Renovating to Restore: Adventures Repairing the (amazing!) Borden Milk House in Wassaic NY
Once the paint is scraped (good grief, that's an annoying job!), it's time to patch the damage and prime it fast* so that it can stop being disintegrated by the weather 🙂 Good grief, that is a lot of windows. The house is pretty solid, structurally, but there are a few (thousand) points of vulnerability … Continue reading Scraping – Patching – Priming: Windows
I tend to smile a lot and get very vague when people ask me exactly how long my new commute is going to be (or, now that we've moved, how long it is). So here's the breakdown, in cold hard numbers: 7 - 9 minute walk between my house and the Wassaic train station.2 hours … Continue reading Quick Thoughts on My New Commute
? With our move-in date rapidly approaching, we headed up on our last weekend trip to try and get the house ready(ish). My brother came, too, and we tackled a pared down list of necessities to finish up within 24 hours: Finish the damn floorInstall the bathtub hot/cold valve thingyGet the hot water running to … Continue reading The Last Minute Repairs
I feel like I'm getting awfully repetitive here. Probably indicative of our future efforts... The lawn. Again. I hate having to admit this, but my best friend Liz may have been a teeny bit right about the lawn. I caved in and bought an electric push mower. Not because the lawn was so big, but … Continue reading The Lawn. (again…)
Getting down to crunch time, with our move imminent (T-14 days -- max), and the floor in the attic apartment is not yet done. But what's there looks awfully good. It is taking a long time, but I'd like to point out (to myself, mostly) that there are a lot of angles and corners, and … Continue reading The Floor (almost).
The house didn't come with a mailbox, so I went on a quest to find a glorious old one that would fit the aesthetic of the house. Total fail - I found one, but definitely cannot justify spending $700 on an antique Victorian mailbox, no matter how cool it is. I also found a pretty … Continue reading The Mailbox
We spent another night at the house (after a great time at The Wassaic Project's summer benefit). The next day my partner worked on the floor (which should have been the topic of this post), and we made coffee, did dishes, washed hands... lots of things involving sink water. At some point (unfortunately not immediately) … Continue reading The Water (redux)
For the record, I have been reusing that straw for months. June was historic: it marked our first overnight stay at our amazing, beautiful house. Which meant, I could finally enjoy a relaxing alcoholic beverage at home.* With the toilet flushable, we said goodbye to hotels an hour away and hello to the unfortunate wood … Continue reading The First Night.
The world was a different place in 1870 - in most ways it was terrible. Women had practically no rights, racism was even more rampant than today (slavery had just been abolished, on paper), and residential indoor plumbing was pretty rare.* Life wasn't too bad (comparably) if you were a land-owning white male, but decidedly … Continue reading The Metalwork.
It's amazing what running water will do for morale. It almost makes it like a real house! But I'm getting way ahead of myself. Nick (with the flame) and his colleague (I'm so sorry, I forget your name!!!) fixing the first of... a few... broken pipes The day after the electric was turned on, a … Continue reading The Water.
