Is this what they call sweat equity?

My friend Jeanne is renovating this house. I asked her if I could blog about and she said yes. I do enjoy watching the renovation process, just don't ask me to help. So I am helping her by doing the before and after photos.


At first, the house may look menacing but it does have it's charm.. It could probably look really creepy at Halloween. If you thought the outside was bad, come on inside with me.

Here's the view of the living room and hallway.  An ugly water stained drop ceiling with missing tiles, a damaged hardwood floor, and years and years of smoke which attached itself to the mouldings and walls and made the place reek of nicotine.
Jeanne is one brave girl.  With temps in the 90's and humidity to match, she set out to make this place sparkle and shine. By the way, I took this with a wide angle lens. Jeanne is not this wide. I hope she won't kill me for using this shot!

Oh yes, a lovely shot of the ceiling and the absolutely filthy woodwork. The smell in the place stings my nose when I go in there. Perhaps we should call the hazmat team.

Jeanne assesses the situation. What tools are necessary for the job? Jeanne owns a hair salon and is also a realtor so the renovation is sandwiched between jobs. Plus she has a husband and two kids. Quite the full plate.

Despite it's obvious imperfections, the house has character and some very nice features. The fireplace is cool and there is actually one very similar in Jeanne's hair salon.

Here's a closer look. Interesting don't you think? The house was built in 1800.

This stained glass window is coming out so it can be cleaned and the frame repaired.

This is one of the bedrooms. Oops, someone put a fist through the wall!

Another view of the bedroom. You can see what a wreck the floor is.

And this is the kitchen. I should mention that this house is a two family and Jeanne says the other unit looks worse.

The ugly kitchen floor has already been restored and repaired and looks great.

The kitchen will be updated too. This needs a serious facelift and the cabinets are pink?

This room is going to be an office possibly. Love the built-in. And that door is going to be my new desk if the measurements are right.Jeanne does not want the door so I can take it if I want it. I am going to make a room in my basement into an office since I now work from home some of the time.

Here are some of the improvements from last week:

The living room- walls painted, floors redone, drop ceiling removed and stained glass window was taken down.

The floor is gleaming.  The stained glass ready for transport to be cleaned and restored.

The office has been cleaned, painted and curtains hung,

Jeanne brought in a stargazer lily because it is so fragrant. She wanted a few pretty things in the space to motivate her to make the rest of it pretty as well.

Here's the kitchen, the cabinet doors were removed and the remaining section was painted. I think it makes the kitchen look more spacious. Some work still needs to be done here.

It's reached a point where this kind of work is done, just a distant memory.

And this is finished too. At least on this apartment. Say hello to Phyllis , a very helpful friend of Jeanne's who offered to help with the demolition, etc.

When I left Jeanne tonight, there was caulking to be done.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of the house. I hope you are as anxious as I am to see the finished product.

Breakfast at Wimbledon

It's that time of year again, time for the Wimbledon breakfast.  I was really busy last week so not a lot of planning went into this party. I mean look I didn't even use a proper tablecloth!

I did remember to bring my trophy to Pondview Florist in Winchester so they could make a dazzling floral arrangement for the centerpiece. They always do a great job and they are super nice there.

I brought a tea tin to the florist as well. This small arrangement was switched with the bigger one when the meal started. That way we can all see each other when we are eating.

Here's a closer look at the big arrangement. I asked for purple and green flowers as those are the colors of Wimbledon. The trophy is from an antique store.

The bottom plates are new and the smaller plates on the top are from an estate sale. They went perfectly with the tennis theme. The green glasses you may recognize from my Easter tablescape.
They are from Brissonte of  North Reading, from the owner's personal collection and now they make their home with me. Most of the time they reside in my grandmother's china cabinet which is in the dining room.

What was on the menu you ask? Baked french toast, bacon and potato frittata, coffee cake, fruit salad, and blueberry scones with mock devonshire cream, lemon curd and strawberry preserves.  We had a fruit tart and cupcakes for dessert and of course tea and strawberry lemonade. The breakfast is kind of a potluck, everyone brings a dish.

The match was quite exciting and Roger Federer won again but Andy Murray gave him a run for his money.  It was another fun event at Cafe Chatelaine!

Cross one off the bucket list- Waterfire Providence

One of the items on my bucket list was a visit to Waterfire in Providence. I've told many people about Waterfire and it seemed like everyone had seen it but me.

We arrived in Providence about 8:30 PM, a full hour and half late. My sister and I were supposed to meet friends at 7:00PM but we were delayed by torrential rain, thunderstorms, and believe it or not a mudslide on the highway.  The rain was so bad, roads were flooding so we decided to pull off the road and get something to eat. After the storm passed, we got back on the highway only to find a huge traffic backup. As we got close to the cause of the stoppage we saw a bulldozer removing mud that had covered almost every lane of the highway. There were branches on the side of the highway too. We thought this was not the best start to the evening but we decided to continue and meet our friends anyway.

I am so glad we did.  Waterfire was everything I imagined it would be and more. The air was cool after the storm and although the area by the river was crowded, it was not jam packed with people.

One could move around the river area nicely.

What a vision it was! Volunteers rode by boat, lighting the fires in each metal basket along the river.

Music was piped in, adding to the ambience. The smell of burning pine and cedar was evident but not overwhelming. Gondoliers rowed their boats slowly along the river. I imagined I was in Europe, walking along a canal on a summer's evening.

