Life Unfurling

 

 

Blogger is doing strange things as I try to update.  Looks like I've wrangled it into submission now.  I guess we'll see.  It's appropriate, since nothing else has been super easy about the plans to retire here!

We finally moved here at the beginning of summer 2022, after I homeschooled my grandchildren for two years through COVID.  Tim got worse and worse.  I had not only done most of the work in buying our home in PA, I also did the work of selling it and our other home in ME. 

We moved into this house, our Gull Haven, unfinished, but livable.  I got the downstairs shower that had been started, taken out and redone.  I had a radon mitigation unit (actually 3 before it was effective!) installed.  Got wood trim up and a new front door.  Had a shed built.  Moved us in as snug and cozy as possible.  He got to take walks and chat with neighbors, in a fashion.  I was his caretaker 24/7.  I got us here a year and a half before he passed away. He passed here in his own bed. I was grateful for that.  And so was he.  A night in the ER taught us that if we could we wouldn't be doing a facility.

So I am here now.  I look out at the view and wish he could share it with me.  The last two years have been especially hard, as he had little interest in doing anything except watch dvds over and over, and going for short walks outside.

I am learning how to be me alone.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  The COVID vaccine and booster set up an inflammation in my spine that made me less than mobile for awhile.  And getting the shingles one 5 months ago set up another inflammation.  End of June I should be fine again.  That's how long the others took to get almost back to normal.  I'm walking without a cane now, so I'm on the way!    I can't be taking 6 months of no sleep, no exercise, and no joy in of my life each time.  The shingles vaccine had the added features of having a traveling infammation that went from back to knees, shoulder,  jaw, and  eyes.  Something is up with my body's sensitivity, and the vaccines since my first COVID vac are trying to kill ME, not what they're supposed to be killing!  No more vaccines, doctor agrees.

Daisy and Shadow share my home now.  Daisy loves...  No, Daisy LOVES sitting on the front lawn watching bugs, birds and water.  Shadow liked to hide out mostly for the first year she was here.  She's settling in now and knows I'm the source of good things.

Winter was rough.  The weather pounded the coast, but we were fine.  The snow was not deep.  It was mostly windy and rainy!

Next post...spring again.

Such a Long Time...

Just came back to this blog to see where I'd left off.  It said that this was a draft...though on the sidebar it says "pulished on 7/14/ at 3:29 pm

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7/14/21

So much has happened to delay and change our plans for Gull Haven.  The loss of a substantial amount of money to a cabinet maker who never produced the cabinets and has never paid us back - despite winning the lawsuit - was such a setback.  It was a equity loan for construction, so we've had to pay that back, but have seen nothing for it. The pandemic seemed to make it convenient to not have to pay back debts (except for any debt I'd incur, of course...).  That was a huge disappointment and a huge financial burden. The used kitchen cabinets that I found and bought from a renovation project are in and the extra cabinets are being dismantled to use the solid cherry to craft the fill-ins we need. No garage in our plans now, and less faith in the goodness of man. 

We are moving in shortly regardless of the state of the house.  We currently have the closet in the downstairs den/spare room being converted to a shower, so we can have first floor living.  Got a nifty glass bi-fold swing in or out door for the rainshower system being installed.

I have a couple of twin beds going in the room when it is finished.  Bought a love seat sleeper for the living room; and two hammocks and a mattress for the yellow room for kids, plus the bed we had there for last year.  So we will should have enough sleeping space for 7 or 8 people at a time!  It's a small place, but I'm going to enjoy filling it with people any chance I get.

We discovered that the water treatment system we put in a number of years ago when we put in the radiant infloor heat is not getting rid of the rust, so we need to clean fixtures and get the water smelling good.  A water softener is going in July 20 - that'll be cheap. 

Deck and mudroom will begin when we have company the first week in August.  I do hope we can get to live there for at least a year before it gets too much for us to do.  We shall see how life goes.  We shall see.

There will be s'mores made at Gull Haven again this year.  I do know that.

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Update:  There were s'mores that summer, but we moved back to PA for one more year, so I could homeschool my grandchildren through one more COVID year.  I had a blast.  Tim was getting worse, but still manageable.  

I'll post some from 2022 and 2023 to the present next.  Some things have changed a lot, some a little, some not at all.

