Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Got Flooring!
Sometimes renovation work seems to proceed at a snail's pace. At other times, we speed right along. The old floorboards are back in the living room, soon to become country kitchen, as of this morning.
For the new bed & breakfast bedroom, with reluctance we purchased floorboards, unable to recover the boards from my mom's dining room, some too short, others broken and not worthy of salvage, unfortunately. In the photo to the right, Boz hammers away. Wendelin is here, too, tiling the private bath and will be tiling all next week, as there will be tile in the powder room, too. Meanwhile, in Wellfleet, progress has been made on the ground-breaking for the new fire station at the intersection of Route 6 and Lawrence Road. Here is the view from the elementary school parking lot where two men worked today:
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Le Nouveau Guide est Arrive!
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Sun Tunnel Works!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Grief from Greef ...
Renovation is known to be a challenge. Sven and I are fed up
with the chaos and must move out of the cottage since guests arrive in a week. In fact, nothing has gone right of late. Only one third of the recovered floorboards went in on Friday. Every time I walked through the house the carpenters seemed to be scratching their heads, unsure of the optimum installation technique. It turns out the kick space heater needs a trapdoor in the custom cabinet, according to the plumber who stopped by to deliver this news. And, to make matters worse, upon my return from ordering the Greff Saltbox House paper for the new bedroom, the wallpaper lady called to say the pattern has been discontinued now that Greff belongs to Schumacher. Boy, did I feel blue then! Of course, there are other options, but we spent a month making up our mind …. But, this morning, my spirit got a lift when I pulled up the Green Guide online and read Kathy Shorr’s blog Home Green Home, this week all about Chez Sven!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Puzzle!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
What Is It?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Got Cabinets?
I have not posted news of the renovation project for a while,
so here goes. Wallboard is in, cement board for tile also. Today the carpenters start the outdoor shower while Nate executes work required to install the custom cabinets in the future country kitchen. Why custom cabinets? Expert cabinet maker Jeff Pozgay studied the old woodwork in the house and created cabinets to match. The old cabinets in the Red Room were painted, so these new cabinets will be painted, too. Jeff and Johnny had to struggle a bit to get the larger piece into the house.
Since the pantry walls are now up, Jeff found it was no longer possible to enter through the front door, as originally planned.
It is fortunate the kitchen has a back door because there was room to bring the structure in that way. So now, we have got cabinets and shortly I will be able to have a template made for the counter top. Next week the tile will go into the bathroom and powder room. Slowly, we are getting there and look forward to receiving guests in this wonderful new space as soon as early April.
It is fortunate the kitchen has a back door because there was room to bring the structure in that way. So now, we have got cabinets and shortly I will be able to have a template made for the counter top. Next week the tile will go into the bathroom and powder room. Slowly, we are getting there and look forward to receiving guests in this wonderful new space as soon as early April.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
History Rocks!
Sven suggested going down to the shipwreck again,
so that is where we headed this afternoon. There has been an incredible amount of online interest. History rocks, I guess. Sven, who taught history, certainly agrees.
Anyway, we found a steady stream of history buffs heading onto the beach, which, at low tide, was pockmarked with footprints from earlier visitors. We noticed new signs set up by the Seashore to discourage looters. I had thought the wreck would make a great tourist attraction in an eventual Wellfleet museum, but apparently not.The specialists expect the shipwreck will return to the sea and be covered up with sand again for the next 90 years ....
Thursday, February 14, 2008
A February Day in the Life
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Dyer Pond, Blog Favorite
Friday, February 08, 2008
Organic Breakfast in Wellfleet?
Chez Sven will soon be listed at both Ecobookers and the Organic Places to Stay Web site.
