Solar Shades and Furniture

I thought long and hard about what to cover our windows with because I didn't want to cover up the view but needed to do something since we had to wear sunglasses in the living room in the late afternoon and evenings! I finally settled on solar shades. They're the perfect solution for our situation. We can see the view through them but put away the sunglasses! The first picture is looking out to the west and the second is facing northwest. We put them in every room on the main floor and like them so much that we ordered them for the master bedroom as well. 

 

We bought some counter stools and chairs to go with our antique draw leaf table. It's thrilling to have somewhere besides the couch to sit down at meals after holding plates on our laps for a couple of years.

And last but definitely not  least is our drawer pulls. We've had the round knobs on the cabinet doors for months but had been opening the drawers by getting both hands on the sides of the drawer and pulling. It's sooo nice to be able to open a drawer with only one hand!

  

Let The Movies Begin!

On our last trip to the coast we installed the audio/visual equipment and were able to watch our first movie on the large screen! It was very exciting for us after watching movies on a 13" TV for the last several years. (We sat close to it so it seemed bigger...not really!) Cliff also mounted the flat screen TV in the kitchen that we will watch news on while cooking, eating, etc., once we have cable or satellite TV.
We brought up a table for our dining area too. It's an antique table that we've had for many years. The top needed to be refinished so Cliff did that while we were there. Then he hung the pendant lights in the dining area. They were one of the first things we bought and one of the last installed. It was great to see them, I had forgotten how much I liked them.
We had a bit if excitement one evening as we returned from a walk when Billy raced up the stairs to the deck barking furiously. A raccoon was at the top of one of the posts (that holds up the roof). We got Billy into the house and the raccoon came down but went the wrong way (or so I thought) around to the west side of the house where there was no exit. He wasn't worried though and simply climbed down off of the deck and down a post to the ground.
So here are some pictures...
This is the audio/visual equipment niche. It's much neater now, this was taken during installation.

 Here's the 100" screen as we started our first movie 'Master and Commander, The Far Side Of The World'. We thought is was appropriate since it's setting is the ocean! You can see that it was still light outside but it was overcast and getting dark. We won't be able to use the screen during the day because the picture will be washed out by light and that's why we put in the TV in the next picture.

These are the pendant lights in our dining area.

 This is our cute little antique drawleaf table. (Chairs coming soon).

 Another absolutely beautiful day at the ocean :)

This little critter was a nocturnal visitor on a couple of nights. Billy would be barking furiously after we went to bed and on the second night I snapped this picture of him looking into our living room window. I wonder if it's the same raccoon that was up that pole on the deck...

The Stainless Steel Railing Is On!

We went to the coast over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and Cliff, Craig (our brother-in-law) and Jack (our nephew) installed the deck railing. Cliff put the deck on last Memorial Day weekend so it's been a long wait for the rail! We are so happy and relieved that it's no longer perilous to be on the deck. There is one open section in which we're going to put a glass panel/door that will block some wind and allow access to the windows on the north side of the house for cleaning.

The guys hard at work....

 The south side of the house...

 The southwest corner...

  

Cliff, Craig and Jack after a hard day's work...

 Billy (safely) enjoying the view from the deck...

 The west side of the house...

And last but not least, another picture of the ocean for my friends who never get tired of seeing it!

We Have Appliances!

Yes, we have appliances! No more big holes in between the cabinets. They are now filled with lovely stainless steel appliances.
We purchased them a couple of weeks ago and arranged to have them delivered to the coast. Along with the kitchen appliances we also bought a washer and dryer so no more bringing home sheets and towels to wash and then taking them back, yay!
So here are the pictures of the refrigerator, range and dishwasher.

This next picture is corner cabinet in the kitchen. We wanted to have a glass door so we could display some of our pottery. Cliff came up with the idea of having the glass made to mimic our front door. He took a picture of the front door to a local stained glass shop and they did a wonderful job. We love it!

