Kitchen---Part I

The Little Brick House has a nice size kitchen. 19 x 14 will be plenty large for all kitchen activities...cooking, eating, gatherings, game nights, and laundry. (Yes, laundry.) No longer is the laundry room banished to the basement or a far away room in the house where nobody wants to be. Rather than putting a wall up and closing down the kitchen, we decided to go open and spacious.

We had a plan to wait and just make it a little brighter by painting the walls a lighter color.

Then one day, Bill cleaned the existing cabinetry (with a toothbrush) and asked me, "what color we should paint them?" So our oak cabinets have been painted with Benjamin Moore Hepplewhite Ivory; the dirty brass cabinet knobs (and hinges) were removed and spray painted matte black.

The very next thing on the list is to lift up the existing linoleum floor; buy windows for the south side; and figure out how to heat the space this coming winter. Our kitchen is very usable right now. We will be doing laundry in no time!

Chiminey Crickets

We love the Little Brick House. Yes, we do, really. And when things come to light...for instance, both chimneys are in decay and need repair...we take a deep breath, and figure it out. We want the house to be around for another 170 years.

It all began with a small patch of bubbled ceiling paint. There is water coming in because we don't have a cricket*. Or a chimney cap. Or maybe because the brick chimney needs to be re-pointed. Or maybe a combination of all three.

We did not expect that the furnace and water heater would be tied into the repair of the small patch of bubbled ceiling paint...but, they are. The oil burning furnace and the oil water heater are both venting through our historic chimney. The simplest way to avoid re-building? A super-flue...a concrete liner. The problem? The current building code will only allow one appliance to be vented because of the interior dimensions.

So, we have some homework to do now...to figure this all out. In the meantime, I think we'll fix that small patch of bubbled ceiling paint.

*A cricket is a small false roof, sloped to shed water away from chimney.

Garden of Weedin'

Well, spring came back this year. We had some very beautiful,

warm days in early April. It gave us a head start on garden and yard work.

Even with all the work to be done inside, the weather was so beautiful,

it was impossible to stay inside.

Sand, salt, and plow marks covered the grass and tore into the ground.

It looked so bad that I thought about entering the "desperate landscape"

competition, but, because our house is so cute, I thought... we would never win.

We are lucky to have such nutrient-rich soil. There is a hill of conservation

land backing up to our property. The spring thaw melts right down into

our land. Everything is recovering well, especially the weeds.

I was prepared for the pollen, the black flies, and a long day in the yard.

In the end, I didn't need the surgical mask or the ear plugs. When our hand-me-down* lawn mower started to smoke, I gave it, and myself, a short break. Everything worked out just fine. The following morning at breakfast we read an advertisement on our place-mat for a Yard and Lawn Care company. The next day he was at The Little Brick House giving us an estimate.

*This high-powered work horse came from my sister Kathy's house and before that my Mom and Dad's house in Canton.

It is quite likely 25 years old.

Decoration and Renovation

The Little Brick House has furniture. An antiqued gate-leg table was added to the Dining

Room, and a sofa and lamps were added to the Living Room. Because we are living in the house,

we wanted to add enough furniture to make it feel comfy and cozy, but, not too much furniture

as there is still much work to be done.

The preliminary furniture plans were done early on. Many people don't realize how critical the scale of furniture is to a space. The furniture plan is the number one tool a designer uses for space analysis. It will give you a general sense of how much furniture feels right and how to place it for the best functionality.

Wallpaper and fabric. I looked for inspiration in Marie Finnerty's* portrait. There is a beautiful flower rendered in pastel yellow and green on her lapel. The transom windows are also yellow and green. When I came across a linen plaid fabric by Rogers and Goffigon, I knew I had found the perfect compliment. The walls were painted BM antique white. The sofa is in a stock fabric from Crate and Barrel.

The house has such a simple form. I thought wallpaper in the entry and bedrooms would be a nice choice. And a nature theme seemed to make sense in our "country house". The charcoal gray and off-white printed paper I selected for the Entry is very appealing. Simultaneously, simple and sophisticated. And I think the faded quality will work well in an antique home. The bedroom papers will follow suit. All the decor will be very simple in the bedrooms, the wallpaper will do all the work!

*Bill has a beautiful portrait of his mother, Marie. It hangs in the Living Room.

The Twenty-Ten Sequence

The storm that brought the east coast into twenty-ten was like a dream. Delicately falling snowflakes day after day after day. The Little Brick House was peaceful, in other words... not a whole lot of work was getting done. Sometimes life gets in the way of 2nd home renovations.

I have about twenty (20) items ready to roll into the project and Bill has ten(10) items to get done before any of them can be completed. Patience is a virtue. (3) wallpapers; (1) wall mural; (3) painted floors; (1) painted stairwell; and (12) window curtains...

