Our first day in the house, David proudly showed me our vintage 1910 doorbell. He pushed the front door button... and nothing happened. Apparently, it had worked for him earlier. He gave up on the doorbell and wanted to show the solid construction of the house by hitting the wall. The doorbell immediately began to…

Just over a year ago, we loaded up U-Haul trucks and trailers and made the trek from Colorado to New Jersey. Yes, I drove a truck with a car trailer behind it for 1,760 miles through the plains (easy), Chicago (not so easy), road construction (annoying), and New Jersey (positively frightening)!   This was another…

Since we moved into this house, we've been living in a fish bowl. The house has lots of windows. It's great because it makes the house airy and bright; but it also makes it easy for everyone walking or driving by to see all the way through. Repairing the old windows is a huge job. Here's how we did it.

If you have spent any time with us over the past year, you will have heard about "The Bathroom Situation." If you haven't heard the story, now is your chance. While I realize that in 1910, when the house was built, no one would ever discuss bodily functions, this blog is all about telling the…

We are nearing the end of our painting projects. The back stairs--the "servants'" staircase--had walls that needed to be repaired and stairs that needed to be repainted. We saved these for the end since these stairs were used a lot during the renovation. These photos show the stairwell from the kitchen to the second floor.…

After eight months of living in this house, we slept in our master bedroom for the first time last night. We now have a private bathroom attached and a wall of closets. It feels so sweet because this was a long time coming.

In case you were worried about our lack of a kitchen sink or oven for the past several months, I have great news to share! Our big Christmas gift was a functioning kitchen! I should have told you about it earlier but I escaped for a few days to Florida. I admit that it was…

Sometimes I feel like we are living in a postcard. Cranbury at Christmas looks like it is the model for Christmas cards. Even the snow seems to sparkle more as it falls on the town. We were hoping to decorate for Christmas with all of the trees and trimmings, but we are still in the…

I have never seen a home this size with so many exterior doors! There is the front door in the entry, a door to the porch from the family room, a door that goes nowhere in the dining room, a closed off door to the back porch in the family room, a door to the…

Miriam Webster defines topsy-turvy as "in utter confusion or disorder" and "upside down." I've had a toilet on my porch, a bathtub in my entryway and bathroom vanities in my office. My refrigerator is in my dining room and a bookshelf holds our food. My office doesn't actually exist as my desk, chair and computer are…

Restoring radiators is a lot harder than it steams....

I’d been warned; but I didn’t really understand. I’ve never seen anything like Halloween in Cranbury. At the end of the evening, David and I just looked at each other in amazement and laughed out loud. Our neighbor tried to prepare us. She told me that she probably gave away around 400 pieces of candy.…

Tearing up the kitchen and bathrooms led to intriguing discoveries...

Today, my kitchen and master bath are completely gone. The walls, ceilings, fixtures and cabinets were taken away in a huge dumpster. The dumpster was so full they had to pack it down with a back hoe twice!

Over the past two weeks we have finished plastering and painting the entry, living room, family room, dining room and more....