Progress

Here are some photos of the progress around the house. Even with the holiday interruption things are going full steam ahead!

No, we haven't purchased a submarine! For those of you with city gas, please go hug your meter for me- that is the one thing I do miss about living in the city. For those of you 'city-folk' who have never seen one, this is a propane tank (1,000 gallons worth) and is going to be buried , except for the top which will be re-painted with my favorite camouflage paint (and if you don't know the magical powers of camo spray paint well then I'm very, very sorry!!!)

It's now buried!

Barn with new concrete wall. The fieldstone retaining wall (in the left of picture) will be numbered and moved stone by stone the 14' to the edge of the barn and will be back-filled to enable us to put a stone patio off of the great room/barn room. I think I've already mentioned moving the wall before... Moving the granite foundation to make way for the garage door openings.North side of barn,where the garage doors will be.
Area being prepared for new concrete foundation wall to be framed and then poured. Concrete wall in.

This next photo is taken from the kitchen. The original dining room fireplace (which opened only into the dining room) has been removed. It leaked and had issues that were going to be very costly to repair and I really, really wanted a fireplace in my kitchen! So the win/win/win solution is to put a see-through fireplace in- we won't be saving any money, but will end up with fireplaces in three rooms instead of one! It will sit on the floor like the original one did, and have a very slim profile that will be covered with the original bricks, and the dining room will retain the original mantle. The other HUGE bonus of this decision is that by taking out the chimney upstairs (see early photos of the 'leaning' chimney in the master bedroom) it takes what was going to be a small closed off bedroom and makes it one large lovely-sized room! The new master will have lots of windows, and a newly added fireplace flanked by french doors that open onto the upstairs porch! It's always been another dream to have a fireplace in the master bedroom- and in NH you really want one!

The week also included some shopping fun! I'm contemplating these antique iron gates for the open doorway from the great room/barn into the back mudroom that leads to the stairs that take you to the garage below. They just happen to be the exact height I need, not to mention that I think they are beautiful, and would be a nice divide between the two rooms with out closing the area off with a solid door. What do you think?!
This large old rug was purchased for the great/barn room!
Another purchase! We can't pass up a great old rug!