Barn Windows & French Doors!

MyOhMy! It's been a big couple of days here at the house!

Yesterday the barn windows finally arrived! We were told they would take 3-4 weeks, they took 6. And, the order was delivered sans one set of windows which somehow didn't get ordered.... the Marvin people took full responsibility for the oversight, but that still means I'm three weeks (at least) out on one window.....arrrhhh.

And.....drum-roll please, our magic painter has arrived to paint the exterior of the house. For the two plus years since we first laid eyes this house I had always said the first thing I would do after buying the house was to power wash the front porch..... I did not... so many things (like a six month renovation, winter, an ice storm, unpacking 200-plus boxes, etc.) got in the way. It just never happened, until yesterday!! I cried.
The magic painter works by himself (with occasional help from a worker-bee.) Yesterday the magic painter did the work of three men! He is the nicest person, and has a "no-problem" attitude to any request! Our house is covered with shingles, and he's power washing and hand-scraping as prep. The house is currently a light yellow with a red barn, and will become a classic white New England farmhouse with a grey barn.

Here are some photos of all the progress. Some are very scary and you might need to cover your eyes... I did!!



WooHoo! Window delivery!

This is the north side/the garage side of the the barn. The first cut out for one set of windows

Second cut out was cut open before we realized the missing set of windows...arrhhh, again.

I have loved two-over-two windows for years! (I have saved images of them from magazines and longed for the day I could have some of my own!)

Here's a better angle for perspective of the north side of the barn. The new shingles show where an old window and door was patched in.

The first french door was installed yesterday! So exciting! Again I cried.
Several years ago (fyi- we have only owned the house for 11 months now, but first found it over two years ago) when I first walked into the barn I started gesturing with my arms saying "there will be a french door here, and another one here, and windows here..." and to see it actually come true is a crazy, amazing feeling!

This mornings activities involved installing the second french door.
Note: there is a 1o foot drop under the opening for the second french door!! Eventually the existing stone wall (where the guys are standing) will be moved to the corner of the barn/garage wall, and there will be a gravel terrace off of the barn room/french doors (can you see me gesturing with my hands again?!) Maybe we should have done that first?!!
In this photo the guys are loading the french door onto Big Blue (the tractor) to transport over to the opening. See how you can barely see Big Blue 10' over the edge. This is where the scary started!


View from inside the barn room. Eventually there will be a stone fireplace between the two doors.... eventually!

The french doors being placed on the forks of the tractor.

Down she goes.

In this photo Dan is raising our two framers and the french door over and up to the opening...

They are now suspended 10' off the ground. Directions: UP/DOWN/STOP/NO are being yelled over the noise of the tractor! It was fun!

This is as close as Big Blue could reach the opening. Close, but not close enough...

This is where my heart skipped a beat, as the 350 lb. french door is being held up by one framer, while the other ran to get the magic painter for an extra set of hands. I offered to help at this point, but it appeared I wasn't needed! I think they realized what an important job I was already doing by taking the photos!;)

The framer on the outside and the two guys in had to manually lift the door the last 6-8". The inside guys only had the hinges to lift on.... I had to look away at this point!

Almost there....

And it's in!!!

French door being leveled and nailed into place. (sorry about the angle of the photo, I was a little shaky at this point!)

Ta-da!!

This photo shows the stone wall that will be moved to the far right edge of the barn/garage wall, and the drop they were working with. (As you will recall the two small windows above the french doors are in the master bedroom closet.)
Both doors in!!
Another perspective photo. The two windows to the left of the closet windows are the master bath, and then the rest of the east side of the second story (with the porch) is the master bedroom.
Let the painting-prep begin!!
The shingles being scraped.
That's a lot of ladders for one painter, don't you think?! One of the most thrilling parts of all of this paint prep is that my exterior windows are finally getting washed.... with the storm windows on we couldn't access the glass to wash it and I'm a clean window fanatic!

A big couple of days I tell ya!!

[You can click HERE to see the interior framing of the barn room, if interested!]

it's a charmer

I have always wanted a chaise, and the thought of a chaise next to the master bedroom fireplace sounded perfect!

I was thrilled to find this charmer at an antiques shop in Massachusetts several weeks ago. It is currently covered in a green velvet, and will again be recovered in velvet, just in a different color... think the antique ginger jar behind it in the next photo- I want a turquoise with a lot of brown in it for a pop of color in the room! The room will be done in natural linen, light creams, greys, browns, with a hint of turquoise accents. You can see the colors in the pillows I will use in the room here. The chaise fits perfectly in the room as the flat screen sits (just barely!) in an antique French commode we found in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, and you can still see over the chaise to view the television from bed.