Another Couple of Goes at a Kitchen

Oooookay!
It has been a forever since I posted here.  Lowe's took back the first set of cabinets that had been installed by their installer - cracks, tops not level, crooked panels around refrigerator.
A long time later we received the second better designed kitchen.  Yay!

However...
those cabinets, though they took a long time to get, were evidently a rush job at the factory.  There were paint drips, glue drips, split and bad joints, rough paint, cracked wood.

With these obvious workmanship defects, we were ultimately able to return the cabinets for a full refund at Lowe's (though we were reminded a few times that they did not give refunds!) and we did NOT reorder through them.  Two times is enough, so back they went.

We decided that although it would cost extra money, we would hire a cabinet maker recommended by our contractor.  Loooong story and loooong time later...

he has lots of our money, and we have no kitchen to show for it.  We have contacted our lawyer.

After all this went down the toilet, and we had very little money left for a kitchen, I went looking on The Marketplace on FB for kitchen cabinets.  In a town about 2 hrs. from Friendship, I located some cherry cabinets that had been pulled for a kitchen renovation.  I went out to look at them and see if anything could be done to make them work in our small kitchen.  Wouldn't be the "custom" kitchen I'd planned, but it would be "custom" in an odd sort of way.  It would be a "make do" kitchen!  I measured and imagined multiple times.  It was a hot humid day but the cabinets were very nice, so I imagined enough to imagine that some of them should work.  Maybe not all of them - there were more than I needed - but there were enough so that we could do a trial and error kind of piecing together.  Something WOULD work, I was sure, so I negotiated a price for some I was almost positive would work and a couple just in case we needed parts or a bit different size.  The owner gave me all of them at a small fraction of the cost of new!

In the garage - studying them -

Last week we had the bottom ones installed for countertop measurement - uppers mostly done.

 Looking SO good!

Just a couple of empty spots that will have shelves custom built in...and a couple of uppers to put in on the second wall.  What a relief!

I'll post more as it progresses.  It was so discouraging earlier that it was hard to post about. 

The kitchen cabinets have taken well over a year to get done...The first were ordered in April of 2017 and we're still not finished in October 2018.  But it is getting there!

Oh, there is more to our house saga...I will maybe fill you in on some of that later, too, when I get the energy! LOL!  

Sprucing up Georgetown - prow front cedar log home, 2 br; 1 main bath; 1 mbr with master bath;  cathedral ceiling lr with wood stove, granite two story chimney, prow front; porch;  all pine and cedar walls; pine and tile floors; loft for sleeping or office, 4 car garage; 5+ acres; quiet road, access to much common land with hiking trails and island on river; 7 miles to town or 7 miles to ocean - beach and working lobstering/fishing dock...Summer home or permanent.  In the summer is it usually 5 -10 degrees cooler and in winter 5-10 degrees warmer than in town. 

I love this house, but it is time to be selling it.  Friendship is beginning to call.

If you know anyone who is interested in moving to Maine where deer, turkeys, bald eagles and osprey are a common sight, where the wonderful aroma of beach roses and ocean fill the air, where seagulls are bold and seals peek at you, where you can have the freshest lobster rolls in the world...send them our way.

There are houses that are meant to be

for a time in your life's history.

You care for them as they shelter you

and stay with them till something new

becomes your family's home, sweet home;

and stops your soul mid roam, feet roam.

by Donna JT Smith, 2018

Still Not Yet

I am posting this as my Slice of Life today.  I don't usually post my Gull Haven site as a slice, but it occurred to me that it is a slice as I wrote today.  Some of you are familiar with this site and saga, others are not.  Six years ago in August, we purchased a small house across the road from the ocean... near a working dock again, closer than we are now.  We had the goal of working on it with a contractor, over the next few years getting it ready for our place to retire.  I retired first, and we continued to work on it - very slowly - and now that my husband has retired as of last December, we are moving ahead on getting in.  Our move in date was to be May 1.  It has not worked out to be that date.  We are still in our old home.  There are a few updates on this site as we made progress on renovating and updating this old house.  If you are inclined, you can certainly go back to read up on the progress over the years.  But here is today's post for Gull Haven:

Not in the new house yet.  We are awaiting instructions from Lowes on getting our new new cabinets.  Our cabinets were installed just over a week ago.  And there were issues.  The installation was horrendous.  So many problems.  I called Lowes and an adjuster came out to see what the problems were and take pictures.  Lowes would tell me what the options were.  Instead I told them what the options were.  I ordered a "new" kitchen, not a repaired kitchen.  My options were to be refunded for the cabinets and the installation so I could start over with anyone anywhere, or to get a new set of the same cabinets (with some design flaws fixed) and refund the installation amount so my own contractor could install them.  Someone from headquarters called and agreed that the job wasn't right and said they would do whichever option I preferred.

