Fire Pit

We have plenty of wood around for doing bon fires. We have had a fire ring for having a fire and cooking over, but this has left us without a grate for grilling on. We have done the occasional cast iron skillet or dutch oven, but mostly resorted to roasting hot dogs for our cooking out occasions. We dreamt up a stacked stone fire pit and received a gorgeous grate for the holidays this winter. Over Memorial Day weekend, Noah and Mindy dry stacked stones to hold the grate. We were thrilled with the outcome.

A Bathroom Sink

You may think that there is nothing extraordinary about having a bathroom sink. However, to our family, this is a momentous occasion. We have not had a bathroom sink since we built this house nearly a decade ago. When you have an entire house that is still being finished to some degree, there is a priority list that arises.  Needs go rather high on the list, and next is the thing that is currently driving Mindy crazy. The "need" to wash hands after using the toilet has been met by our bathtub or kitchen sink, so installing a sink never made it onto the priority list. However, as our kids have grown, their questions like "are we ever going to get a bathroom sink?!" started factoring into the to-do list. The sink project started last year when Noah milled a maple tree with his chainsaw mill. That wood needed to dry over winter, after which he planed and glued it for a live-edge counter. Mindy sanded and finished the counter with spar varnish; next she installed a stone backsplash. Noah installed a vessel sink and faucet. We all celebrated.

An office for Noah

Well, when we relocated back to our Maine woods in the summer of 2016, Noah needed a space to work remotely for his job in New Jersey. However, the house was not finished, we were in need of fixing our roof which made the upstairs uninhabitable, and we were being creative for bedrooms because of the roof situation. Long story and three years of working in an unfinished library later...we decided to transform the intended basement guest space into an office for Noah. It is quiet, cool in the summer, and it is now his office! I spent a few weeks this spring mudding the drywall, painting, installing a light fixture...and then Noah installed some anti-fatigue rubber flooring. He has been wanting to switch to a standing desk, so until he has more time to build a permanent work station, he made some stilts for his desk. We are still waiting for the doors that we ordered to arrive, and he still needs trim, but that's no biggie, right?!