CHRISTMAS EVE DAY...

Downtown.

Just when we thought the sky couldn't possibly drop anymore snowflakes...

Home.

Winter wonderland.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Snowed In...

Just a week ago we were discussing the unlikeness of having a white Christmas this year. After all, our fall was dry and rather warm so winter seemed far off. Well, as weather goes, that changed overnight because we are completely snowed in.

So I have been spending a lot of time at home. And let me tell you, there is nothing good to eat in this house. I'm thinking chocolate or Christmas cookie or some warm eggnog. I have none of these things. I do have those apples, which I could bake...and some ice cream...but this is for Christmas Eve so it would be kind of 'stir crazy' for me to eat our not-yet-here Christmas Eve dessert (and I'm not sure if that's a comment or a question).

OH! Hubby just called and he's going to swing by home (nine-miles out his way), pick me up (rescue me), and take me to see my friend's Christmas concert downtown (yes, the outside world!!)!

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..."

Before we finished the last leftovers of turkey, I was already talking about getting our Christmas tree. To my surprise, my husband thought we had weeks before we started thinking about Christmas trees. You see, he grew up 'trimming' the tree on Christmas Eve, while I grew up 'decorating' the tree much earlier.

So we met half way and 'trimmed the tree' this past weekend. For me, it's the squeezing in as many games of Scrabble, fireside chats, and sips of hot apple cider next to a gorgeous twinkling Christmas tree as you possibly can.

Needless to say, it's looking a lot like Christmas around here...

A Walk to the Honey Bees

Our walk to the honeybees was just a short walk from the house. It's not an unfamiliar sight to see bee boxes around here as the farmers use them in their orchards to pollinate the fruit trees, but being up close and personal was pretty exciting.

The bees were buzzing wildly under the warm sun. It hadn't occurred to me that they might sting us --- until I realized that were thousands of them.

Although the honey bees were quite mesmerizing, we decided to continue on with our walk.

LOVE to explore the horse stables.

And a stable is not a stable without a few stable cats and several varieties of stable dogs. This little guy below was fierce. Never said a word but stood very strong.

We continued down the road and came across the field horses. I said, "okay, get in formation so I can take a picture."

They did.

These horses run free in this big field here that they share with several heads of cattle. When they spot us walking down the road (which we often do), they run towards us full speed. I'd like to say that they're just happy to see us but in actuality, they're hoping that we have a few apples stashed away in our pockets. We never do as we're hesitant to feed horses that aren't ours so we kind of feel bad when all we can offer is verbal adoration and scratches behind the ears.

As you can see in Mama's eyes, she'd prefer the apple.

Our journey continued to the alpaca farm. They are so cute you just want to squeeze their soft little cheeks!

It was getting near dusk by this time, so it was time to wander on home.

As our walk came to a close, I felt like a kid again having
played outside the entire day.

The Harvest

When I was a little girl growing up in California, there would be times that my brother and I would get the occasional cold or flu. Being the pesky eaters that we were, my Mom was forced to administer our medicine through food. The food she chose was concord grape jelly.

It was no secret that she was doing it, in fact we often watched her mash up the pills and mix it into the dark jelly. So perhaps it was knowing that the medicine was in there or perhaps the medicine was too detectable to our pesky palettes, but either way, grape jelly eventually became associated with medicine and sickness.

Through the years and long after my brother and I began taking medicine like grown-ups, the association between concord grapes and sickness lingered. In fact, every time I found concord grape jelly or juice on the table, I was always reminded of that bad medicine taste in my mouth when I was a child.

When my husband and I first walked our property, we noticed the two twenty-foot rows of grape vines up in the south field. We would learn later that they were concord grapes. The previous owners planted and harvested them for none other than...concord grape juice and homemade concord grape jelly.

Over the past two and half years we've been here, we've nibbled on a few of the grapes around fall time but we've always been too busy with the house stuff to actually harvest them. Until now.

Walking out to check on them throughout the past month, I have been astounded by their aroma. Standing between the rows of vines, the strong smell of grapes was astounding.

So as I was plucking the grape bundles from their vines, one after another, in the beautiful fall sunshine, I thought about my childhood memory and knew that from that day forward the association of concord grapes with medicine and sickness would from then on be replaced with the memory of this beautiful fall day... plucking grapes from old vines under the soft fall sun.

The Evolution of the Exterior

Before...

This is the front of the house. Notice that you step down into porch.

This is the west side of the house. The future wraparound porch will come to the exterior door seen in this picture.

This is the east end of the house. You can see quite clearly all of the quirky additions that were made over the years.

The farmhouse was built in 1923. It's a simple one and a half story farmhouse that endured a little neglect, some quirky additions, and a very 1970's style 'remodel.' The previous owners were a lovely couple who adored nature. Mr. Winklebleck was a local school teacher and many folks who've come to work on our house, tell us stories about him. He was a very kind man. We've also heard lots of stories about dear sweet Mrs. Winklebleck. She had quite the reputation for feeding any wildlife that came knocking at her door. This included deer, skunk, raccoon, opossum and BEAR. That's right, she fed bear. Right off that back deck.

