Oh my.  Where has the time gone?  It’s been a busy and wonderful year here and we are getting ready for many exciting things as we wind down this year and prepare for the new one.

We are about to enter a phase that we have taken to calling “The House’s Six Weeks at The Spa.”  You see, in 2014 we will enter the house’s 130th birthday year, and to keep the lady looking good and operating smoothly we are going to take on some renovation and update projects.  Some will be fun and glamorous (yes, there is a custom built headboard for one of the bedrooms in the future) and others will just be necessary (new boiler, anyone?).  But we are looking forward to all of them even though we have an aggressive schedule and I am sure it will be an intense few weeks.  I can’t wait to see how it all comes to fruition.  And, call me weird, but I think the house is looking forward to it too.  In the last year and a half here, I really think the house has come to accept us and sees us as her caretakers and not just her inhabitants.  It is a responsibility we do not take lightly.  Yes, I refer to the house as “her” like she has a personality.  Well, I think she does.  She’s a happy house and we want to keep it that way, and so, the construction work begins.  Hopefully, one day, long down the road, her next inhabitants will feel the same way we do.  And even if they don’t agree with our design sensibilities, they can make their own changes but see the work we put in was done with care and integrity.

So, officially, the work begins on the 18th, but Jonathan couldn’t resist getting a little bit of a head start this past weekend.  He dug a trench for and installed  tubing to re-route some guttering on the front of the house.  One of the projects we will be taking on includes some porch repairs and a new front porch roof.  The porch and porch roof woes, we feel, can be directly attributed to the fact that most of the guttering from the front of the house leads directly onto the teeny front porch roof.  During a rain storm that front gutter is just overwhelmed and it’s a bit like Niagara Falls at the front of the house.  Our aim is to get all the water further away from the house and not lead it all directly to the front porch roof.  That way, our repairs will last.  And hopefully we will breathe easier during the Spring rains!

So, I’m categorizing the porch repair as both glamorous and necessary – a new, shiny metal roof will be glamorous and making sure the porch is safe and secure is necessary.

I’m hoping to post lots of updates as we go along!  It’s going to be a crazy ride!

Beginning the six weeks of updates and renovations – Jonathan installs tubing to re-route guttering.