Brimfield 2

This time we went to Brimfield was much more relaxed. We knew what we were getting into, not surprised by the scale of it.

Still, it can be quite overwhelming. I saw some beautiful things that I could not afford, and some that I could.

This little table with the lyre base I actually bought two of. And I have bookends with Dante and Beatrice on them!

Beatrice:


Dante:


The Lyre Table, with cat at window in the background:


I'm actually glad we didn't get too huge a haul, because when we go in July we will be going with my mom, and that will be fun.

The Big Unchill

This has been a week of big changes, mostly due to the catalytic effects of warm weather. The first thing that happened was that all the willow trees in town burst suddenly into bloom with tiny white flowers. We even had some in our yard, although they lasted a tragically brief amount of time.


This galvanized me and I had the painters come and take away the dark muddy stripes on the wall of the foyer. Remember this? Those aren't shadows, oh no. They are painted on stripes. Also, that room isn't dark. It has a huge window. It's just painted that way.


It's a little difficult to describe the transformation that took place here, but if you want a comparison try looking at the stairs. The underside of each stair is still painted that dark color. Look at that, then look at the wall and you will notice that even under the overhang the wall looks lighter than the stairs.


Just when we got done with that a bunch of other stuff bloomed. I'm posting this because actually I'm not entirely sure what it is. We've got a bunch of 'em though. Azaleas? I'm guessing here.


In addition we had blown in insulation done this week, because it was warm enough for the installers to come. Over the winter we noticed that our heating bill was truly hurting our lifestyle. When your honey is sad because you don't want to take off your clothes because your house is too cold- it's time to get an energy audit. This audit showed us a lot of things, but the neatest one was the Xray specs machine which could see though the walls and told the auditor that we had no insulation at all, anywhere in the house, with the exception of the kitchen which had just been gut remodeled.

Not sure how the previous owners missed that. Also, weirdly it seems to be paying off already. The house is warmer in the night. Likely I will feel much more grateful next December.

To top this week off, a tiny spindly tree in the middle of the yard answered my questions as to its lineage by also blooming and proving itself to be... a magnolia tree! Splendid.


Here it is, on our first Spring.

PAX

Last weekend we went to PAX with a group of friends. For nearly a year now it has been among my husbands fondest wishes (not counting the menage a trois with Willow from Buffy) to own a gaming table made by Geek Chic.

And we totally ordered one.

They take nine months to arrive. But we are super excited. They make three tables: the Emissary, the Spartan and the Sultan. Oh, man, the Sultan is niiice. But a little out of our price range. The Emissary transforms astonishingly into a lovely dining table. However, the Spartan is the best for gaming when you don't want to take out a second mortgage to buy a table.

It has the ability to flip the leaves from craft surface to card table velvet, and pretty shoji screen patterns on the side if you like:


Which slide out and reveal shelves and drawers:


Wait, what was that one the side? A cupholder?

Let's take a closer look:


Under the leaves there is a dropped surface deep enough to hold miniatures under the leaves, which can be bamboo:


Or you can put a map under a dry erase surface:


I think it was worth it. There's very little else out there like it, and it was even nicer than in the picture.

Of course I had to endure the description of the salesman's 17th level Ranger in the process of buying it. Sigh.

My cat is a shitty mouser

Husband: Hon, our cat is a shitty mouser
Me: What makes you say that?
Husband: Well, come and look at this.

I came out into the hall and there, on the stair, was a mouse. FIVE FEET AWAY was the cat....biting his own tail.
I caught the mouse in a glass vase:





My husband held the cat up over the vase. "This is a mouse," he said, "your MORTAL ENEMY." The cat looked innocently up at the ceiling. "You are an obligate carnivore!" my husband insisted. The cat licked his nose.

So disappointing. The mouse was set free in the woods. No mice were harmed, even by my cat, in the making of this blog post.

Wallpaper from....okay, fine it's awesome.

Not all wallpaper is from Hell. The stuff here is so beautiful I'm considering putting up a frieze above the molding in the dining room.

After ordering the samples and putting them up to look at them in various lights, it's been narrowed down to these two:




They are much prettier in the room. Each is 16" high, and matches the wood of the house perfectly. Once whichever one is up, it will look something like this:

The Bat has Left the Building

This last weekend it got so cold in the sunroom that the water we left out for the hibernating bat froze. So, the bat absconded in the night, leaving a bat-shaped hole in our hearts.

