of corks!  (we have a designated "wine area" in our new pantry- we're that serious about this pleasure!) He has for years apparently wanted to create trivets with these corks.  I for a while have wanted to create a bulletin board for the kitchen out of corks.

Today, while at Pete's shop, we had him help us make a simple frame out of Luan we had and pine he had kickin' around that he was able to cut and plane to size.  We then came home, I stained it quickly with some stain, found once again on the shelves here at the big house (thanks Doug!)  for some contrast, and the project began....6 glue sticks, 2 first degree burns, and 272 corks later we have an awesome "bulletin board", one so pretty we probably will stick very little in it! 

Although the wood & luan was free....Scott figured the bulletin board costs him/us....$4000+!  Now That's A LOT of wine!!!!!
At least the wine corks are now out of bags & boxes (stored previously at both Pete's &  his Mom & Doug's) so not only can we enjoy seeing the corks now- we created more recycled crafts!



In the beginning....It was just a board & frame!




We learned what "jacobean" stain looked like after I found it on the workshop shelf....perfect!




The "artist" at work! (& eating & drinking.....)









Find "Somewhere to hang your hat...."

Yesterday while Scott & I were antiquing...(okay, I was dragging him thru another store!.. lol! He's actually begun to like it a bit I think, he may not admit this to anyone though...) anyways, we spotted some old doorknobs & I mentioned to him I wanted to make a wall coat rack using old doorknobs.

So, today's project became making this coat rack.  It started with deep cleaning and polishing some old reclaimed knobs.




hard to believe but someone had painted over the porcelain and brass.  The wood was a bit dull & shabby looking when we started.



All clean & looking MUCH better! Years of dirt & grime are gone!



The pretty brass hidden underneath....




Close up of the beautiful wood after a bit of murphy's oil soap & wood wax.  & here the porcelain is all clean and pretty minus the paint, which luckily just came off in the dish pan I soaked them in!

A trip to our friend Pete's shop & we return home with a beautiful piece of walnut from Theron's folks house (he had it at the shop and was "thrilled" for us to take it and use it! :) The guys also in their wisdom helped us figure out how to attach the knobs to the board with a sturdy and fairly simple application (thanks to the availability to two brilliant brains & lots of cool tools in the workshop!)



 This is an image of the wood, we loved the funky irregular shape & decided to keep it for character.  Theron Wentworth's parents are from Kennebunk & have raised their children, and now grandchildren there.  They are contributors to the community in a number of ways, & we are honored to have a piece of wood from the Wentworth "family farm".

This image shows the wood half waxed, I discovered "Johnson's paste wax" today ....Doug had it on the shelf - amazing!  I declared, I need a jar of this stuff, I'm going to wax everything! It's amazing how the wood comes "to life" with this product! & it leaves it SO smooth! The wood knobs came out beautiful & smooth as a baby's bottom!

This is the coat rack- we have to drill & permanently insert knobs tomorrow- but we are thrilled & can't wait to put it on the wall in our new entry!  Now we have to pick a cool bench for sure to go under it! :)

We both are thrilled with this "recycled craft project"! 

Thanks to all that helped contribute materials, time & brains!



well....there is now sheetrock!

Apparently the plasterer/sheetrocker, "Skoog", has found his way out of the woods, away from deer hunting (to at least put 2 days in), there is hope!  I also believe if deer hunting is in NH is the same as ME, season is over...so he just may show up again tomorrow!



This is the bathroom, a different product used on walls for moist environment of the bathroom.  (it's a pretty bluey/purple....maybe we don' need to paint these walls!) :)



Our awesome electrician Steve made a Sunday visit also to do some work on the main floor of the old part of the house.  The process is slow lately, but there is forward progress, although it may seem slow we are moving forward.

Is there such thing as TOO MANY choices? I think SO!

Progress was made today on the home front, I often just look and look and look and debate and cannot make a decision, but today I actually did!

I chose our tile for backsplash behind range, (the island backsplash (because it's bi-level it has about a foot high backsplash) will be a random solid mix of these colors, no backsplash in rest of kitchen):

I chose & ordered our "bin pulls":



Can you believe we need 35 of these! Deal on ebay, hopefully they are as good as they say they are....come w/ a lifetime warranty!

Ordered our kitchen knobs, to be set in oil rubbed bronze to jive with the pulls from a cool seller, Aimee's Rock Works, on yes, my fav, Etsy!  She is giving us a deal 'cause we're ordering 20 of these guys...this will set us up for kitchen & pantry.

Here's the pics she has put together for the 20 rock knobs she'll make us- we both love that they are so unique and organic, all different!  The first pic is just the idea of what they'll look like, the second pic is the 20 stones she has actually selected for our custom order of knobs, we're shooting for darker rocks to go with the oil rubbe.

