Old House My House

Hello Brooklyn!!!!!!

2008-11-20T10:03:15-05:00

Perhaps surprisingly, in nearly 30 years of This Old House, we had yet to renovate in New York City. So last Spring we put out a call for entries, and received hundreds of proposals from all five boroughs… but we heard overwhelmingly (over 1/4th of all submissions!) from renovation-obsessed Brooklyn. So here we are.

We’ve been talking with our new homeowners there, Karen Shen and Kevin Costello, on and off since July, but there was a lot to finalize and to line up, so work did not begin until early October. And if you’ve been watching the webcams lately, you can see that work there is flying – with most of the demo done, and new framing largely complete.

At This Old House, we probably considered about a dozen properties in Brooklyn, and scouted a few in places like Boerum Hill (where I got flea bites from touring an abandoned rowhouse) and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens (where we found charming, small rowhouses protected by single-family zoning). But, ultimately, we were drawn to the neighborhood of Prospect Heights, because unlike neighboring Park Slope where most houses have already been renovated, our area still has lots of properties that need attention and preservation. And it feels to me (clearly an outsider) like a real New York neighborhood – busy, bustling, diverse, and friendly. (Except when it comes to parking, which I think is a problem everywhere in New York!)

The second big attraction, of course, was the house. Although it had been chopped up as a rooming house, and later sat vacant until Karen and Kevin purchased it, surprisingly, much of the period detail remained intact. So there is a lot to work with, and that’s what the homeowners were drawn to as well. By their estimate, Karen and Kevin looked at (literally) hundreds of houses, but it was the intact detail that sold them on this house.

So they want to repair the rooming house damage, restore what they can, and create a lovely three-family home that will one day (when they can afford it) become a two-family. They are going to spend a little more time and money renovating the owner’s unit, which will occupy the first and second floors, and will make more economical choices on the garden and 3rd floor levels, which will be two rental apartments. Like all of us out there (and especially these days) Karen and Kevin have a fixed budget and are committed to sticking to it. So there will be tough choices and tradeoffs, and we hope there will be something that everyone can relate to on this project.

We already have a ton of great Brooklyn stories, so we will try to post as often as we can. We are so excited to be in New York City, and look forward to sharing the experience with you here on OldHouseMyHouse.

Ode to Dickie

2008-09-24T10:10:15-04:00

So we feel compelled to write about a guy that has been working on our project for quite a while now. You may or may not be aware of this, but there is another Silva brother on our site: Tom's brother, Dickie. And we can easily say that we have fallen in love with this guy and here's why:

First of all he proved right off the bat that he is funny as heck and a wise guy with a super sarcastic side, which we immediately loved. So he is a lot of fun to have on the site every day and he loves busting our chops on a daily basis. Now pair that with what Dickie does on the site.

Dickie has personally made some really cool and unique handmade pieces for us that will in the end be true gems within the house. Every day he listens to all our crazy ideas and thoughts and he brings them to life.

We wanted a wall of corrugated metal utilizing some old metal barn hinges we found on our site. Dickie made it. We needed something to organize old metal school lockers and bins we found for our mudroom. Dickie did it. We wanted a barn door for a storage space in our bedroom. Dickie took old metal parts and wood found on our property and Dickie built it. We wanted a clever way for our pets to do their cat business in a hidden away space. Dickie found a place under our mudroom stairs and built our cats their own barn shaped cat door.

We appreciate all the great pieces Dickie has made for us and we will always remember his work fondly and the story behind what he built. It is also great how much he helps us repurpose old stuff we find and he gives it a new life and purpose in our house. Dickie is truly a partner to us in helping make all the little and unique details of our house become a reality. The next thing on our list for Dickie is a old metal wrapped newel post with a big industrial light at the end of it for our mudroom, as well as finishing up a hidden storage closet.

So here's to you Dickie. Thanks for listening to us and building us some really cool stuff. We appreciate you and all that you make.

Now, we hear rumors that Dickie is retiring after this project. We don't know if this is fact or fiction, and Dickie for sure won't give us a straight answer. But if it is his last project we feel very fortunate to have him working with us. Thanks Dickie. And you owe us $3 for coffee.

Walk this way

2008-09-08T15:37:09-04:00

The front steps are in! Roger and his guys have been working their butts off moving tons of stonage this week. The granite steps feel like you are ascending the Lincoln Memorial. They are so solid and fit the weight of the house perfectly. The Goshen stone patios areas are wild. They are so beautiful. And this week we’ll blend wood and stone more. Roger is cutting granite thresholds for all the doors that lead to exteriors. We love that look.

