The Sweat-Equity Pit

Quite a few years ago there was an amusing/horrifying Tom Hanks film called "The Money Pit" – about renovating an old house. Since that's what we've been doing for the past two months of springtime, I can relate. Although we haven't spent scads of money on this project to which we set ourselves, we have worked hard and put in a lot of time; but we are almost done with The List.

The two major projects were redoing the awful floors in the parlor and guest room – and reconfiguring and creating space-saving built-ins out in John's little studio (The Doghouse).

To get the floors done, we had to move everything out of the two rooms, including all the books and the bookcases, all the "tchotchkes" in the curio cabinet and the cabinet itself, etc., etc.  The cottage has looked like Moving Day for a few weeks, with boxes of books and decor stuffed into various corners of the place and furniture piled into other rooms. We were "floored" at first by the task of choosing the right shade of green for the floors, to blend with other walls – and still another tint for the parlor alcove. But we triumphed, I think: we are very happy with the final results. The actual work was done by a local professional painter, thank God – and we had a couple of days of rest at our beloved Merrybrook cabin while that was going on.

John decided to save a lot of money by renovating his studio himself; and he really worked! But that too is almost ready for prime time; and I'll take photos this weekend of that space and the changes in the cottage, for an album to send to all who might be interested.

We've also had to break down and buy a few furnishings for the newly spiffy interior. The former parlor chairs (which Leenie scornfully calls patio furniture and Souffle more kindly dubbed "engineering style") are out, and two lovely Queen Anne style recliners are in. A great secretary desk graces the entry foyer, and John uses it for household work-space; I use it for storage of linens and such in lower drawers, and our collection of steins and cups from our days in Germany in the upper, glassed-in shelves. I also found a nice little oak dinette table and chairs, for the parlor alcove..... The old and infamous leather sofa that lived temporarily as a guest-room bed has been given away to a single mom who desperately needed furnishings; and in our now much less cluttered little Sanctuary Room, we have our bookshelves installed against one long wall. We bought a very clever ottoman that takes up almost no room but expands into a single bed – for the use of any pilgrim in need of a quiet, peaceful retreat. I still have my writing area here at the lighter end of the room by the window; and I'm looking for a comfortable chair to go with the ottoman, for a reading corner by the library shelves.

Well, you may see the photos soon; and as we work to finish everything up by the one-year anniversary of our moving-in, on July 1st, we are looking forward to a lazy, quiet two months of summer ahead. It's been quite cool up here during these past months, for which we are extremely grateful; but as the warmer days are coming, we hope to be relaxing on the back deck in days to come!