summer meals

broiled salmon and zucchini rubbed with chili powder, salt, pepper

tomato, cucumber, fresh basil salad

homemade granola (made yesterday)

duncan is a rock star

The pics above are some documentation of the magic that Duncan has been making as mentioned in my previous post.  The second set are the 'before' and 'after' shots of our fireplace. The 'before' shot is not great - you can't really get a sense of the fireplace.  It was taken when Ty and I first saw the house with the previous owner's furniture.  But if you look closely, you can see it was pretty bad.  Duncan ripped it out and retiled it, and found a gorgeous piece of walnut for the mantle.  

The first set of shots are of the master bath.  It's a really tiny space and Duncan gutted the entire thing and built us our dream bathroom - complete with TWO SINKS!  After much deliberation, we decided to make it a 'wet room'.  No matter how we looked at the space, there just didn't seem to be room to do it any other way (especially if we were adamant about the two sinks and we were adamant).  Duncan's genius engineering has made it an incredible place to take a shower.  It also has plenty of storage - he extended the room into the hallway by about a foot and built some gorgeous shelves, and the medicine cabinets are extra long and inset in the wall.  He also installed a super-cool towel warmer (I forgot to take a pic of that) where the radiator was.  I will never stop being excited over this bathroom.  Shouldn't he receive some sort of reward for this?

home sweet home

I am giddy like a schoolgirl.  There is bright light flooding the kitchen in our house and I just finished eating one of my all-time favorite breakfasts:  steel-cut oats, chopped banana, fresh raspberries, brown sugar, chopped pecans and milk.  Everything is in it's place (FINALLY) and now we can really get down to the business of working on the house and enjoying the summer.  I even broke in my graduation gift from Ty last night (Kitchen Aid Professional 610 Series Stand Mixer) and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I almost wept from joy of being in a normal kitchen with an oven door that doesn't come off every time you open it.  I don't think I'll ever get used to this being my kitchen.  

I'm in love with this house.  I love how solid it feels and I love knowing it's been around for 100 years.  I just finished reading Michael Ruhlman's book "House" and it's given me a whole new appreciation for buying an older home.  I will never get tired of walking around this neighborhood.  Every home is unique.  Every one of them (almost) is a total charmer - a place that I would love living in.  Obviously some are kept up better than others, but the real lovely part is that when these homes were being built people took care to make an individual mark - not one of them is alike.  

We have a porch!!  I can't even believe it.  Spending my last 7 summers in New York City I believe I truly understand the value of this.  For so many reasons:

1.  There's a PLACE to SIT OUTSIDE.

2.  There's a connection to the outdoors.

3.  There's a window to the world.

Ok, I realize that's it's all really the same thing, but it's an IMPORTANT thing that we have truly truly been missing.  I'll never get over how happy this makes me.  You can smell things out there on the porch - GOOD things.  Plants and wet grass and....I don't know dirt?  Anyway, it's a lot different than the smells you get in NYC during the summer months.  Especially when Joe Homeless has decided to camp out in your vestibule again for June/July/August (his timing is really impeccable).

I've got to take some photos of the magic that Duncan has worked on this place.  I have some "before" pics too, so that will help with seeing the progress.  He's a miracle worker and has given Ty and I our dream bathroom in the tiniest space imaginable.  Photos of that to come....