We offer homemade organic granola and yogurt, Peace coffee, Rishi tea, and homemade breads, as well as fresh fruit salad. Sometimes it is a challenge finding organic fruit. With the season coming on and everyone talking recession, I thought it would be interesting to compare prices at local stores. Come July, it will no longer be simple to swing over to the Stop & Shop in Orleans. Breakfast staples will need to be purchased in the village. I did a little survey on a dozen products, which we regularly use here at Chez Sven, and the result was interesting. Organic eggs, I buy from a local farm, when available. Otherwise, the Organic Valley six-pack will do. It costs $2.29 at S&S and $3.39 at Wellfleet Marketplace (WM). Organic milk: a half-gallon of Woodstock Farms costs $3.99 at S&S and $4.99 at WM. Orange juice costs the same amount at both venues. Half & Half is $2.29 at S&S for Organic Valley, and $1.79 at WM for Garelick Farms. Organic yogurt: Stoneyfield Farm costs $3.99 at S&S and $4.29 at WM, but WM does offer Brown Cow for $3.79. S&S used to, but their natural foods section offered no large size yogurt containers at all today. I compared the same fresh semolina bread: $3.99 at S&S and $4.39 at WM.
Organic coffee: S&S offers Newman’s for $7.99; WM sells the same amount of Equal Exchange for $8.99. Organic tea: S & S has the 20-bag box of organic green tea for $2.19 while WM sells Equal Exchange organic green tea for $4.99. Non-organic tea of the Stash brand sells for $2.99 at S&S and $4.19 at WM. Finally, organic granola: WM carries Arrowhead Mills for $4.39 while S&S offers Peace at $4.59, on sale today for $3.49. WM & S&S carry some organic produce, but Hatch's, on the town parking lot, offers a wider selection of organic fruit in season, as does the Phoenix veggie shop on Cove Road in Orleans. Any food-shopping tourists reading this blog will conclude that it makes sense to stop in Orleans on the way to Wellfleet!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
New Insulation!
Our foaming day dawned cloudy and gray. Rain started to fall as the Anderson Insulation truck lumbered up Old King’s Highway. The truck was purring away as the crew prepared to foam.
I chose Icynene, for its reputation and R-value, and reported on the decision process in this blog a number of weeks back. The bio-based product proved twice as expensive, if not more, with less than 50% bio. Some industry specialists are not convinced bio-based is the way to go, so I decided to embrace the tried and true. Anderson Insulation has been spraying Icynene for 18 years. The first step was protecting the beams and windows with
plastic while the product heated up to the right temperature. After all the hammering was done, the boys from Brazil suited up and the fun began. Like magic the foam filled the wall cavities. Our new room will be cozy and warm in winter, cool in summer. R-value 28.8 in the roof and 15 to 18 in exterior walls, depending on size. We will let the Icynene vent for a few days prior to putting on the wallboard and replacing the wainscoting.
plastic while the product heated up to the right temperature. After all the hammering was done, the boys from Brazil suited up and the fun began. Like magic the foam filled the wall cavities. Our new room will be cozy and warm in winter, cool in summer. R-value 28.8 in the roof and 15 to 18 in exterior walls, depending on size. We will let the Icynene vent for a few days prior to putting on the wallboard and replacing the wainscoting.
Monday, February 04, 2008
More on the Shipwreck at Newcomb Hollow
Above are some of the hundreds of folks who flocked to Wellfleet this weekend, some from as far away as Rhode Island. Sven went down to Newcomb Hollow again this afternoon to view the shipwreck again and found a group of busy people working there on behalf of the Cape Cod National Seashore. There was an archaeologist who was drawing the wreck in order to document it. Five men and one woman were digging and had uncovered more boards closer to the water’s edge. They also discovered boards in the sand that had not been visible the first time we visited. The woman told Sven the wreck had been washed ashore during the nor’easter. The archaeologist said that he had heard its name was probably The Montclair, which went aground in 1927. The ship was probably built in the 1860s. During the last years of her existence, she transported coal. They had no idea what was going to happen to the shipwreck. “Wait for the next nor’easter,” one of them joked, which Sven found a bit sad. He would have liked to see it recovered by the town and put in a museum.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Touched by History ...
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