yesterday

Cleaning up after crafty time. I got distracted by the light.

things you find in the woods

last lights

Above and below, a sudden snow shower one evening just as the sun was setting.

just a wisp of winter

And now the seasons have turned a good two months early.  I'm loving the cacophony of spring -- trees frogs and peepers singing madly at night, the windows open to let in a warm breeze.  But I also relished the silence of winter and the excuse it gave us to snuggle up together;  we are all about the cozy around here.

sunrise, sunset

One morning.  Bobo with his hat on.

A bit of setting sun on the bonfire pile (it's still there, waiting for exactly the right night to burn).  (Oh!  and there's the front porch!)

more

Some Sundays we have crafty time  -- everyone brings yummy food and we hang out and eat and make things.  On this particular Sunday we played with printing.

Susan washing up after a round of screen-printing.  Those are some of the blobs we printed -- we were making pillows based on these.

Potato printing some fabric for a gift for Susan's nephew.

Mirjam printed using feathers from her chickens!  Apparently they were not very happy about this premature plucking.

Sepi's print from contact paper and silk screens on top of the blobs we all did -- I love it -- looks like a flock of birds against the sun!

These are the things we designed this space for -- having friends over to have fun, play and be creative.  On Sundays like this I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

there's lots of catching up to do...

... and I don't know where to begin! 

We're in our barn -- have been here since late December -- and love it.  It takes us a long time to settle in fully (the walls are still pretty bare and there are living areas with big wide spaces where furniture should be), but this place has felt like home from our first night here.  As we were packing to move I realized I hadn't had a chance to really think about what we were doing;  I remembered all of those statistics about moving being as stressful as death or divorce and I know that can be true sometimes.  So I thought to myself, I better get my head around the fact that we'll be in a totally new space tonight -- be prepared for some sleepless nights and tossing and turning.  But that first night was heaven; we were exhausted from moving and finishing everything up, but also giddy as can be.  And we slept really well.

This feels like home in a way that neither of us have felt since we were little kids. It's soothing and cozy and comforting when we need it to be (we spend a lot of time around our fire) and it's expansive and inspiring when we need that, too (it's all those windows, I think).  It's a magical house and space and spot on the hill. 

Anyway, I'll start posting some shots from the past three months -- a mix of cell phone shots and camera pics.  I hope you don't mind the jumble! 

View from the kitchen to our lounge one Sunday afternoon.  Big fire, dogs and Irish soda bread.

The kitchen from the lounge one morning.  That's the side of the 1700's barn you can see through the kitchen windows.  Off to the far left is the doorway to the bathroom.

Looking north one morning (with Enzo).  Still need to put in our dining table light.  Off to the right is Bobo's desk area.  We need lots of rugs :)

The full moon setting over the Adirondack mountains one morning.  It was amazing and of course a photo doesn't capture it's size and beauty!  (If you look closely you can see some snow on the Adirondacks -- we had almost no snow this winter, which is really, really unusual.  We missed it!

a couple of before and afters

Before:

The entry the day we first saw it (luckily the camera does not capture the smell of the dead animals and mice in the woodpile)

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

 After:

You can see where the boards were sanded the other day -- that will fade in the coming days...

 More tomorrow!

xoxo

ps.  That's the wood stove between the two windows -- it gets hooked up tomorrow -- cannot wait to have a fire in it!

installations

The porch is going in now...

And the stove, dishwasher and fridge were installed on Friday:

Ben and Luther putting the legs on the range

And the light is in the stairwell :)

More tomorrow!

xoxo

almost there

I can't capture the wall color, but it's a lovely and light, warm white -- it looks beige in these photos, but isn't.  A big thank you to Julie for suggesting BM Atrium White because it's perfect.

Here's the entryway, looking up into the tv room.  These southern windows look out on to the road, but the place is well-insulated enough that it's not noisy at all.  Plus, it's a dirt road in Vermont, so there's not a ton of traffic anyway :)

Below, the bedroom's on the left, the view from the bedroom to the back door is on the right.  The little nook you can see there on the right will house the washer and dryer.

And finally, this is an old photo from before the painting was done, but I wanted to post it for two reasons.  First, it's another glimpse of the floors, which we've decided to leave completely unfinished.  We may put a clear finish on them in the summer, but we're going to see how they wear;  we'll have (for the first time ever) a strict no-shoes policy, but there will be scratches and dents and all kinds of proof that two dogs (and two not-very-tidy humans) live here and that's just fine by us.  We love the light and warmth that the pine offers now and want to keep it as natural as possible.

