Big Country House » renovation

Interiors

rob — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:26:52 +0000

We’ve finally unpacked enough boxes to take a few interior shots of the house.

Here’s the kitchen, where we spend probably 80% of our waking hours. We bought the island legs for $20 each at a junk shop. They were porch posts from over 100 years ago, but sawed off and sanded down, they made great table legs. You can see Evie’s little area in the back right corner.

… and the dining room and living room…

… TV room…

… and the front porch, which faces out onto the river, across from an 1860’s lighthouse. We try to catch as many sunsets from here as possible.

Front of House – Before, During & After

rob — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:55:09 +0000

We’ve been insanely busy here, but I’m finally ready to post some new house photos. There were some monstrous, gnarled juniper bushes in front of the house, almost completely obscuring the views of the river. I took a chainsaw to them, and had a friend remove the two young maples, which were badly placed and only going to become a bigger problem over time.

Just this week, Malcolm (my father-in-law) dug out the entire front planting beds, which took several days. Earlier today, Malcolm and I planted about 20 plants along the front, which will fill in a little over time.

Next up, a small hedge along the top of the front beds.

Pics of the inside coming soon….

Kitchen Progress

rob — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:31:29 +0000

Here’s a sequence of the kitchen renovation—which is still unfinished. There was initially an add-on staircase down to the basement on the right, which took up a good chunk of the room needlessly. We also tore out all of the old cabinets, which were damaged and pretty useless. The one difficult decision was the old fireplace. The chimney had collapsed years ago, so it was unusable. After a lengthy debate, we decided to use the mantle and bricks elsewhere, and take it down. There’s going to be a pantry in its place.