Happy TwennyTen!

I'll get back to the business of building this house next year...next week.

Merry merry, happy happy!

Hope Santa was good to you all, and that you are still having a wonderful Christmas 2009!

(Hey j! If you double-click on the photo, and look at it large, you will see all of the ornaments you made over the years, including the pretty angel on top. Not the PeeWee though, I made him, Tyco years.)

After snowing all day...

This photo from yesterday afternoon. So nice to not have to go anywhere.

I am going to miss this old house in the snow.

We know how to snow, too.

Getting dumped on down here in way south Jersey. Expecting 12" to 18". Any snow left up there in the north country?

Lester and Sophie are having a blast, getting their mugs all covered in snow. The Husband and I are having a blast digging out. Had to do what all south Jersey folks do in a snowstorm: run out to the food store and buy up all the milk and bread. Only I really needed it...didn't have anything for breakfast.

Not sure if we'll make it up for New Year's Eve, so you may not get any more new house photos till after the holidays. I'll try to keep you all posted on the progress otherwise.

Notice my 2 french doors behind the kids? The only problem with opening out, is that they don't when there's this much snow! So maybe it's a good thing, as Martha would say, that we only have one door opening in, in NY.

Everyone be sure to have a Happy Holiday!

Haint blue, smurfy it ain't.

I caught the guys just in time (about a month ago)
to paint my front porch roof sky blue. I even bought the paint for them so I could pick just the right color. My porch roof is sky blue here in NJ, and I have always loved it.

If you read the earlier posts, you would have seen when they accidentally painted the front door blue, but now that the colors are in the right places, I am very happy with the results.

So when I went up to NY again last week, Jim asked how I liked my blue roof. I told him I loved it, and asked what he thought. He said it was too "smurfy" for him.

That got me thinking why I liked the blue roof, and where I had gotten the idea. I had heard it was a Victorian thing, and my 1880-something house in NJ is a wannabe Victorian. When I talked to Susan the architect, she said she had heard it called Spider Blue, because supposedly spiders and wasps don't like to build their webs/nests under a blue roof. And the guy who sold me the paint told me it was a Southern thing, and that this was a Haint color. Haint for "haunt" meaning the blue is supposed to keep away the evil spirits.

So I went online and researched Haint blue, and found all kinds of interesting information about it. Here are a few links, just in case you find this as interesting as I do.

http://www.squidoo.com/haintblue

http://colorstr.ipower.com/store/page2.html

This last one:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5645263

is from the NPR show, All Things Considered. It pretty much covers all the theories, and was enough to convince me that my blue roof isn't smurfy at all. Susan approves as well, so Jim, you're just wrong!

Picking paints. Final proof.

No more cartoons of the rooms in color...too time-consuming. Here are the final choices. I am going to print these out and mail to Jim just to make sure there is no confusion. The red, dark green and purply colors are almost duplicates of paint colors here in the old house in NJ. Pre-tested, pre-approved by The Husband and me. The other colors were chosen either because they work well together, or because they go well with furniture or rugs that will be going in those rooms.

All the ceilings will be white, like the trim, except for the cathedral ceiling in the bedroom which will be the same as the walls.

I have decided to defer to the architect's original design and keep the single french door—because it can be left open more comfortably, because it's already in place, and because it's about $600 cheaper than the double doors and every penny counts at this late stage.

Now I just have to decide what to do about the woodstove wall. Jim put a chase around the stainless steel pipe, but the chase goes all the way to the floor and messes up my design even more (see photo 2 posts below). I am really confused about how to make this look better. The woodstove was delivered yesterday, and now that I see this big boy in the room, I want to simplify the wall even more than before...There is a solution, I just don't know what it is yet.

Be careful what you wish for!

I said I wanted snow, but this is not fair! It's way too cold and windy to take pretty pictures for my Christmas cards, so you all might be getting the "bleak midwinter" version that I told The Husband I wouldn't do. Click on this photo to see a larger much more frozen version than the small.

I made more progress on paint colors, but didn't have time to make any more cartoons. I actually have a paying job that is taking up my precious house design time...but it is helping to pay the bills...

I talked to Susan the architect about my single french door, and I think I am going to keep it. Unless I change my mind of course.