The second reason I'm posting it is so you can see one of the barn-y features that will remain, namely the slight sag in the ceiling -- do you see it over there on the left?  Don't worry, we had a structural engineer take a really good look at the barn while we were in escrow and it's as stable as can be, but it is a barn and will sag and sigh like this as long as it stands.  What it does mean is that the builders had a lot of work to do to even up all the walls and ceilings and floors -- there was a lot of shimming going on! -- and they did an amazing job with it.  Every corner of this place has been so beautifully and meticulously done;  we're really, really lucky to have such great guys working here.

So, the electrician's here today finishing up the lighting and switches, the fridge goes in tomorrow and by the weekend I'll be able to start hauling kitchen stuff over and putting it away (!!), though we won't be moving the big stuff in until the 17th.  We think we have all of our handles and knobs sorted out, although Bobo and I are still bargaining:  he wants to keep the walls in the game room/studio upstairs knotty pine and I want to paint them;  I want to put leather pulls on the bedroom closets and he really, really doesn't want to, so we're going to compromise in one way or another.  What will it be?

And finally, yesterday the UPS man delivered a pendant that I ordered in September for the front entry, but it turns out that the website -- one of those subscription super-sale sites -- listed the wrong measurements, so it's too small for that space.  But it *is* perfect for the staircase and I love it.  Especially because it's one of the only decor items we've actually bought for the barn;  the rest will have to come very, very slowly as part of the twenty-year plan!  In the meantime, I will enjoy looking at this beauty every time I go up and down the stairs :)

painting

With all the windows covered in plastic it looks just a little too much like a serial killer's house...

Primer going on

Bobo stressed, but excited :).  Stairs!

You can still see all my paint swatches through the primer, but they won't be an issue once the actual paint goes on -- the primer will seal the wall so all of the pigment is soaked in uniformly.  Thank goodness, because I painted swatches ev-er-y-where!

More soon,
A
xoxo

lighting

So, we got one of the those huge Ikea lampshades off ebay, since they only seem to have the small ones in our closest stores (Boston and Montreal).  The plan was (still is, since we can't afford to replace it) to paint it a bright red-orange, like this.  But we didn't realize quite how big it was until it arrived...

It's goofy but I actually love it, despite the fact that (forgive me, Grampa) it looks like a giant wicker cervical cap.

So, that's for over the dining room table, and then I'm hoping to eventually get a beautiful, big Noguchi for over the tv area, although I might switch them around.  Bobo's never liked the Noguchis, but I will always  love them...

What do you think?

xoxo

the kitchen drawers...

... are in!

Facing east...

... and west (with the 1700s barn and a peek of the view beyond :)  The sink will be on the left, the dishwasher in the middle and the range on the right.

These are the cabinet pulls we'll be putting in, courtesy of Ikea:

Which will match the (Ikea) stove and (Ikea) fridge, in the hopes that none of them will stand out much :)

I really wanted these pulls (click the link and swoon), but they're twice as much as the Ikea ones, and since we'll need 28 for the kitchen alone, I ordered them for the bedroom closet, instead -- much more reasonable!

There's so much to do this week; the plan is for everything but the floors to be done by the end of the day Friday (!).  I can't wait to see it all painted, so we have a sense of the space without all of the gray drywall.  And tomorrow morning we're going to talk to the floor expert at the local paint store so we can make a real plan for finishing them.  Can you believe we're almost there?  I can't!

xoxo

** Edited to add:  all the latest posts (and the interior) are so gray, aren't they?  I hope it will be different -- warmer -- with a coat of paint!  xx

firsts

The first snow and my first piece of mail at the barn, a magazine whose colors echo the landscape right now: blue-gray, mushroom-brown, white and a bit of gold.  I love the winter here. 

Stockholm/Vermont

 The cabinets are installed, although the drawers still need to go in.  But now you can see what the kitchen will look like -- we're so close!

Those are the kitchen and bedroom closet drawers in the foreground.

Here's a view into the pantry, with our kitchen sink on the floor there -- it got broken, so we'll need to make another trip down to Ikea -- probably next weekend.

Looking down the hall into our bedroom (that's the door to the mechanical room down at the end).

We hope to have everything but the floors done by the end of next weekend... sooooon!

xoxo

two things

Bobo and Renee

 1)  Front door!  Not sure what color it will be yet, but still, front door!  With glass!

 2)  CABINETS!!!  No drawers yet (they come tomorrow), but cabinets!  Eeeeeeek!  That's the bathroom cabinet on top there...  so excited!

2.5)  !!!!!!!

xoxo