Joyeux Noel....

Merry Christmas to all!  I have been busy doing absolutely nothing today- a novel concept for me and I am not sure that I am very good at it.  I did manage to take a few pictures to show all the progress that happened last week in anticipation of a well earned week off!  Now that I look at the weather forecast I think I may have to get used being inside for a while.  Now I wish that we had gotten that firewood!

Since we had no Christmas tree this year we put all our presents under the beautiful poinsettia that G&S sent to us.  Very festive!

My favorite gifts were a small painting by Alicia Melluzzo of Deep River and a collection of pottery animals that Dave had commissioned by a woman who makes pottery for our shop- Maple Lane Pottery.  I had no idea that Dave and Robbi had been corresponding with drawings of all the pets past and present.  It's funny since we have this gift giving rule of "nothing with a face".  I think that this was totally blown by both of us this year.

Bunce (d), Cranberry, Josh, Coal, Pip, Bess (d) and Pekoe (d)

When we were in Maine in September we found this woman at the Common Grounds Fair selling items made of moose poop.  She was hilarious and actually does stand up comedy (I think featuring the poop).  Here's a link to an article where you can read more poop about poop-  Tirdy Works.  Nothing was more fun for my 5 year old nephew than a necklace of moose poop with googly eyes!



What's better than poop when you are 5?



Sh*t on a Shingle!

OK, enough about poop- Here are pictures of this past weeks progress!

Foundation poured and deck installed

My poor yard- now what???? 

Bulkhead being installed

New basement so far!

Pip and Coal not too sure what is happening

Now it's all covered up and awaiting a blanket of snow. 

And now a little progress report.....

Well the G&S crew has done a tremendous job getting the barn water tight and to a point where it can be left to start working on the house.  Great job!  The barn looks beautiful and it's all I can do to stop from hanging a big wreath on it.  Once the front window comes in it will be even more stunning.  So many people have come into the shop to comment on what a beautiful barn it is and who made it.  I hope that G&S will get a lot of new projects from this job.   Just wait until the rest of the house is done and traffic will come to a halt.  Friends already say that they are getting neck pains from craning around to see the progress from all angles as they drive by.

Visualize a window where the peep hole is and door handles

Merry Christmas to us!

New skylights and knee walls going into studio. 

 

The foundation was poured for the addition today!  Now it just has to set and then the deck can go down to start the framing in the new year!  Best of all, we can open the door and let the dogs out without hats, scarves, mittens etc etc.  One more chilly morning and I am going to start wearing Mom's mink coat out there.  Now that would be an interesting sight- but at least I would be warm!

Hole before

Hole after

It's all moving right along!

Aldo Bernardi Lighting- Sigh...Tuscany.

Last week when I was looking at the blog Remodelista (my ultimate source for cool stuff) to find sites selling goose neck lighting  for the barn, I came across Aldo Bernardi lighting.  I was directed to the US distributor's web site Ollier Distributors http://www.carolollier.com/catalog/index.php.  There I spent a very long time staring at what I think to be the most beautiful rustic lighting I've ever seen.  It brought me back to a trip to Tuscany I took a few years ago.  If you haven't been to Tuscany- you must go.  Especially if you love great scenery.  We would joke "now there's another crappy view" at all the surreal bucolic vistas that you see in the little Tuscan villages. Now that I think about it I have some pictures.... funny I must have been thinking a lot about gutters when I was in Italy.  Who takes so many pictures of gutters?  I am sure we will revisit the gutter theme again when we get that far with the project.  But until then enjoy these nifty old gutters.

 And now for some of that crappy scenery- these are not postcards!

This road is well known but I can't remember where it is.

Fienzole

Garden center in Volterra

Beautiful isn't it?

Now, while Aldo Bernardi is not from Tuscany, he is from an area Northwest of Venice.  He works meticulously with brass and copper.  Each piece is hand crafted by local artisans.  It is really beautiful.  We particularly like the lights with the wavy shades.

Above barn door?

A little nautical look

How about these over the kitchen counter or center island???

Over side door of barn?

Simply elegant!

Are you getting the sense that I like rust?  I think I may be.....

Mud!

It sure is muddy out there! 

Pendant Lights

I can see that there will be a number of places in the house and barn where pendant lights will be perfect. My studio is the obvious place for a few industrial pendants since I will have the nice cathedral ceiling.  The kitchen is another place that I think they would be good.  However the ceilings in the kitchen will be quite low.  I'm sure that with a short cord they will be OK.

Here is a selection of some really neat pendant lights collected from various blogs.  The first three remind me of rusty Elizabethan collars- I can see a dog faced light bulb???  These are mood pictures- I will eventually have a posting about lights that I can actually buy.  The really neat Restoration Hardware light I would get though....

The next are small white drops.

These lights are just cool and clever-

Restoration Hardware

Sometimes you just need to look-

Siding going onto the barn- Dave's bank of windows

Just gorgeous!

Windows from inside in my studio

progress on the foundation

In a nutshell...

The composition of this picture tells the whole story in a nutshell.

Bob set the little purple digger in a perfect spot for a picture!

Here are some pictures of the windows that Peter, his son and Shane made for the barn.  They are really beautiful and we are so lucky to have such talented people working on this project!  I can't wait to see them installed. 

They installed one window so we didn't die of anticipation to see how they would look. 

One installed in Dave's workshop.  Looks great!

The Tyvek sheathing the barn makes it look like a big present.  Add a bow and who could ask for a better gift!

 All it needs now is a bow!