Fall in the Country Dogs Neighborhood

The Country Dogs' Dining Room

After many months, our dining room is back in service! The built-in cupboard on the right is original to the house, the mantel and beadboard on the left is brand new (well, the mantel is an antique just not from this house).

Sunny Spring Day

Mittens

Fall in New Jersey

Green Building

Recently, a famous celebrity (yes, you know this person) moved into our neighborhood. Their new house appears to be a "green" home with geothermal heating and cooling and recycled antique timbers. That got us to wondering, what exactly is green? Are some building practices more green than others? And is it greener to build new or retrofit existing buildings?

For instance, this celebrity's home, while certainly friendlier to the environment than most, was built in 2006. Do the recycled building materials and renewable energy offset the impact of building a house where there was none? And since we are so remote here (even in New Jersey), does building a green house where you need to rely on a car make sense? I remember watching an episode of House Hunters where a couple concerned with green building was looking at newer homes along the Oregon Coast. How green is it to build a house in the middle of nowhere? Maybe they should live in Portland. On the subway line.

Our house is 150 to 250 years old. Is that greener than a new "green" house? Or is it so inefficient that its better to tear it down and build purely green? Or is moving into the city our only true option?

We'd love to get solar panels, if the US could get its act together and provide better subsidies, like they do in parts of the the world. New Jersey actually does have the best (or second best) solar program in America but its still expensive. And even if we do go solar, we're still driving all over tarnation to buy groceries and do other errands. Okay, we've raised a lot of questions here and answered none of them!--the calculations are starting to make our heads hurt. And we're not moving to the city any time soon. But maybe we'll see what we can do to make our lives a little greener.

US Green Building Council

Greening the Not So New House - Article from the US Green Building Council

Environmental Protection Agency

Greenbuilding.com

This Old House - Green building and living ideas. The house pictured above is one of their project houses, remodeled with green elements.

Danny Seo and his blog Daily Danny

A quiet country stream

Oh, the joys of country living. Here's our normally 3 foot wide waterfall swollen to about 10 feet and spilling over the embankment into the neighbors yard. Down the street, the rains are washing over the road into the neighbors pond which is overtopping itself. It certainly has been a little wet in New Jersey this summer.

First Beans

Well the garden is up and running (and a little overgrown).

Country Cousins

Two years ago, in our last house, we were surprised by a small kitten on our back porch. He eventually moved in--his name is Mittens--and became a part of the family. Well, yesterday we were surprised by another small creature. No, not the many mice that Mittens has found and left in various states of disarray around the house. A snake. Under the washing machine. We've seen many in the yard as we have that creek, pond and waterfall, but this one is in the basement. It appears to be a ribbon snake and from what we've read, they make great pets. No pics yet but here are our new clothes washing shoes.

Gardens

It's finally starting to look like a proper farmstead. Most of the junk's been cleared out (most of it). The vegetable gardens are started. We still have to build a permanent fence for it. We may recreate the Shaker fence we did in Finesville. Although I found a book of very nice and intricate fence posts so we'll see what happens. I guess if I do the work I can have whatever I want. So far the deer have stayed away from the flowers. All except a phlox. If they last the summer it will be a major victory. There are very few flower gardens outside of fences around here as the deer run far and wide (there are even hoof marks in the new pond). It will be a testament to Mark's gardening skills (and a little luck). but so far so good!

The Pond

Okay so its only about 10 x 15 and our two neighbors have massive ponds. We get to look at theirs and not take care of them. This one's easy. And full of frogs!

Barn friends

Here's a little friend we made, hanging out on the barn door.

Moving on from the Kitchen

Now that the kitchen is done, looks like the dining room is next...

Spring Updates

Well the kitchen is virtually done. Pics will be up soon. We found a great island at a designer consignment shop in Hopewell NJ--retails for $1800 (Thats what they said, although after searching for one, I'd put it at least at $1400). We got it for $500. Still want to paint it but it does the job. I am itching to rip the walls off the back porch and the dining room. Peeked behind the porch wall and saw the same stone insulation we have in the kitchen--don't know what it all looks like though. Knocked through the ugly cupboard in the dining room and saw some antique molding and stucco. looks promising.

We just built a small pond behind the barn--3 very active springs come up out of the ground right there. So far so good--its holding water and we even have a decent waterfall where the overflow heads down and connects with the main stream. now we need to landscape it out. We found an unbelievable source for soil, right here in NJ. we're getting a huge delivery to finish the gardens next to the barn and start the vegetable garden--which I think will end up in the driveway. pics to come...

Finally, we cleared the path to the other hidden stream at the back of the property. The path is a former driveway into the back of the old farm. As such, there is a stone bridge running over this creek too--its the coolest thing and so hidden and quiet back there. perfect for picnics with two large flat rocks for sitting. The dogs were even hanging out there a few days ago.

Kitchen Update - Almost there

Its almost done--just one more day with the contractor and then a gallon of paint and we should be finished enough. oh yeah, we still have to find a kitchen island and hang the antique door on the cupboard stairs, and a put a light above the sink, oh well. We're heading to the Historic Home Show outside Philly today to get ideas (plus we got free tickets like we do every once in a while) then we'll try to incorporate those ideas but much more cheaply into the house. Also off to Ikea to get some shelves and other small items that were forgotten in the order. I have to say Ikea cabinets, if you select the right ones, do look very good in an antique home. We got the very simple white Shaker style--okay so they have a plasticky feel to them, if you don't look too closely they look pretty darn good. Plus the farmhouse sink is dirt cheap, maybe not as elegant as more expensive models but it'll do the job. The faucet kind of leaks so we may return it. And of course the soapstone tile countertops are wonderful. We went with the tiles as we didn't know the dimensions we needed until the cabinets were installed. plus they were $700 cheaper than slabs. From Bucks County Soapstone--$11/per tile which is the best price we found plus no shipping costs as we can drive there in an hour. We'll see how they do.

This was a kitchen makeover on a budget. So far the cost was $10k (we planned for $9k) but still need that island so over budget we go. Oh well, the house just appraised for 10k more than we paid for it in June and that's before the new kitchen--how many people can say that in this housing market? But whats really funny is that I had been thinking that we could just repaint the existing cabinets and work off of them. However, seeing them in a pile outside--they are vile especially in the back--we never used most of the base cabinets because they were so stained. anyway...

Kitchen Remodel

Frisky peering into the kitchen.


The kitchen updating is on its way. The hidden stone wall has been exposed and repointed. The mason is coming back, hopefully, to acid wash it, and then we can paint. Most of the cabinets and appliances are on the back porch waiting for the contractor. Today we're going to look at soapstone tiles for the countertops.

Winter is here

October 28, 2008

Fall

With the leaves starting to turn, the huge pond behind the property, and the mountain across the Raritan River, are coming into view.