And I talked to my friend Jane yesterday about getting the guy she uses to plow our big long driveway. If we don't keep it clear, the propane can't get delivered. Jim said he'd clear it for now, but there's no way he can keep up with it.

Woodstove gets delivered tomorrow. Good thing I'm leaving, because I'd be tempted to have them deliver it here and fire that baby up!

Whose idea was it to move to the North Country?

Picking paints. First proof.

Yes, I know these pictures are more like cartoons than the real thing, but they are helpful to me. Moving rugs around to help decide on a color scheme, and trying to keep the colors so that they all work together, from room to room. Even if we don't keep all the rugs we have, it's an easy way to make this work.

The Husband and I both like dark colors on the walls, but maybe they work better in our old house with the light-stained molding. Although the white molding does make a nice contrast. Have to go with a lighter color in the bedroom, because it has a cathedral ceiling and I want to paint it all the same. The other rooms will all have white ceilings.

Something else that came up for discussion today—I have always imagined 2 french doors swinging out to the screen porch. In the top photo are our french doors in NJ...same Andersen door, but 2 swinging out to the deck, no screen. The architect always envisioned one french door swinging into the dining room. This was discussed several times with Gordy and Jim, but when it came to putting in the order, Jim deferred to the architect's drawings with the one door. He says he'll take it out and either sell it or use it in his own house, but maybe it does look OK after all... Do I really want to give up on my 2 french doors that I hounded The Husband for in NJ?

Oh yeah, and that wall behind the woodstove is the final version of what I have been designing for at least a year. This would be my perfect solution, but one I am pretty sure I can't afford. Might just be a painted blue wall until I hit the lottery. Even those little wings on either side of the woodstove cost $250 extra, so they're waiting for the big bucks too. Might help if I actually bought some lottery tickets!

Ask for snow and you shall have it.

It started snowing lightly as we drove through Hartwick last night, and I think it continued through the night. And then we are scheduled to get 3" to 6" more tomorrow. Luckily they are much better at clearing roads up here, so I should still be fine for driving home on Friday.

Today's job is to try to choose paint colors for the interior. I took some pictures in NJ of the things I expect to put in each room, and some pics up here of the interior.

Hope I can throw them altogether and come up with a plan.

I was out at the house with Jim and the guys discussing the progress. He thinks the heat shut itself off because somebody drained the water from the system thinking the drain was a water supply. It's up and running again, and actually about 73° in there right now. I really wish there was a working bathroom, because that is definitely more comfortable than this drafty Dump. But it would be tough to stay out of the way of the guys while they are working.

Dogs are tired after a romp in the snow with Kaya. Back to work for me with my colors.

I need snow!

I've been struggling to find a snowy pic for our Christmas cards this year. If I don't get them to the printer soon, there will be no time to write them up and send them out.

From what I can see on the WKTV weather report, I might get my wish for snow in NY this week, and there's even a chance that the rain and sleet here in NJ today will change to snow tonight.

Here's a Christmas pic that The Husband rejected for our new cards. Don't know why? I find it hysterically funny. hehehe. Maybe because we used those scary axe-holders on our cards 3 years ago. My Mom hated that card.

Working on soapstone counters, stair parts, and picking paint colors this week. Looking forward to it. This is a very exciting time to watch what's going on in the house, but it doesn't lend itself to good picture-taking. I'll work on getting some new photos this week.

Snow up there today.

December brings just a bit of snow, that's what I wanted for when we were there last week, just enough to take some pretty pictures. Oh well!

House is coming along nicely. French doors going in today or tomorrow. Taper needs to come back and finish up, and then I need to start picking interior paint colors...but quick!

Kitchen island design is pretty much finished, but I asked Gary to finish the bathroom vanity first. These photos are the final kitchen layout and the close-to-final island design.

Still deciding if I want to spend $150 on LED under-cabinet lights, or if I am going to buy a $20 string of LED lights from Ikea and see how they work out. I don't mind spending money for real light fixtures, but somehow the under-cabinet lights just don't seem worth the big bucks.

Going back up on Monday, and I hope to finish up with all the shopping for parts and other decisions before Christmas. Jim said they will be mostly done by then, just a few things won't get done in time for the holidays.