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Will it match?
When we were signing on to be featured on This Old House TV's next season, we were told by many who had been involved in past seasons that we would need to take a leap of faith when doing this. I think that can mean a lot of things, but for us, it's meant really learning to trust a team of experts, and let them guide us through an incredible process. This applies to all the wonderful folks who have advised us throughout this project, but, as I've discussed before, one of the things I've most enjoyed has been working with the Terrat Elms design team.
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The kitchen table
One of the first things Joe wanted to do when we moved into our house was to build a wrap-around seating area in our kitchen where we could nestle our kitchen table. We loved the idea of gathering the whole family there for meals and celebrations, and have always admired this element in other homes. It was on the to-do list for a long time, but never quite made it to the top. Until now.
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5-4-3-2-1
Okay, the countdown has really begun. And, oh my—the craftsmanship that is coming from Tom's team now! Wow! I've always trusted their work completely, but seeing them go start to finish with their projects makes me continuously appreciative of this team. The mudroom stairs are still a work in progress, but they have done an incredible job, and its future beauty is starting to emerge.
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This Old Garage
As I've mentioned before, Joe and I live our lives in a constant state of biting off more than we can chew. In that spirit, we decided to paint our garage ourselves. Because of Massachusetts lead laws, costs for hiring painters has skyrocketed. So we decided to tackle what we thought was a manageable project. I prepped and painted the entire interior of our house (with help from many lovely and wonderful family members), so I was pretty confident in my do-it-yourself painting abilities.
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Cool stuff!
We recently had the opportunity to work with ChromaLab, a cool small company our designers introduced us to (one of my favorite examples of their work can be seen above). Their work falls into the category of really cool stuff that designers know about, and we don't! We've asked them to do some work in our half-bath and study, and I can't wait to see what the final product looks like.
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Goodbye, dirty old driveway!
One of the things I loved most about our house when we bought it was the natural country feel of its dirt driveway. Unfortunately, most of the charm of that driveway was lost several time each year when it turned into a virtual mud pit, thanks to our incredibly high water table. This has not been lost on our dogs, who love playing around in all that mud, nor or daughter, who enjoys all the puddle jumping, as well as the mud pies we've made with her.
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Landscaping
Last summer, we asked our landscape architect Jenn Nawada to come up with a long-term "dream plan" that would incorporate several major changes we hope to put in place over the next several years (feel free to ask Joe about his planned pickleball court).
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Counters and cabinets and lighting, oh my!
“So many decisions, so little time.” That’s been our motto throughout this project. While Joe and I like to think of ourselves as decisive people who are efficient in our decision making, I’m not sure if our self assessment is as accurate as we might think. There are SO MANY decisions to be made here! As avid do-it-yourselfers, we thought we knew what to expect. But we were wrong.
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Chief Gawker
Chief Gawker photo I wanted to dedicate a blog post to my dad, who we have labeled this season's This Old House "Chief Gawker" (a title he, in fact, endorsed). I don't think there's anyone who is having more fun with this renovation than he is. He watches the webcam constantly, attends as many filming days as he can, and has been a HUGE help on various projects Joe and I have been taking on.
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The perfect solution
Joe and I are almost always in sync about our vision for the house. Sure, sometimes our opinons differ on, say, which shade of blue to use, but seldom do we bicker about entire color schemes. We did, however, have to really talk—and really listen—to each other when it came to making a decision about the entry to our new pantry.
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Yard work
One thing's for sure: Roger Cook and his team did a great job clearing the overgrowth and non-native vegetation that had taken over almost half of our yard. Since there is actually a rare protected salamander living on our property, they had to work with the state wildlife commission to make sure they were respectful of the salamander's natural habitat.
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A wall comes down...
Exciting day!! Until today, the wall from the original house to the new addition remained up while the framing and roofing was being finished. Now that it's done, Tom and the guys have taken the wall down between the two spaces—and it's so exciting to see. Pictured above is a before shot, taken from the new space looking toward the kitchen (with an intact wall), followed by an after shot Look at all of that new room!
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A garden!!
The garden is here! The area that was once all overgrowth and weeds has been cleared to reveal a sunlit space that is now serving as a space for two raised bed gardens. Jennifer Nawada and Roger Cook put together the plan for these rectangular raised beds, which will accomodate a fairly generous family garden come next summer.
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Salvaging old windows
Cool Use 1 I was talking to a friend recently about different ways to re-use old windows as design elements. She and her family have found some pretty creative ways to integrate windows, including using them as message boards and picture frames.
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How the plans were made
So, maybe I should have done this when I first started blogging, but I thought it would make sense to step back a bit and talk through our design process—and how we got to doing this addition in the first place.
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