Unveiling Our New Living Room

To the left is one of the low profile swivel chairs I found for the living room. Love the "giraffe" print and small pillows that bring the couch, chairs and rug together. See the pretty new French Doors and wall of windows with plantation shutters. Love the clean look!

This is our new back door and covered porch with cubby for wood and all!

Home Sweet Home

Check it out!

Five Gregory gets a facelift...new moisture protection and clapboards. During the process of redoing the front of our home, our contractor discovered that no barrier (Tyvek) had been put on the house when the former owners re-sided it about 10 years ago. Scary! Note to all homeowners -- call me for a list of questions to ask prior to your renovation as we've made a few mistakes along the way that could save you some time, aggravation and money!

Say hello and thank you to Simon and Imer! They are re-siding much of the house and adding some beautiful custom details to the windows. Below you can see Macias and David. We shared a smile with Macias the other day when he pulled out the level to show David how much more level the house is now. (David has this uncanny ability to see when things are even a tad bit uneven...a gift I'm told he inherited from his Grandad...I am a bit cockeyed myself so of course do not notice!) I've really enjoyed having daily conversation in Spanish with the carpenters from Guatemala and Peru. They all speak great English but indulge my desire to hablar con ellos en espanol!

This is our freshly painted Master bedroom with a lovely view of the Harbor through new larger windows. Below is a peak at the guest bath floor...one of my favorite decisions of many I've made over the last six months. It's incredibly pretty in person. Can't wait for you all to see it and put the new jacuzzi tub to the test!

The finish work is moving along with new doors and floors in upstairs. Today they'll put in new light fixtures which will be very helpful in making final interior paint colors!

Floors, Windows, Vanities...oh my!

We are excited to share that our new hardwood floors were laid upstairs yesterday.The picture above shows our master bath vanity on its side and a view into the new guest room at the back of the house. Below is a picture of the new Victorian molding on the window casements and a few options on crown molding. We are going with the smaller version to the left on molding. If anyone has the perfect neutral paint, please do share your favorite colors. We are planning to use C2 paints.

Plastered...In Part...

Upon my return from a three day biz trip to Chicago I was thrilled to see most of the upstairs plastered. It's fascinating (that adjective may a bit too enthusiastic) to see how the plasterers "see the big picture" noticing the unique character of our home from distinct ceiling heights to how the edges should be softened to take the eye from point A to point B. In the pictures above you'll notice the numerous angles in the ceiling that allow us to "capture volume" (that's architect speak for maximize every inch). It's interesting to see that though the footprint of our Master bedroom is exactly the same size as before, it feels much bigger due to the higher ceilings and the larger windows on the street side of the house. Now to start agonizing over what colors to paint it all!!

The top picture showcases our new windows - past visitors will recall our bed used to be in front of these windows, a visual reference for how much bigger the new windows are.

The second window is taken from the new guest room closet looking towards our neighbors and the property line. If you look out the window on the right you'll see why that window will be the first window treatment decision I make as the window is 5 or 6 feet off the property line. We now officially abutt both Gregory and Lee Streets and guests will have an excellent view of Lee Street "Wall Parties" from here on out. :-) Our Lee Street neighbors will on a whim spread the word on any given nice day during Spring, Summer or Fall that all should join for a "Wall Party". This is the signal to whip up an easy appetizer, grab your beverage of choice (wine) and commune with our awesome neighbors!

And There Is Blue Board! (Plaster Board)

5 Gregory Street is coming along slowly and life has been incredibly busy so forgive us for being M.I.A. I keep hoping to wake up and be home -- as Dorothy said one fine day in Kansas "there is no place like home Toto, there is no place like home!" Below are three photos to bring to life our new space. The "Plaster Board" (commonly called Blue Board here" actually will be fully covered by plaster making the walls smoother and harder than drywall used in other parts of the country.

The top photo is the former guest room (note full head height 7 "8" now and lovely "blue board") which will now be our Den for David's guitar sessions or "Connor & Jack's" room when they visit. :-) (Adult visitors will be in a wonderful, large private new room beyond this one.)

Photo #2 is our former living room at the front of the house which will become a wonderful space for dinner parties since we love to entertain. Past visitors may recall there was a chimney flue and bookshelves which we took down giving us a blank slate for our new dining room.




