Christmas in our old stone home

The strains of voices lifted in song resounded throughout our old stone house this week. Our church's Christmas Eve choir met for a thorough rehearsal on December 23.

Ana baked a berry pie for a friend. I love that she bakes pie. How very old-fashioned! She even bought the ingredients with her own hard-earned cash.

My favorite part about this pie is the holly berry cut-out decorating the crust. I also like that she dons an apron -a hand-crafted one!- to work in the kitchen. What a girl.

We celebrated our first Christmas in our old stone home with a lovely breakfast: French Toast and Fruit Salad.

It wasn't a fancy, over-the-top celebration. Mostly simple. Only a few extra faces graced our table, but they were especially dear faces.

Who needs a new kitchen to be radiantly happy? Not this housefrau.
Dark blue tiles (which need to be sanitized daily) and cabinets that swing open without notice don't keep me from sharin' the love.

The food love, that is.

Christmas Eve only gets better with a cup of fresh coffee. Caffeine is not an issue when one is staying up late to wrap presents anyway. Think of it as a gift-wrapping stimulant.

We open one gift each before turning in for the night & dreaming sweet dreams. Visions of sugar-plums are nice, too. But we like gifts we can really use -like t-shirts that say funny things.

I am not sure how this photo came about, but a certain boy better have put my reading glasses BACK where he found them.

Grandma Jean basks in the glow of the Christmas tree. We love the fact that she lives downstairs; only a few descending steps away.

It as been a treat to celebrate such a special time in our new/old home. We look forward to many happy times here.

Merry Christmas to friends near & far!

the kitchen begins to take shape

This masked man did the awful deed.

He and one of his constant cohorts (Mr. Thomas Q.) ripped down the back kitchen wall yesterday.

In order to prepare for this major demo, they installed a temporary wall between the old kitchen and the new addition. This wall is well insulated, and will serve as a mud room of sorts as the new kitchen is installed. Also, this wall eliminates the need to heat the entire unfinished back wing of the house.

Smart thinking, says the Lady of the Manor -who is eager as a beaver to have a new kitchen.
Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas for the next 22 years, says the Lord of the Manor -who is covered in dust and only wants a fresh cup of coffee and a balanced checkbook.

His needs are so simple, while mine are complex because they involve reclaimed slate, an antique general store counter which serves as an island, and recessed shaker-style cabinetry which you can't buy at Home Depot or Lowes.

Oh. And a bay window over the kitchen sink so I can watch the fishies play in the river while I scrub pots and pans.

The far window is where the main sink will be. The fridge has a new home: it will be framed in.
To the right of the fridge will be a door leading into the screened porch.

Imagine that blue tiled peninsula at the bottom of the sea. It will not be lonely, as my camera awaits it there. Also imagine -in its place- the antique step-back cupboard that I found with the help of a good friend.


Here is the wall opposite the kitchen sink and river view. Under that rectangular window will be the baking center: reclaimed slate set a few inches lower than a standard countertop, easy for rolling cookies, shaping bread, and mixing by hand. Where the white garbage pail sits will be the double ovens. To the right of them will be a large yellow cupboard which will serve as a pantry.

Between the bucket & mop and the baking center will be the island. It will not be a tropical island, but other than that it will be perfect. It will also not have sand, which gets into everything. So in that way, it is better than a tropical island.

I get goofy and giddy when things are going my way.

Now I must put away the computer and pick up where I left off with that mop.
Cheers!

little happenings

Please disregard the clutter and focus on the candlelit mantel, please.

I have never been the possessor of a real fireplace before. The last two homes sported wood-stoves. Do not try displaying a candle near a wood-stove.

It's been tried.

Anyway, Hubby was triumphant this afternoon when we tested to new insert and IT WORKED.
We have had all sorts of trouble getting an updraft from the flue, which dictated a higher chimney pipe.

We were so very blessed to have a few extra hands on deck yesterday, so now we have the tallest, skinniest stove-pipe in town. I hope Santa has been following that low-fat diet Mrs. Claus has him on.The bridge crew is not satisfied with completing the bridge (it opened last Friday when I was out-of-town!). They insist on pulling into my temporary driveway and shooting straw all over the place.

Luke mouthed "Hi Nancy" as he held this hose like a machine gun and proceeded to make it snow hay.

Yesterday was the second of December and some crazy lady decided to take her kayak out for a spin. Up the river and past the railroad bridge....one last big hoo-rah before the Long Winter.

Now her kayak is sleeping in the barn, resting up for more water adventures in the spring.

all quiet for now...