The fires were mesmerizing. As the fires died down, more wood was added to the baskets. The reflections on the water were spectacular. Waterfire lasted well into the night.

Here's a better view of the basket with the fire. You can see the bumpers which prevent the boats from getting too close.

It was difficult to take photos in such low light. I struggled at first. Although this photo is blurry you can still see the beauty of this gondola.  The gondolier could have been from Venice.

There is more going on than just the fires in the river. A masked man threw flowers to the crowd from his boat. My sister caught one and the flower had a ribbon tied to it that had a quote on it.

My sister commented that the event reminded her of the time we went to the Winter Olympics. There's much more going on at an Olympics than just sport. When we went to the Calgary Olympics, we went to cultural activities too.

There are vendors for food and souvenirs at Waterfire. It is primarily funded by private donations and so fundraising is very important. It determines how many lightings there are during the season. Corporate sponsorships certainly are needed and anyone can donate. Check out the website at

www.Waterfire.org

Here are two of the gondoliers as they wait for their boats to be readied.

The living statues were quite popular. They were so graceful in their movements.

I think this one was my favorite. She really looked like a statue. How do they stay that still?

She was stunning.

Her silhouette was interesting as she handed a man his fortune.

Another photo that did not come out sharp but I thought it blogworthy.

TD Bank sponsored an outdoor ballroom. Swing dance lessons were given early in the evening and then there was a dance party until 12.

Some of the buildings were illuminated with flood lights.

The evening was magical. It was only one evening but I felt as if I was on a European vacation with all the time in the world to experience the sights and smells of something truly wonderful. I would love to go back to Waterfire perhaps in the Fall when the air is cool and crisp. And before I return I shall practice my nightime photography! 

cats and lamps

What is it with cats and lamps? Do they deliberately want to knock them over for sport?
Or do they just want to toy with me? Maybe they really have no intention of harming any lamp.

This lamp has been moved three times. It is actually too big for the tea chest where it sits in this photo.

You can just imagine this lamps fate.

Even in her pre-condo days, Molly was drawn to lamps. Oh how I miss my screened balcony!

Molly misses it too.

This lamp by my bedside was removed because a cat who will not be named persisted on

jumping on this table to gain entrance to the bed.

This seemed to be the safest place for this beauty of a lamp. Sadly, Oscar knocked it over and it

no longer works but it is still pretty.

They may look innocent but don't fall for it. They are vicious lamp killers.

Feelin the Love

Today is my birthday. Usually I take a vacation day and do something fun but since I just started my new job on June 4th I thought I should just work. I like to make a birthday trip to Rockport and I still may do that but not today.

It was a good day at work. No one there knew it was my birthday and that's just fine with me. I like them but since I have only been there two weeks it's not enough time to form work friendships. At least not for me.

Birthday wishes flooded in from the people at my former bank. So thank you to John and Dom for nice birthday emails. John even called me to make sure I knew he sent a birthday email! And Leticia for singing Happy Birthday to me in Spanish. And Maria for a very sweet voice mail message. And Jen and Jayne for lovely birthday text messages.

Thanks to Jeanne for inviting me for a breakfast smoothie and Jayn for having lunch with me today. Jayn sent me an honest to goodness real birthday card which I received on my actual birthday. Kudos Jayn!

And to Debbi for calling me today. And Kim for buying me a birthday cappuccino last night.

To the 21 Facebook friends who sent birthday wishes.

My sister bought lobster BLTS for dinner tonight. We had a family dinner, Dad and Sheila and me.

Work was good too.  I had 3 loan closings from my old bank and got 1 new application for my new job.

Dad and Mom gave me a lovely card, some $$$ and a laptop travel kit. Sheila is designing a business card for me. ( It has to do with photography). Mary is baking my favorite goodies for me so I can freeze them and enjoy them later. Don is helping me organize my downstairs room and set up a home office.

And then there was a perfect ending to my birthday. I went to visit my Mom at the nursing home tonight and most of you know her speech was severely impaired due to a stroke. I asked her to sing Happy Birthday to me and she shook her head no. I waited a while and asked again and she said no. So when I was leaving I said, "Last chance to sing me Happy Birthday".  And then it came out, "Happy Birthday to You!" she sang it with a sweet smile on her face.  Made my day.

Exploring the coast

After we went to the tearoom we explored Rockport.  I wanted to check out some new areas.

I always go down to Bearskin Neck and the dock by Motif No 1 so I decided to check out

some spots off the beaten path.

We found a path to the side of an inn and walked down it to see what we could find.

We found such vibrant colored flowers and a small pond and stairs used for horses way back when.

A lovely beach was across the street and this father and son enjoyed some time alone.

When I was a kid I always liked looking for shells, starfish and beach glass while walking along the shore.

The day was overcast then sunny then overcast. The weather couldn't make up it's mind.

No matter every day is a good day in Rockport.

We walked around some of the small streets across from the beach and stumbled upon this cute cottage. It looks like it was cut in half. Where is the other half?

There was a very old cemetery with irises bordering it.

And beach roses or rosa ragusa as well. We stopped to smell the roses and the fragrance was heavenly.

This little watch dog came to greet us as we walked down the street.

We saw some bearded iris in a fantastic color.

And more iris with a chippy fence as a backdrop.

The houses are old and painted in cool colors. What a great deck on the back and a not too shabby view of the Atlantic.

I love when it's overcast.

On the drive home, I took the scenic route versus taking the highway. I snapped this shot in Gloucester while waiting for the drawbridge to come down.

Another moody sky.  I love it!