March 10 - Home Stretch

So, if you've been paying attention to the dates you'll notice that we have just passed the one-year mark about a week ago. In some ways it seems like it's taken forever to get through this renovation and in other ways it feels like we've accomplished a great deal in a year. Many people have pointed out that a new home can be built far quicker than this but we have to point out that we had to carefully tear down  a great deal of our old structure before we even began to build the new parts. But, fast or slow, we are nearing the end of the project. We still have a bathroom to renovate upstairs but we're currently waiting for some plumbing fixtures before we can get going on that. There are other little jobs that still need to be finished - some painting, some plumbing, some electrical but we're much closer than we were even a month ago. I've included some pictures that show some of the newer additions as well as some areas that are very nearly done.

Here is our coat rack and bench as designed and created by Mike DeLuca. We salvaged some coat hooks from the barn which were added after this photo was taken. The bench is actually a storage unit - the seat lifts up. There is also storage at the top.

These are walnut floating shelves - the future home of Mike's Cookbook Collection. The style of the shelf  mimics the style of the shelf in the kitchen and provides a bit of continuity from the kitchen into the seating area in front of the fireplace.

The shelves again - this time with all the cookbooks in place.

The bridge faucet is in place and just waiting for the plumbers to come and hook everything up.

This is the barn door leading into the TV room. The rail at the top was salvaged from the old carriage house (before it was converted into a laundry room) and re-purposed for this door.

The wine fridge in its permanent home.

This is looking past the fireplace down into the little library area. You can see our new wineglass case illuminated on the right.

This is Omen enjoying the heated floor and the warm glow of the fireplace.