Studio Day Eleven

Boy oh boy, it was busy here Tuesday... from early morning on. We had two deliveries arrive, one right after the other with odds and ends of materials for the finishing. Here's the upstairs porch with its new fir beam across the ceiling. There are three of these and I've got to sand off the printing that they came with. What a pain. Why do these things have to be stamped all over? Why?

And then the windows came. I couldn't sleep all night hoping the openings would be right for the windows I ordered. I told Kevin this in the morning and he said - "What are you worried about? That would be my problem." What a waste of sleep that was.....

All hands were on deck to unload the windows.


What a bunch of packaging and trash they generated. Boxes, plastic, wrappers, labels.

Our building supplies have come from my brother-in-law's family business Belletete's Building Supply in Jaffrey, NH. It's been great to work with David on this project, using his expertise to choose the best product for the situation. I still have a few things more to pick out and order but pretty much everything has been decided.

If you live in Southern New Hampshire and frequent Belletete's, thank you. You are helping to support my sister's family and all the people who work there. The Belletete Family business has been around for over 100 years. It began as a little general store in Jaffrey and has grown to be five stores and a lumber mill through hours and years of hard work. It's amazing that a business like this can survive despite all the competition from huge chain businesses. Hard work to say the least from all the family members and their employees.

Here are some of the windows after unpacking, waiting to go in.


This is my first experience with vinyl windows. All the windows in our house are wood and most of them are over 50 years old. I chose a brown shade called "terrratone" because the outside of the building will not be painted. I am going to let it age into the grayish brown shade that old barns have. It will take years to happen but I really don't want to stain the wood because it ends up looking painted and all the same tone.

More coming tomorrow.