I oped to get new Schuler cabinets from Lowes - just the same as we have - only meet with a senior designer and have our contractor put them in this time.  We will soon meet to reorder cabinets with a few adjustments to the design.  The new cabinets will be ordered, and the botched ones taken out.  Delivery will be in about 8 weeks.  Summer will  essentially be over.

But we are making the most of our extended stay here.  It is the first summer that we have both been retired, so we are on the motorcycles and down at the beach many of the sunny days so far.  We are not moving fast on clearing out our old house, and that will most likely become a problem for the future, but right now it is too much for my brain to handle.  I will relax amid all the clutter and disarray (wish I hadn't started packing now!) and try to just enjoy the summer on the bikes.  It is hard to find stuff, and I don't really want to unpack boxes.  I've had to partially, just to get cooking utensils I need!

We have already changed churches, thinking we would be in the house by now.  This new church would have been closer than the hour+ we've traveled back and forth to church for the past 16 years, but since we are still here, it is an hour+ from here to this one, too.  Same amount of gas each week!  At least we will be settled into the new church when we get there.  I miss my old church though...the singing, my Sunday School class, our friends.  I'm sure this will feel like home, too, soon enough.  The people have been very welcoming.

Okay, I said I wouldn't put any of the photos of the botched job up, but I just can't resist this one.  I will not mention any names, and remember, Lowes is making good on this job!

This was just NOT pleasing to me.

Really, this drawer front has two little screws so you can remove it if you need to.  Maybe you could even do that to put the knob on?  Or I guess you could just cut a gouge on the inside.  It's probably quicker, and, besides the little missus, who would ever see that? 

The cabinets were installed so poorly that there is no salvaging that can be done and still end up with a new kitchen.  Best it could be is a visibly repaired kitchen.

We haven't met with the designer yet, but they said they would replace all the cabinets and refund my installation cost so I can have my contractor do it this time.  Though I'm still waiting to hear from the designer, I have been assured all will be made right!

It will be exciting to see it all done: all level, straight, in line, no cracks, no black sheetrock screws...and no gouges.  Add the countertop and appliances, the lighting, the curtains... our table.  I'm excited to see what is so far only visible in my mind!

Meanwhile, I'll continue to shuffle about here, looking at curtains online,
Maybe I'll post some images when we get to cabinet destruction and reinstall... or some rosettes and curtains... But right now, it's roses and coffee!

 This morning's fragrance is indescribable!

I will fill up my "wait time" with "great time"!

Ah...another "ho hum day" in paradise!

Yet More Delays

Okay, the cabinets did not go in when expected and we have a reschedule date of June 5.  Seems that no one can contact each other for verifications.  This time I just said do it.  I'll be there if our contractor can't make it.  I did warn them though that NOBODY wants ME there.  I am a stickler for straight and perfect and I don't always know the order things are done, so can get nervous  about something when I don't have to - they aren't finished with it yet.

The bathroom sink supports were done and the sinks put in (they are huge... wasn't ready for that!), and the toilets were hung.  The toilets were hung too high though, so those have to both be lowered.  My feet don't touch the floor and I don't want to put little footstools by them.  So no water yet.

Yet, yet, yet.  When will it be yet?

THE Cabinet and THE Knobs

It's a done deal!  This is the kitchen flooring; we had the tile put in a couple of weeks ago, replacing the hardwood we had originally put down that I wasn't crazy about.  I haven't seen the grout yet, but Tim was up there after it was grouted in dark green "Asparagus" color.
Then, here's the cabinet and the knob combo... I finally, finally settled on the cabinet knobs!  I found these online and ordered them, and I am so excited! 

The cabinets are FINALLY going in on Monday - in two days - on Tim's birthday.  Then the  quartz countertop will arrive shortly after that we are hoping!

We thought the bathrooms would be done, but the toilets and sinks for the bathrooms are Toto and all are wall mounted.  The Toto toilets are in, but the bathroom sinks will be in someday soon.  They were supposed to be in on Tuesday this past week, but the structure for them was not behind the wall, so they are going to have to break into the wall, put a 2x6 in, sheetrock those walls again and repaint.