As you can see in these photos, the master bedroom is in the thick of it's design. (you can even see the towels under the French commode that we used to move it around the room! still haven't taken those out!) After months of working on the plan I am at the challenging point of bringing it all together in the room! I am currently at the leg-work portion where I am running all over three states trying to find things like the perfect shade of cotton/silk velvet for the chaise, the linen for the barrel chair. I no longer have all my old stand-by fabric resources just across town as I did in Dallas, so this "hunt" is turning out to be very time consuming. Yesterday I went 45 minutes west to look at fabric, then home, then 45 minutes east to look at another shop. I thought I had found the velvet for the chaise, but when I got the sample home it read blue instead of turquoise.

The hunt continues.

Several other things to be done in the room (besides the obvious BED, headboard and bed skirt, bed linens, etc!) is to install the piece of antique marble we found at Nor'East Architectural Antiques, and had cut to fit the fireplace surround. As you will recall we added this fireplace and the antique mantel here when we enlarged the original master bedroom.

Artwork and mirrors have yet to be hung. Linen curtains will grace the windows... one day. The wonderful desk shown here is to the right of the barrel chair, and out of the photo.

Still so much to do!

"look where we live..."

is something that is said by either Dan, or myself on almost a daily basis!

We feel very grateful that our leap-of-faith-move landed us in such a beautiful part of the world.

It was said, again, today.... as we walked up to these beautiful falls. This gorgeous sight is a mere 20-minute casual walk (probably a little over a mile away) off on a trail from a road we walk several times a week.

Ever since we've moved into our house people have asked if we've been to the falls, and the answer has always been no... until today when we set off to find it.

I grew up going to the Tetons in Wyoming and Glacier National Park in Montana. When we lived in Dallas, Dan and I would travel many times each year to Colorado and beyond just to get our mountain and nature fix.




That this wonderment is, basically, in our own backyard is sometimes hard to believe!

in progress...

before:

chandelier in the basement being waxed:

And while we're in the basement, here is a shot of our Buderus propane-fueled boiler. This unit heats the water for our heating system in the house, and the radiant heat in the garage floor. In the background of the third photo you see our tankless Rinnai water heater. We don't worry about running out of hot water as our plumbers installed this same single unit in a laundromat that had 22 washing machines!


Oh, and by the way........

in case you were wondering.... Ella loves the tractor!

(What you don't see in this photo is Dan eating lunch on the tractor.... shrimp salad on an ironstone plate, water in a glass, and a cloth napkin.... we're fancy farm people!! Actually, I just couldn't get him to come in for lunch, so I took it to him!)

Brimfield or bust...

We made Brimfield yesterday, and all I can say is Oh My Head!! To say Brimfield is a 'big' show, is the understatement of the year.
It is Huge... period. And overwhelming! Brimfield would qualify as the Olympics of antiquing! The fields (field upon field, upon field) had opened on Tuesday, and two shows and one field started on Wednesday (the day we were there), and then more shows were opening today. (The "shows" are also in fields, they are just enclosed and you have to pay admission to get in to those areas.)

We made fast time, often perusing merchandise from the isle without going into a space. Dan and I shop quickly, and don't waste time, as you see more ground that way and don't loose your momentum. We are a good team; if one person misses something the other person generally spots it.
I do not buy to buy. I've been known to go to Round Top and not purchase a single item. I never buy something unless I absolutely love it. So, that being said, my goal was to just experience Brimfield and learn our way around. I really had no expectations to find anything (mainly because I don't "need" anything), and because the only thing I'm really looking for at the moment is my kitchen chandelier. For my perfect chandelier I had in mind a general size, a feel: I was thinking antique French, iron, graceful lines...., but since I want something old I had to "be open" to what finds me!! Well, I'm happy to say that the chandelier found us!!

It is a hand-turned, hand-carved wood (walnut- not the iron I had thought I wanted, but I think in the end it will be a better fit for our farmhouse), antique French chandelier (when we took the piece apart to start the renovation we found French writing on the underside of the base). The scale is perfect- it is large at 31" diameter, and has the fluid lines I was looking for. So... at the end of the day at Brimfield I purchased my elusive kitchen dining chandelier and two linen dish towels.... perfect!



photos:

Once again, you're going to have to "trust me" on this one.... I promise it's going to be gorgeous! Really, I promise!! As is our method of operation we always find antiques in need of some "love." In this 'as found' photo the stem is separate from the body of the chandelier, and the small ceiling cap and chain will be changed out. We just happened to have a ceiling cap in our surplus that will be perfect. The fixture will be cleaned, waxed, rewired, and have hand-dripped wax sleeves.

loved these orbs made from old farm implement discs













 

the quintessential shop-dog

We love going into an antiques shop and finding a shop-dog!!
And this one pretty much takes the cake! This is Stella, and we saw her in a shop in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Be sure to note the pearls and the painted red nails!!

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday weekend!