I've always wanted to name my house. It's kind of a pretentious thing to do, but I think it's cool. Up the street from us is "Impromptu Farm" and over in Dunstable there is "Sunnyfield," for example. Sadly, I've never been able to come up with a name I liked. Of course, Robert couldn't care less about naming our house until we started re-siding it. He's now calling it "Tyvekistan." We will have this look for a couple more weeks while we wait for the new windows to come in. We are also going to put in air conditioning. New windows and air conditioning were on my "wish list" but it makes sense to do them now while the siding is off. I was planning to do them next year or so but I can see that it will save time and labor to do it all at once.

The yard is still highly wooded, but you can see how the trees that surrounded the house are gone and how much of a difference it makes in terms of sun and light on the house. And it makes such a difference when it rains! The other night it rained and everything was dry by the next afternoon. Before it would take two to three days for things to dry out.

It's starting to look like fall around here. This is my crabapple tree which now has full sun for many hours a day. The berries are red and very ripe.

The work inside is winding down...way down. Wednesday the maids came and cleaned the dust up and then for the rest of the day I was blissfully alone. As much as I like chatting with the workers, it was so nice to be by myself for the afternoon. I have a head cold and wasn't feeling too well, so I took a leisurely bath, and then laid down on my own bed for the first time in 2 1/2 months! It was heavenly. The rest of the day I spent in my pj's and relaxed. Ahhhhhh....

Last night we went to see "wait wait don't tell me" in Manchester. We originally wanted to go while we were in Chicago, but it was the night we went out to dinner with my Boston Terrier friends and they also had a guest-host, so we opted not to go, figuring they'd come to NH sometime in the next few years. Who knew it would be so quickly? Anyway, it was a thousand laughs and neat to see it in person. I can't wait to listen to it on Saturday.

I got a new bench today from Kevin the tree man. I felt bad about it but what are you going to do. He's coming back to do a little more work, so that will help go to pay his granite bill.

I bought this awesome bench less than a year ago. It was installed the weekend I went to Snow Farm back in October. Ironically enough, it has come to an end as I am about to leave for Snow Farm this year. :(

Time for more pictures! The kitchen is pretty much done; there are just a few small things to do to wrap it up.

This is the view from the cellar stairs.


This is the view from the window in the opposite corner:

My new washer and dryer. Yay! :D

The vanity in the downstairs bathroom.

This is the cabinet across from the washer & dryer:
This is the view from the dining room into the kitchen:
This is the view of the whole kitchen from the living room door:
These are the knobs I'm making for the kitchen:
The knobs are based on these pendant lights:

In a few days I'll take and put up pictures of the bathroom upstairs. It's spectacular.

The people who did the work ( Phillips-Martin Group ) were awesome. I have only good things to say about them and their work. And the subs they used were terrific, too. They did the work for the project in this article. Not really to my tastes, but fabulous work.

They are chopping down all my trees today and I'm so sad.

Yesterday was the 17th, or the 7-month anniversary of my Father's death. On every other 17th since February, I was well aware of the date and its significance. Yesterday was the first 17th that I didn't think of the fact that it was an anniversary, until my mother brought it up after dinner. It's not that I didn't think of my father, because I do every day. I just hadn't thought of the anniversary. Which I think is a good thing. Maybe next month I'll go through the whole day without thinking about it.

Day 63 and counting. The hardwood floor in the kitchen is being installed today, and the painters are painting the dining room. We fixed our first breakfast in the kitchen today - bagels and cream cheese and coffee. It was nice not to have to go out. Having water in the kitchen is also a big plus. I've started to put a few things away, and it's challenging to put it away in a semi-organized way. I have to think about it. Hopefully I've put things where they would logically go but if not, I can always re-arrange. My appliances are being delivered on Friday, and as luck would have it I'm going away for the weekend. I so want to be here instead.

No pictures today, but there have been some improvements to blog about - we have water in the kitchen and in the upstairs bathtub. Now, it's not hot yet, but at least it's wet! The tile is in the upstairs bathroom and the entryway. It looks very pretty.

But there are some concerns as well. When the contractors were replacing the windows, they noticed that the house was not wrapped. The clapboards are up against the plywood, with no moisture barrier inbetween. That, combined with the gazillion trees we have, has led to the house being extremely moist and even rotting in some places. So now we're having the house wrapped ($$$) and resided ($$$). Oh and today they found termites! Ah, the joy of home-ownership. Luckily it seems to be confined to one area and it was cleaned up nicely. The exterminator is coming on Friday.