Meahwhile inside Tom and his guys have started to lay down our salvaged white oak boards. We wanted the floor to feel like thick ol’ barn flooring. Plus we’re using square cut steel nails. And even making Dutchmen in bad knot hole areas. Wow, it looks amazing.

Soon we’ll be able to show ya’ll our hanging steel staircase. We suspended it from the roof rafters. Used fire escape design and added wood treads. Here’s a teaser photo.

What you don't see on the webcams....

2008-08-22T11:19:56-04:00

I just got back from the jobsite and it is hopping! Stonework, siding, electrical, plumbing, tile work, air conditioning, carpentry everywhere - you name it. The webcams show a lot of the action (and hopefully a little more now that one of the guys helped me push the Tommy Cam over a bit so you can see the kitchen area, the front door and a good part of the living/dining area) but there's a lot you can't see.

Stone work is finishing up on the foundation. The solar panels are installed and the exterior siding is almost complete which means the scaffolding can finally come down. Roger Cook has been anxiously awaiting for that to happen so he can get his equipment into the backyard and begin his piece of the project. Stay tuned to the "north" camera for that work to start in the next week or two.

Mark Ferrante has been hard at work with his crew (his son and nephew) tiling the three bathrooms upstairs. Pete & Amy picked some really beautiful tile, all from Trikeenan Tileworks in New Hampshire. Here's the master bathroom with the wall tile for the shower neatly stacked up and ready to go.

Luke Marcum from the Bensonwood team has been on site regularly - today he was setting up scaffolding in the center stairwell so he could continue work on installing the reclaimed barn board on the walls.

Lynn Keating and crew are working alongside Richard Trethewey and his crew, finishing the plumbing and HVAC rough while Allen Gallant and crew are finishing up the electrical rough. The cabinets from Crownpoint are in and awaiting the concrete counter tops that were made last week at Stone Soup in Northampton. Dickie Silva, Tom's very talented brother, was working on figuring out the best way to build the mantel for the fireplace in the dining area. Here Dickie and Allen humor me for a moment -

I'd guess there were 25 people there today and at moments it seems as if people are practically crawling over one another to do their work - but the site is always full of laughter and a great team spirit.

Field Trip!!!

2008-08-11T15:01:00-04:00

Pete and I realized a while ago that finding some really unique pieces that will go into our new house requires more effort and time than just searching on the Internet and shopping around. So in our never ending quest to represent our overall house theme properly (the homage to the barn structure and the industrial age) Pete found a great website that begged us to make a road trip. This website blew us away and was exactly what we had been looking for, and it was too interesting a place to just do an on line order. So thankfully this place was in New England, and luckily we own a truck because we knew we would need to make a field trip.

So a quick back story to our journey.

For months Pete and I have been scouring the Internet and drilling everyone we meet or know on how we can find some really unique industrial furniture pieces for our home that will help represent our whole house theme. We knew that we were spending so much time and energy on building the structure of the house that we needed to do the same service to what we put into the house. Along with stuff we already have we wanted to find some really special pieces that match the theme of the house - and worked well with all the new open space we will have - something totally new for us...

So like I said for months Pete and I have entered this into our search engine: industrial lighting and furniture. It has been a tough search. Not much would pop up. But we knew that this was not common stuff we were searching for. But Pete noticed one place kept coming up. Getbackinc.com.
The website rocked (thanks to the owner's son!) and it was exactly what we were looking for. I called the place up and arranged a meeting.

So last Friday thanks to Pete taking a well earned day off we ventured out to Get Back Inc. And what we found was a gigantic old mill/factory space that had endless amounts of stuff for us to discover. We were fortunate enough on the day of our visit to also meet the owner, a great guy - Timothy Byrne who gave us a tour and showed us how they work. Tim and his crew discover great industrial pieces and parts from old American mills, factories, warehouses, and various workplaces and bring them back to their shop where they spend endless hours cleaning them up, while keeping their original integrity, and making them into recycled/re-purposed items - the end product is amazing. They do all the work by hand in the most meticulous fashion and the end products are pieces of art for the home - yet still serving a function and purpose . Each piece also gives a great story of the past - this place was right up our alley. We fell in love with Get Back and it's hard working people.

