Think Spring

Has February really come and gone that quickly?  Is that even possible?  I'm ready for the cold and wet weather to transform into beautiful spring days, to be sure, but it seems like only yesterday that we had the new chimney liner installed.... and that was over a month ago.

So, I suppose, if I were to look at the February in coastal Virginia in the most positive light, I'd be able to acknowledge that the cold, wet (did I mention wet) weather has afforded us lots of opportunities to build fires in the wood stoves. 

Yes, I said wood stoves (plural) because we (STILL) have not finished the old farmhouse rehab sufficiently to actually move in.  Nevertheless, I work every day from my office there, so being able to build a fire in the wood stove downstairs makes the whole work from home thing just a little more cozy.  And, of course, we have to keep the wood stove in the garage going, since we still live in the apartment above.  We are burning right through all of the wood.....

We are making some interesting purchases on Craigslist and that is always fun.  We are shopping for specific furniture that will work in some of the challenging spaces in our house.  Last November we happened on a listing that offered what looked to be a pretty good deal on some old bedroom furniture.  Once we owned the furniture, I became interested in its history.  I discovered through some exhaustive searching, a site where volunteer experts help people like me get an idea of the age and construction of their vintage furniture.  It turns out that the bedroom set we purchased is about 90 years old and in pretty decent condition for its age.  It is considered 1920s colonial revival set made of tulip poplar, sweet gum and maple.

We made a really LONG trip, sitting for HOURS in traffic, to get exactly the right sized sleeper chairs from a woman who just so happens to live 45 miles away....over bridges, through tunnels, over more bridges..over terrible roads filled with potholes, stopped on the bridge for an hour while the VDOT workers picked up their cones and such (they were apparently repairing the crazy potholes).

And, when we FINALLY arrived at the seller's home (by this time nightfall had long fallen), the seller welcomed us and took us upstairs to show us the two sleepers....  Well, it took another hour or so to get those two over sized chairs down the rather narrow three sets of  stairs, and into the van.  Yes, they are RED.  Yes, they look HOT PINK in the pictures, and YES, they fit into the spaces where we need them.

We stopped for a late supper on our way home and FINALLY arrived home a little after midnight.  We'd left the house at about 5PM.

We are definitely being hampered by the inclement weather.  Right now Joe is in the process of building a "sled."  The sled will be used to hoist some VERY HEAVY pieces of furniture up the fire escape stairs to the second story.  His plan involves a sled, a pulley, a tractor and some rope.... and MY plan includes crossing my fingers, holding my breath and trying not to look ...  Of course, we'll have to wait until the rain stops for a minute or two before we can put our plans into action.

On the, "they are having more fun than I am" list for late January - February were:
1. My brother and sister-in-law, and four of my grown nephews and nieces flew out to San Diego, CA to visit with another of my brothers and his family. Two of my brothers and four of my nieces ran a half marathon in Carlsbad, CA (and enjoyed a fun week visiting -- we on the east coast don't get to see those on the west coast NEARLY enough!)

2. My daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter are currently in Hawaii... yes, it's for work, BUT.....  (just sayin')

3. My nephew and his wife celebrated their FOURTH anniversary by flying from their snowy Kansas City, MO home to sunny Orlando, FL to run in the Princess half marathon.

On the, "oh, I've been there and done that, and I'm really excited for you, BUT, " list are:

1. My little brother and his girlfriend bought their first home (end of December) and are
"enjoying" all of the fun of fixing it up to be just the perfect house for them....

2. My niece bought HER first house and is, likewise, putting her mark on it (LITERALLY) and is in the process of tearing out walls....

Nevertheless, we have the cold and the rain, and maybe even snow next week (are you kidding me???) and MAYBE sometime in between all of this exciting weather, Joe and I will be able to haul some very heavy furniture up to the second story of the old farmhouse!

Meanwhile, we are waiting for SPRING!

