DIY Workbench

Todd’s impressing me with his motivation and DIY prowess. He spent much of last weekend in our basement putting together a workbench from scratch. I didn’t know it until now, but he spent many weekends in his twenties at Habitat for Humanity hammering nails and whatnot (whatnot in this case means picking up girls. Apparently Habitat is a great place to meet chicks), and it prepared him for DIY projects.

The workbench still has a few finishing touches to go: he still needs to attach the shelf that will go on the bottom level, for instance (that’s the board under the table that you can see in the photo). I’m thrilled because I need some shelves in our kitchen for all my cookbooks, everyone needs bedside tables, and I’m sure there will be a million and a half other projects in the near future, too.

 

The workbench

Tags: Country House, DIY

Inaugural Poconos Snow Storm

We were treated to a freak October snow storm this weekend and got a sneak preview of just how pretty our new home will look in the coming months. The cold and snow were short lived, but we enjoyed almost all of it (I’ll admit to not enjoying the dicey car ride home from the lodge on Saturday afternoon. Luckily it was a very short distance).

I love giving the kids a place to really enjoy being outside. They had never eaten snow before this weekend! I guess when you grow up in New York City — where the snow quickly turns yellow (thanks, dogs!) or gray (thanks, taxis!) — it isn’t all that appetizing. It’s exciting to see them exploring this new realm.

This photo of our deck shows the accumulation pretty well. All told we got almost eight inches.

This picture was taken from our living room, looking out into our front yard and driveway.

It was great to see the kids get outside and play. Sofia tired of the snowball fight game very quickly (tears ensued), but I think they loved having so much snow to goof around in.

It was a winter wonderland! The neighborhood looked gorgeous (from the warmth of indoors) for about 24 hours.

The sun came out in earnest on Sunday and by the time we left around 5:00 patches of grass were already peaking through where all the snow had (rapidly) melted.

Tags: Country House

At Home

I started At Home: A Short History of Private Life right after we closed on our house. It just seemed like the perfect thing to be reading in our own new home. And, frankly, we have this book in hardcover, and it’s just too big for me to want to carry on the subway (I bought this for Todd as a Christmas gift when it first comes out because he’s a big Bryson fan; I have a terrible habit of buying books for Todd and then reading them before he does).

I had never ready anything by Bill Bryson before. Not A Short History of Nearly Everything, which we have at home on our shelves, not A Walk In The Woods, which countless people have told me is a wonderful read. So I went in a little blind but curious about the history of homes just as I was settling into the first home we owned.

The book started out just as I expected. Bryson — after an introduction about his own home, which serves as the map we follow through the book — launches into the history of the hall. After that, things get a little more tangential. Each tangent makes sense as you ride the wave of Bryson’s thinking, though at the end of each chapter it’s hard to remember just how you got from point A to point B. Throughout the book, Bryson riffs on the Crystal Palace at the 1851 Great Exhibition, sex in historical England, cremation, how fashion has actually killed people (mostly women), the cotton gin, and much, much more. In the end the tangents are the book, and Bryson’s writing is so good, his wit so sharp, and his observations so wonderful, that he can write about anything he wants and I’ll want to read it.

Tags: Nonfiction

Gaining a Room

One of our biggest accomplishments last weekend was bringing a table up to the house to put in our screened-in porch. It’s acutally a pretty nice table and not meant to be a picnic table at all. But it’s way too big for our apartment, and rather than having an extra table that doesn’t fit anywhere and buying a new picnic table, we decided to put this one on the deck. We know we’ll sacrifice some of the finish as the elements get to it, but we’re resigned to that.

In the meantime, we’ve been dining with Al (that would be our friend, Al Fresco) as much as possible this weekend. We got lucky with the weather for the last few days — it’s been beautiful and will likely be one of the last weekends so sunny and warm. So we’re taking advantage of what feels like the addition of another room to our house for as long as possible.

