Memorial Day Progress

This weekend saw some more progress on things at 38 Lessey Street. Baird & I got the second and third coats of Poly on the living room, dining room and hallway floors. Baird mowed the lawn and took care of some more wiring issues. I planted lots more plants and got the stream/waterfall/pond area mostly dug out. It was a hot job as it was in the high 80's.

This week we will make a big push on the kitchen and see how far we can get... and we'll get the bedroom and my study area finished up.

The big move is Friday & Saturday!

Lessey Street here we come!

Oh...and we have another showing of the Shutesbury house tomorrow, Tuesday, afternoon.

Closing In on Moving Day

Moving Day is one week away now! We are closing in on the final renovations. French atrium doors are installed (still to be trimmed out). The major interior painting is basically done. Brett put the new "lvl" beam in the attic so that we could open up about 5' of wall between the living room and kitchen (it will be a counter/penninsula with no wall above). The kitchen is the only big thing still in process & Glen is beginning to install the counter underlayment. The slate tiles are to be installed this coming week. The floor sanding is done and Glen and I put the first coat of Poly on today. I will do 2 more coats over the weekend. What a difference cleaned up shiny floors make! I have also put in about 150 plants (almost all culled from the Shutesbury gardens)

Lessy St: Week 3 Progress - part 1

Here are some photos from the past week. The interior is mostly all painted now. The kitchen is still very much in process. The floors are being sanded as I type. I have begun planting outside (after 3 weeks of rain). So, take a gander; let me know what ya think! It will look much better with furniture and art but you will get a sense of the changes.


Beginning to plant in back yard. You can also see just the bottom branches of the huge trees out back that separate our yard from the elderly & disabled housing.

Master Bedroom - bird's egg blue wih linen white trim.

Chimney & fireplace getting painted out -linen white to match trim.

Lessey St: Week 3 Progress

Dining room corner - soft pumpkin, mexicana and linen white trim.
Bairds' studio room - stem green walls, linen white trim including 2 walls of bookcases, with retro fabric accents. Stay tuned!
New atrium doors on breezeway: one set out front & one set in rear of house.

Mum's Day '06

Today was Mum's Day '06..... my # 23 mother's day...whoa!

Our pastor Sarah and hubby Andrew announced today that this is her mum's day #1..... yup... baby due in Jan '07. Cool. Never had a pregnant pastor before, lol!

I had a most enjoyable day. Lunch with the fam. at the Jet and Beno's. Jess made yummy home made chicken / rice soup, served with Black Sheep's sour dough bread, wine and Aaron's special peanutbutter/choc chip brownies with ice cream and whipped cream. Yum! Got fun BeDe cards from the offspring & son-in-law saying they will deliver Shute-ho rocks to Lessey St. Yeah!! Can't get those Shute-ho rocks easily once we've vacated the hill top house. Also Jet took me to the store to pick out 4 adirondak chairs, from her and Ben and Aaron, for my new yard. We chose the red ones!

Later Baird and Aaron and I went to NoHo to see Free Spirits ...a locally produced documentary film about the large and renown commune that was in Franklin County for 20 years (late 70's to late 90's). Very interesting and well done.

Tomorrow....back to painting and such at Lessey Street. I think Brett & Glen are both planning to be there as well. Should be a good, albeit another wet, day. This rain is crap...7 days so far I think...flood warnings around too. And, I saw "chance of rain" is in the forecast each day for yet another week!! Quite depressing actually.

Oh... I posted the Shutesbury house on Craig's List and other spots this weekend. Baird got a web page with pics started too.
Check it out at:
http://nyc33.com/beautifulshutesbury/

Hope that helps.

Week 2 at Lessey

I have not taken new house pics in a few days b/c it has been so rainy and crappy...but I will catch up soon.

Here's some pics of today's ending adventure: after 9 hours of painting I went to my car and found I had a flat tire. BUT, thx to AAA and a nice tow truck driver named Matt, it was changed, repaired and re-installed in about and hour, while Baird and I ate at the Thai restaurant up the street from our house.

This week several of the rooms got some painting at least started. The 2 new closets are all framed and partly sheetrocked. The larger bathroom now has a plywood floor (one day to be tiled), the breezeway has 2 sets of french doors (one is operational so far) and the kitchen rehab has begun. Ben and Brett and Glen spent a lot of time working there this week, along with me of course. Baird spent quite a bit of time trouble shooting some wiring issues. Aaron was able to come today to mud sheetrock and my friend Polly came today and washed tons of woodwork for me so I can now paint it.

More pics to come soon!

Lessey St Days 3-8

So much had been going on at the new house that I have not even had time to download pics and blog about it all.
All the carpet is out, all the wall paper is off and the tile floors in the kitchen and smaller bathroom are exposed. The larger bathroom has been gutted down to the plaster walls and its overhaul is about to begin. The doors on either end of the breezeway are out and the new French doors will go in this week. The kitchen renovation: opening of walls, moving doorways & cabinets a bit & installing new slate counters, has hit a bit of a slow down b/c the load bearing walls are not quite as we expected. This means we need to come up with revised plans for the building inspector. Not something I am looking forward to doing.

Aaron, Ben and Brett went to the Boston area to pick up a claw foot tub, huge Kitchen Aid refrigerator and a couch. The trip went basically OK but the fridge is incredibly heavy and huge (as well as top heavy). The trip took longer than expected (they arrived back in Amherst after 1AM and I got them back to their respective homes after 2AM). The evening included a few other hassles that shall remain unspecified here but...... anyway....... thankfully they made it back safely and the "treasures" are now in the garage.

I have painted some of the dining room, all of Baird's studio walls and two of the living room walls. It is really exciting seeing the color go on and the space transform. The old wallpaper & bland white paint is rapidly disappearing.

We are most thankful for all the help from our kids: Aaron, Jess and Ben, as well as our friends Sarah, Cheryl, Julian, Brett, Josh, Carrie, Glen and Chris.

There is still quite a long way to go but a lot has happened in one week!

Days 1 & 2 at Lessey St.

We closed on the Lessey St house yesterday, May 1!! Soon after that we dragged our tools into the house and began the work. The biggest thing we did was tear out the old carpets. That was gross but it was great to get our hands on the place.

May 1, Day 1: several people stopped by for a quick house tour or visit: Mindy. Lee, Chris, Josh, Glen, Brett, Ben, Jess and Aaron.
Jess stayed a little while and helped me get a big book case out of the bedroom.

May 2, Day 2: I jumped into the work at about 1PM and was joined by Chris and Ben. Then Aaron and Julian showed up followed by Cheryl and Sarah and Baird. We made a lot more messes today..began some bathroom demo, got about 1/3 of the wallpaper off, took down all the window treatments, discovered old mosaic tiles under the kitchen linoleum and cleaned most of it off and a bunch of other smaller things.

Back at it in the AM. Chris is meeting me there. Ben , Aaron & Brett are taking a UHaul to Boston tomorrow eve to pick up the fridge, claw foot tub and a couch. Who knows what else will transpire???

What a week this is going to be!

Oh yeah...and there was another showing of the Shutesbury house today and an open house is scheduled for Sunday!