We made it!  We worked up until the very last day, but were ready for our re-opening on December 30, and graciously welcomed our guests!  What a delight to finally make our renovation reveal! We had a terrific New Year’s Eve and served a delicious breakfast the next morning to a boisterous crowd around the breakfast table.  We are so grateful and would like to wish everyone a very happy 2014!  Come visit us this year!

I’ll have more photos to post in the days to come, and of course the room pages on the website will be updated, but I know Jonathan is going to want to obsess over just the right angle and just the right lighting for a while!  For now, here is a photo of the updated Shore Room, which is the one I have been dying to show you all.

Renovation reveal -The newly updated Shore Room

Remember what it looked like before?

Shore Room

Six weeks seemed like a lot of time in the beginning, but in the end it went by very quickly.  The list of things we got accomplished is long.  Shall we do an accounting?  Here we go:

• Removed two old oil tanks; Replaced with one large, new tank
• Removed old boiler; Added new, energy efficient boiler
• Created a dual zone heating system to heat the guest section of the house separately from the owners’ quarters
• Replaced valves to all radiators so all of them now function!
• Repaired/re-pointed foundation of house
• Repaired Front Porch, including replacing several rotting beams
• Removed old metal roof on porch and replaced with new, custom metal roof
• Re-routed and replaced guttering on front of house to direct water away from the porch
• Removed old floor in back entry; Added new joists and insulation and re-floored
• Insulated and added new dry wall to basement entry room
• Removed and replaced basement stairs
• Removed florescent lighting fixture in back entry/laundry room and replaced with new LED down lights
• Relocated washer and dryer from old closet to the back entry room; added new plumbing to accommodate this relocation
• Created a new pantry area from the old washer closet
• Removed all aging smoke detectors and replaced with new smoke/carbon monoxide detectors – six in total
• Removed window casings from Shore Room; Removed old window counterweights, and insulated weight well
• Removed all paint layers from window casings, repainted and put back in place
• Removed and replaced toe kick in Shore Room
• Stripped and repainted baseboard molding in Shore Room
• Removed old flimsy closet shelves in Shore Room and replaced with a custom built system
• Re-secured bead board to walls in Shore Room where needed
• Repaired plaster cracks in Shore Room
• Removed wall paper from headboard wall in Shore Room
• Repainted Shore Room, top to bottom.
• Re-positioned ceiling fan junction box to center of room in Shore Room, removed old ceiling fan and replaced with a new ceiling fan.
• Refinished floors in Shore Room
• Built a new, custom headboard for Shore Room
• Removed wallpaper from accent wall in Traveler’s Retreat
• Repainted Traveler’s retreat, top to bottom
• Removed wallpaper in Traveler’s Retreat bathroom
• Repainted Traveler’s Retreat bathroom
• Added a polyurethane coat to wood bath surround and vanity cabinet in Traveler’s Retreat bathroom
• Added a new tile step-out area in front of the shower in Traveler’s Retreat bathroom
• Added new, LED down lights above shower and tub areas in Traveler’s Retreat bathroom
• Repaired plaster cracks, second floor hallway
• Removed and replaced toe kick, second floor hallway

Quite a list when you look at it that way!  We are looking forward to a great birthday year for the house.  We think we gave her a good start and we look forward to having everyone come visit us soon so you can see all of this for yourselves.

I’ll keep posting in the weeks to come.  We have a few more details to finish out (remember those new lighting fixtures for the Traveler’s Retreat bathroom I mentioned?) so stick around.  It’s going to be a great year!

-R