However, I have a picture of the cat that will soon be joining us to console you with. We will be trading one furry bitey creature for a furless (hopefully less bitey) one.

The Bat Cave, er, Sunroom

Yes, this picture is rightways up. We have a bat hibernating in our sunroom. I'm not sure what to do about this...

It first appeared over this last weekend, and ensconced itself thoroughly in the Southwest corner of the sunroom. I have no idea how it got in. Then it stayed there, all day....AND ALL NIGHT.

This prompted a conversation wherein we first thought it was dead, so my brave husband went downstairs with a shovel to dispose of its body safely. Then it wriggled.

So it wasn't dead. I then suggested it was sick, and should be taken to the Vet.

Him: What?
Me: To the Vet!
Him: How?
Me: Well, you get a shoebox, and you scoop the bat into it, and you put the lid on, and you take it to the Vet, and you say...
Him: "In this box I have a very angry sick bat."
Me: Something like that.
Him: And you expect the Vet to do what exactly?
Me: Maybe give it a bat sedative.
Him: Like Bativan? Halbat?
Me: *laughing* and hydrate it!
Him: With a tiny IV?
Me: YES
Him: And admit it to the BICU?
Me: *doubled over laughing* YES DAMMIT!

Finally we wondered why it wasn't with its fellow flying fuzzies, and looked it up on the mighty internet, only to discover that brown bats like the ones in our area hibernate during the winter. They do not eat, or really wake, until Spring. They like to hibernate in abandoned houses (!) and hollowed out trees (!!).

I kind of resent the implication that our house is a hollowed out tree, but I see it. Especially since the sunroom is not well heated at this moment.

I still don't know what to do about this.

Stickley, Secrets and Snow

We are pretty fortunate to live fairly near one of the few places that sells Stickley showroom furniture "as-is", and bought this insane table. It weighs 450 pounds, which is actually one of my favorite things about it.


Prior to the arrival of the table I had stalled out majorly on the reno. The fading light of the winter and general inertia had set in, and all I really wanted to do was drink in the bath and then go to sleep.
However, the table totally galvanized me. We painted the room it was in, which was the last of the main rooms still to have the handicap of a dark color.
As you can see, it makes a big difference. It took the room from needing many more standing lights, and perhaps some track lighting, to bright and comfortable.

Yes, I know, it's another pic of someone painting, but you can see what I mean about the color. I know you can.


And after, even in the dark of winter, a pleasant room:


So, to celebrate my husband made me a drink called the "Night Marcher". Just the ingredients in a row are pretty intimidating:


But the finished product is quite pretty!


Then one of the former owners stopped by, and just wanted to see the house. Not the people we bought it from, but the people before that, who lived here for a long time. She was walking around and then suddenly she stopped and said "You know about the hidden panel, right?"
We did not!
But now we do!
It's so awesome to have a hidden panel. I always wanted a house with secret places, and so this is just too cool:


And then this morning the first real snow fell:


Eventful weekend. I am so super excited. Even after shoveling a s**tload of snow.
Here is the Night Marcher, for those of you who may be interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/dining/024rrex.html

My Kitchen iz teh Awesum!

Finally it is done!

I am standing at my beautiful granite countertop listening to 21st century breakdown on the kitchen stereo! Steaks are cooking on the range. Broccoli au gratin is cooling to edible temp from the oven.

It's all good.

Some craftsman pulls:


The copper kettle looking pretty on the silver range (yes! it cooks with gas!):


The double doors onto the deck:


The granite (note: reflection of the winter trees outside in the glossy stone):


More craftsman pulls:



As you can see we made the decision not to try to look like a restoration since none of the original stuff was there anyway, but rather to look modern in a way that was respectful of the house's age and dignity.

What is hard to tell:
The molding is all new, there was almost none around the doors previously.
The ceiling is flat now, not popcorn.
The floor, which is a lighter wood than the rest of the house, has been totally refinished.

I think it worked out great. We had a few small setbacks. Okay, and some bigger setbacks, but it was totally worth it.

