Post-Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is over and all our guests left this morning.  We had two wonderful sets of guests - could not have been nicer - and most interestingly, one of the Ganzel "girls" and her family stayed with us, the first time she'd been in the house for 7 years.

Our appliances were all hooked up and ready to go, except for the dishwasher, unfortunately, and we used them all to roast a turkey, bake a pie, and make lots of breakfasts.  We had a record 7 people for breakfast the morning after Thanksgiving, as Kate's mother and daughter joined us.  (note new lace curtains!)  We served fresh pineapple, baked French toast, and Amish sausage; everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Our kitchen designer is coming over today to work up a "punch list" with us; top of the list is choosing the backsplash tile.  Then no more projects for awhile!  At least not until after the first of the year.  Hopefully our new dining room set, which is already 1 week past the latest delivery time, will arrive soon.

Almost-After Pictures

We're not done yet by a long shot but it's starting to look like a kitchen, and what's done is beautiful!  To give you an idea:

The cooking peninsula

Almost done

We are in love with all of it:  cherry cabinets, granite counters, and the wonderfully unique parquet floor that Brian installed.  That's our antique Hoosier on the right.  Not shown:  the refinished pantry doors.

Yet to be done:  wait for the floors to  cure, reinstall appliances, hook up cooktop, add trim, (choose and) install backsplash.

I haven't even mentioned yet the little bathroom that Kim has completely redone, including building a maple and cherry vanity.  Haven't taken any pictures yet so I'll save that for another post.

Kitchen progress

Well, we made it through parents' weekend with our kitchen in complete disarray, cooking from our old stove and microwave set up in the basement and washing dishes in the utility sink.  Big thanks to Sally, Gabriela, and Carolyn for their understanding and flexibility during their respective stays.  (At least we got our kitchen out of the dining room!)


Big progress was made today as the corner cabinet was installed as well as the new floor in the pantry.  The plumbing seems to be done, or nearly so, and the back entry is painted.  What a difference!  Kim has laid the tile in the little bathroom and today is painting.  Nothing is done - and we're still cooking in the basement - but we're getting there.

Maybe the best news we got is that the granite countertop will be installed on Friday.  That means the appliances can also be installed!  Dom's and my main to-do at this point is to choose tile for the backsplash.  Of course, he's in Harrisburg this week but that will have to be the main focus on Friday.  However, we want this to be right and if the tile isn't installed for our party, so be it.

Here are a couple "work-in-progress" photo from a few days ago:

We love our new parquet floor!  Nice work, Brian.

 We uncovered this historical treasure written under the cabinets above the sink.  Too bad it's not dated.  I'm afraid it's under a layer of drywall now.

Kitchen redux

The remodel of the kitchen is finally and visibly underway.  We really started several weeks ago with planning and design with Kim Annable, and Jeff Wooster has been building our cabinets in his workshop.  Kim also scraped all the old nasty finish off the pantry; with a new, flat finish, the beautiful cherry wood is really going to glow.  And we picked out new Thermador appliances several weeks ago from Home Appliance:  gas cooktop, electric convection oven, microwave, and warming drawer.

This is how the kitchen looked up to yesterday evening.  Kind of sad that our "before" pictures were our "after" pictures less than a year ago.  We didn't think we'd need to remodel so soon...this picture of Sunny and me was taken just last January and I can see I have my construction clothes on.

But yesterday we emptied all of the cabinets and today Brian and Christopher began demolition.  It's a big mess and has entailed removing the dishwasher, range, and microwave, so no more cooking for awhile.

 Demolition will continue for another couple of days, then the new cabinets and cabinet doors will be installed on Thursday.  On Friday we should be able to get Brian from Solid Source to come out and template our granite countertops.  I think the new appliances will be installed on the 12th but we should be able to use the old ones until then once demolition is done. 

Choosing the granite was a process in and of itself.  We were sent to Mont Granite to choose from I don't know how many colors of granite; I had no idea there was such an amazing diversity.  We finally narrowed it down to four then made our final decision on Saturday.  This is what we chose:

It's called "Fire Bordeaux" - is it gorgeous or what?   I'd like to take a piece of whatever's left over and put it on a wall somewhere.

Future egglayers of the B&F

Picked up 3 new baby Buckeyes on Tuesday from Meyer Hatchery.  All survived the first night (not the case the last time) so I think we're home free for awhile, knock wood.  As always, they're just as cute as they can be.

In other chicken news, our 2 older hens, Chipmunk and Mimique, are molting and so all egg-laying is off for now.  They look awful.  Our other Buckeye, who is about 5-1/2 months now, has yet to lay her first egg but it should be soon.  In the meantime, fortunately, we're able to buy free-range organic eggs from our friend Kim at Wild Goose Gardens just outside of town.

Five wood-burning - er, coal-burning - fireplaces

We had a chimney sweep in last week to have a look at our five fireplaces and possibly clean and repair them so that they'd be ready for winter.  We were surprised, and initially dismayed, to learn that they are actually coal-burning fireplaces.  However, it turns out that this is a good thing.

Dining room fireplace

First of all, if they were wood-burning they would be totally unusable as they are not lined.  Going up the center of the house, as they do, would present a huge risk in terms of embers flying up the chimney and setting the house on fire.  Something tells me our insurance company wouldn't pay for that.

However, since they are coal-burning, they do not have the creosote build-up of wood that is the chief cause of chimney fires.  Furthermore, coal does not throw off sparks and embers that could ignite a fire.  Coal is clean, burns hotter and more evenly than wood, keeps going longer.


Granted, our fires won't have the smell and sound of a wood fire.  On the other hand, they'll actually heat the house, and they're authentic to the period.  Now we just have to figure out where to find coal and how to light it (by Nov. 18).  Just what we need:  another project.

Oh, and what do we do with the ton of firewood in our backyard...?

Entryway fireplace

Newest project: the shed

The shed last winter

No posts since July 21, huh?  Well, we've been busy, to say the least.  But we've got plenty more to do, so we're getting back in the saddle with a few new projects.

The big one will be the kitchen but we haven't quite gotten that one off the ground yet.  So the current project is turning the outside storage shed into a chicken coop, at least for the new chicks to come next month, eventually for all of them.  They'll still have their outside pen for free-ranging but this will give them some additional protection from the elements this winter since it's a space we can heat.  Plus, assuming we keep all 6 alive, we won't have room in our little coop for the whole flock so we'll need the additional space.

Here are the "before" pictures.  It's a nice little building but in pretty bad shape; fortunately, much of the foundation still seems to be sound.