The Turning Tide

For the past five months, we've been expert at taking things apart, smashing walls up, ripping stuff out and generally stripping down the church to it's bones. When all is said and done, I'm going to tally up the bills for the dump runs and I think I will have made the dump close to $5000 richer. BUT when I got to the church on Saturday morning, I finally got the sense that the tide had turned and we were putting things back TOGETHER! I walked to the back of the church, plucked the hidden wrench from its hiding place that we use to open the door and saw that David had kind of blocked off the main working area. Kind of like only having the body part that you're operating on exposed to the doctor; everything else is covered up.

Behind the curtain, here is where the kitchen will be...

And across from the kitchen will be the dining room.

I'm waiting for the new front door to be delivered. When we placed the church back down on the new foundation and the floors leveled out, the front door wouldn't close anymore. Here's how we  get it to close. We jam a crow bar under the jamb. Fancy.

A very cool thing happened this week when David was prepping the kitchen and dining room. He discovered a opening in the floor that would go straight down to the basement. This would solve the washer/dryer and where to place them problem. I told David I was cool with a trap door but he's a bit iffy. I think a trap door goes well with a church.

I do have new heating but it's always cool to throw some wood in the stove. I mean, here's my fancy new thermostat with multi-page instruction book and below it, the wood stove. It's nice to have that balance.

I am repurposing the original church door (or at least, I think it was). I think I'm going to install barn door hardware and use it as the bathroom door. 

Whenever I look at at the bannister to that staircase, I can't wait to rip it out. Hopefully, one of the last holdouts to demolition. I am going to dismantle it myself when David is ready to put up the new one.

When I walked up to the bedroom, I saw that the closets were beginning to be constructed. Progress is definitely being made. David is going to lay the tongue & groove pine floor that I will begin coating with high gloss white paint.

Sparky was on holiday so I didn't get to see him this week. I did get to visit with my friends, Kelly and Spike and in a wonderful Christmas miracle moment, Spike lent me the first two seasons of Battlestar Gallactica. Now I know what I'm doing the week between Christmas and New Years!

When I drove to the Hudson train station, I was early and had a little time to kill so I drove over to the top of Warren Street where I encountered John Doe Records. This is a cool new record shop filled with vinyl, books and ephemera. Now I'll never have to wander around Hudson aimlessly looking at overpriced mid-century modern furniture stores when I'm waiting for the train. They've only been open for a couple of weeks but you know how important it is to support your local record store so I am shamelessly giving them a shout out here.

If I can't sign off with a photo of Sparkles the wonder dog, here's a view of the rising moon from the bedroom window.

This is a MONUMENTAL relief

The church now has it's C of O!

The new heating system and foundation have been inspected and approved. On to plumbing and electric!
I'll be heading up tonight for a meeting with David tomorrow morning. Somehow, the to do list never gets shorter with each visit...

A RED LETTER DAY

Finally. The church has heat.

Winter is here

I was in Paris last week. I went to see Murakami at Versailles, Basquiat and Larry Clark at the Musee D'Art Moderne, Kertesz at Jeu de Paume and I never miss paying a visit to my favorite museum, Maison Europeene de Photographie in the 4th arrondisement. It was just what I needed. Looking at art calms and inspires me. And I love the light in Paris the way that I love the light in the Hudson Valley and Provincetown.
Here's some photos of my trip:

When I got back to New York, I did my laundry and packed a bag for the weekend with the Parker-Thomassons and to check up on the church progress.

It was one of those expensive check writing weeks that didn't really yield any wow factor or, unfortunately, my goal of working heat and running water. But we are getting closer. Here's what's going on at the church in Coxsackie. 

In the biggest improvement of the month, here is my 98% efficient natural gas furnace with tankless water heater.

And here's Jeff, my plumber, starting to reconnect the toilet plumbing lines.

I met David at the Home Depot in Catskill to buy a new toilet, I mean, who wants to inherit someone else's toilet? So we bought one and put it in David's wagon and ...  Magic!

Now, I need to find a tub and, oh yeah, a billion other things.

In one very happy moment, I walked upstairs to see that they had removed the plastic from the windows (bitchier for staining but nicer for seeing!) Here was the view I saw:

That made me feel good. 

Another bit of progress occurred when we fixed the street that we had dug up. Not the most beautiful blacktop job but at least cars weren't wrecking their shocks anymore as they bumped over it.

David also installed the Bilco Doors to the basement entrance. This will further help in the ongoing plight to keep water out of the basement.

We went over some details for the kitchen cabinet installation and talked about when I can order the lights, front door and window (now) and that I wanted him to find some inexpensive pine planks (that I would paint the high gloss white shit out of!) and lay that down as flooring in my bedroom.

If all goes well, when I go up in two weeks I should have a working toilet again and a brand new working heating system (all the baseboard has already been installed inside).

Without much more to do in the church until I get heat and the flooring installed, we went junk store searching and road tripping. Here's some snaps from our outing:

I also had my dining room hutch moved to "Jake's Lock Up", my storage shed in Coxsackie. Here I am with Lawson who moved the piece (behind us) from the store in Earlton to Jake's.

After all that TCB, I slept well with Sparky for company.

And today, I had a really beautiful sunset on my way home. Thanks Mother Nature and Amtrak; it was a very spiritual journey.