Yesterday, most of our furniture was delivered. There is still a shipment to come from the UK of course, all 250 boxes, but its a joy to see the dining room table in place and our bed installed!
And the concrete steps to the front porch, and the front porch itself, were laid too... well before the rain poured down last night.
Nicholas
If I am really honest, I am growing weary...it seems an almost indulgent thing to admit, for our home is absolutely beautiful, the light, the form, the creativity of combining our vision and creativity with that of our designer/contractor's...but, this moment is the culmination of nearly 2 years of solid planning, painful, heart-wrenching goodbyes, joyous hellos...the end of a career for Nicholas, the beginning of new careers for me, a new life in a new country for him, and a return to the country I thought I had left behind in 2000...
So, here we are, creating a soft landing for ourselves on a beautiful hill, above a beautiful village...I believe it will provide restoration and an opportunity for both of us to listen to our hearts and follow our imaginations...
Judy
In order to get the drains and water fully connected, our builders had to go on a little hunting expedition, which involved a big dig in the driveway followed by a patch and grade...
But as of yesterday morning, we are fully hooked up and have running water!
Tomorrow, we have living and bedroom carpet arriving... the fireplace has been placed and tile around it grouted.
There is still much to do, but some of the crew have been working this weekend.
We're counting the days.
Nicholas
Confirmation has come that all our belongings have been loaded onto a 40' container in Southampton, which set sail this morning. The shipment should arrive in NY Harbor one week from today. We are expecting we will be reunited with paintings and photographs, books and music before mid-May.
The lighting is going in beautifully and we are aware that we our home will have the illumination and warmth we cherish even when the sun sets.
Here is a photograph of the lights within the shelving unit in the living room...
Nicholas' stereo and turntable will occupy the centre section, the records on either side of it, and the speakers on each end. The lighted sections will be for art... sculptures, small paintings and larger books.
To the left is the fireplace pre-grouting, we are loving how it sits between the windows...
...and here it is, grouting finished, waiting for the copper doors to be fitted...
Much more will happen this coming week...kitchen appliances and countertops will be installed, carpeting will be fitted (as Nicholas mentioned) and the track lighting will go up.
And then, on Thursday, the furniture we purchased here in America will be delivered...hoping that decisions made months ago will be even more beautiful in reality than they have been as we held them in our unfolding imagination.
Each day, we look at one another in amazement, filled with gratitude and emergent delight.
Judy
The maple tree in front of the house is just showing buds!
And today, the preliminary grading takes place to level the earth...
We've found an antique exterior door at an amazing local salvage place. We are going use it as a garden gate and our garden contractor is going to fashion fencing to contain the back garden.
Our time at the rental is coming to an end... we'll miss the wildlife here. This morning the tiny red squirrel was the first to feed, beating the chipmunks by a long time!
Nicholas
With all the contemporary feel of the house, we do have a number of quirky antique pieces, a ladder from Indonesia, used by people to climb into houses built on stilts, an Indian trunk, carved from one tree trunk, a Buddha carved from the floorboards of a Thai Buddhist monastery....etc...these are, as I type these words, being loaded onto a 40' container and onto a ship that will set sail from Southampton this Sunday. It hardly seems possible.
The door to the garden will live happily alongside these other ancient things...while it is a full door, the window once in the top half is missing, creating an opportunity to peek into what lies beyond...so excited to create a garden, to care for plants and to create a haven for birds and wildlife and all who visit.
For those who come through the front door first, this will be their view...
We are loving the tiles and the sense of space they provide. This photograph was taken from the living room, looking towards the front of the house. There will ultimately be French doors, pocketed into the walls just past the floor register, to give a sense of division from my healing room and the rest of the house.
And much has been happening on the lower level as well...
The future cinema room has had its primer, two coats of Birchwood White will be added by the weekend to create a warm finish...
And back upstairs, the tiles we chose in our Master Bathroom are even more beautiful than the sample we first saw...
It seems hard to believe it will all come together in time for us to move in (at least partially) in 8 days. And it also seems difficult to believe that our books, our music, and, most importantly, Nicholas' paintings will join us here in America before summer arrives...
I have missed their elegant beauty, their depth of colour and reflective light, the interior places they take me when I gaze at them. I wonder what paintings will come when he enters his studio next month, having not held a brush or a palette knife for over a year. I wonder what colours he will explore, what inspirations, gently held in his imagination, waiting for the opportunity to come into form, will be emergent...
Judy
Kitchen, hall and sunroom tile have been grouted and the floors laid in the healing room and my studio (save a few strips).
