Winter proofing

Foamco came and insulated in the pastry shop and upstairs bedroom last week. It looks like the rooms are covered in blue ice cream. Yum!

We got a quote from the sheetrock guy and he will spackle and prime as well. Good deal. Then we pick a floor and paint colors!

We have a slightly different plan for this wall. My sister and Gizmo are in the process of building a garage that also holds a workshop and a small boutique. They used this paneling in the boutique. 

They are unfinished painted boards.

This is their bedrom and these boards are stained. We want the same look for the one wall in the pastry shop and I think we want to stain it blue.

Also thinking about doing it to the 2 short walls in the NOW laundry room THEN super cosy kitchen nook. Whenever we get to that...

We got new contractors and the porch molding is finally done. 

I drove all the way to Pleasant Valley in the rain to pick up these bricks. I acted like an absolute craigslist crazy showing up with no money thinking this guy was the one with the free bricks. He took me on a drive that was just a little too long for comfort up behind his house and there was definitely a moment when I was getting ready to tuck and roll. But then the tables turned and I started asking about the nearest ATM. In the middle of the woods. I googled my way to a bank and came back and loaded up the car.

I am going to line the flower bed over on the other corner of the house as well but as long as the weather is good all energy goes into getting this house painted.

Fall is coming on like gangbusters and this is lovely Maple Ave in color!

Tomorrow I go to the Doorjamb to buy a new basement door. And since it is raining I am sanding the front door and all the trim around it. It's the only task that is under a roof. If I am lucky I will also have time for a dump run! This weekend is supposed to be nice so maybe I will get to finish sanding the porch and to mow the last bit of grass. Just in time to start raking leaves. James is coming in tomorrow night and will get to work first thing on saturday with caulking and priming. And sanding and painting.

It is so relaxing to have a house in the country.

Fall will be nice but I'm not ready to wear pants.

I was around all week long, happily unemployed. Got stuff done around the house and knocked off season 2 of Big Love. 

We are playing catch up on the outside. Want to be in the same place with all the windows, trim and porches. Which right now means primed and sanded and ready for a 1st coat of real paint. And we are getting there. 

My big accomplishment is the big porch. Primed. Phew.

No easy task with all those curves, crooks and nannies.

James primed 2 of the last windows and the basement door on the north side.

One titanic task was to finish the little porch and it finally got done. Up to primer that is...

The new rule around here is IF you walk through this entrance you have to LOOK UP and compliment us on our extraordinary work on this beast of a restoration job.

We experimented with GREEEEEEN. James painted a patch on the outside of the laundry room to see what SPACE will look like.

 I think we have settled and we like it. Space it is.

I don't now if these are the morning glories I planted or if someone had the same instinct as me but they are popping either way. 

OK. What else. I prepped the weekend menu during the week by "graving" a piece of salmon. I also cooked up a giant pot of borscht. That became thursday supper when James arrived. This time cold with chopped up hard boiled egg and cucumber. We ate it again for friday lunch and I added a side of kielbasa to please the tall one. We ate gravlax for saturday dinner with boiled potatoes and hovmästarsås. The left over potatoes and kielbasa went in to a pytt-i-panna for sunday brunch. Which is your left over scraps fried up with some onions and an over easy egg on top. 

We watched movies too. 

RocknRolla. Pretty silly. Mildly entertaining. Another Guy Ritchie too cool for school affair.

The Two Escobars. Great documentary about Pablo and Andres Escobar. One druglord and the other a soccer player. We watched Cocaine Cowboys the other week and THAT was AWESOME and this was a nice follow up. 

We gave In Bruges about 45 minutes and then it had to go. An absolute awful mess. Are you being funny? Is this a comedy? So why the sad classical music? And killing a 10 year boy accidentally is never funny. Same goes for Colin Farrell... Bye bye, you go back to Netflix now.

But The Messenger made up for it. Both James and I are in the credits on this one. Great little movie about two army officers who deliver the news to the next of kin of fallen soldiers. 

The one I really have to recommend though is Sin Nombre. We saw it last weekend and were both blown away. It's (very) BRUTAL and BEAUTIFUL and simple and real and just never misses a beat. A perfect chain of events that made for great story telling. You can give me that over and over and over. Like last year's absolute favorite: Crazy Heart. And Jeff Bridges is always a treat anyway. Mmmmmm...

Mmmmm... Treat....

Oh. Where was I?

Going back to work... A little passion project (somebody else's passion project...) but a chance to get to work with American Society of Cinematographer's member Nancy Schreiber, one of the few ladies there. Which means this year, I've worked with 3 of the most prominent female directors of photography in the biz. Lisa Rinzler, Eller Kuras and now Nancy. I like those stats.

And lastly a friendly Hudson Valley reminder...

This is the PRIME TIME to come visit our lovely area. Activities and beauty galore!!!

