Mele kalikimaka !! This lovely little fountain tree sits outside the Headquarters of the Holstein Association. Did I mention that Brattleboro is the headquarters of the Holstein Association?

The Sky Club in Detroit is going through renovations but this chair wouldn’t cooperate and ended up in time-out. We hope it has learned a good lesson and will be able to join the other chairs for Christmas punch today.

Traveling late on Christmas Eve made for this wonderfully empty terminal at BDL.

Houston, here we come!

The air handling unit in the attic area will be relocated to the basement. It handles both A/C and can run as a backup to the radiant heat system. However, the restaurant’s layout meant that the unit itself, along with all its ductwork, was outside the heated space and probably burning a lot of unnecessary energy.

Now, we’re going to move the air handler to the boiler room, run the main duct up from the basement, and run the main trunk duct in a chase behind the kitchen cabinets.

Cosette loves sniffing around all the new nooks and crannies, although she is still skittish around workers and loud noises. Today we have a small bird in the house, somehow, and if C discovers that it will be quite the show, I’m sure.

Beyond the blue tarp is the un-demolished area where I’m sitting now, and where the heat is turned on. It’s still unseasonably warm here, but the temp is dropping into the low teens at night, and although we are perfectly comfortable, I’ll be glad to get things buttoned up so we don’t burn so much fuel.

The worktable on the left is at the far end of where a long kitchen counter will run, including dishwasher, sink, and cooktop. Directly on the other side of the tarp we’ll be putting a gas fireplace in a peninsula that will come out from the wall and be visible from both sides (kitchen and living room). That peninsula will also break up the bowling alley view somewhat, hopefully without sacrificing the open feel we are going for.

With all the cultural activites and Archer Mayor excitement, you might think that construction is either done or has ground to a halt… not at all.

Last week, we turned a real corner in moving from de-struction to con-struction. We’ve framed in the new mud room, most of the upstairs laundry and bathroom areas, and the long central wall that will divide the kitchen from the master bedroom. Here, L is looking into the new kitchen, with the entry / mudroom shown on the right, and laundry and powder room behind her and to the leftt.

You can see the original ceiling height in the strandboard beams kind of behind L. In much of the house, we are raising the ceiling to the level of the higher cross ties you can just see in front of her. That has a dramatic effect on the overall feeling of openness… since none of the rooms are really all that big, the higher ceilings really have an impact.

Things are going nicely, and now that we’re in the middle of it, I’m glad that our crew has been down a man for part of this week, because there are lots of decisions to be made.

Wall o wine at Costco. Bye bye dry Utah.

Parking Lot Life

Why is there a disreputable old pickup in our ‘front yard’ this morning?

Why is the nice man from the towing and recovery service taking the truck away?

Would a lawn provide as much entertainment?