I Gotta Headache!

OK people why didn't you tell me what a hassle selling a home is?  We did the "dress up" thing, we deodorized and presented with our most dazzling smile.  And it worked.  Contract in hand we enter the next phase.  The all consuming inspections. We have been poked and prodded and examined in our most private of places ( ladies you know what I mean!)  We have been air tested, water tested, soil tested, tested for bugs and handed many reports.  Funny how you live in a home for 28 years just fine and then you go to sell it and you have a list of things to fix. The new owner requires perfection of course! And of course this costs $$.  I thought the Farmhouse was the money pit! Oy Vey! But I shall not complain, I wanted this didn't I? Didn't I? Well...I'm not bored.

On to The Farmhouse.  Very busy week. We are now down one more very tall tree.

So happy to report no Farmhouses were hurt in this tree removal!

This beauty was just 30 inches from our bedroom window.  Hadda do it- it scared me.

Today the plumbers started the rough in work.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the building biz, this means pipes and stuff were laid.

More walls inside were done.

Good view of the openings.  Middle will house the fireplace.

See the new slider? I think I shall call this area the sun room.  I can't wait to cozy up on the sofa with a good book this winter.

We also had new hardwood installed where the old kitchen was.  The floor was too destroyed to refinish.

It is getting very exciting to see real progress.

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Amen!

Well the little Saint did it!

Hurray! Finally we have a contract on our house.  The last 48 hours have been stomach turning to say the least. While getting ready to sign one contract, we got a better offer and then had 2 contracts.  Crazy stuff! As we all know it ain't done until the check is in hand, but pending any inspection disasters, we have sold our home.Guess what? Now I'm sorta sad. It didn't seem real at first and I honestly thought we would never sell this house and would have to sell the Farmhouse. So... I drove down to the Farmhouse with my Siamese twin, Bella (always by my side) and had a look around.  Much progress has been made, but I am truly in love with my new neighborhood.  Look what I found next door.

And look how old it is:

I know I use the word charming quite a bit, but come on- how charming is this?

An old spring house surrounded by stone walls. Love it.

The Farmhouse has now been completely opened up and and most walls have been studded.  

This is the family room.  It's hard to see but the middle part will house a two-sided fireplace and on either sides are half walls going into the sitting area off of the front porch.

Another view.  To the right is another wall that has been opened up.  Not quite sure what this will be yet.

Second bathroom demo. Yucky stuff!

As Cliff likes to say, "We are getting ready for the trades."  This means electricians, plumbers and HVAC people and I'm told they work a heck of a lot faster than our guys.  I know, I know...good work takes time!

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well with the home inspections.

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History Lesson

Cliff and I went down to the Farmhouse to begin getting the old kitchen cabinets ready for re-painting.  We will be using them in the new mudroom.  They need to be sanded, primed and finally painted. We removed the hardware and I used a screw gun for the first time! It is a heck of a lot faster than a manual screw driver.  Who new? Probably most people:)  We are setting up in the Carriage House for this job.  While wiping down the cabinets I came across the name Ponselle written on one of the cabinets.  It got me thinking about my new neighborhood.  There is a lot of history in my new little corner of the world.

Our neighborhood was once part of the Pre-Civil War estate called New Stoneton.  A great mansion along with many outbuildings, farm land and that famous barn, named Nacerima (American backwards) made up the estate. Rumor has it that our Farmhouse belonged to a caretaker of the estate. In fact the previous owner of The Farmhouse had a great print of the estate with all of the buildings and gardens.  She strongly felt that the piece should stay with the house and offered it to us for a small sum. Ahem...$5500.00 to be exact! Sadly we had to turn her down, we have an old house that needs to be fixed up!

Our neighborhood was also home to the world renown opera star, Rosa Ponselle.  She was a star Soprano with the Metropolitan Opera.  Rosa owned Villa Pace, an Italian style mansion built in 1940 in the shape of a cross. Red tiled roof and stucco walls like those in Italy.  History states that many grand parties were held at Villa Pace and many famous musicians and actors visited Rosa. May I call her Rosa?  It is said that the two brick houses that are down the lane from us used to house her personal doctor and psychiatrist.  Rosa Ponselle past away in 1981. Why was her name on one of my cabinets?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Rosa Ponselle

My Neighbor

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Windows!