I don't have the luxury of time this morning. But I wanted to post a few pics of the state of our surroundings. Here are a few scenes from yesterday.

Piles of stuff in the side yard. (above)

Workers scrambling to finish cement-work at the foot of the new bridge.

All this stuff was in my yard. Seriously. There is still more, but it wouldn't all fit.

Up the road. Notice the new stripes. Notice the lack of traffic.

Down the road towards the bridge.

This smiling face brings me much joy. We will sorely miss seeing Luke work his tail off from our kitchen windows.

The bridge will unceremoniously open late on Friday. I will not be here to witness it. Will I remember on Sunday to come across it? Or will I automatically take the detour without thinking?

I'll let you know!

a new idea

Today, Bill and his team are working on tearing off the old metal roof over the existing kitchen and prepping it for shingles. Bill also had the use of the construction crew's track-hoe. He used it to clear debris from the yard and move some very heavy items. (-like an old furnace, for example!)

We had our windows for the addition delivered. Also, Bill picked up our exterior doors. Soon they will be installed!

Yesterday, he brought home these windows from Merriman's. They were a special order that were never purchased, so Eric showed them to Bill with the hope that we would be interested in them.
We purchased them at a steep discount. They will be installed along the ceiling line in the family room. The chimney for the wood-stove will run up the center with the two sets of windows on either side. I think it will look great!

Ben was hoping for a single round window at the peak, but the wood-stove placement made that impossible.

Here is an outside shot to give an idea of where those windows will be: at the peak facing the river.

We like to go with the flow, as they say.

inside & out

Here is our old stone home. She doesn't let all the fuss & feathers around her disturb her peace.
Above Grandma Jean's front door and tucked under the pressure-treated wood that supports the front porch is a white marble plaque. It is engraved with the date 1843.

I was first thrilled and then puzzled at this discovery. I mean, this is not the type of town that has marble plaque over the doors. We are a humble bunch of dwellings.

As far as I can figure, ours is the only house with such a regal thing.

Then I ran across an interesting tidbit in an old Madrid newspaper that illumined me. Originally, the ground floor apartment was a stone-cutter's shop. Its main business was carving headstones. Many of the beautiful stones that grace the cemetery down the street were fashioned here. Fancy that!

One can assume that a stray piece of white marble was put into service as a date-marker.

Across the street, we have new sidewalks! I resisted the temptation to scrawl my name into the wet cement. If I had done so, I could claim I was merely carrying on the stone-cutter's tradition.

The Big Project, as I affectionately call it, is coming along nicely. Here, Bill and his brother John seem to be taking a you-tube break. Hey, whatever it takes to get them through the day, I say!

We have windows galore. Almost every one of them has a river view. But don't confuse that bright blue of the tarp in the yard for the river.

From the outside, one can get the bigger picture. These sunny and relatively warm November days have given the guys opportunity to finish shingling the roof!

-and I say YAY to that!

a stroll around the yard

These pictures were taken a mere ten minutes ago.

I wandered around our yard (I use the term "yard" rather loosely) with the camera to see what there was to see. Here is the mean machine that has been shaking my timbers all morning.

It is a veritable fire-breathing dragon.

Here is a member of the road crew. He is eating a hot dog. He is in need of a napkin.

Something about her expression tells me she doesn't want this picture of her eating hot dog to show up on the world-wide web.
From the front porch, I see this machine which is moving piles of dirt.

I see across the street towards the town dock.

I see my kayak perched on the bank of the town dock. It looks so cute there.


If it were warm enough to eat lunch on our zappy blue table, I would see this kind of stuff.

See the new bridge swathed in plastic? The plastic sheets are stretched over a wooden skeleton. Together, they keep the freshly-poured concrete from freezing. I call it The Greenhouse Effect.

Just a little more to the left, I see my side yard. Oh my goodness gracious dear me.
Can you understand WHY I chose not to rake this year?

Later today I may post some pics of the progress on the Big Project out back.

two teams at work

I will bet my bottom dollar that not everybody had this going on in their front yard today.

Or even some of this.

You see, we have a few projects going on simultaneously. One project is The Bridge and the other is The Road. On days like today, they cross paths.

-and when I say "cross paths", I mean literally. Both crew were crawling all over our corner of town this afternoon. They all brought stuff that made lots of noise. As a matter of fact, when my piano tuner showed up at the front door looking rather bewildered and ruffled, he was wearing these. Really, it was that loud.


Here, the paving guys are doing their thing. These curbs are pretty industrial.

From my front steps, I watched as this nifty ( and probably 60 ton) machine formed them. It was like those plastic squeeze things that you put play-dough into.

Way cool.