In the end our field trip was a day well spent. We were able to meet a guy who was super passionate about industrial pieces as we were, and he worked hard at what he did while loving every moment of it. This place in our eyes was one of those hidden gems. We spent about three hours there and we are happy to report that we found the industrial lights we have been searching for to use in our kitchen, a great metal cabinet on wheels, and some old cart wheels that we will re-purpose on our harvest table (more on that later!). We will be emailing Tim about some other items we wanted and we plan another trip out there in the next few weeks. So keep an eye out in the next month or so where you will see Tim's great pieces get a new life in our new home. And thanks to Tim and all the guys at Get Back Inc. in Oakville Connecticut for giving the Favats a memorable field trip.

Now please don't tell anybody about this place ok?

Amy & Pete

The Good and the Sad

2008-07-25T15:55:48-04:00

I believe that in our lives things can be a combination of good and positive, as well as difficult and negative. The tricky part can be keeping all this stuff in balance. At least that is what I think anyway.
I will not get too deep here, I swear. But I could not start a new blog without acknowledging an event in my life that occurred this month that was a massive blow to me and my whole family amidst the amazing, wonderful, beauty that is the building of our new home.

This past January my mother was diagnosed with cancer. The same cancer that took our dad five years ago. It is a rare cancer that is hard to detect and once found very hard, and in my mother's case, not able to respond to treatment. My mom was not given a good prognosis. I knew at her initial oncologist meeting that my top priority was no longer this house project, as it had been, but being with my mom.

These past six months my mom lived life like she was never even diagnosed with a terminal disease.

She basically took her tough news and then kicked into high gear living. Her social calendar was always booked. Although she had to cut back on her volunteer work and golf game she made it a priority to have as many good times with friends and family as she could. So she made all her bridge games with her pals, she attended the Music Theater, she had numerous lunch and tea dates, she gardened and baked with a frenzy, and attended all the family parties we could throw her way.

And my mom still always dug into me about the house plans and progress and how it was all going. She truly loved the house project dearly and she never tired of seeing our architectural plans, all our pictures and sketches, and hearing our crazy ideas. I needed to constantly update her on work and progress. She loved it all. And she was so proud that our family was going to be on one of her beloved shows, This Old House (as I am sure all her neighbors and can friends can attest to). My mom was always one of our biggest supporters and she remained so positive and energetic about our house project.

I know our mom must have been feeling really bad at times, and her energy was low - but she never complained and she never revealed how cruddy she must have felt living with a very aggressive cancer. She never really let on to us or her friends about how tough a lot of her days were for her. She was so stoic and so strong. And she was as feisty as ever!

Then, very suddenly, my mom lost her brave and fierce fight on Monday, July 1st. But her children and grandchildren were all with her to say goodbye. And that is why on that Monday, as a small tribute to her and my dad, my husband Pete posted a picture of my parents, Barbara and John at their 50th wedding anniversary on our north web-cam.

But as Forrest Gump stated: That is all I am going to say about that.

So after being out of the house project loop for a while I am back. I am not 100% but I am back on site. And like my mom I will probably be feistier than ever. I am trying hard to emulate my mom and take this awful reality and somehow charge forward and be strong. But it is very challenging. I will continue to be goofy, overly talkative, and high spirited as I usually am on the outside. But on the inside I am now living with a gaping hole in my heart and in my spirit. This whole experience has been terribly hard for me to accept. So bear with me.

But I know throughout this whole ordeal that this house is such a great positive going on in our lives.
And I am so grateful for it and I feel so lucky and blessed especially now during this dark time in my life.
And as corny as it may sound I know my parents are now both watching over us and our house being created and they are giving it their blessing as it comes to life. And I only can think and laugh about this as I know they are watching the work progress over a bowl of peanuts and a frosty schooner of beer for my dad, and a perfect Manhattan (with ice on the side please) for my mom.

I attached a great photo of my mom and I taken last summer. Our house is a dedication to her. Come fall we will plant two more trees on our property in honor of my parents - a pair of blue spruce, their favorite.

Thanks all for reading some sad stuff. Now on to more good!

The cherry on top of our house

2008-07-16T15:17:35-04:00

Well not quite the cherry but close. I guess the cupola will the be the cherry - or the weather vane. But for some reason this deserves it more. Here's the story...