  I'm in full debate on which of these 2 lights to use on the outside of our new kitchen entry door:
Here's this one, the "South Street Outdoor Wall Lantern" obviously vintage- big surprise! 
This is the other one: "Circa 1910 Outdoor Wall Lantern" another vintage one, a bit less expensive...both made of hand forged cast iron- cool!

I'm going to wait and see if by chance the company selling them has a great Black Friday Sale....worth a shot!



It'll go to the right of this door (into kitchen), which we imagine to be our main entry door.



Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself. -William Shakespeare

So, yesterday afternoon I had the unpleasant experience of ranting & raving (without losing my cool too much) at the heating/furnace folks.  Since this blog is suppose to document the ENTIRE experience of remodeling a house I thought I'd share this side too, without getting into all the details,  it was the typical quote a price, get the bill, whole new price on bill...shock, frustration & anger kicks in....  Had a 20 min convo in person at office which I tried to behave and then got home & emailed in detail a chronological experience from June to current day with this company (which included 3 techs & SO many phone calls!) our billing & experience was discussed with owners.  The result was the situation was righted to an agreeable amount today....ahhh...I can stop ranting about that! (not always fun this experience!!!) :)

So today sheetrock was going to hit the walls....HOLD IT!  Another inspection is needed first!? Are ya kidding me???? DO you care if my house is warm or not?  IT WASN'T before I tore it off!!!  I'm going to give it to them it is a "fire safety" thing....AHHH!
So, because we overlooked this in the gazillion things my father is trying to juggle, we have to wait till Wed am. then sheetrock to follow tomorrow is the plan.

Matt (my brother) went over to get the heat going....we got the okay from the furnace company, (had to call this am. after I ranted at them last night...yikes, thank God I DIDN'T yell!)  they said we had the go ahead...Matt came over to do a couple things, and went to turn system on, realized quickly the water came into system but was not connected leaving the system to flow thru house! OH NO!  Plumber is called and will try to come Wed to get this going! (oh that furnace - what a headache its been!)

We DID get our bath vanity for upstairs bath today, after much deliberation as you all read in my past posts, we made a decision to buy one from CA online, yes made with quality as it was made in China...(what ISN'T!?) It arrived today, between 12-3 (why do they give you a "window" do they EVER come at the beginning of the window, lol!?) We love it, the guy that delivered it was funny, he was telling us, "this is gorgeous" (there was a pic on the outside of box), "is this marble or granite?" it's travertine! He was cute, and at least we knew it was a hit from the start!  We are pleased with as much as we dared uncover & peek at!

Come on, Come on Scott get it OPEN! I can't wait to see it!!!



We carefully unpacked it and got some weight off it, we need to bring it to the house still so kept most packaging on, but had to have a peek!




Pretty travertine top! 



close up!

Um....does anyone want to come help pick out paint colors-they all look the same & my eyes are now crossed!?  Yes, the wine makes it easier to pick colors, (certainly makes me braver)! 

It's Pink, It's Fluffy....& It'll make you really itchy!

I learned this the hard way, I remember being young and playing in my parents' attic one time where there was this great fluffy pink stuff (insulation) exposed....I didn't know any better & touched it & played with it, ran it thru my fingers it was like a big puffy cloud, Oh boy, was I sorry!

Luckily today, I knew enough to just admire the pink stuff!  The new addition is "almost" completely insulated and after another inspection today, we shall see some sheetrock hit the walls!  We anticipate a huge "change" over this week as the house is really starting to take shape & really look different! yay!

Today the furnace will be fired on and heat will be set to warm the house up for the first time.  This is in preperation for mud on sheetrock, resuming the skim coating of plaster to the walls & ceiling in old part of house,  and eventually paint! 

I woke this morning around 3 which has become my new unwelcomed routine to toss and turn and contemplate tile colors, faucets and flooring....boy I wish I could wake with sugar plums dancing in my head instead....maybe once it's December! ha!


Kitchen ceiling




kitchen




kitchen & door into barn



Side Note from the coop....

Just to inform all of you, Lady Madonna we have discovered is NOT the sole egg layer, but it is indeed, all our fav's, Little Ms.Buttercup!  The rest of ladies have not paid a bit of rent as Scott says....they better get a layin' or their eviction notice is going to be issued!!!

I have FINALLY had a few of Ms. Buttercup's eggs & they are delish, & SO fresh looking- check out these yolks and how high they stand!  Proof in the picture, you can tell a fresh egg!  I have to admit, I hesitated a bit at first 'cause it just seemed odd that I was going to eat this "thing" that was just inside one of my little chickens....?!  But after a week I got over it & now there's no turning back....(maybe there's hope for me to be a farmer after all!)