A partial picture of our new living room is pictured below. To the left of the fireplace is the secret closet we found during renovation and the new home of our new wine bar and pantry. The French doors let in wonderful light and lead out to a covered porch and the expanded garden area (since we had to sacrifice the garage to move forward with the project.) Gardening seems like it will never come!

Lots of little things

Well sorry about the long delay in writing. They have been working very hard but at this point it is stuff that would not show dramatic changes in pictures. That is because they have been working on getting all the new electrical and plumbing in the house. We have basically replaced 90% of the wiring in the house and a similar amount of the plumbing. The nice thing about this is we got to lay out where every switch and every light went. I say this with great joy because the lighting in the house before was terrible. But that has been fixed!

Last week we had the electrical, plumbing and building inspections completed which are huge milestones - now they can begin closing the interior up. Additionally they have most of the roof on the house which is great since the weather has been pretty bad - the weather people said we saw 6 minutes of sun last week - no kidding.

Anyway, the other major thing last week was they began to insulate the house. We are using a foam isulation in the majority of the house (you can see it in the photos below). It fills every little gap and the house is so tight it is amazing. On the side of the house that sits on the propery line (right side if you are looking from the street) we have to use a fire retardant insulation so that cannot be the foam - they will put this up this week since we need another inspection for the insulation prior to them plastering the walls.

I think from here on out things will go quickly so we will post more often. Cheers.

Finally - some outside work!

They guys have gotten a good weather window to do some work outside. They have been working on the trim detail which is needed prior to putting the new roof on. Once the new roof is on we can take the tarps off for good!

Progress!!

Let there be light! It was amazing to return from a 3 day trip to Detroit and find a home full of new windows and new lights galore in our home.

David worked closely with the electrician and Ray to insure that all of our rooms will have ample light with logical switching system.

Pictured above is our new friend Luden. He's worked on many aspects of the house from carpinetry to advance work for the electrician to insulatin removal. Hello to his family and friends in Guatemala!

Other enhancements this week include:

- old floors removed upstairs and subflooring completed in the bathrooms.

- pocket door casings are in "my" walk-in closet, the master and between the mudroom and kitchen

- David's 46 inch flat screen Sony tv arrived and David quickly commissioned it and we are LOVING Blue Ray HDTV. We have watched Casino Royale and Cars already!

10 Day Review...jacuzzi anyone?

A lot has happened since our last post! The crew has been busy roughing in new bathroom floors, framing for a built-in bookshelf, the guestroom closet, plumbing, electrical and the most exciting thing of all -- a deep soaking tub with jets to alleviate those aches and pains!!

The project is an endless stream of decisions- location of vanities, lights, etc. We are having a ball and love to see progress every day! We can't wait for all you friends and family to come for a visit.

Happy New Year! - Almost

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thought I would would quickly post before the end of the year. So we are wrapping up 2007. Amazing. So I went back to see when we started this whole process. Feb 2006 was when we had our first meeting with Craig Bosworth - our architect. So nearly two years ago!

Anyway - we were hoping to have everything ready for the plumber at the end of last week but that just did not happen. We ran into some issues with the outflow for the toilet in the master bathroom. To allow us to have the toilet where we want it (not directly in front of you when you walk-in) we had to basically remove the existing floor joist that span both bathrooms and re-direct the joices. Here is a good photo - this is taken from the second floor and you can see the new bedroom on the second floor and the mud room on the first floor. The old joices ran length wise in the photo but the new ones will run left to right.

The other major thing this week is that they have taken down the chimney in the front of the house. This is a HUGE benefit. The chimney had no working fireplace and currently only was used to vent the hot water tank (it was originally used as a flew for a pot-bellied stove). We are switching to a tankless water heater and will not neet to vent out a chimney so we are able to remove it. The chimney really divided both the living room on the first floor and our bedroom on the second floor. Here is a before and after of the chimney removal.

Let the excitement continue...

Last week we discovered a pantry (6 ft by 3 ft) hidden behind a tall kitchen cupboard and the fireplace in the kitchen. We are excited about the "bonus" space and currently calling it Ella and Ollie's bedroom. :-) Our plan is to use it to house stereo, TV equipment and for a pantry.