Today the new windows were installed. In keeping with the traditional Farmhouse look we chose double hung windows. They are Forest Green on the outside and white on the inside.

I like the way the green looks next to the green metal roof.

This is the new kitchen window over the sink.

Another gratuitous shot of Cliff pretending to wash his hands at the kitchen sink.

The stump from the big tree was finally ground up.

This is a lot of mulch! 

Bella thought the mulch pile was a good place to rest.  She comes with us every evening when we go down to check out the house.  She loves to run around and she always seems to find a tennis ball.

She met her new neighbor dog, Danny the other day and they really hit it off.  Danny lives in the big Barn House across the lane.  He gets walked by "the staff" and Bella is very impressed by that.  She just gets walked by her parents.

Hopefully Wes can grade the site this week now that the stump is gone and the weather has cleared up.

Still waiting for this house to sell! Come on St. Joseph - what are you doing down there???  We had a few bites but no contracts yet. Starting to feel REAL UNPOPULAR!

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A Breakthrough

The day finally came when they opened up the wall.  It was as exciting as when President Regan told Mr. Gorbachev , "Tear Down This Wall." Except in this case Cliff told Wes to tear down these walls and those walls and while your at it - tear out the old bathroom!

Things are really opened up and I finally can see what rooms will look like.  Guess what? I like it!  Yay!

I can now see where I will place furniture.

And if opening the walls wasn't exciting enough - we now have a real roof.

The cupola arrived yesterday and it is snug in its crate in Carriage House.

We had some visitors from the North come by to see the mess that is the Farmhouse.

I like when my friends humor us and act like it's perfectly normal to buy a 100 year old house, rip it apart and start all over again. I call it Good Humor.

Since I finished my Craigslist sales, I moved on to Consignment Sales. Cornerstone Antiques came and purchased our very traditional dining room set. Instead of consigning I sold it outright and got a nice little check that will come in handy when I start to decorate.  I learned an interesting fact from the moving guys.  Two television shows that film locally come to Cornerstone and rent furniture for their sets.  Seems that either VEEP or House Of Cards are looking for an oval pedestal table for the show and guess who has just that?

Me or I did before they trucked it away.  Anyway keep a look out for my table if you watch either of these shows.  Thanks for stopping by.

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

Things at The Farmhouse are moving a long...slowly.  I am inpatient and want to see things move along faster, but I have been reminded that good work takes time.  And I do want GOOD work.

The roof is now installed and today they worked on rake boards and fascia boards.  This is all hand done so of course it takes time.  We hope to have the roof shingles on by the end of the week.

The white stuff is the fascia and rake boards.  They are made of Azek which is a man made maintenance free material.

All of this roof stuff will look grand when we put this on top:

 I told you Cliff gets what he wants and he really wanted this cupola.  And I'll let you in on a little secret,

I wanted it too!

In other news I have completed my sales on Craigslist. My last customer hailed all the way from Denton, Maryland.  Jeff arrived with his buddy to purchase the old wood stove from the Farmhouse.  This thing weighed a ton ...literally!

I get a real sense of satisfaction from completing a CL deal without getting murdered.  Of course nothing ever goes totally smoothly and I did have a return from from one of my "customers".  Seems the gas stove I sold didn't work when they went to install it.  Being an upstanding citizen I returned his $50 and told him I didn't want the stove back.  

Now I have a little housekeeping to do.  Many of my readers - I can't believe I actually have readers!  And may I say Thank You? Thank You.  You have told me you are not able to post comments.  I have changed some settings and I believe that comments can be posted if you use Anonymous as your ID.  You can put your name in the comment part if you want to.  I would LOVE to see some comments, just so I know someone is reading.  Thanks for stopping by!