Familiar Tunes and Chimney Liners

I've been enjoying the presents I received from family this Christmas.  I've been wearing the sweater my sister gave me and the scarf my mom made me (OK, she gave it to me ummm two or three Christmases ago, but I just rediscovered it -- living out of bags and boxes for three years results in gifts being packed back to keep them "safe" in the construction zone.)  I'm looking forward to using the gifts of pictures and wall decor in the old farmhouse, once we actually are ready to start that phase. I'm looking forward to hanging the calendar my niece made me, once I am really moved in. I've been making and savoring yogurt using the yogurt maker from my daughter. And the various gifts of lovely smelling soaps and lotions help keep my skin from driving me crazy in the cold weather.

As in years past, the best gifts I received this year, were the gifts of spending time with family.  It gets harder as everyone gets older and our children marry and have children of their own. Jobs and loves take them to different parts of the country and so, getting together is always a real treat, if even for only a few hours.

My brother Tim was able to stay the night at our place on his way up from Florida to visit with the rest of the family in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  He arrived around 10PM and we talked and visited until 3AM, before we left him to get some sleep in the new guestroom in the old farmhouse. 

While we visited, he presented me with his present to me.  It was a USB flash drive onto which he had transferred many of the records...the vinyl kind....the ones with which we grew up.  It seems that last year, when he was visiting Dad and Lynne last year, he'd returned to Florida armed with the majority of their record collection, and spent the year transferring those vinyl classics to digital format.  Then, for all of his siblings, he made copies of those familiar tunes...scratches, skips, the whole nine yards.  A most amazing gift!

About two weeks ago we FINALLY got high speed Internet.  Seriously....out here in the sticks we actually got real, honest to goodness cable Internet service.  And yes, we signed up as soon as we could, having salivated for months as we watched the crews installing the infrastructure to support the service.

As soon as the new Internet service was installed, I moved into my "winter office" as I am calling it.  Never mind that it is the closet of the new master bedroom in the old farmhouse.  It has electricity, great access to the tea pot (in the mini kitchenette we included in our redesign) and access to the new "restroom."  Who could ask for more?   So while we may not yet be living in the results of our last three years of labor, at least I am working there.  My commute has changed from ten feet to about one hundred feet per day.  I think that's OK.

The other day, while I was working in my winter office, I decided to pop in the USB flash drive and sample some of the songs from those childhood days.  The Brother Four, The Kingston Trio, Burl Ives and others reminded me of hours and hours spent in the living room of our Bowie, Maryland home, working on my stamp albums, or playing Monopoly or Go Fish with my brothers and sister.  I was flooded with memories of singing those same songs as we made our annual trek from Maryland to New Bedford, Massachusetts for our family vacation at our beloved "Pond House," six kids, sometimes a dog, and a monkey, and two parents....well, Mom really didn't sing, but the rest of us did.

And as I sat in my office and sang along to the songs, the words of which I thought I'd long forgotten, I marveled at how much my children and the generations thereafter will have missed, never having to endure the record skips, the scratchy "texture" of the music, and trying to learn the words, as one sibling raised and lowered the needle to the vinyl as another scribed the words, and the rest of the gang argued about what the singer was REALLY singing.  Yes, we learned a lot of lyrics that way.... and to this day, and am still amazed when I discover that the words were really, "The Boys of Summer" and not "The Poison Summer" (actually, that was NOT my misunderstanding, but Joe's, however it serves the purpose of demonstration) and other such carefully "scribed" errors.  No, now the lyrics are readily available for all of the songs, and though the singers' diction has not improved over the years, the quality of the recording far surpasses those old 45's and LP's of yesteryear.

Between the fun with family, work and enjoying the Christmas presents, Joe and I have made a little more headway on the old farm house.  We redid the upstairs shower/tub fixture installation, as the fixture was broken before the original installation.... the shower fixture folks sent all new parts, BUT, we had to do the repair.

Joe finished up the kitchenette and the master bathroom linen closet.

 

We replaced damaged mirror doors in the downstairs bathroom closet, and recycled the damaged doors, using them as full mirrors in the master bathroom.

The day before yesterday we installed new chimney liner, which was a big deal.

I think we still only need to put gutters on the new addition before we can call it a wrap...well, except we are STILL in the process of sanding, patching, painting, trim, installing shelves in closets, etc., etc., etc.  is it ever really complete?