Some updated photos!

So when Robert Frost talked about "miles to go before I sleep" he may have been talking about a house renovation! We haven't posted in a long time so we figured that we'd post a few updated photos. We're still not done but we're getting there - Rob has been furiously painting while Leigh has been chasing Lucie around the house. Enjoy the photos - captions below.The Kitchen with an island counter top made by our good friend Chris Kearney of CB Kearney - www.cbkearney.com
We have yet to face our pantry cabinets but we are about to order the metal mesh that will make the pantry a bit more opaque.
We still can't believe how many windows are in this house!

Our guest bedroom - until Lucie get's big enough to want more space...
Our master bedroom -- we love the vaulted ceilings and all the light we get in here...

Our dining rooms is small but we've found that it's perfect for family gatherings..
The living room is painted and awaiting some new furniture...and a custom light from our friend Adam Policky of Inspired Wire in Portland Maine. www.inspiredwirestudio.com
While it's been incredibly warm outside recently we've been able to squeeze in a few fires!

Come back soon for more photos.

Master Closet, Fireplaces and Office

So the finish carpentry has come to a close -- we'll the wallet needs to be closed so we're done with everything that really needed to be done. Gus and Ricardo did a fantastic job. One of the things that we appreciate so much is that we felt that we could really trust these guys - they had a key to our house, worked when we were away and just got the job done. They really cared about the quality of their work and we feel that they did an A+ job. These photos show some of the latest additions to the 1790 house. Here you see the custom master closet -- we're still figuring out who gets more hanging space but this is one closet that may actually fit all of our clothes!

Master Bedroom fireplace -- we decided to go pretty simple here...you can see the sconces above it -- and the mud that we had to apply becuase we tried to install the sconces just a little bit more to the outside and discovered -- that's not where the wires were!

Guest bedroom fireplace -- this was Gus's creation -- more ornate but still classic.

The centerpiece of our living room is the old cooking fireplace. We decided to keep this one pretty true to the original. With modern code, we had to expose more of the brick than was in 1790 but we like it.

These are obviously bookshelves -- they are in our office and will finally provide a home for our extra large collection of books!

Finish Carpentry...the adventures of Gus and Ricardo

So we've been quite for such a long time that there's way too much to tell in one entry. It's been a busy summer -- we've painted the exterior of the house with Sherwin Williams Duration....hope that's the last time we have to do that. We still have a little bit left to do but it's very manageable. We've also planted a lawn -- more on that another time (the nightmare of crabgrass). And most significantly we've been having Gus and Ricardo do lots of finish work at the house. Gus is a guy that we met when Ed was restoring our house. He worked on Ed's crew. He's a great guy and has a great attention to detail. Here are some shots that are very exciting to us...it's nice to have shelves to put things on and closets to hang things in. But mind you -- just because we have these things doesn't mean that we're not still living out of boxes! This is our dining room china closet -- it's modeled after the close in my grandparents 1600's house in Marblehead.

Here you're seeing the built-in that is to the right of the large fireplace in the living room - the top has space for at 32" TV and the bottom is for man equipment -- stereo stuff :)

Coat closet! and my less than often used blue blazer

Book shelves that are attached to our kitchen island -- now full of cook books -- and Riley begging for some food...

This is the fireplace in our office -- really great job by the guys -- the design was collaborative between all of us but the execution was all Gus and Ricardo.

I'll post some more photos of their work. Fall looks like it's going to be a very very busy time but we're working hard at getting loose ends tied up!

Some updated photos

Sorry that there hasn't been much in the way of updates these days -- not much time and not too much to report. We can't take too many interior photos because the house is just a mess! Here are a couple of exteriors. We're getting ready to start painting the exterior this month -- we're thinking that we're going to do a tone on tone white for the trim and linen for the house -- and we're debating whether we'll do High Gloss or Flat for the paint -- any suggestions?

We were going to move in this weekend, but...

These were taken several weekends ago. We were going to move in, but seeing as that wasn't going to happen, our new neighbors invited us in for pancakes instead.

These photos were actually taken after some cleanup had already been done!

We're In!!

2nd floor, 2nd bedroom in the front of the house.

Master bathroom.

Stairwell.

Side entryway.

Living room.

Living room from the other side.

Leigh here...

Well, almost one year after we first started demolition, we are finally moved in to the 1790 house!! "Moved in" is of course a subjective description - we still have to collect our belongings from several locations (thanks parents!!) and there are MANY small projects to finish inside and outside the house. For example, we have no shelves and no mantles yet (although Ed was just over here today talking with us about the plan for those things), and we have interior trim and exterior everything and 33 windows to paint inside and out. It will be awhile until it's "done."

But from the first night we stayed over, which was March 13, we have been SO excited about the place. It definitely feels like home. We love cooking in the kitchen and working in the office (the two rooms that are the most set up at the moment). The house has already weathered 3 major wind/rain storms with only the tiniest bit of dampness in the basement and no other damage at all (these storms brought feet of water to other basements and blew shingles off roofs in Newburyport). Ed made quite certain that it's not going anywhere!

We really can't say enough good things about the work that Ed has done. After all we've been through with this place, he's still around to make sure that the last details get finished. He is just as proud of the house as we are!!

These photos only show some parts - we'll try to get more up soon. I especially love the exposed ceilings on the first floor in the living room and office - original beams and underside of the 2nd floor floorboard. There are funky details that come from saving some of the original parts of the house and there are great new spaces like the kitchen. Although I can't really say that I knew how it was going to turn out when we started, it is the kind of place that I have been dreaming about living in.

Floors...floors...floors

So the floors have been in process for the last couple of weeks...first we had some sanding problems (the new floors got all scratched up by the buffer so that when they were stained the scuff marks showed. Then we weren't sure that the cherry stain was really not bright orange. So things have been going slowly and we might be delayed by another week on the move in date. So it's hard to say if we were just so used to having light white pine floors and now we have these darker floors that we're not crazy about. We're holding off judgement until they are done -- in these photos the floors have been stained but no poly has been applied. There is definitely a difference between how the new floors and the old floors in the upstairs bedrooms. We're withholding our judgement until it's all done...and the trim is painted.