Back to the House

As promised, I'm moving back on topic. The masons were back at work on the springhouse yesterday, and I'll have another post on their progress coming soon.

In the house, my mom has been busy putting her carpentery skills to work. In the dining room, she put up baseboard and chair rail in the corner with the new boxed out duct work. Once I finish get it all shellaced, it will look like it has always been there. Mom has also put up various pieces of trim in the living room. The past couple of days she has spent back up in the back bedroom, building a small closet into the northwest corner of the room.

Charles has been busy with the play, but he did find time to haul off two more loads of scrap metal. So far Charles has made over $200 just cleaning scrap metal from the property.

My uncle J has also been back at the house. As we get each room painted, he follows along replacing outlets and switches. It makes such a huge difference to see clean plates go up over new outlets. Pictured below is a sample of my uncle's work. Two outlets in the living room were in boxes installed on the woodwork. J removed these sections of baseboard and cut holes to install new recessed boxes. He also had to carefully chip into the stone wall behind each outlet, making just enough room to allow for this change. He then put brown outlets and covers on each (we're using ivory in the rest of the house, but thought brown would work better since these are in the walnut baseboard.) The light colored rectangle in the floor is the site of the first outlet in this room, it was installed in the floor rather than the wall. We removed the outlet and my mom patched the floor. Right now the patch is still bare wood, hopefully it will blend in better when we put the next coat of finish on the floor.



As for me, I've been painting. I hope to finish the second coat on the office walls tonight. The color is called Spring Forward. It's something of a muted teal.


And I've been painting in the Book Nook as well. The purple here is called Kimberly (how appropriate!). The nook will get carpet and then small baseboards, but other than that it is basically finished.

Meanwhile, Back at the Einsel House

I'll be leaving for the Einsel House soon, but wanted to put up a few pictures showing some of the other work that's been going on at the house recently. (Although my entries here are sometimes one-track, work at the house is always proceeding on several fronts simultaneously.)

First up, remember the cracks in the walls that I've mentioned here a few times? (Part the natural result of old plaster walls, and part the result of four new jacks in the basement.) They are being filled in preparation for painting:


Second, the dining room ceiling is finished (minus primer and paint). There is a light texture on the new ceiling, similar to what is in the kitchen. This was a concession on my part (ideal would have been a perfectly flat ceiling) but because of the size of the room and the fact that the south end of the ceiling still has a slight bow, our contractor encouraged some texture.

Third, the book nook is taking shape. I loved my mom's idea of using boards to make plank walls. The back stairway at Old Winchester had plank walls and I'm thrilled to be able to use that idea at the Einsel House, even in a small way.

Fourth, below is a picture of one of the original basement windows modified to be a two pane window instead of three:

We will be reusing all the other basement windows in their original size, but the extra width was taken off of this window so that there would be room for lots of "stuff" - the drier vent, gas line to the furnace, two electric lines (one to the septic system, and one a 'someday' line for the springhouse), and I think something else that I'm forgetting right now.

The Book Nook

I love the back bedroom at the Einsel House. Probably because it reminds me of my childhood bedroom, which also had a a sloped ceiling. My childhood bedroom also had small doors in each knee wall providing access to the space behind for storage. Storage space is extremely limited at the Einsel House, and at some point I wondered aloud if we could copy this idea in our new home.

My mom thought this was a wonderful idea and she ran with it. We will have two small doors in the south knee-wall. Below is a picture of my brother working behind what will be the left door in the knee-wall:



The door to the right will open to a small storage unit, but the door to the left is getting much more attention. My mom has dubbed this space "The Book Nook" and the little girl who will be getting this bedroom is in love with the area already. She spent the entire afternoon Sunday helping her grandma frame out The Book Nook:

If you know my mom, either in person or from earlier entries here, then you probably won't be surprised to learn that she has grand plans for the Book Nook. It will have built in shelves, and it is already wired for an outlet. There will be carpet on the floor and rope lighting along the ceiling. Most of that is still to come, though. Here's the Book Nook in its current state: