With the arrival of warm weather comes a plethora of projects that we
have been dreaming about all winter long. Woodshed, garden shed, trim,
soffits, railing on the deck, bucking up wood, take your pick. We
decided to start with gardens and a brick walkway. The gardens consist
of a few raised beds, a few more beds created wherever we found some
space, and a three bin compost system. They are coming along great. The
brick walkway was an adventure, made all the more interesting by using
salvaged bricks that were not uniform in size, shape or color. But it
adds character, and what was once a chimney in Concord, NH is now an
inviting walkway in Nelson. It came out pretty good, but I, and my
back, are glad it is done.
Our two cats spend a lot of time on our wide window ledges, looking at the bird feeders and keeping an eye on the turkeys. Recently, however, it seems they have found a special friend. His name is Earl, and I think he is a bit lonely. Either that, or he has been infused with the spirit of bi-partisanship that has swept the country with the advent of the Obama administration. Whatever the case, Earl the Squirrel is trying to make nice with Finn and Frodo.
I see him, coming across the snow, heading towards the bird feeders. He often stops on a little mound of snow, stands on his hind legs, and looks into the windows. If he sees the cats, he bounds over, jumps up onto the bulkhead, and scrambles up to the window ledge. The cats initially freak out a bit, but Earl sits there calmly and suffers their puffy tails and paws batting at the glass. Soon, all three of them just hang out together, looking at each other with great interest and wondering why they all just can't get along. I cannot say for certain, but I can almost swear I heard Finn humming 'Imagine' by John Lennon.
Earl wants nothing to do with me, of course, so I am careful no to approach their gatherings too closely. I was able to get this quick picture to prove my tale, however.
When Anne and I were planning our house, we spent many hours scouring the web for other folks who had built First Day Cottages like we hoped to. We found some blogs and sites that were extremely helpful and most were laden with photos of all of the different phases of construction. But as we looked for pictures of the finished product, we kept hitting a wall. It was frustrating and we could not understand why these slackers had stopped taking photos when they had finally completed their monumental labors. Then, we built our house. Now we understand. Here's our blog, 16 months after moving in, with few pics of what our cottage looks like. Actually, the last 3 months of the building process seem to be sorely under-represented. Well, when you are racing bank deadlines, weather, and your own overly-ambitious schedule as well as bending to the schedules of plumbers, appraisers and utility guys, blogging ranks low on the punch-list of priorities.
But better late than never. So here are some pics of the 'finished' product, with many more in the Photo Gallery on the right. Anne did some crazy stitching together of multiple shots to give a wide-angle look, which accounts for the fishbowl-like quality and raged edges. Hopefully they will give an idea of where we are at in the process and how our hard work paid off.
We reached a milestone, of sorts, with the creation of this built-in bench. We have at least five built-in pieces of furniture planned, and this is part one of number one. It was nice not to be rushed while doing something for once, and it came out just like I wanted it to. It is really useful and looks swell. With the addition of either some hooks or cubbies up above, this little area will serve to hold a lot of stuff.