Tags: Country House

Goofy Eco Car

One of our Poconos acquaintances said that he knew which house was ours because of the “goofy eco car” in the driveway. While I actually sort of love that description and reputation, our Honda is not particularly special. At least, that’s true in the city where compact cars abound. Out here in the country, SUVs and trucks are a more favored mode of transportation, leaving us definitely on the smaller side of things.

On Sunday, Todd and I were doing some sight-seeing driving. Out on some back road, we hit a major pothole. At just that moment, a truck was hogging the road in the other direction (even drifting over into our lane) so our options were to go off the shoulder or deep into the pothole that time forgot. We hit the pothole, got a flat tire, pretended all was fine for another hundred yards or so, and then finally pulled over with a sigh of resignation.

We happened to pull over in front of one of the few houses we’d seen on this road, and the guy who lived there was super nice (as we’ve found most people out here to be). He helped Todd put our donut on the car and throw our popped tire in the truck (I stood by playing the damsel in distress role flawlessly).

We discovered quickly that nothing, and I mean nothing, tire related is open in our area on a Sunday. I told my boss the story and worked from home yesterday, thinking we’d have a new tire early on Monday. There are five tire places within 45 minutes, after all. Of course, thing don’t always go as smoothly as planned. This is where our goofy eco car comes in: our tire wasn’t in stock anywhere. Everyone mentioned how our car needed a smaller size than they had in stock. So we had to special order it, and are hoping today to finally stop driving around on the silly looking donut. Todd — who is a speed demon behind the wheel — can’t wait to get it fixed because there is nothing he hates more than going slowly.

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well today!

Tags: Car

5K Someday

After a lovely weekend with Rena, Tina, and Laura — in which we stuffed ourselves with gorgonzola bread, walked clear from the east side of Manhattan to the west side to get cupcakes, queued for piles of fried chicken, and braved a downpour for big gay ice cream — it is time to get back to something resembling a healthy lifestyle. I went for a run again this morning, and while I still totally suck at running, I can honestly say now that I suck less than I did a few months ago. That’s a modest victory to be sure, but it’s a start.

It’s hard for me to drag myself out of bed for these bouts of fitness (especially since it’s still dark when I get up these days), but once I’m in Riverside Park I feel a kinship with the other runners. They are probably secretly laughing at my tomato-red face and my huffing and puffing, but I don’t care. I feel like I’m part of a society of NYC joggers. Maybe some day I’ll look as thin as the rest of them in their little shorts. It’s miles to go before that happens, but I’m glad I’m out there.

Tags: Exercise

The Mysterious Case of the Incredible Disappearing Blogger

Where have I been for a month? I’ve been here, not blogging, apparently. I lost my blog mojo. There have been times in the past when I’ve wanted to blog but couldn’t think of anything to write about. For the past few weeks, I’ve had plenty of fodder but no blogging motivation. I’m going to try to get myself going again with this post.

Since Basement Reno has been the topic at the top of the blog for a full month, I might as well start there. We are DIY slackers! We did a little bit of the project and have strongly considered calling in reinforcements. We’ve gotten a couple of estimates for someone to take the material we already bought and put it all up, and the labor wouldn’t really cost that much. To my own surprise, I’m not particularly interested in the DIY aspects of this house. I thought that I might want to get my hands dirty and would love the labor because it was my house. But actually, I’m pretty happy to write a check, spend my day doing something fun, and come home to see progress made in my absence. Maybe I’ve been a city girl for too long with a super to fix stuff for me. Todd and I don’t have enough money to hire someone for every project idea we have, but I think I’m ready to hire someone for this one.

Home ownership has also brought some surprises — like the tree that fell during Hurricane Irene. Luckily (very luckily), it fell away from the house, but we still had to hire someone to chop it up for us. We decided to keep the wood for a fire pit or our fireplace — if we ever decide to turn our propane fireplace into a wood-burning fireplace, that is. But home ownership has also brought some fun. My mom has come up to visit a few times, my sisters and their SOs came up one long weekend, Rena was there a couple of weekends ago…I love being able to host and have people up. We’re starting to think about the upcoming holidays and are putting out invitations to our families to celebrate Poconos-style. Any of you looking for a place to be for Thanksgiving or Chrismas, give a holler.

