To Sum It Up

So this is where we are...

Foyer - warm and inviting!

A view from the foyer into the the living room - through beautiful french doors.

Another view from the Foyer into the living room.

Our Gorgeous Oak Stairs.

Our lovely dining room with a view into the living room.

A view from our dining room, through the living room and into the foyer.

Our living room.

Right now, "Open Concept" homes are all the rage. What I love about our house is it does feel very open but  it still has all of the charm and cozy feel of a country Victorian home.

I recently finished the floors. I love painted floors because they are so easy to maintain. This floor has a few coats of paint and a couple of layers of polyurethane to protect it from spills. The best part, if it gets scratched all I have to do is a little touch up here or there.

Finally Spring Air Has Given Me A Boost

MASTER BEDROOM

It’s come a long way from the dingy dwelling stuck in the 70’s - with its endless wallpaper and old carpet.  Not quite done yet.  Still needs a few coats of paint, a ceiling light fixture installed and window treatments… but you get the picture.

Coming along nicely.

Before picture - you can't really see from this photo but
the walls were entirely covered with  old wallpaper. 

NEW ATTIC WINDOW

At the end of summer I purchased a new, very large, window for our attic. The view from up there is spectacular: facing south, over the town and valley to the green hills in the distance. One day I hope to make the entire third floor into a master suite – but that will be quite an undertaking – adding a bathroom and bringing everything up to code, adding floor supports, etc. Until then, the attic will be mostly used for storage or a place for the children to hang out. But the old windows had to go… they were practically falling out on their own and allowing way too much heat loss.

Well, this past week I finally found someone to install them.

Now look at that view!

A view from our new attic window (5 food wide and 5 foot tall).
It will be much more beautiful in a few weeks when everything is green - but you get the picture.

I will need to add trim around the outside to match the existing trim, but progress has definitely been made.  (Can you believe this photo was taken on March 23^rd?)

Millerton - More Progress to Share

Good friends make everything better.

My dear friend Emi is truly a kindred spirit. Born and raised in Romania and 13 years my junior younger, it could seem an odd paring. One of the many things we both enjoy is painting (although she prefers oils). So when Emi offered to help me paint my upstairs landing I jumped at the chance - happily agreeing to supply the wine.

Painting is fun, but with a great friend, some wine and conversation, it's off the charts!  

             Here is a BEFORE photo.                           And here is an AFTER photo.

View from the bathroom when I bought the home.
Notice the "wood" paneling
and wall-to-wall carpet.

The same view but now the walls are painted,
the beautiful hardwood is exposed.

View from bedrooms toward bathroom - north facing.

I love the upstairs landing -- I know, odd thing to love about a house. But it's so expansive and the wood is beautiful. A ton of light flows from the south facing windows. I'm looking for just the right bench, to put where the trunk is, because it truly is the perfect spot to stop, relax and read a book (or have a glass of wine). :)

Our Dining Room

Before

In this first photo our Dining Room is how it looked when I purchased the home.  Among other things, the drop ceiling, florescent light fixture and outdated wallpaper had to go.

Dark Dining Room - the way I purchased it. Drop Ceiling, Old Wall Paper, Florescent Light Fixture over the table. 

During

In this photo you get an idea of what it took simply to remove what was there.  After the drop ceiling was removed the holes and cracks in the ceiling needed to be repaired.  Once the florescent light fixture was taken down, a professional electrician installed a new chandelier (removing the knob & tube electric in the process).  And once the wallpaper was stripped away, a new skim-coat of joint compound had to be put up, sanded and primed.

Demolished Dining Room - taking down the drop ceiling, light fixture and pulling off the old wall paper.

After

DONE! In this photo you see the results of my backbreaking work.  The ceiling is not yet finished, however, as there are a few places where I’m not yet satisfied with which need to be sanded and scraped and then painted. But, as you can see, my Dining Room has come a long way.

Finished Dining Room - curtains and all.  A few little spots here and there that I'm not 100% satisfied with but there will be time to deal with those later.

Bright and Warm Dining Room - VERY INVITING.

(And, yes, that is an open bottle of champagne on the edge of the table. After doing all the work myself, I certainly deserved.)

Lastly, I wanted to give you the names of the Behr colors I used (thanks to their fantastic website that allows you to put colors together - it's practically fool proof). The orange on the walls is called Caramelized Orange 250D-7 and the cream (which is a PERFECT CREAM if ever there was one) is called Vanilla Custard W-D-220. I highly recommend these warm tones.

FANTASTIC POTATOES!!! in FORTH OF JULY COLORS (almost)

Yesterday Morning it was a bit cool out (high 70's) so I decided to clean up my vegetable garden before the sun's heat set in (ended up reaching mid 90's).  

While cultivating with my glove-less fingers around my potato plants I struck gold. Well, gold in the form of Red, White and Purple Potatoes!  I was able to harvest enough to give some to friends. 

Red, White & Purple Potatoes (with a few pink ones and some lovely carrots)

Happy Independence Day to all. 