Tiny birds and big changes

Aaaaand where do I start?

Just gonna rattle it off I guess.

But first let's travel back in time for a second... To February 2009 when we first encountered Big Pink.

Yup. That's who we fell in love with... By the time we moved in we had the front porch of course and this week little sis over by the pastry shop finally got new gams. I know she's been waiting for this day.

James spent the week in Clintondale (lucky dawg) prepping the trim to be painted. He's getting help from Billy and between the 2 of them we are soon gonna have a dark green house. James busied himself with the bay window and got much done!

She's about ready for a paint job!

The J's also worked to finish Tom's side, our south gable.

There was a window where the white patch of shingles is and the trim around the door is also done. Still left to do: The two small windows up top will be moved to around the corner (pastry shop and bathroom) and we have ordered 2 taller ones to replace them. 

When there was a drop ceiling in the green room it didn't seem weird that the top of the windows reached about James' adams apple, but now that we have nothing but space - they look a little dwarfish. And lastly - the little rounded attic vent will finally become a real window

The boys built the frame where the bathtub is going to go.

This is the closed up window from the inside. Our plumber Scott has already started laying pipe. (Are there a lot of innuendos in this post or is it just me?)

Phew - I think that is it for work around the house. To be continued this week...

We had ourselves a 3 day 4th of July weekend and we got a lot done around the house but there was also some NIIIIIIICE relaxing and humming bird spotting... That's right. They apparently LOVELOVELOVE our trumpet vine and oweeeeeegot lots of it. Of course after the first sighting the city folk (us) got in Suzy Q (the new car) and headed straight to Lowe's (the building supply place up the road that feels like my 2nd home sometimes) and bought feeders and nectars! If they had had humming bird costumes that James and I could have dressed up in to attract them I think we would have bought one each and some extras for visiting friends. Very cute little buggers and something new to look out for.

Speaking of cute little buggers...

We had only one guest for the holiday but my was it a distinguished one.

Weasley, of Little Dog Orchard fame. An absolute pleasure to have around and there is really only one downside - the realization that 19 Maple Ave needs something furry. (See! Is that dirty - I don't even know anymore?

This fantastic muppet like creature is a little closer at hand, living in the cottage and all, so we often partake in his amazing fits and starts. The other day he got a hose bath and we couldn't figure out if he was playing again or if he really just thought it SUCKED.

I have a few stories to tell about UNWANTED furries around the property but I'll save that for another post. 

So who knows if I'm just getting up there or if the country has turned me into a semi hermit but crowds - meeeeeeeehhhh - don't really dig'em, so staying around the house on the 4th with a man and a borrowed dog was all I needed. I made pork loin and we watched fireworks by the mountain house. And we brewed. It's been a while so it was new and exciting again. The funnest part was doing it outside (we like to do it outside) on the burner kind Dirk has lent us. 

Our neighbors across the street, Suzanne and Butch, had a fantastic garage sale Memorial Day weekend and we picked up a lot of good stuff. One thing being this terra cotta cooking pot. So for the 4th we DIDN'T BBQ, but instead I made something highly reminiscent of my Scanditrash roots - pork and taters with a lotta salt and pepper. 

I made a rub with crushed garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. I precooked the potatoes a little and then put them in the pot with some cut up onions, along with the seasoned pork loin. Some fresh rosemary twigs on top and SKJUTS - in the oven! 400 degrees, about 25 minutes on each side. So juicy - so delicious - so easy.

We also took a small drive for ice cream to Tantillos farm. Softserve with homegrown peaches and raspberries.

Meeeeeeeh... I thought it was awright....

To round out a perfect (although STIFLING) summer weekend in the country, we stopped and picked some road side Blackeyed Susans and brought home. I'm Swedish and I take Allemansrätten with me wherever I go. (All mans right - to pick berries and flowers and mushrooms in the woods where one finds them)

We are back in the city for a week of work. Always with this work stuff getting in the way of fun. But soon it'll be weekend again and we'll be going home to the country.

My country week

I'm really too tired to write but the J's are back and I gotta keep up with them. They come through like tasmanian devils and just get sh*t DUN.


I'm working in Monroe this week and have been commuting from the house. Whatta great thing. Getting a dangerously sweet taste for living here all the time. 


So while I have been doing this:

Aaaaahhh duuuuuuuh it's not obvious? It's a stoner-civil-war-spoof by the Whitest Kids U Know. It's very funny and spirits are high even though we're dealing with humid heat in the 90's and a treacherous field, low man power and limited time.

They've been doing this:

New door in place. That like just happened like today. I ordered a door handle and lock from The Door Jamb, a nice, simple black lever that sparked my Scandinavian aesthetic. 

When Bruce built our front porch he pulled the shingles off to anchor it and today the J's covered it back up so that we can get ready to paint. 