That’s it for now, but I’ll try to stay on the blogging wagon now that I’ve climbed back on.

Tags: Christmas, Country House, Family, Masthope, Thanksgiving

Basement Reno

Todd and I have our first real DIY project facing us. We spent a horrifying amount of money at Home Depot this weekend, stocking up on the insulation, sheet rock, and other items we’d need to tackle our basement. The basement was finished at one time in the past, but there was a leak in the plumbing and the previous owners “unfinished” it to tackle the problem. So we have a bathroom and laundry room that are just framed (no walls) and one exterior wall that is open to the foundational cinder blocks. Finishing it all to look good is important, but even more important is insulating it before winter hits.

We’re painting the exterior wall of cinder blocks  with a “dry lock” paint that will keep moisture out, putting up some commercial grade, moisture-resistant insulation on the exterior wall, putting up stinky pink fiberglass insulation on the interior walls, and going to town with mold-resistant dry wall. We’re being so water averse because it’s a basement and does feel a little damp down there at times. This should nip that in the bud and, I hope, save us from having to run a dehumidifier.

My biggest lesson of the weekend is that sheet rock is fucking heavy. Each sheet looks thin, but man is it dense! We had it all delivered, but the delivery guys drove across our yard on a forklift to drop off pallets of materials and wouldn’t go the extra step to bring it in the house. That left Todd and me with the heavy lifting. We got it done, but it reminded me that I should hit the gym more.

Next weekend I’m in the city, but Todd and the kids will be up at the house and will do the painting. And then Labor Day weekend will see us trying to get the insulation up. I’m sure it’ll be a multi-weekend project that will wear us out, but I’m also sure we’ll feel really accomplished once it’s done. The basement has so much potential to be great, usable space, and this will be a major step toward making it hospitable — and warm!

Tags: Country House, DIY

Soaking Up The Sun

Camilla has been enjoying the greater variety of sunny spots in our new house. She doesn’t care who sees her junk as long as she gets to sun her tummy.

Tags: Camilla, Country House

Country Living

We’ve been spending every weekend up in our new home, and I have to say: I absolutely love it. There are times when it’s utterly relaxing, and we sit and read, drink a beer on the deck, chill at the lake, swim in the pool, or watch the wildlife (lots of deer, some eagles, a gaggle of turkeys, and more). There are times when it’s busy, like this past weekend when I got a bee in my bonnet that we had to make some headway on the many projects on our to-do list. But either way, I love, love, love it.

Todd has a new hammer now, because he broke his sissy city one a couple of weekends ago. This is his sad hammer face.

Our basement is mostly finished, but some of the walls are bare concrete. While we can live with the laundry room being framed but not walled for as long as we want, we really need to put some insulation and sheet rock up on the exterior wall to keep our heating bills out of the stratosphere. Todd, Dylan, and I measured every nook and cranny this past weekend so we can start to tackle that — or biggest and most time sensitive project — in the near future. I needs to be done before winter arrives, and since there have been days when we donned sweatshirts even over the summer, I’m sure cold weather will be here before long. We also tackled some smaller projects, like cleaning out a couple of grody kitchen cabinets we’ve been ignoring and making some minor repairs (Todd gave Dylan and me a master class about how to use a hammer: “It’s all in the wrist.”). There is a lot more to be done, but there is a great satisfaction in doing it.

We’ve decided not to have a television in the house, and I think it’s the best decision we could have possibly made. I’m surprised by how full our days are and how quickly the time goes. But on the evenings when we find our selves with a few hours to fill, we often play board games or read. The kids really started exploring the yard this past weekend and embracing the independence that comes with being up in the country: they’re able to head outside on their own and make their own fun. We all talk more and passively consume entertainment less. We’re not going cold turkey; we still have our computers and iPads there allowing us to reach Netflix when we want, but we haven’t felt the need very much.

Tags: Country House