Millerton Gardening

Flowers

Some of my favorite flowers are the ones I grew up with like snap dragons, lupine, gaillardia, dahlias and foxglove.

In Southern California (the land of perfect weather) oddly enough, snap dragons are grown as annuals. This red beauty is not only a “volunteer” from my neighbor’s garden, but it wintered beautifully and now it’s doubled in size and the flowers are stunning.

Lavender lupine, purple heliotrope, nasturtium and stocks make a  great focal point.

Gaillardia.

This is the second year for my lovely lupine and gaillardia and now they are blooming profusely.  I have also planted dahlias, which must be removed and stored away in the winter.  The smaller variety works great in hanging baskets.

Yellow dahlia with lavender lobelia and red and green coleus. 

Pink dahlia with dark pink and white petunias.

My Vegetable Garden

How does your garden grow?

My brothers in California have very nice vegetable gardens but suffer from critters, like the notorious gopher, pests and dry warm weather in the inland areas or damp over-cast weather (causing mildew among other thing) which can damage crops.  And while Millerton might not have as long as growing season as Southern California, it has a strong one.  The recent summer rains and warm weather has made my vegetable garden grow leaps and bounds over what I use to grow in California.  And Millerton’s soil is so full of compost and related nutrients, it’s not necessary for me to fertilize.  The best part is I never have to water (although sometimes I do because that’s something I enjoy).  

My cucumbers are twining up the white birth branches nicely.  

In this area I have sugar snap peas, carrots, beans radish and brussels sprouts.

The potatoes are coming along nicely. No blooms yet but the plants are strong and healthy.

This doesn't look like much, but those skinny little things poking out of the ground are my asparagus. This is the first year and we should be able to start harvesting in 2-3 years.

Millerton - Things to do. (or not as this case may be)

A Cool and Quiet Place to Nap.

Nothing more needs to be said.

Millerton - Things to do

A Welcomed Watering-Hole Comes To Town.

After a fun Saturday in Manhattan this past weekend, we headed north.  As we were driving up to our home our neighbors invited us to tag along to a new restaurant and bar on Main Street called, 52 MAIN.  With our respective children in tow, we managed to spend a couple of hours socializing with locals, listening to live music and enjoying some delicious spirits.  

This tapas bar’s atmosphere was lively and more importantly, Millerton finally gets a fun spot to meet, drink and be merry. (http://www.52main.com/)

Unfortunately, we had just had dinner so we did not sample any of the items on their menu. A great reason to go back!!!

My Beautiful Garden.

I love gardening so much. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of time and patience and to be good… well, it’s an artful dance with your flora to keep the blooms coming all spring and summer long.

The tulips in early spring were magnificent.  But now, before removing the old leaves, it’s time to plant (that way you’ll know where to plant and not worry about digging up the bulbs).

The purple Clemants (Diana's Delight) was planted last weekend.

Purple Columbine

As you can see, my White Peony is delicious.

The purple Columbine is a show-stopper although I still love the wild Columbine in pink and yellow that grows everywhere.

Old Rhododendrons 

Iron Bunny

.

The Lupine, orange Nasturshims, heliotrope and Stocks are a bright spot to be enjoyed.

Lamb's Ear and Johnny-Jump-Ups

Enjoying the view

Digitalis (Fox Glove) and red Snap Dragons

I’m attempting to “color coordinate” the front of the house.  Eventually, hopefully, it will be rows of silver, white, purple and pink.  My Lamb's Ear is beautiful and so easy to divide. Same goes for the pink Anemone and Shasta Daisy. The Johnny-Jump-Ups reseed themselves nicely and actually “wintered” this year. As did the Digitalis (Fox Glove), the red Snap Dragons, and Chrysanthemums.  The pink Hydrangea I’m turning to blue – they had a rough start with a mild winter (they thought it was spring) and then a cold snap that froze may of their young and tender foliage.

Memorial Weekend = a very busy weekend….

Before the barbecues and parades, things needed to get done.  And with any vintage home the list is divided into: things that must be done, things that should be done, and things to do for fun.

Well this past Memorial Day weekend was glorious. So obviously, very few indoor “need to do” projects got done.

Last week I came across this photo in a magazine.  

I thought the floor was stunning and decided to recreate it.  The article reported the color as Valspar’s Liberty.  Unfortunately, Liberty is only sold at Lowes and Lowes is 45 minutes from Millerton and I didn’t have time to schlep to Kingston. So, I made a bold and courageous decision and found a color that somewhat matched.

The final product… I think it’s perfect! What is really amazing is that the color reflects off the white creating an intoxicating blue aura. Sadly I ran out of time and wasn't able to put the hammock up - but that's probably a good thing since napping on a warm spring day, near the Rhododendrons doesn't leave a lot of time for chores.  

 A lovely spot for a cup of coffee 

or a glass of wine in the evening.

More to come.... Next weekend I'm hoping to finish the trim in Pewter and then hang curtains to really put the porch over the top (and hopefully keep some of the mosquitoes at away).