Mmmmm.... and now for the steak.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Steaks-with-Peppercorn-Sauce-2371

More wallpaper from Hell

I have blogged a little about the wallpaper in this house, but the fact is I've kind of been avoiding it.

After the fiasco with the laundry room was over I haven't wanted to brave wallpaper removal again, although there is much of it, and much left to be done.

For reasons I don't fully understand this little town has a real problem with wallpaper. Kind of like the problem California has with medflies, or Australia has with bunny rabbits.

At some point the women in this town go crazy. Possibly after the kids leave for college they have no other way of dealing with empty nest syndrome or possibly after the loss of their spouse they hallucinate from grief, I don't know. But they go a little crazy, and they decide, "You know what'll cheer me up? Putting up some WALLPAPER!". Then up it goes.

I know it sounds sexist to assume, but I just have a hard time picturing any man I have ever known choosing any of this wallpaper.

When we looked at houses this was a trend. Crazy wallpaper in every room, often with matching drapes, and matching fabric on the couch, and once even matching fabric over the speakers. And when I say matching, I don't mean in a similar color, I mean exactly matching.

One had sparkles, one had blue fuzz, one had a raised motif of unicorns, almost all of them also had some floral elements.

This house had a little bit less of that, but it still had some. The dining room in particular had a dark red wallpaper with gigantic gold pears on it. It was high quality stuff, looked really expensive, and made the room dark like a prehistoric cave.


Shortly after we moved in my Mom-in-Law came to help us make the place more habitable and took on the unenviable job of removing wallpaper. She has a whole system for taking down wallpaper, which worked a lot better than my previous system. My previous system being a combination of scraping and foul language. I think she took down maybe 4 times the amount I did in 1/4 the time, and what she does basically is after using the little device which pokes holes in the wallpaper she coats it with really hot water and then lets it sit, but not too long maybe 15 minutes. Then it comes off more easily.

My Mother-In-Law assessing the task before her:


The room after:


What I want to point out is that even though the latter picture was taken on a rainy day in October and the former was taken on a sunny day in July, the painted room is still lighter than the wallpapered one. I love how the light colors really call attention to the woodwork! It looks white but it's actually kind of cream.

Now we just have to paint all the ceilings, so that the ceiling is not darker than the walls. Oh, and take down the wallpaper in the rest of the rooms. Do I feel like getting out the scraper today? Hm, maybe later.

New Showerhead

This is the Moen 21777. So named because it has seven patterns of water distribution. I now have two of them, one in each bathroom with a shower hookup.

We decided on this one after an extensive 1/2 hour of research during which we looked up some amazon reviews and consumer reports rankings.

However, some people did a lot more research than that.

Note the following amazon.com review excerpt for a different head advertising "hydrokinetic" action:

"I have tried over 10 showerheads recently, and this one has the 2nd best pressure of all of them. (The "best" one stings too much.) I highly recommend this showerhead. It is the one I plan to keep using. Sadly, it does not come in a handheld version."

Now that is a man (yes, it does seem to be a man) who knows his showerheads.

Well, THERE's your problem...

So the heating and cooling guy came to check out the furnace. In case you missed the previous installment I'll just say that this is the same furnace that spewed a large amount of moldy smelling air the first time we turned it on.

Given the nature of the upkeep on the house to date, I expected something to be seriously wrong with it. So, I called in some experts. They said it would be $100 to inspect and clean the furnace itself..... and $500 to clean the ducts.

My heart sank. Another $500, there it goes. But if we have no choice, it goes on the credit card, along with everything else we have had no choice about in the past 2 1/2 months.

Then when they said they had a record of an inspection order from 1991 which had been canceled I was even more peeved. I expected that no upkeep had been done on the furnace since 1959, the same time they last redid the kitchen.

However, when the guy got here and, several hours later, finished the inspection I found out several things.

1. The furnace is from 1994. So it looks like it wasn't inspected, got used anyway, failed 3 years later and had to be replaced. Woohoo! (I mean, for me.)
2. The ducts would cost much less to clean than I was quoted, because they only reach to the 1st floor. The other floors have radiant heat.
3. The ducts do not need to be cleaned right now !?!
4. The cause of the smell is......

The filter! So he replaced it! And now the heat smells okay!

And to show how awful the filter was, I put the replacement one and the old one side by side:



Just wow.