Weekend at Basin Harbor

 

We spent the weekend at the beautiful Basin Harbor Club for our friends' wedding. We've been to Vermont a bunch, but never here. It's almost a Dirty Dancing style resort where everything you could want or need is all on the property - a lake, lawn games out the wazoo, a bar, a restaurant, darling little cabins, and colorful Adirondack chairs around every bend. (I really want some colorful Adirondack chairs now.)

We had the bestest time with our friends there - a few who we haven't seen since we lived in D.C. almost seven years ago! Too long. We made up for lost time by pretending that we're all still 22 :)

All Golden and Sunny

We are going to Burlington, VT this weekend to celebrate our friends' wedding. I hope it looks just like this, all golden and sunny. I've been reading oodles of critical theory for class, so I brought nothing but magazines to catch up on for the entire weekend. This Old House, Real Simple, and New Yorker,  I'm coming for you.

Guess what, today marks four weeks since we've been living in our house! It feels much longer than that, though - I guess because so much is happening there. I love coming home every night during the week to see what's been done that day, but kind of hate being surrounded by everything gross on the weekends. Thank goodness we have lots of weddings coming up this fall to escape to :)

Hope you have a fantastic weekend with apple cider and magazines and colorful leaves!

The wall came a tumblin' down!

Yay, the wall with the horrible sliding glass door came down this week! I am THRILLED. The living room doubled in size, and there's so much more light now. Our beam is in place, and the ceiling got all the framing up. And, our new coat closet was framed out, too!

I realized all these updates kind of look the same. I'm mostly (selfishly) posting them here so we can have a record of this process. This week the electrician and the dry wall guys are coming over. Eeks!

Big E Recap

Peter and I met my family at the Big E Saturday afternoon, and we stayed into the night, looking at baby chicks hatching and riding the Ferris wheel. It was perfection.

We did a great job trying all kinds of new stuff this year, including:

• "Irish" nachos, which were thick cut chips with nacho cheese, cheddar, sour cream, chopped corned beef and diced red onion
• Chips with cheddar horseradish dip
• A mixed basket of fried seafood
• Crab cakes
• Pork chop sandwiches with sauerkraut
• Fried Camembert cheese
• Famous Big E cream puff

Are you going?! There's still one week left for you to enjoy New England's bounty :)

Minuteman National Historic Park

I started my next graduate class two weeks ago, and it is kicking my butt so far! It's on critical theory (not my fave, so far at least). After hours of reading and paper writing last weekend, we went to Minuteman National Park in Concord for a bit of a break in the great outdoors.

It was lovely! There's a great walking path that you can hop onto at all different spots around town. Along the walk there are a bunch of old houses that you can pop into (for free!). The one below was open when we got there so we took a peek inside. The guide told us that it was inhabited full time until the 1960s - can you even imagine?!

Happy weekend, everyone! We're heading to the Big E tomorrow with my family for eat-your-face-off-fest 2013 and I am MOST excited about it. Hope there's something fun in store for you, too!

Glimpses of Fall + Lemony Arugula and Apple Salad

Last weekend we went up to Crane for a beautiful final beach day of the summer. On the way home, we stopped at Russell Orchards, and it was like being literally thrust into autumn. Pumpkins and corn stalks and apples galore.

I bought a half dozen Cortland apples that I've been snacking on throughout the week. They're so crisp and perfect! Last night Peter grilled a brined pork tenderloin (on our new-to-us Weber grill that I'd been searching on Craig's list for for weeks!), and he threw together this dead-simple salad to go along with. It's a basic dressing with olive oil, a forkful of Dijon, salt, pepper, and the juice of one small lemon (so, very lemony!). Then add in thin slices of apple, toss, and enjoy. This would work just as nicely with kale as the season progresses, too.

Are you feeling ready for fall? Or trying to hold on to summer as much as possible? I'm trying to a little bit of both in this funny in between time of year.

Walls + Windows

Last week we turned a bit of a corner in the renovation. Instead of just pulling (wrong) things apart, they started putting things back together again. It's incredibly satisfying to see some progress! Our new front windows were installed, the outside walls were put back on, and the roof was added. I think (hope!) that this week, the sliding glass doors will finally be coming down!

Because of all that progress, we got to do a bit of shopping for fun stuff over the weekend. We're going to have the entryway tiled. I initially was thinking slate - I like the look of it, and feel like it's sort of timeless. But our contractor told us that it requires a pretty toxic sealant on it that gives off dangerous gas for quite a while. He pushed us to think about a matte porcelain instead. I found this one online, so we went to the store over the weekend to take a sample home. I actually don't understand if it's ceramic or porcelain based on the name, but I'm hoping it's good. I think it has the feel of slate, but a bit lighter and more yellow (though that doesn't really come through in this picture).

We also got to pick out a new exterior door (our current one isn't weather-proofed!). I think we're leaning toward this one. I think it fits well with the Dutch colonial style of house - it's sort of modern barn-ish, right? I might be thinking about this too much, haha. This is what we're thinking about for the door between the entry and the hallway - just light and airy, but something we could close off if we wanted to.

That's all the progress on the home front! I hope I'll be able to check in again soon with something a bit more exciting :)

Loving Lately

There's kind of a sub-genre of historical fiction geared toward women that starts with "the" at the moment (Exhibit A and B). Strange, no? The latest I've read in this category is The Chaperone. In the summer of 1922, a soon-to-be starlet and her middle-aged chaperone trapeze around New York. I developed great affection for the heroine (and a mixed bag of emotions for the complicated Louise Brooks). This is a good book to ease you into more serious reading for fall :)

I seriously can't believe I haven't shared my love of Fringe here before, because it's been going strong for months. We are currently wrapping up the fourth season, and I'm eagerly awaiting the fifth on Netflix. If you liked Lost and X Files, I think you'll enjoy this one, too. Plus, PACEY WITTER!!!

I've never purchased address labels before because my apartments always felt so temporary (even though I lived in some for years!). Now that we're more settled with the house, I want one of these brilliant self-inking stamps. (I always strategically put something in here that I want you all to encourage me to buy. I totally need this, right?!?)

A few other things I'm excited about:

• Do you all follow New Yorker writer David Grann on twitter? He posts the very best stuff. 
• As soon as my front steps are no longer in the midst of a construction zone, I want mums and polka dot pumpkins. 
• Next weekend, I want attempt these button-up window shades for the back porch. Right on schedule, I'm ready to sew again!

Martha's Vineyard: Exteriors and Gardens

My house is still crazy looking, so I thought it would be a fun day to mentally transport to the meticulous exteriors of the houses on Martha's Vineyard!

I want to paint the ceiling of my back porch blue - much paler than this, but you get the idea. And I loved that arched doorways below; so pretty.

I also want to eventually add those white balustrade things to the flat roof in the front of the house. Cute, right? All I need is my roof back.

How was everyone's long weekend?! We did make it up to the Berkshires. Remember when I said something about jinxing the entire region?! Well, we went to Tanglewood on Saturday night to see Harry Connick on the lawn, and a huge, long, loud thunderstorm rolled in. But! There was room inside the Shed, so we were all shuttled in there, and it was terribly lucky, actually.

Also, just in case you're dying of curiosity about the Box Spring Fiasco of 2013, we successfully folded them and brought them to the second floor, thanks to Anne's comment in the last post! This is a really helpful step-by-step tutorial.

Happy September to all!