Two Weeks in August

I've been looking forward to this all year. 2 weeks in Maine! My sister, Nancy, has always said that I always bring good weather when I come to Maine and this trip certainly was no different. Fabulous weather and connecting with my family, new neighbors and friends in South Bristol was wonderful. Sometimes I feel like I live a double life, my west coast life of accomplishment and hard work and my east coast life of connecting with my roots and family and relaxing. Light years away on many levels but all part of who I am.

 Each trip seems more relaxed as we get more and more accomplished. We had not completed taking down the wall between the 2 small rooms downstairs in the spring. I wanted to wait for my sister in law, Gayle, to help as I knew she would enjoy completing this task. How often do you get to take a complete wall out? She and a friend came up to help us early the first week we were there. I don't think the friend knew exactly what he was getting into and how hard he would work that day. He was a huge help and we accomplished a lot. We went out to dinner that night at Shaw's in New Harbor.

 

Our new living room taking shape.

    

The wall came down! No more "pink room".

No chimney and no wall! This really opens the space!



 We had our contractor do the seams for the drywall we had hung on our last trip in the master bedroom so when we arrived, we were ready to prime and paint. There are a lot of things Bob and I can tackle but doing seams takes skill and I didn't want to be looking at uneven walls for the next 20 years. The room is really beginning to take shape! Of course, Bob didn't even need a ladder to do the ceiling. It's good to have a tall husband sometimes!

I should have made the bed!



A real closet taking shape.



Something needs to be done with that door!

I keep thinking the Lafayette Room (the guest room) is done but there always seems to be something else! We did more touch up and I really think its done and ready for guests. The bed is still in Kennebunk but we'll get it on our next trip.

Time for some new electrical!

A fire waiting to happen!

I really wanted to work on the downstairs hall  and stairway and get it cleaned up. It's an area that we use every day and knew, if it looked better, it would make me feel like we were making progress. Lynne, Bob's sister, is an amateur artist and we have asked her to do a mural on the stairwell wall. It will really be cool!

I stripped the railing and got it down to the original wood.

A mural on this wall of something "Mainey".