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  Among other things, the drop ceiling, florescent light fixture and outdated wallpaper had to go.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!!!