Yesterday, we received a less pleasant surprise -- the news that our master bath was designed without considering the direction the joists run which presents some construction challenges because it isn't koshur to drill through joists (not that that stopped previous workmen in earlier work on the house...). The crew pulled down the ceiling of the kitchen giving us a temporary
"sky light" in the first level and a sneak preview of the 2nd floor. They are working to come up with solutions to facilitate the plumbing work that will take place over the next few days.

Snow Storm in Marblehead

Well this week was the week for storms. We are now in the second worst December on record for snowfall - of course we would do construction in it (-:

However the house is for the most part weather tight, but we still have a large tarp over it because the siding is not on the house and the final roofing is not in place. Also there are no windows yet. So they were still able to keep working like mad on the inside. They have most of the rough walls in place upstairs and they are begining to remove the chimney at the front of the house. We have permission from the town to take down the current chimney but we have to replace it with a fake chimney of brick since we are in the historic district.

So here is a nice shot of the street we are staying on with all the snow.

Bathing in progress!

Chez Bows now has rough walls upstairs and I am loving "my" new walk-in closet and the spaciousness of the design. The carpenters have asked us if we are moving into the guest room because it's actually a bit more spacious than the master but our new design will facilitate a better view of the harbor from our new mini-master suite so will be staying put. Sorry house guests! :-)

India was gracious and accepted our appeal for interior design assistance and helped me to begin defining two elegant baths. Our Master will be soothing and classic with "crema marfil" (neutral, cream marble) and in the guest bath I'm shooting for a beachy feel with beadboard walls, hewn stone tile and white crackle tile with a beautiful shimmer around the bath. The kids on the guest list for next Summer (Connor, Jack, Suzie Whamond and Jack Whiting) are going to love the new bath we are putting in for them! Local friends Pam Lawrence and Gail Michaud also weighed in on tile options and kept me from making a grave mistake on the backsplash. I can't wait to see the new baths!

Hola desde Marblehead, Massachusetts!

Hola a nuestros amigos de Peru y Guatemala. Feliz Navidad a la familia de Emer. Esperamos que esten muy orgullosos de Emer ya que nos esta construyendo una casa preciosa y cada dia muestra su capacidad de resolver problemillas cuando surgen.

Desde el primer dia cuando Ray (el Jefe del proyecto) nos introdujo al equipo (Imer, Simon y Valdemar), David y yo (Mary) nos sentimos a gusto y con mucha confianza en el equipo. Me encanta hablar con ellos en espanol aunque quiero que sepan que todos dominan el ingles.

Les deseamos felices fiestas!

New Bedroom! - For all you guest who will come to see us

So the complete roofline is in! Imer, Simon and Valdamar are the main guys working on the framing of the house. This is Emer in the new window. They have been working very hard for us and have been very patient with us coming by each day to check out how our project is coming. This is the new back of the house. This is the new bedroom above the old mud room. You can see just under the dormer the new covered porch. It is going to have a nice mahogany deck and mahogany beadboard ceiling. I will take the same shot in a few months so we can see the difference.






This is a shot from Lee St. Those of you who have not visited are probably amazed at how close the houses are, well they are very close, that is how it is in an olde town.




So they are working to get the house all closed up. They have all the sides closed up as of this afternoon. We are expecting about 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow and another Nor'easter this weekend so they have gotten it closed up just in time.

Another Old Find - A Cesspool?

So as they were excavating for the new entrance to the basement they hit a brick wall - literaly.



However the bricks were in more of a dome shape than a wall. What they hit was the old cesspol, which is large 8 foot in diameter brick dome sitting on an stone foundation. A cesspool is an early design of our modern septic tank. Ours is brick and stone which was a typical construction in the 1880-1900. This is a rough design but ours is more of a dome. We found the access manhole when we took up the driveway but it was not actually on top of the cesspool.





Here is a photo I took of the inside of the cesspool (I stuck my hand in - that is as far as I wanted to go). You can see it is quite a nice pice of masonry. Notice the old bottles and cans in the pit. These would have been put in through the manhole, not via the house out flow.






Quite interesting - this was just below our driveway - who knew.

Lost Camera Cable

Well the second floor is coming right along. If I could find the cable for the camera I could upload some photos. However since we are not living in our house - for obvious reasons - things are easily misplaced. At home everything has a place, when you are housesitting for someone you have to weave your stuff with theirs and things are easly lost for a few days.

Please visit back in a day or two because I have some neat photos from an interesting find when we were excavating around the foundation.