This wall in the studio will be my painting surface.... it will be finished with a ten foot by eight stretch of masonite upon which I can use velcro to secure the painting boards.
There's been a slight delay with the quartz countertop in the kitchen, but we are still on target to move in by the end of April! (fingers crossed)
NIcholas
My healing room, as Nicholas said, now has a floor! Even on a very grey day, on the north side of the house, the light fills the space. I am so very excited to begin my private practice once more. It has been over a year now since doing this work and I miss the great privilege of the holding others on their journey.
A break in the clouds and the afternoon light floods our master bedroom. The ceiling fan is part of the ongoing work of our incredible electrician (who says he has never installed so many dimmers...) What can I say? I like control the atmosphere with the ambient light...all those years in theatre I am guessing...
And here is the finished tiling, looking from the end of the breakfast bar, across the hallway, and into the living room...again, we are delighted with the incredible light that, literally, fills the space. And, when we spend time in this home, we are amazed at our designer's architectural touches, the little angles and niches, all of which will give us such a wonderful daily experience of shadow and light.
As I wrote that last sentence I was reminded of how important that is to me. In Gabriella, I wrote, "the far side of shadow, is pure radiant light"...what a wondrous gift to have arrived at a moment in my life when one of my greatest life goals is to create opportunity for reflection, both outwardly and inwardly...
Judy
Tomorrow we meet our garden designer at Ithaca Quarry to look at options for the garden...
Visiting there last week we spotted some superb boulders that could form part of a rock garden behind the living room, a sort of sculptural garden. This one weighs two tons and might prove too big to place!
But the grooves and cracks make it very interesting...
Nicholas
Inspired by the limestone of this area and central Pennsylvania, the boulder above is one of them, Nicholas and I are reminded of our love of stones...the Lewissian Gneiss of Iona, the granite of the highlands, and now the limestone, called "bluestone" locally....and you can see why.
When we returned to the house after our visit, we felt the need to harvest our own larger stones that were unearthed in the early excavation on our land...we filled a wheelbarrow a number of times and then spent about an hour creating these...
We have come across cairns in Scotland, England and Ireland...and here in the USA...in Sedona, beneath Cathedral Rock. For us they are markers left by those have climbed mountains, inward or outward, and in that spirit...we created some on the drive leading to our nearly finished home.
I guess we have always chosen clay and earth, tiles on the floors have always been our choice in homes we have lived in...last Friday, the dining room was begun and Nicholas dropped by Saturday to find that the kitchen/dining room was nearly done, and the goal to complete those and the mudroom by Saturday evening. The intricate cuts on the angles required such patience and precision, and skill...it was incredible to watch them work!
The tiles will have 24 hours to set before being grouted on Monday...and then, the appliances are to be delivered on Tuesday, in anticipation of the quartz countertops...more stone...
The constancy of stone, of earth is a great joy to us both and with things moving with speed again, we are both focusing our attention on the landscaping, the trees, the plants, the structure...where we will feed the birds, where will find places for quiet reflection, how will we bring the beauty of the outdoors in, and vice versa...exciting times.
Judy
Well, here goes. We have a move-in date for the end of this month. Our builder assures us all will be ready...
Meanwhile, here's our fabulous carpenter working on the living room shelving unit. Its custom made for the hi-fi units and turntable and record albums.
The siding trim on the outside was done over the weekend and we took the crew an enormous pizza as a thank you. I've never seen such an enormous piece of pie...
but the carton was empty by Monday.
Nicholas
And just on the other side of the shared wall, in the sunroom, the tiling was laid. We are really happy with the colour and the warmth of the stone. This is the same tile we are using in the entry hall.
I really love that this is the view from the dining room area, the oak stair has been ordered for the step down into the sunroom and that should be put in place once the floor is grouted. Tiling was going at a pace with the shower in the master bath nearly done, the flooring yet to be done, and the entire guest bath completed, save grouting.
We finished ordering all the light fixtures for the gallery, which had finishing work being done on the drywall, in anticipation of painting. While at the lighting store, they told us all the other fixtures were coming in this week...so, more lights going up...yesterday the ceiling can lights in the kitchen were hooked up, nice...
Of course, as the house gets closer to completion, our minds turn to the garden. We are big fans of pebbled pathways and beds tucked alongside to add delight and little surprises...much like the garden we had in England....here was a little local inspiration we saw a few days ago...
And, of course, daily we are reminded of the gift of stone by this beautiful sight outside the cottage door...it has inspired and shaped our vision of what we will do with landscaping at the house...
Judy