The home is nestled on 7-acres of land. The serene country setting offers everything we were looking for in a country home...privacy, peace and quiet, oodles of opportunities for long walks just outside our font door and spectacular views of rolling farmland with Mt. Adams as a backdrop.

Although we hadn't set out to necessarily buy a fixer upper, this house had so much potential and offered such a lovely spot in the country, that we decided that it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. Upon taking ownership of the property in June of 2006, we immediately began working on our vision for the house.

From the beginning, we knew we'd do the following: 1. Add a shed dormer to make half story into master bedroom, bath, walk-in closet and home office, 2. Add a wraparound porch, 3. New windows and doors throughout, and 4. Spruce up existing kitchen, bath and other rooms. We did in fact accomplish all of these things, but as the blog explains, there was a bit more to it than we anticipated (there always is).

Just to give you an idea of how much more involved our little remodel was, I've included a few of my favorite "During" photos.

The benefit of having a civil engineer for a husband is their ability to survey your property so that it you can properly dig out your house. Notice now that the porch, which you originally stepped down into, is now several feet above ground. The ditch is for underground water drainage. By this time, we had already remodeled most of the downstairs. So at this point, we were waiting for the contractor we hired to begin the second half of the remodel.

Here's the kick-off to the second half of the remodel several months later. A large support beam gets lifted into ridge line by crane. This will support new dormer.

Dormer goes in.

Quirky additions get torn down.

Sagging is found and fixed.

Yes, that's right, this is our home. This one picture alone I think pretty much sums it up. I'd like to just remind folks that somewhere in this image of a shipwreck, lives one newly wed couple and one anxious dog. This was taken in early December 2007.

And finally the after...

With new wraparound porch, new dormer and new dining room addition, the front looks much better.

The Marvin windows and Simpson doors create a whole new look to the house.

I love the Emtek door hardware. Amazingly, it's very similar to the original.

This is the east end of the house. It shows the new dining room addition, the removal of dated deck and new dining patio. 

This is the west end of the house after new wraparound porch. The window in the half story is the master bathroom window.

This the west end entrance. It offers a great view of Mt. Adams and farmland.

Go here to see west end post. 

Go here to see east end post. 

The Guest House

Before...

This is the only before picture I have of the guest house. Nevertheless, I think wood paneling and 1970's carpeting pretty much sums it up. This cozy one-room apartment is where we first lived while we were gutting the main house.

Before we moved in, we removed the carpeting (relieved to discover hard wood floors) and painted all of the wood paneling.

After...

I bought this pie safe when hubby and I were dating back in Idaho. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit in our kitchen in the main house, but it works quite nicely here in the guest house.

The kitchen cabinets are original, we just put a fresh coat of paint on them. The oak table came from Maine and had been my kitchen table for many years. The oak chairs are from my Grandmother's house.

The guest house had been rented out as an apartment and had a stove and refrigerator in it when we bought it. We removed those items but someday we would like to install a small refrigerator under the counter top.

You can see the main house in the reflection of the cabinet glass. This little cabinet was purchased back in Maine, but looks like it's been in the kitchen forever.

To the left of the pie safe is the bathroom door.

Small but sweet.

I love this old Eastlake nightstand. I got this for $95 in the city and just fell in love with all of the intricate notched carving.

Both the dresser and the mirror are pieces I picked up in Maine. The door to the left is a closet.

We still have some work to do in the guest house. Eventually, we'll refinish wood floors, put in new windows, install new kitchen counter top, add little refrigerator...and other odds and ends. For now, it offers guests a rustic little space of their own while visiting.

Resource List

RENOVATION RESOURCE LIST:


Rejuvenation. By the end of our remodel, we knew many people by name at Rejuvenation, and they us. That is because we purchased a great deal of items from them and also, relied on their expertise on plumbing, design and knowledge of historic house details. They're the best!

The following items were purchased at Rejuvenation:

*All lighting fixtures throughout the house. We went with antique brass on all fixtures.
*All door hardware (except front exterior doors). We went with glass knobs and burnished antique finish.
*Both of our claw foot bathtubs.
*Our kitchen faucet, our bathroom faucet (downstairs), and both of our claw foot tub plumbing fixtures and hardware.
*All of our bin pulls on our kitchen cabinets.
*Our pedestal sink in our downstairs bathroom.
*Many salvage and antique items such as the hardware on our linen closet.
*All window hardware on our replacement Marvin windows (surprisingly, Marvin doesn't provide hardware with their replacement packages).
*Oodles of vintage and antique items - and at great prices. Everything from bathroom glass containers, to soap dishes, to kitchen canisters, to glasses, clocks and picture frames.

Marvin Windows. We went with Marvin because of their great tilt-pack systems (we replaced eleven existing windows with these). Plus we ordered fourteen new windows. Also, for any readers who live in the Portland area, Classic Sash and Door will offer you the most knowledge and guidance in purchasing Marvin windows. They are located on the second floor of our favorite old house resource store Rejuvenation.