My dreary day has been lit up!!!

After passing an antique store in North Berwick & patiently waiting to see it be open, I finally got lucky tonight on the way home from work.  I had spied they had some old lights/lamps in the window, and I thought just by chance they may have some milk glass shades ....oh did they ever!!!!

I found quite a few milk glass shades....two that just had to go home with me, and that fulfilled my ceiling fixture quota for the new space!  One that is hand painted (I believe) with green lines, the perfect compliment to our kitchen wall color....

and I also found one with an original white porcelain base & a beautiful white milk glass shade, the kind gentleman rewired it while I waited & sold them to me for a song!  $45 for the complete shade & fixture & $25 for the white/green shade!!! I've been checking these out everywhere on the net, including ebay....& this was a deal- no shipping charge needed!!!

The last few days we have been busy "harvesting" rocks for our shower floor...we have okay'd it w/ the tile installer to have Scott mortar & lay the rocks on the floor, then the installer will grout, seal & finish shower floor.  We figure we have about 12 SF out of about 30SF we need...but we're on our way!  This is a nice way to save some cash, and put Scott's artistic skills to work....as well as incorporate some special places (harvesting areas) into our home!
They definitely look really great "wet" when we have been harvesting them....but a bit different when dry- I guess the obvious advantage here is that when someone is admiring them- they'll be just that, wet!

It's all wrapped up!

The Up-Country Gang made a welcomed appearance again at 64 High Street to wrap the house up tight with Tyvek and prep us for the next stage! (siding we hope....'cause this look doesn't really fit into the neighborhood!)

Matt removed the window from the barn, as we all decided after making the "addition" 4' wider, it was too close to the house, and as Matt said, a bit too much going on on the front of the barn as is....



Goodbye window, Scott, you'll just need to turn a light on now!



We waited (somewhat patiently) a week & a few days for paperwork to get mailed, faxed, certified and checks to be written to confirm our amazing electrician could work & be inspected in Maine by a code enforcement officer....finally it is COMPLETE- we passed & Steve's 100% official in ME!
Onto warm insulation in the new part of house on Monday 11/22! yay!  & sheet rock to follow...if only our plasterer is done blood tracking his 10 pt buck he shot this am!! (really, does deer season need to effect every part of my life!) lol!

OMG! A Bath Vanity Has been purchased!

Yes, after hours and hours of unsatisfied searching we have settled on a bath vanity & even made the purchase just now!!

Stumbled upon this one Tues pm online, it's one that I love....and Scott, I think is just mostly happy I won't drag him around Portland looking at old dressers & carrying a tape measure with me everywhere!

Here's a link to view this winning vanity....comes w/ top, w/ sink has lots of storage, is 48" & has a bit of "furniture like character" & is made mostly of plywood & hardwood!  It's a winner folks!  FINALLY!

Click here to view: Bath vanity Pics

(I'm sure this all sounds foolish, but you have NO IDEA what a relief it is!)

ps. I know my father will be thrilled! (Dad, we even settled on the shower! amazing huh?!)

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." -Maya Angelou

After a lengthy day yesterday roaming Portland (well, of course we weren't roaming, I had an agenda...big surprise everyone! lol!), Scott's friend Darren suggested we look into a dresser for our bath vanity issue....(the issue being cost & wanting something "vintage" or old....so this set off a 4 day search online I figured out for our size and storage needs a sideboard (cabinet style) or buffet would be better perhaps than dresser, we hit a great consignment store in S.Portland, called Cherished Possessions it was cool, lots of furniture, decent prices, but not quite anything that worked.  We went to a tile store I had longed to check out, Old Port Tile Co. it had some amazing pieces, we asked about 1 6x6 tile we thought was cool....our thought was maybe splurge on 6 tiles for behind our kitchen range and then use more affordable tiles around it to finish it off...we asked about this particular tile, Scott thought $6 a tile, I thought $10....$41 per tile was the answer?! Get us out of here! This was the look we saw and are considering "borrowing" the idea....:

We finally made it to yet another store I had yearned for....Portland Architectural Salvage this was 4 floors of COOL!  We had a lot of fun in there & it's the type of store you could walk thru 3 times and still see things you missed the first 2!  Furniture galore, and all kinds of windows, doors, moldings, and TONS of cool vintage stuff.....everything a girl like me dreams about!  (Scott liked it too!) We purchased two cool small old letter press numbers, for a couple dollars....you may see them on the back of an envelope one day!  We thought it was cool they had a "6 & a 4" for our #64 High Street!

