Falling In Love With The Floors

I hope Pete understands that its a different kind of love, but its definitely love. The floors are beautiful. Perfect. Gorgeous.

White pine, 14' straight stripes of tongue and groove flooring, stained black (Ebony).

Love them!

Breeze Be Gone

It was like our own tropical paradise ... sitting in a cabana with a strong breeze going in one end and out the other. All is perfect, except ... its our house and its cold.

While we love the nostalgia of the old wood windows, irregular glass and pulley weights, they weren't working. Unfortunately, ours rattled with every move and the strong breeze became less and less desirable as winter approached.

So, we bit the bullet and purchased Harvey vinyl windows. And, the vinyl was the toughest bullet - but, now, we couldn't be happier! The Harvey don't look too vinyl-y; they are tight and clean, keeping unwelcome noise, breeze and smells out. The Harvey were by far the best choice for the money, over Pella and American, and come with a lifetime warranty. Did I mention "for the money"?? ... that becomes very important when you're replacing18 windows!

Love them!

Inspector Is In

Less smiling and more working, boys!

Air in Force

The crackle, snap and pop, that one of my favorite little guys (Brigg) calls "scary" is scary no more! We have forced air, including air conditioning, and we've started to tear up the baseboards. Don't ever believe a northeastener when they say you don't need air. I spent a couple summer months in this 3rd floor 1890s home, and I'm so happy to not have to drag the portable air conditioner from room to room next year. And, no more scary noises!

The system is in the attic:

A Case of Spaghetti Plumbing

Personally, I prefer to eat my spaghetti, but when the walls were opened we discovered that the plumbing resembled a plate of noodles.

If you shut off the water at one point, it came out another way ... cap it in a place and water came out another. One hundred years of adding and updating and making pasta!

Ahhhh ... after the plumber worked his magic. Like Holmes on Homes always says ... "do it right the first time."

Accommodating a visual learner

If you take your measurements to Home Depot or Lowe's, they will turn them into a 3-D mockup of your room. In a matter of a couple hours, we had our entire kitchen laid out and in a visual-learner-friendly format.

Then we picked and chose what cabinets we wanted where.

Special features of our kitchen include:

• Floor to ceiling 12" deep pantry - to maximize the space we added storage by using cabinets in between the windows
• Shelves in the corner - instead of a large corner cabinet we chose open shelving to break up the cabinet-heavy walls; cheaper than glass cabinet doors
• Corner sink - by putting the sink in the corner instead of within the island, we were able to fit a hidden trash cabinet and a stack of four small drawers against the knee wall
• Wine cooler shelf - a base cabinet with an open shelf and lower drawer will provide a place to tuck away our wine cooler
• Microwave cubby - a cubby with a cabinet door that flips up was a more attractive option to us than a garage door
• Big drawers - on either side of the range, we chose drawers instead of cabinets for easier access to pots and pans
• Cabinet moulding - small decorative moulding in between the two upper cabinets will add a little texture and break up the cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling

A good sign

Twelve sheets of drywall and 2 pieces of plywood were brought in today. Must mean its time for new walls! Pete and Papa K carried everything up 3 flights of narrow stairs.



Best money spent

The best $80 we've spent - a shop vac. Sucks up everything! The super cleaner.

Mama K with her brilliant idea!

Countertop Conundrum

What granite do you like?

We can't decide between the two granites shown below. The color schemes are a little different, as are the styles. We are looking to preserve the Victorian style (to a degree). The granite must also go with bright white cabinets, dark chocolate/black wood floors and stainless steel appliances.

Do we go with a browner style with lots of movement? Or a more muted, uniform silvery granite?

Granite A:
A cream base with hints of bright white, veins of brown/black and flecks of silver. This granite has a lot of movement with defined veins of darker color.

Granite B:

A white base with flecks of gray, brown and black. The granite is uniform and not too busy. It is a medium tone.

What do you think? A or B? And, what back splash would you choose to go with it?

Summer is a verb

There were two defining factors in our search for a home in Boston – money and location.

The cost of living adjustment from downtown St. Louis to downtown Boston is 45% - however, our experience leans toward an even greater divide. Pete and I started our search in the South End, Boston’s equivalent to Washington Ave in St. Louis; an up and coming, trendy neighborhood with great restaurants and in the heart of Boston. However, the search quickly ended.

It is truly a depressing moment when parking spots are turning up in a property search. And, after spending all of our money on a parking spot, I’m not sure how living out of our Jeep would work.

We found that in downtown Boston, you get half the square footage for more than double the cost per square foot and it comes with no parking, no storage and prepare yourself for something old. To this day, I’m still trying to figure out who can afford $1,000 a square foot. And, while I love Pete, we weren’t prepared to live in 350 square feet. So the search was widened and it was time to seek professional help.

During our first meeting, our realtor asked us a defining and life changing question - “where do you want to summer?”

“Summer?” I've never known summer to be a verb.

In the northeast it means where you have your summer home – the North Shore (the shoreline north of downtown Boston up to Maine) or the South Shore (the shoreline south of the city that extends to the Cape).

Often families even live in that home and grunt the longer commutes to work. Or at least, you spend every weekend at your home during the summer. Northeasterners leave early on Fridays (or work from home on Fridays) to beat the traffic over the bridges to the Cape, make a ferry time to Martha’s Vineyard or head north to the coast of Maine. Every weekend.

So deciding where you'll "summer" is important - it will dictate whether your permanent residence should be north or south of the city - obviously - silly, midwesterners.

While I’m not sure I would be opposed to a mini vacation each week, for now, adjusting to the cost of living is enough for us to manage.

North Shore

South Shore

A Day of Thanks

Today is a day of giving thanks ... and I have a lot of thanking to do. However, I think pictures speak louder than words:

Look! He's still working with a smile.

Pete putting his good supervising skills to work.

A Hitler mustache of black dust was just one indication of what she was inhaling ... before the mask.

I am thankful for all of the time I get to spend with Papa K and Osa and for my family's willingness to help us transform our new home. Thank you!

They call him "The Rag Man"

Like Napoleon Dynamite's liger, a mythical creature bred for its skills in magic, The Rag Man too seems too good to be real. He shows up whenever you need him, he cleans up after Papa K, carries the debris and old appliances down three flights of stairs and recycles everything. The old appliances are donated, the wood gets ground up into mulch for parks, the metal pipes and wires go to the scrap yard and the sheet rock finds a home somewhere too.

In return, The Rag Man only expects fair compensation, a case of beer and a few fist bumps along the way ... well worth it!

Oh yeah, he's also Papa K's new BFF!

WHY WASTE? Green Hauling

Jamaica Plain, Mass.

http://www.whywasteworld.com/



One third of the budget down

Who knew cabinets were so expensive? I certainly didn't expect to be spending one third of our budget on something so necessary and functional. Where's the fun in that?

After hours of HGTV, countless design catalogs and an annoying number of "oooo another white kitchen" - a decision has been made.

Make: Kraftmaid
Model: Hartwell

Wood: Maple
Color: White

And to think, we went into this with black cabinets in mind.

No turning back ...

What's wrong with this picture?

1. I'm working
2. Someone trusts me with a crowbar
3. The contractor has gone missing ...