Simpson Doors. I also looked at several different door companies but again, Simpson had a display in Rejuvenation so we were able to look at them closely. As far as cost, Simpson doors seemed to offer good quality craftsmanship without the expensive cost of custom.

Architectural Grille. I came across this company in my search to find a more antique looking grille for our various heat and ventilation sources.The standard plastic or metal grilles just wouldn't do. So I ordered two ventilation grilles for both our bathrooms, a ceiling vent for heat transfer from downstairs to the upstairs, a grille for our toe-kick heater in our kitchen and a floor grille for a floor heater in our new dining room. You can pick from a variety of patterns and request it come primed to paint or choose from their custom finishes.

EMTEK. I looked at every specialty hardware store in the city. Most of what I found was either too modern or we didn't care for the finish choice. I found that burnished antique was the common choice for many, but it often had a strange red underlying hue we did not care for. Then I discovered EMTEK and we are so thrilled with their product. All of our new light fixtures are antique brass (from Rejuvenation) and I found that is a difficult finish to find in door hardware. But EMTEK has this fabulous finish called French Antique. Also, the designs they offer surpass any company I've looked at. And the price is right. We paid only $125. each for our front door hardware.

Benjamin Moore. We ended up using Benjamin Moore's Ecospec on all of our trim and walls. It's a no VOC paint and it comes in flat, eggshell and semi-gloss.

Our wall colors:

Simply White, semi-gloss: all trim, mantle, cabinets and windows.

Simply White, flat: upstairs bedroom, office, closet, downstairs living room.

Simply White, eggshell: upstairs master bath, kitchen.

Exterior house:

Pure White on all siding and trim.

Porch floor:
Platinum Grey (Benjamin Moore, Porch and Floor)

Sherwin Williams.

Our green front door paint is by Sherwin Williams. It's called 'Evergreens.'

Safecoat. We used their stain product for our kitchen counters. We chose the color 'cedar' and used their satin finish as a top coat.

McCoy. We were able to find all of our wainscot and stair accessories here. They have numerous displays of stair railings, porch railings, and tons of different kinds of trim. The best part is that it's all on display.

Horizon Shutters. I love the look of classic white shutters. I did a lot of research both locally and online and discovered a fabulous business that makes affordable, high quality shutters. They give you many paint chips to choose from so you can have them custom painted to match your trim. We love our shutters, they add such a wonderful look to our rooms.

Rowe Furniture. The furniture is by a company called Rowe Furniture. We knew we'd choose something from their line because they are committed to natural fiber fabrics, eco cushion cores and wood from replenished forests. They are also members of the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC).The chairs are 'Carlyle' and the sofa is 'Fairfax.' Fabric for the chairs: Q10447-19 Sofa fabric:Y1348-91

Go here to read more about their green initiatives:

http://www.rowefurniture.com/about-us/eco-rowe.html

Upstairs Master Bath

BEFORE

Not a true before as this room had parkay flooring. There was also a superficial wall up but it wasn't in the right place for bathroom placement so hubby framed in a new wall. This was before the contractors showed up. In fact, we had the upstairs plumbing put in when the downstairs bathroom was gutted (black pipe is sink line). By stacking the bathrooms, one on top of the other, the plumbing was more straightforward (a.k.a. more cost efficient).

Drywall helps rooms take shape.

AFTER...

It's a small master bath, but it feels like a luxury to us as it's our first.

Upstairs Master Bedroom

When we first saw the house, it reminded me of an old Cape Cod. Capes are simple structures, often with half-stories, and often found with large shed or gabled dormers. Having lived in Maine for over a decade, and having lived in a Cape the entire time, I quickly saw the potential for the upstairs half-story.

Shed dormers have flat roof lines and offer more ceiling height than a gabled dormer. I knew that by adding such a dormer to our half-story space, we could really transform the upstairs into a really wonderful master bedroom. The half story was plenty long, had a back ell extending off from it (which would become the future walk-in closet) and with only two bedrooms downstairs, it would really add to the spaciousness of the home.

Here are a few pictures of the upstairs before the dormer addition.

Before...

As you can see, the stairwell going upstairs was quite dark.

As you come up into the half-story, you can see that there is very little light. There's just one window at each gabled end and one small window at the end of the back ell. The window you see in this picture is the window to our future master bath. The large open room in the foreground is our future master bedroom. Walk-in closet is off to the right.

This is looking towards the east end of the house. The proposed dormer will be going in on the right side of this photo - the south side of the house. Notice the limited floor space on right side of stairwell. Also, the window you see in this picture will be the window in our future home office.

This is after they took the ridge of the roof line out to make room for new support beam.

Once the beam was in, the roof was removed to install shed dormer. This is me taking the first swing.

They moved fast as it was their goal to get the dormer up in one day.

Stairs are illuminated.

Dormer framing up! Look at all the extra floor space and ceiling height!

New Marvin windows. We put six, six over one double-hungs in new dormer.

Over the course of the next several weeks, came insulation, electrical, drywall and paint.

After...

As you can see, the new dormer created a significant amount of floor space. Originally, there was only about a foot of space to the right of the stairs.