When Amy and I went on our journey to meet different timber frame companies we looked for the company with the most soul. When we got to meet the Bensonwood clan, it became very clear to us who was going to build our home. We were getting close to finishing the meeting when Tedd said, "Oh yeah, one last thing: When we get to the end of the timber frame construction process, we usually have a ceremony and we hope you guys are all right with it." I remember being ALL EARS at this point.

(Like all of us, I love a good story.) Tedd told us, "To keep balance with the land and all the surrounding woodlands, we attach a sprig of the local wood to the top of the frame and we honor the earth for giving us the wood to make the homes we build and live in." Well, it was all over right there - we'd found our partners, people who are as passionate as we are about this place we are creating.

So, fast forward to when it came time to attach the sprig last week. I remember turning to Tedd and saying, "Why don't we use blue spruce? They are all over our property and the surrounding area." Well, Tedd looked at me and said...

"Pete, I never told you this before, but I had brother named Steve. We were business partners way back in the beginning, trying to scratch out a living doing whatever we could to get our company off the ground. Steve was a good man and I loved him dearly. One day Steve was tragically killed in an automobile accident and left us at 24 years old. After Steve passed, we planted two blue spruces in his honor. So, to attach a blue spruce to your home would be very very fitting and an honor."

Once again in this life magic happened - the full circle, the reason we are all here - to find the right people to connect with, to learn from those people and love the things they bring to this world.

So here's to Steve. From Amy, Cian, Juliette and myself, you would be very proud of the legacy your brother has carried on down here, brother.

peace

Yes!!! Finally!!!

2008-06-27T14:37:59-04:00

Well, after two long years of patience and waiting we are finally seeing our new house become a reality!

It almost seems surreal. And despite the rain, the thunder and the lightning on the first official day of building - and the same forecast threatning our crew all week - we are now able to watch our beautiful timber frame home start to rise. And it is quite an amazing sight. We just can't stop grinning! My self portrait pretty much says it all. We are so psyched for this day to finally arrive!

Planning a build: Logistics, logistics and then there's Mother Nature

2008-06-19T10:25:39-04:00

Last week we had a meeting on site to figure out how to begin to get the house brought on to the site. The Bensonwood team (the experts at this), Tom, Deborah and I all stood around talking about everything from the best time of day to arrive, do we need police details, how much airspace does the crane need, do we need a dumpster and where will it go, where will the crew stay and more.

And then the biggest unknown of all...what if it rains? Some of the panels will be complete down to interior and exterior finishes, and clearly must stay completely dry. If there is even the threat of rain, work stops.

If Mother Nature cooperates, over the next week you will really want to watch the webcams.

Bensonwood has a detailed schedule of exactly what will happen practically hour by hour as the panels get lifted into place one by one.

I can't believe I'm going to miss most of it because I'll be away for a week on a vacation that was planned four years ago! By the time I return to the site on the 30th a good part of the lower level and first floor could be assembled. I'm going to have to find an internet café somewhere so I can check in on progress!

Renovation in the big city

2008-06-09T08:53:14-04:00

So with the Weston project well underway, it’s already time to look forward to the next This Old House renovation project. And we’ve decided, for the very first time in the show’s history, to bring Norm, Tom, Richard, Roger and Kevin to New York City to take on an urban renovation.

Why New York? After the rustic, timberframe project in Weston, we thought it would be refreshing to switch it up with a Big City story for all of the urbanites out there. And of course New York is a cultural, historical, and architectural Mecca, so it seemed somewhat surprising (to me, at least) that in 29 years of national production, we had not renovated there. Yet.

So today we’re announcing a wide-open call for entries for our upcoming project in New York City.

While we think we’d like to stay in Manhattan, we know there are passionate remodelers in the other boroughs as well. There is detailed information on the criteria for application here, but we’d love to know, especially from the native New Yorkers out there, where you’d like to see us set up camp – there’s been talk of a lot of West Side neighborhoods – the West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen. Or would we have better luck in Murray Hill? Or Tribeca? Is Brooklyn still bustling? Is Harlem still hot? We’d love to be in a high-energy neighborhood with a rich history, full of folks dedicated to renovating and preserving their historic housing stock.

Much will depend on the actual proposals we get from real homeowners, but we want to hear your opinions. Post your thoughts to this blog, and we’ll send out updates on our NYC project as we have them. If all goes well, we’ll have a project selected in just a few weeks.

New York City, here we come!

