Tree Talk

In case anyone is curious what the twig planted outside the house might look like if it survives the winter...It can grow to more than 60 feet tall!And lots of tiny leaves to make my neighbors crazy.
Small blooms and one of the last trees to start up in the spring.

Now the neighbors can't watch us sleep.

Back on Thanksgiving my mom gave me a load of my great-grandmother's handmade linen shades. They were originally made to be on a roller but 2 of them fit the back doors perfectly--so I attached ribbon to the top to hang them...Back in the day when they knew how to really do things....all by hand. Sheesh.
Puts my sewing to shame....

One the 10th day of Christmas

The City Gave to Me... (C'mon everyone sing along!)
A Coooooffeeeeee Espressooooo Tree.

Yeah, that's what it's called.

I didn't make that up.

Small Progress

I finally got around the scraping...priming...and painting the front basement gate--so that it doesn't rot during the winter.Why is everything I do at least a 3 day process? And only one thing to cross off the list?

For those of you not local...

We seem to be getting a crab shack. It'll face the Fairway parking lot and the water, with a big open deck. And hopefully...it'll serve crab.

Good Planning

I knew I got a stove with a shelf for a reason...

Just a few shots

since we've "moved in"

Kitchen:


Bedroom...

The first snow...

was a good excuse for the first fire.
And it works...

Kitchen...Done!

Mark was here a few weeks ago and put up wainscot on 3 walls and a little shelf to top it off.

It took about 3 days to patch and sand...and another 3 to paint...so here it finally is!

The word on the streets....

Yesterday while I was painting the front fence 2 interesting things happened:

1. Two guys from the city broke in to the condemned house next to me, put their own lock and chain on the door and told me it was slated for demo.

2. A young couple stopped and spray-painted a big white dot on the pavement in front of my house and said we're getting a tree provided by the city!

My thumbs look more brown than green frankly...

Just a little pre-winter planting going on.

2 mountain laurel, 1 climbing rose to go along the fence, 1 rose-hip, 2 bushes I don't know the name of (but are supposed to grow like crazy...)
and one "Mt Saint Helen Plum"..which is actually a cherry tree:
On the side... a Japanese holly, and a climbing hydrangea for the stair rail...
Not to mention a dozen each of crocus and daffodil bulbs.

Sheesh!

That is IT until Spring. It's back to indoor chores for me....

More bits

Believe it or not things have been happening.

The kitchen is nearly finished...but I'm waiting on the final coats of paint to show photos...

Mark this week removed 3 of our doors and refit them so that they actually open AND close!

He also fixed the pocket doors, and a bunch of other little stuff...and although crossing them off the list is very satisfying it doesn't make for great blogging.

The basement gate got put in...
A new light in the top floor bedroom (that works!)
And a soap dish in Todd's bathroom ...

All little, but boy do they add up.

Super Storage

The old cabinets from my studio have finally found their home...after being hung in the kitchen (and taken down), hung in the bathroom (and taken down)...they end up fitting perfectly in my office. This was their last chance and then they would have been destined for Craigslist.Mark hung them for me yesterday. I can't wait to give them a fresh coat of paint and fill them.
So much needed space!!

Pantry has it's day.

Mark has only been back for one whole day and already the new cabinet is up on a finished base, set in to the wall, and ready to go. It's funny how ridiculously small the smeg fridge looks next to it.
Tomorrow...wainscot kitchen? Or am I too optimistic?

Front steps

About a week ago I painted the last coat on the cement steps...and then I scraped, primed and painted the railings.
For the last four (yes...four) days I have been scraping the gate, newel posts, and fencing. Gives a new meaning to Labor Day weekend, doesn't it. On the good side-- I have met just about everyone in the neighborhood. On the bad side--I can barely move.

The coming rain is a relief because I need a breather before I can even think about painting them.

From Dumbo...

Giant food pantry for the kitchen.

It almost didn't make it out of their building...or into mine.

Giant.
This will hold a lot of jam.

Storm Watch 2011! (Red Hook Style)

This morning we took a bike ride...that there is fairway on the right...But last night before the storm everyone was out preparing their store fronts and windows:
(this place directly faces the water):
Dark and Stormy drink recipe...just in case:
I overheard a reporter saying that he didn't expect Red Hookers to evacuate...as they are the least likely of New Yorkers to do as they're told.
PS photos all taken by Todd

Salvage Score

We found this yesterday at the Iron Salvage place...perfect size for the basement door. We'd been looking so long we had been contemplating having one made.

I wish we had been able to wait on the gates to the rear doors--the old ones are so much prettier!

Super Mantis

Fighting early morning crime in Red Hook.

The streets are safe again.
Thank you Super- Mantis.

New Stair Rails.

Copying the neighbors....
Now they have to be scraped and painted, oh boy.

Bathroom painting: Done.

Five different types of paint later--and 2 coats each...except for the tub base which of course got....six.

The wainscot is a very VERY pale blue (called of all things "white diamond"--isn't that a Liz Taylor perfume? Very ritzy.)--the color which I of course agonized over...but

as my friend Lucy said: why bother--you could have stayed with white...
And a couple of details--an old brass toothbrush holder (thank you mom!) waiting to be put up--beautiful, no?

and one of 2 wall sconces

Just like old!

I mean, ...just like new (old)?

It's confusing, I know.

Today the welders came and put in old fencing--some of which belonged to the house and some of which was matched at the iron salvage place--and an old gate with newel posts.

It's funny--but looking at them makes me almost giddy.

They also make me feel better about the too-clean bluestone. Somehow it's all starting to come together...and once the beds are planted? Whoo Boy!

Later this week (maybe Wednesday!) they'll put up the salvaged stair rails. They were going to put them in today but the welder took one look at the condition that they're in, grimaced, and threw them in the back of his truck.

Narrowing it down.

So here is the 1869 Atlas, and I'm not on it. Sort of.

I'm the 14th lot on the block. There are 12 small lots in from Richards St, and then one big lot with apparently something on it which would have been where my neighbor's house and my house are. I wonder what was there.... (Hmmm I just had a thought. Maybe my neighbor's house-lot #13 was there and the place where my house is was just land belonging to them--that would explain the side door that we found in the basement leading from his house toward ours...a door to the yard?)
But anyway, that leads me to believe that this house was built sometime between 1869 and 1880...now I just have to go through the deeds at the historical society. I'm waiting for a rainy winter day...

The blog that has the links to these maps is called http://woodenhouseproject.com/ and she has quite a lot of good tips for research if anyone is interested....

A bit of research

I was planning on taking the day off today...whatever that means...and then I got caught on the computer. There's a new blog that has a lot of good links for researching the history of wood frame houses and I got totally sucked in.

It includes the Robinson's maps from 1886 (which I had already seen at the historical society first hand), and then the 1880s maps--and yup--we're on that one too.

For those of you that may not know--pink means masonry, and yellow mean wood frame.

Here's 1886

(I put a blue dot where the house is located on the full map...it's very small, and an arrow on the close-ups):

and 1880


I'm dying to figure out how old this place is really....