Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Winter of Our Discontent

Two months and no blog update.  I know.  It's bad.  We have been really busy doing the kind of work that is not blog-worthy, and certainly does not photograph well.  From the naked eye the house pretty much looks the same as it did two months ago, but behind the scenes things are coming along quickly.  None of these jobs have been fun, and their lack of big-impact has been, well, depressing, leaving us feeling like Ethan Hawke from "Reality Bites."





All of these boring and messy jobs got us closer to the end of our to-do list, and included fun things like:
1.  Wiring the entire house for lights and electricity
Hello down there!

 2.  Replacing and repairing the sub floor
Good thing Dave likes puzzles


3.  Staining the front door and polyurethane-ing it a bajillion times!
Picture that green stuff covered in cedar clap board


 4.  Building a window seat for the living room

Ok, so it's mostly for our cat.  It's normal to add design features to your house just for your pet, right?

5.  Framing out all of the lower level walls
6.  Insulating the whole house (walls and ceiling)
The Jewett boys in their holiday best.
Prepping the living area for insulation



Insulating the new "lighthouse."

The master bedroom is looking gooood.



All along we have been living in the house, which has been surprising to all that have come over.  "Oh, wow.  You have a lot of work going on here.  Where are you staying?"  Umm...here.  Why wouldn't we want to stay in our mostly unheated house that has limited kitchen resources?  At least we have our "dorm room" which has all of the luxuries of home- a bed, tv, sofa, recliner, piano bench that doubles as a dining table/desk, and a closet!  Our latest joke is a play on everyone's favorite fortune cookie saying...I paid all of the bills today...in bed.  I finally graded those tests...in bed.  Just finished writing out the Christmas cards...in bed.  Let's look over our to-do list and find that there's nothing to cross out, only more stuff to add...in bed.

Please allow me to pull back the curtain (ok, it's just a paint drop cloth) to show you how we've been living at our house while it's under construction.
Just step through this curtain and you'll be in the lap of luxury.  Maybe more like the bumhole of luxury.  You're not allergic to insulation, are you?

Here's another fancy view of the musictorium and our curtain to Narnia.

Our dorm room, our cute cat, and the only thing that keeps me going- new episodes of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."  Team Kyle!!

At least we have our partially heated, partially finished bathroom to make us feel squeaky clean after all of our dirty jobs.
Just plug in that space heater and things should warm up to a balmy 55 degrees in no time.
Kind of messy shower area.  I still <3 that tile!!


Back in September I thought we would be hosting Christmas Eve at our house.  What a lofty goal!  We will be lucky if we get the drywall and plaster before Christmas Day.  When that is done (by professionals) we'll be ready to paint, put down flooring, install our new kitchen, put in some more heat, and start living life outside of the dorm room!

What?  We're totally ready to host Christmas Eve dinner...2015.
Hopefully the kitchen will be updated before December vacation is over.  I'm so excited to see how things will come together.  We purchased a lot of the kitchen items without actually seeing them in person.  For example, we bought Ikea kitchen cabinet bases and used Semi-Hand Made for our kitchen cabinet doors.  So far, Semi-Hand Made has been great to work with and we were actually able to afford something we really wanted- Flatsawn Walnut!





We also purchased our kitchen floor tiles and a light for over the island without ever having seen them in person. Here's a little kitchen inspirado board that highlights some of our choices.


Here's to hosting Christmas Eve 2015!

Music for Today- Jenny Lewis edition:  Jenny Lewis is a former child star turned musician.  She has worked in a number of bands and is now a solo artist.  Her jangly guitar, pretty voice and thoughtful lyrics are evident in these songs...
  1. Rilo Kiley, "Silver Lining."  This is from Jenny Lewis' former band, Rilo Kiley.


 2.  Rilo Kiley, "Breakin' Up."

3.  Jenny and Johnny, Scissor Runner." 
4.  Jenny Lewis (solo), "One of the Guys."

And a few holiday favorites from the Jewetts:
  1. The Organ Beats, "This Christmas."  Two of my most favorite things- The Organ Beats and Christmas music= perfection!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2CJCG-hTE

    2.  Juliana Casablancas, "I Wish it Was Christmas Today." From a beloved SNL skit...


    3.  The Old 97's, "Here it is Chritmastime."  An alt-country take on Christmas...

    4. TeamMate, "I Won't be Home for Chanukah."  The cutest holiday video...

Happy Holidays!

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