But I'm starting to get excited!

Here is the bathtub we rescued from Magnolia and are installing in the full bath.

And here are the kitchen cabinets installed.  I'm finally believeing the kitchen is going to be fantastic!

A lot of progress is being made on the house (with the exception of the deleading problem), our spirits are up.

Here is the backside of the house: 

The white clapboards replaced the rotted original ones, and we added three new windows and three doors on this side.

The doors from inside:

Previously:

We took out the old rotting bay window (this is where the stove and hood will go), and added a window on the northside:

Previously:

 And the deleading, which S is doing himself every Sunday:

They say you aren't really a homeowner until things begin to go terribly wrong.  Buying a house built in 1760 we were prepared for a myriad of unexpected problems. 

The day after the closing twelve trees went down in the yard from a big winter storm with gusts up to 80 mph.  Then the contractor decided the roof needs to be replaced, something we thought we had a few years to worry about. The clapboards are rotted.  And all the windows need upgrading. This on top of what we knew: Update electrical, insulate in places (the house is completely free of insulation), delead*, install new heating system (a great opportunity to save on energy!), two new bathrooms, one new kitchen, & all the plumbing this entails.

I'm proud to say we were taking it all in stride.

Until today when I learned our home owners insurance dropped us.  And then the deleading estimate came in at $75,000*. 

Our local insurance agent didn't seem optimistic about writing us a policy, he's getting back to me.  As for the lead, Mass Housing offers low interest loans to Get The Lead Out if you qualify.  So I phoned them, who sent me to Action Energy, who sent me to Action Inc., who said I needed to speak with Stella who is only available on Thursdays. The thing is, if your child tests high for lead and you have a court order to delead your house the loan is 0% and "eligible borrowers may not have to repay the loan until they sell or refinance their home".  But if you delead for preventive reasons the loan is 3-5%.  Legally the house must be deleaded. What?

The trouble is it comes in 190 different colours, and he said I had to choose.    

Knowing our kitchen concept is white, stainless steel, natural wood, and soapstone this tear had me convinced:

Boston Magazine Home Spring 2010

RAL 2009 Verkeersoranje it is.

Colour your stove here:

Blue Star colour configurator We'll be looking at a traffic orange stove for the next 40 years (G-d willing).

Former Kitchen, Low Ceiling

The good folk at Geoffrey Richon took one look at the drop ceiling in the former kitchen, soon to be studio, of our new house and suggested skylights and an open ceiling.  I had no vision for this room, frankly it just depressed me rendering me uninspired.

New Studio, Peaked CeilingUntil I came in and saw the demolition and suddenly things came together in my mind, with the help of this reference from Brita over at Things I Like To Look At.

It won't be exactly of course, but this image gives me hope, that we can take something destroyed and make it cozy and warm—a place to create.

Sail boats from Bickford's Marina across from my workplace.  The marina was forced to close this summer, and we have been watching the slow clean up of the site over the last six months.  Boats have been relocated, a gas tank excavated, and cranes swing about hauling mysterious detritus into battered trucks.  What remains is elegant and spare.

I looked at an apartment here at the Beacon Marine Basin a few years ago, it featured porthole windows and a slip for a 14 foot vessel.

I didn't take it . . .

. . . I ended up here instead.