Cherry Cherry!

Cherry Stain on Red Oak

First Coat of Polyurethene

Lookin' Good

Coat No. 3

Shiny!

Bathroom Break

Guest Bath

Marble Tile Close-up

Red Roof On

8 Long Weeks

The guys were still working when I arrived to prep the floors tonight. The had spent the day tiling the guest bath and scraping off the roof shingles. They were exhausted but still tidying and loading material onto their truck. I peeled off the brown paper and cardboard from the bare floors, swept, and began vacuuming between the planks. It still gets dark early despite the warm weather and by the time they were ready to leave it was already dark. The guys came inside to say good-bye and I turned on the living room lights. For the first time in eight weeks the three of us stood in the house and just stared. Hammering, drilling, scraping, sawing, and blaring rock music finally ceased and we all just took a collective breath. This is really a beautiful house and it's going to be a beautiful home.

Raze the Roof!

It was a rainy morning and overcast day, which explained Casey's blurry cell phone picture. It didn't matter though because I knew the old roof was coming down! 

Good-bye shingles.

The new roof was delivered last night and stored in the barn. I didn't have time to check it out then, but was pleasantly surprised to open the doors this afternoon and see this waiting to summit... 

Hello Scarlett!

Just a reminder of the "inspiration" house...

Shades of Buttercream

Who knew there were so many shades of buttercream? Nothing looks the same in the store as in the bright Florida sunshine. By the way, we spent January in the 80s with no complaints from me. I bought four samples of the exterior paint and the colors are shown below...there's still time to decide, but I'm currently leaning to 'egg.'

Choices

My favorite until I started over-analyzing.

Too Naples

Too Panhandle

Too Miami Beach

Which came first, the vomiting chicken or the egg?

You Want It When?

1.19.12

In September of last year I made a list of what I considered Harbor Farm's (then 'Farmhouse on Main') "immediate needs." Numbers 22-25 and 32 turned out to be more wants than needs, but everything else has either been started or can solidly be checked as complete. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else still falls under the "immediate" category. If immediate is defined by move-in date, then 'immediate' draws closer each day, and I feel more and more certain that the "needs" part is not going to be met in the immediate! 

The problem with any kind of home improvement project on an old house is that new (well done) work makes the surrounding space look even more shabby than before. As a result, the list has really grown. 'Immediate' now includes new porch windows, shutters, and a backyard fence.  If you don't think adding three things to a list constitutes saying it has really grown, I invite you Google the price of windows :-/ 

1.20.12 

Patience self. Patience.

1.21.12

Cleaned the barn in preparation for the move. Since the GC is behind schedule, I may not get the floors refinished by moving day, so I plan to move everything into the barn until the floors are finished. Also kicked and rolled the old (full) water heater outside. About 240 gallons of rusty, 10-yr old, standing water drained into street. The junk man will pick it up and sell the metal for scrap. Later I took some nice 'Before' pictures of the outside. The City approved my exterior renovation grant so exterior painting can begin! Last, I assembled an IKEA shelf for the guest bathroom. Yup, still not toilets, but there will be shelving.  

September 2011

December 2011

December 2011

January 2012

Ready for Paint and TV!