Tyvek is gone from the baywindow! Yeah J-boyz!

We have ordered the fixtures for the new upstairs bathroom and they will be delivered this sunday. I have decided on a black and white theme in there, with white subway tile around the tub and 2 white walls, the one with the window and the one with the door. The wall that goes in towards the house will be a charcoal accent wall and will have a vanity the length of the wall with one drop in sink. 

First, the J's were going to build a custom vanity, but this past weekend we found this at Lowe's and it will do just fine! We are going to tile the top with subway tile.

And finally - black slate floor. 

The inspiration for the whole bathroom look is this mirror that will go over the sink. Yum.

Gagagagaga. So. Much. Happening.

But it's all fun stuff!

The countdown to my sis and Giz's visit is another exciting thing!!! 3 weeks today! And then it's tubing, soft serve, miniture golf, Gunk Haus dinners and wine on the patio for 2 1/2 glorious weeks. It's gonna be a great time to visit - hint hint city friends! There will be sightseeing as well, and some city fun and a Martha's Vineyard finale. Now that's brilliant!

Inspirational plant of the week. The lovely trumpet vine! It's essentially a weed and grows all over but the flowers are strange and beautiful!

And last but certainly not least - the hosta!

My my my you are looking fiiiiiine!

Holy goat!

Interesting weekend. First of all we thought we were having Swedish guests and Swedish treats at the house but a volcano changed all that. So not cool. My parents never made it out of Sweden and I guess it's a relief that they are at home and safe. As of now they have rescheduled their flight for Sunday the 25th and we hope they can make it!

So James and I got right back on killen knot weed (Fallopia japonica). I'm using a garden fork that we bought for a dollar at a tag sale and I stick it into the big motherload stumps and pull them out like heads of Medusa. 

This is what you find under some rocks. Shudder. So gross.

But we have new allies in the knot weed war.

This is Sage. And that is not what she is paid to eat. There's knot weed right there and she is climbing around our Valborgs pile. (Short version: Valborg is April 30th in Sweden and we light big bonfires and sing songs to welcome spring.)

And this is Cinders. She was pretty focused on the knot weed but there was equal parts lawn consumed. What are you gonna do, cheap labor. 

And this is the knot weed field after an afternoon with our furry mowers. They can do some damage I tell ya. This picture must have been taken on day one of our experiment because on day 2 we had to add another cinder block for Cinders. 2 was easy enough for her to drag home. Sage only needed 1 block to keep her put but she must have ran to the end of her leash about 1000 times thinking "this time it might be longer". 

We kept a half eye on them because the entanglement possibilities were endless and if we tried to help out we got equally ensnared. Cinders almost took me out at least once by taking a swift lap around my legs with the leash and pulling taught. Then she rubs her head all over you. They're very social and nice to have around these creatures.

Florence has a third goat, Gaby, but she has a nervous condition and Florence couldn't get her to come over. When she gets stressed she goes stiff and falls over, she faints basically. We'll be sure to pick some knot weed and bring it over to Gaby and her sheep pals.

Florence brought us a mint plant. It found a home in a pot by the dining room window.

Our darling Dog Wood tree!!!

Azaleas in bloom. 1 pink, 1 white, 2 red bushes.

We are so focused on KILLIN and massacreing  that we have overlooked planting and bringing new things in to the garden (except for some random grass seed that we spread a few weeks ago... it was a stoopid city folk thing to do and it's mostly just feeding the birds I think...). 

Rosemary's little painting made us think though. She has painted in two bushes at the foot of the porch stairs and it changes everything. Why couldn't we just do that? It would hide a bunch of uglyness and help the front of the house get nice. 

So this weekend I found myself at Lowes buying a pot for our new mint plant and saw this Dappled Willow bush. It said on the tag that it likes morning sun and that is what's best about our front porch! It seemed meant to be.

Uh... hmmm... 

Yeah exactly - click on the picture to enlarge.... More than ever... But they'll come around!

We cooked burgers on the grill and for a Sunday treat I made kladd kaka for the first time in 20 years. It's like a Swedish brownie and it's like delicious and too easy to make.

Beat 2 eggs with 1 1/3 cup sugar.

Add:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 pinch salt

1/2 table spoon vanilla extract

Stir together and finally add - YES! 1 STICK OF MELTED BUTTER!

Put in a buttered pan and bake for 40 minutes at 300˚.

Once every 20 years or so it's OK to make one and just eat it up between 2 people. We ate and watched Lost In Translation for the the 100th time and it's still pretty magical. Now we want to keep the magical mood and Harold and Maude is on the marquee for next weekend. Followed by Tillsammans (Together). MMMMmmmmmm

All pics were taken with my phone in this post so pardon the image quality. But I had fun with them in the app camerabag to make them a little more special. 

Tills vidare!