Our counter top appears to be thru as well, we have hired our good friend Pete Spadone, of Spadone Design to custom create our wood counter tops.  From the very beginning Scott and I have wanted to have wood counter tops, not butcher block, but 3/4-1" thick wood tops.  So many wood types to choose from and so many opinions to consider.  We stuck to our guns and ended up indeed with the same tops Pete & his wife Stevie have in their beautiful home which Pete made from reclaimed Southern Yellow Pine.  So, the wood has been sourced and is to my understanding a large beam at this point, which will be planed into a thickness for Pete to work with, and he will join the boards seamlessly together to create a "solid looking" surface top.  The beauty of this wood is it is old, and reclaimed, meaning it had another life... (here Wikipedia explains it:
Reclaimed lumber is used wood that has been taken for re-use. Often this is wood from long-standing idle buildings, and it's sometimes refinished for new purposes. Most reclaimed lumber comes from timbers and decking rescued from old barns, factories and warehouses and some companies have been known to source wood from less traditional structures such as boxcars, coal mines, and wine barrels. Reclaimed or antique lumber is used primarily for decoration and home building and is often used for siding, architectural details, cabinetry, furniture and flooring.)



An image of yellow pine....ours will have some of these knots, some show of where nails and screws once were etc...but will appear "finished" and will be urethaned when complete.  We have no doubt they will be stunning.

 We love the thought this wood comes with memories and history, and will now be a part of our home, and new memories & will live another lifetime!  We also LOVE the fact Pete is making these for us, he is a beyond "talented" craftsman, and counters are hardly his "thing" we are honored to have something he has crafted with his own hands, as he has been an integral part of Scott's life for some time & now will be a part of our new home.

This house has become a beautiful project of family and friends coming together in SO many ways, my family obviously is intricately involved, Pete will make us our gorgeous counter tops, as well has made many suggestions along the way and Scott's step-dad Doug & his family have given us their gorgeous vintage soapstone sink (pics to come) that will be installed as our kitchen sink.  We have been blessed with kindness, skill and love, interest, suggestions and we both appreciate ALL OF YOU!   

Off to check out the progress, which has been HUGE! a new window, part of a wall down between dining & living room to open up space, and electric in old part!  We are off to Devoe tile store to settle up our tile shower which has become a much larger expense than we had planned and caused quite a bit of confusion for us...

Will report back ! with pics of our new progress!!

& a bit more to report....

If I could get away with having a piece of plywood and 2 sawhorses (or these concrete blocks may work!) &be my bath vanity for upstairs bath, I would.  I am SO sick of looking at vanities, and finding NOTHING of quality that I'm crazy about, the only few I have liked are $3-4,000...ITS A VANITY PEOPLE!  My ENTIRE kitchen cabinets barely cost that much!  & I LIKE THEM!

Setting that nasty subject aside, I did get to work w/ Devoe Floor to Ceiling Center in Biddeford again today, and continue to be very pleased with their service.  They are likely going to create our custom tile shower and do our flooring for our 2 bathrooms.  Can't say enough nice things about them or my experience, top notch!  Looks like we can have a shower after all, & work w/ a great local, family run business!

I am going to check out cork flooring when I visit them again next week as I am just not sure I can stomach purchasing & using sheet vinyl....it's so damn ugly. 

I do want to announce, although completely unrelated to the house (although these are future residents of 64 High St), that 1 of our hens has laid a total of 4 (small cream colored) beautiful eggs this week!  She doesn't seem to get that she is suppose to do this in the nesting box, so its a bit of an "egg hunt" thru the coop & today I found one outside in their run!  Hopefully she'll figure it out & not go setting a bad example for the rest of the girls! 


We believe this is the ovulating one, Lady Madonna. Nice work little lady!



"We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special 'light'. " ~Mary Dunbar

Well a bit of a change this week, things are moving along quite well....

Furnace is fixed.  We apparently have a new burner. Sure....whatever, when can we turn it ON!?

My wonderful electrician, Steve, from Lakeside Electric is busy at work.  He patiently worked with me yesterday and again today on laying out and customizing fixtures for our tricky cathedral ceiling space in the kitchen.  I have admired a seller's work on etsy.com for a while now and finally contacted her last night, she is going to create 4 custom fixtures with (MY FAVORITE!!!) milk glass schoolhouse shades!  Check her out if you have any interest Lamp Goods (side note: etsy.com is awesome & I believe its supporting the entrepreneur, and its as "local" as you can get a lot of times...) bonus, this seller, Jan of Lamp Goods is coincidentally from Maine!



Steve & my Dad working on the layout for the "rough electrical"...
Steve this is your "best side" right? As you requested! lol!




Don't tell Steve he's on the blog...he doesn't want a "picture" of himself....too bad Steve! 
Is that a computer? free Wi-fi here TG!? 

 Had a nice visit from Dick Sirois of Regency Real Estate has helped make this project happen....always nice to show off what you've made reality, THANK YOU Dick & nice to see you!  :)