These pictures are taken in the main floor bathroom. Cliff installed the lights and the shower curtain rod. He also set the vanity's in place but I forgot to take a picture(!) On our next trip he will hook up the plumbing and then the guest/main floor bathroom will be finished.

 And last, here are the washer and dryer. They aren't hooked up yet because the conversion kit for the dryer (from natural gas to propane) didn't arrive with everything else, but they are in the laundry room set in place.

As always, I'll let you know the next time I update the blog.

Cliff and I had a great time at the coast last weekend. Cliff did what he loves to do, worked. The weather was beautiful, a bit windy on Saturday, but there were no complaints from us. But the best thing about the weekend was getting some of the finish items installed.

The first is our range hood. We waited until it had to go up because we didn't want to take any chances that it might get damaged. Our next step it getting the crown molding up and you'll see from the pictures that the crown will go right to the range hood.

The other thing finished is the fixtures in the guest shower/bath. I bought a curved shower curtain rod today so that will be installed on the next trip and we will have a guest shower!

It really was a lovely weekend so I can't resist posting a picture of (what else) the ocean!

And the last thing is we are so glad that we have a wood burning stove! We planned to make pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning but the propane camp stove wasn't cooperating and wouldn't light. (It wasn't getting propane). So we just switched to the wood burning stove. That thing sure came in handy!

Next up is installing doors, crown and baseboards. I'll keep you updated!

Finished Floors!

Yes, that's right, our floors are finished! We hired a contractor to go up to the coast and put down the travertine tile upstairs and on the patio (Cliff did the downstairs himself a couple of years ago). They also finished the travertine tile in the guest shower.

We have also had some more painting done. Once crown molding, baseboards and bead board wainscot are in the remaining painting will be done.

So on to some pictures....the great room...

the kitchen...

standing at the kitchen looking down the hall at the garage door...

the upstairs bathroom...

the laundry room...

the patio...

That's all for now (as if all that tile isn't enough!)

Thanks for looking :)

Two Posts In One

Hi to all our friends and Merry Christmas! I have pictures to share from our last two trips to the coast hence the title of this post.

Cliff has been getting a lot done on the inside of the house, mainly the great room. He has installed all the window trim on every one of the seven large windows. It hasn't been painted yet but it did cover up the rough wood framing so it looks great. He also installed the kitchen sink including the plumbing. And the kitchen backsplash. So let's get to some pictures!

This is the west facing wall. Nice wide window sills for the cats to birdwatch!

North facing wall. Nice window seat, don't you think?

Running water in the kitchen!

Here is our backsplash. Lovely glass tiles.

And now we move into the main floor bathroom. This is the travertine tile in the shower. It's not finished yet...next trip!

Last but not least, we had an amazing thing happen. One Saturday afternoon I was napping downstairs in the master bedroom (not amazing, normal) and Cliff was working upstairs when he heard a bird fly into one of the windows (also quite normal unfortunately). He walked outside and saw a hawk lying on the deck under the kitchen window. The hawk wasn't moving and it was cold and raining so Cliff picked it up thinking to keep it warm. The poor thing was stunned. It's head was bobbing and one eye was turned up in its socket. Cliff didn't think it was going to live so he didn't wake me up to see it. He just held onto the poor thing and it started to recover a bit. So he kept it in his hands, keeping it warm. After 10 or 20 minutes it seemed fine but wasn't making a move to get free, just seemed content. It was about this time that I woke up and came upstairs to find Cliff holding a hawk and was able to take the pictures. Just after I took the pictures it moved a little in Cliff's hands so we went out onto the deck. Cliff knelt down and opened his hands. The hawk hesitated for several seconds, we both thought it was not going to be able to fly away, but just then it took off, flew straight away from Cliff and then flew back around over the deck and just a couple of feet from Cliff, and then he was off and soaring. We watched him fly away across the bluff and land (hopefully) in a tree. I told Cliff it was a fly by thanking :-)

When we got home Cliff did some research and found that it was an adolescent sharp-shinned hawk.

Well that's all for now folks. I'll let you know the next time we have some progress to tell about.