The mudroom is being added, along with a deck.  We may be in before it is complete, but as long as we have a bedroom and one bathroom we will be fine!

I hope to get a picture here soon with everything in place...but for now, imagine the following items all together in this recap of what we ended up selecting for the kitchen:

Still packing up and sorting here, as there is no huge hurry until the bathrooms are there!

Knobs

The knob arrived, and though I thought I'd really, really like it, and almost did...
it has some problems.
The first problem is that it arrived with a "stress" crack and a few other cracks in the acrylic.  It is also acrylic, so it is a little lighter weight and has some surface scratching that looks like it will show wear.

So, unless I want to inspect each and every knob and be prepared to send some back for replacements (and potentially need to do that process again!), I'm passing on these.  Too bad.  I liked the concept.

Kitchen Bits

I have found my tiles, and they have arrived!  The kitchen cabinets are here, also.  I just ordered my kitchen faucet and am looking at cabinet hardware.  Here are some images.  The tile will have a dark green grout instead of light, and I'm not sure of the nickel knob yet.
I'm still looking.  I'll have a nickel faucet, so this would match and I like the beading on the cabinet and knob matching.

However, I also like this acrylic knob with green and nickel.  The sample is coming soon, so I'll be able to see it next to the tile and cabinet for real.  Then I'll know.

And here's the faucet that is on its way any day now!

So we're on our way to a full-fledged kitchen.  We have the narrow LG refrigerator and a small dishwasher, all white.  I can hardly wait to get pictures of the finished room.  Kitchens are a lot harder to do than others.  So many separate items need to coordinate!

Kitchen Commencing

I gave in and went to Lowe's.  What a relief!  Someone came out and measured the kitchen!  Now I don't have to worry that I did it all wrong.  Someone else may have, but it isn't my doing.
I did actually pick the tile "Silestone - Tea Leaf" for the countertops after going with a couple other options in my head. At the last minute, though, I ran back to "Tea Leaf" with it's combination of greens, sand and white.
The cabinets went from "Diamond" in a "Fired Brick" color, to "Schuler" in a "Saffron" color.  I picked the Tiffany style door.  I had come across this combination a couple of weeks ago and tried all sorts of other combinations in my mind before coming back to the Tiffany door in a classic yellow.

The change from the dark blue or the brick colors came about when I started to picture it with the white appliances.  It seemed like it would end up being a checkerboard effect with the dark and white repeat across the room, and might just be too dark for a small room.  The yellow would be much more subtle a difference, and very cheery, and enlarging the look of the room.

We are changing the flooring in the kitchen from wood to tile.  Not sure which tile yet.  But there had been a leak in the roof that came down into the kitchen and got under the flooring.  I don't like the feel of the floor now.  It seems to be punky, so we are taking it up and putting down tile.  I want it to be cheery, too!  So I'm on a hunt now for tiles!

No images will upload today... must be too foggy here...
I'll try again later when the tide is in.

Some Kitchen Thoughts

We seem to run into delays all the time, so we are not ready to move in yet... The new roof needs to go on. When we bought the place they figured we'd have about 5 years more on it, and it has been five years... So we are putting on a metal roof that looks like a green tiled, shingled roof. And we are putting on solar panels, since the roof is angled and located just right. It will save us money on electricity on our retirement incomes.

I am looking at these navy blue cabinets for the kitchen.  I have a dark green in our home now and I love them.  If I could do them again here, I believe that I would.  But it seems that I should go for a different color just to keep moving on!  The quartz works with the cabinets, the sink, the other woodwork, the walls.

Here are some cabinet knobs I'm considering.  Remember I'm trying to take into consideration the lighting fixtures also!

I love the painted ones, but am wondering if they will be just too busy and distracting.  I want them to make me smile, but not in a crazy way!  Maybe I should order one of each to see what they look like.  Maybe I should use one of each!



I think I see which one it should be now that I have them all together with the lighting fixtures.  That orange one - looks like the flower on the cream porcelain beside it and a flower in the stained glass.  Not too distracting, and still colorful!  It has a bit of green like the kitchen wall also.  That was not a serious contender until I saw it with the rest of the stuff!  I thought it was going to be the first blue one.