Hard-hat site

2008-06-08T12:13:43-04:00

Photo by Pete Favat

So the Weston house is finally starting to rise out of the ground – the pre-cast foundation walls are up, and the basement-level plumbing and heating happened last week, courtesy of Richard Trethewey and our new (fantastic) Weston plumbing contractor, Lynne Keating. We’re so glad to be partnering with yet another talented plumbing contractor - and one who also happens to be female – so be sure to look for Lynne’s debut on the show this fall.

Even though the foundation goes up VERY quickly (try 5 hours for our “tall walls”!) – you may be surprised to learn (I sure was) that the guy who engineered the foundation, Adam Campbell, worked with the architect and structural engineer at Bensonwood for nearly 50 man-hours before the installation. (!) Adam is a smart cookie and a good guy; he engineered the foundation on our Carlisle project a few years back as well, and came up to Weston to personally oversee the installation for us this time. We love when we can work with people over and over again on the show, it starts to feel like family.

And speaking of "new" family, our homeowner Pete Favat recently took the time to customize our generic hardhats with TOH Weston logos.

We gave him the file, and he had the logos turned into something that can be burnished on in the field, so presto, we have customized Weston hats. I can’t recall a TOH homeowner making us customized gear before. Very cool.

Next up on the webcams: this week you’ll notice Tom Silva onsite, making final preparations for the pouring of the slab, which should happen (weather permitting) on Tuesday, June 10th. Be sure to watch the webcams in Weston that day, as we’ll also be there filming.

Up in New Hampshire, the shop work on our job is largely done, so we’ll be bringing that cam down to Weston before long, to be mounted inside the new house, once it starts to go up.

Depending on the weather, we should begin the “raising” of the house timbers and wall panels starting around June 19th. More on that shortly.

House design: Many brains are a good thing

2008-06-05T22:55:00-04:00

Minds at work: Pete with designer Laura Taheny and architect Chris Adams

One of the huge things that Pete and I have been super grateful for in this past year while working with the Bensonwood crew and the This Old House team is how we don't just have our two minds hard at work almost every day on our house project, but we have many, many, other really creative, very smart, and super-productive brains working with us as well.

From the big decisions we needed to work out in the very beginning of this project - like floor plan layouts, overall vibe of the landscaping, the shape, style and feel of the house that we wanted - to now working out the very small details like the door knob hardware color, shape, and size. Every step of the way we not only had ourselves to bounce ideas off of, we had a whole slew of others to help us brainstorm, research, and discuss every single detail of this house and it's property. It is like having your own production team working together with you to make the best decisions possible regarding every facet of your home.

Quite simply it gave us more minds at work all the time - more brains thinking, pondering, and working out issues or problems with us. We also had more hands on deck to do product searches and research. And we had the great asset of everyone's collective past experience to help us out, be it locating a specific hard to find product we had in mind, getting a certain artist or craftsman to meet with us, or what happens more than a few times a week - dealing with our crazy late at night questions via email to the team.

This many brains hard at work privilege also helped us in a huge way when tackling hard to figure out issues. One example: the greenfactor.

Building green may seem a no-brainer to most, but I found it all to be quite overwhelming. I had read a ton of books and magazine articles, and scoured the Internet with regards to building green. There is a ton of information out there on the topic. But yet I felt totally overcome with all the information - it was hard to weed through. It also seemed difficult to determine, with so many new green products on the market, what would truly be considered the best, most reliable, effective, and most green?

It reminded me a lot of being in a supermarket and all the items that you see that claim they are "sugar free," "whole wheat," "organic," etc. But when you read the fine print the items may not be exactly what they claim to be. It can be hard to decipher. Yet, we had such great intentions for being thoughtful with the building green aspect. It was really important to us, but I never expected it to be so confusing and at times frustrating. Maybe I lacked enough patience for deciphering all the material. Maybe all the green technology was way over my head. But let's just say, I was really happy and relieved to be able to bounce all my green questions off everyone on our team. With all their collective help, knowledge, and experience (and patience!) we were able to successfully navigate our way through the myriad of green building issues and options.

So I guess in a way this is an early thank you note to the many large and talented brains that have truly helped Pete and I along the way. There are way too many people to thank here personally, but you know who you are because by now your head is probably hurting from working with us for so long. But it's that good kind of pain, right? Anyway, thank you, all you big brains.