Bill has continued his investigations in the basement. There was more to be cleaned off the dirt floor, bags full of old bricks, wood, wires, pipes, etc. Now the dirt floor can breathe and Bill can see the ebb and flow of our basement creek. It's looking like the water table sits 5" below the floor. In the recent storm, it was about one inch below! Our house floats.

We received a very thorough assessment of the brick house exterior from our brick mason, Duncan Trails. He will begin work next month and continue to update us as things unfold. His 10-page document included quotes from brick house experts. His approach to a written proposal is so thoughtful that it gives us confidence in his skill and approach to this project.

July-August-September

A whirlwind of mid-to-late summer fun in the sun took us away from some of our work-load in the house...and also our blogging-time...but, we are back now and making up for the lost time by hiring some professionals this season.

We had the 1st floor Brick House maple floors sanded and refinished by G.E.Miller of Windham, Maine; Bill met with a brick mason, Duncan Traills, who will be sending us a "worst-case scenario" cost on repointing and repairing the exterior; I met with artist and muralist, Sandy Howe, to understand her process and to view her portfolio of Rufus Porter-style murals (see 4.4.09 post). We are still planning a folk-art mural for our central room. We are so excited to be making progress, little by little.

By late August we finished* the little, middle, bedroom on the 2nd floor and had our first overnight guests. Miss Erin Heinert and her bff Kelli brought their own pillows and a Batman** blanket and stayed with us for one night. On Saturday night, the temptation of movie-watching got the best of them, and they stayed at the Kimball's Guest House.

We went to our first Fryeburg Fair with our second house guest, Colleen***. It was an old-fashioned country day at a fair. The usual suspects were present...big oxen, little goats, some very large pumpkins, an old red school house, harness races, maple cotton candy...need I say more? It was fantastic. The fair is 158 years old...just a wee bit younger than our house. We have it on our calendar for Oct. 3-10, 2010.

Our 3rd house guests arrived that same weekend. Lisa Reilly and Bill Bomar brought their newest family member, Leo, a six-month-old Pyrenees-lab mix. Leo is really cute and loves to jump and play. He was all tuckered out by dinner time. Our full day of activities ended with a game of poker for matchsticks. Colleen was the winner, hands-down.

*"finished" refers to a room with a new ceiling, painted floors, and a bed w/ blankets and pillows.

**Erin is a college senior and a South Dakota public radio personality! Kelly is her super-fun and adventurous friend on her first trip to Boston and Maine. Because we had a bat siting in August, Kelli thought the Batman blanket would be a great thing to have for protection.

***Colleen was a perfect house guest, trivia-player, poker-player, and all-around great company. We hope she'll visit again and again.

Big Poppy

Today's post is again brought to you by 'Bill'

As we pulled into the driveway we could see all my efforts from two weeks ago, mowing the lawn with a donated mower from Jeanne's sister Kathy, had gone for naught. With the rain forest type weather and fertile soil, the grass, the trees, the weeds and the gardens (see poppy plant to the right) are out of control. We consulted our friend Judy, the realtor that sold us the house and fellow UNH alum, and we will employ her son to cut our lawn on an "as needed" basis. This way we can focus our efforts inside the house.

But before we head inside, some exciting news. Jeanne spotted some new guests making themselves at home in the "single family" bird house out back. The female was busy gathering twigs and I believe the male (with a yellow chest) was surveying the new neighborhood. i'll try and snap a photo of the happy couple!

We did make good progress inside, again with the help of Phil, closing up the ceiling in the middle bedroom upstairs. This room will eventually be renovated into a bathroom, but for now it will serve as our initial sleeping room. With the ceiling structure now level and strapped, we cut and installed the sheetrock in a 9 square pattern to be finished with battens* and a small cove trim around the perimeter. This will allow removal and replacement of the squares for future access and avoid having to tape and plaster the joints, as typically done today.

Day two we took advantage of Phil's son** and his friend to demo the brick hearth and wall that the old Glenwood stove occupied. With a sledge hammer and youth, our demo crew took turns swinging away and chipping away at the brick. It was a battle, but youth won out and the brick was reduced to rubble. Although we would have loved to keep the wood stove, it was not functioning or repairable and it took up a lot of space. With each dollar and hour invested in the kitchen, it looks like we will work with the timber structure we've inherited and not "raze and rebuild."

Work in the bathroom is also near completion and we had an installer give us an estimate $$$ for a new, one piece, linoleum floor. Because we plan on renovating later (when we add the bathroom upstairs) i think we will live with a self-stick tile from home depot!

Jeanne has been busy prepping and painting the living room and actually was able to coax some more wallpaper off the middle bedroom upstairs. We think we see paint behind it, so there's hope to remove it all. Next trip up will be an extended stay over the Fourth of July holiday and hopefully will spend our first night together in the "little brick house!"

* A batten is flat wood stock for nailing across a joint or seam
** Glen and Brent love to demo !