TOH on the backroads of New Hampshire

2008-05-28T15:51:41-04:00

Scott from Northcott (photo by Deborah Hood)

As Deborah said, filming at Bensonwood is in full swing. We spend 2-4 days a week in New Hampshire trying to capture on camera all that’s going on. There’s a lot going on up there and it’s an amazing group of people who are working on our project, from the various shop captains to timber framers to engineers to Sheila Albere, Virginia Smith, and Greg Boiles who seem to take care of anything we might decide we need at a moments notice during filming.

Just last week we decided at the last minute that we had an open time slot the following day and wanted to film a segment at Northcott Wood Turning with the father son team who make the majority of the pegs for the timber frame industry in the entire world! We couldn’t get a hold of them by phone so Greg dropped everything to drive me up some back roads of New Hampshire to the shop to see if they were up for it.

There was no one in the shop, so we walked across the driveway to Scott’s house (he’s the father of the father-son team) and found him eating lunch with his wife Judy. He welcomed us in and we made plans to come back the next afternoon to film. Here's a picture of the place―it looks like Santa’s workshop. You’ll just have to wait to see it on the show in the fall!

Watch the TOH webcams next week!

2008-05-22T19:16:47-04:00

So I’ve learned (I'm new at this!) that blogging takes time…which none of us seems to have these days because 1) the building of the house, and 2) the filming of episodes are both in full swing in New Hampshire. Which is why there have been so few blog posts lately. Sorry about that―we will try to be better about keeping in touch. Right now, it’s 10:30 at night, and we (the crew) have to leave at 5am tomorrow morning for another day in New Hampshire, for more building in the shop.

So all I can offer right now is this tip for those of you following the webcams:

Next week watch the “Factory Cam” on Tuesday and Wednesday (May 27 and 28). Why?

Well, you will see the crew in the building systems shop with Kevin and Tommy building and filming alongside the Bensonwood panel guys, lead by Jay Lepple. They'll be building up the wall panels for the Weston house and installing new windows from Andersen.

On Thursday, be sure to watch the arrival of our prefabricated foundation walls from Superior Walls on the Weston site cams; the new foundation will be up in just a few short hours. After that, the action in Weston should pick up on a daily basis as we ready for the pouring of the slab and the arrival of the first panels around June 9th. We have two episodes of the series nearly complete, and can’t wait for you to see them when they premiere in October. But first, some sleep!

Oh, the details!

2008-05-14T13:24:14-04:00

Well, we are really in it now. The planning, the approvals, the larger decisions are made. Now, bring on those details.

There isn't a day that goes by without thinking about all those thousands of little things, which are really not that little. I think this is where most people experience that "house building stress." We knew there would be a lot. And Amy and I have always thought of ourselves as decision makers and not ones to ponder the little things too much. But folks? If you haven't gone through this…there are tons.

But here's the good news (for us anyway): This is fun! Maybe it's that we had a big idea in the beginning in the barn/house concept. Maybe not. But when all is said and done, I personally am going to miss doing this.

Let me give you a little peek into how we are going about making the choices we make.

(More of Pete's decision-making after the jump.)

First of all, as y'all know, we are going with a timber frame barn. So in some ways a ton of designs are wiped right off the table. No fancy window treatments, no fancy moldings, none of it.

On our land there once stood a barn. And in the yard we have dug up all kinds of junk from that old barn―some cool, some not. One thing we did find is an old tractor seat. Right away we knew what that meant: Make tractor seat stools! So, Chris Adams, our architect, designed this very cool system to attach them to the kitchen island by using old tractor steel. One decision done.

Next up? Doors. Well, there's an old fire station about a mile down the road built in 1908. its called "The Kendall Green fire station." It's a very cool old station and has a lot of history behind it. The doors are beautiful. And as we looked around town, we realized some of the old barns and the old water pumping station had the very same doors. They must have been made by some local carpenter. So decision number two? Done.

Let me give you one more, and I think this one is the coolest. One day Tedd Benson from Bensonwood called us and said "Amy and Pete, I need to ask you something. I just found someone who found a whole bunch of timbers dug up during the Big Dig. They are live oak timbers and were stored under water by a colonial-era shipbuilding company. We have a chance to buy them and use them as arched beams in the center of the house." Decision three done.

Now, there are plenty of other decisions we have had to make, not all as fun as these. But man, I guess I am thankful for a couple things. Amy and I love the same quirky stuff, and we have let some of these decisions be made for us by the things we experience along the way.

peace,

pete