Loooong time

Dear Readers I must apologize. I have been remiss in my blogging. Life does get in the way, you know.
The Church has really morphed into something even I could not quite imagine. I saw it in my head from the moment I walked out onto that rickety deck and saw the mighty Hudson River but I was never sure that it would translate into reality. I've learned from many of my own packaging design projects that even with the best ideas and intention, chaos may ensue. BUT it did have one thing going for it that I forgot to factor in: I was both designer AND client. Ahhh, that makes all the difference.
Here's some interior photos:

It has been nice to fill up the bookcase; I'm holding back a little since I know that Thug Mansion/72nd Street (aka my NYC apartment) will be making a sizable contribution sooner than later!

I love the barn door hardware and the junk store door that I refinished. And remember how hideous that staircase was? I cringed every time I looked at it! Now, I am happy every time I walk up these stairs.

This artwork will eventually move up to my office and I'll put a painting there but I like to look at these mementos so I keep them up there until that painting materializes.

Wifi is up and running and my office/guest room is ready to receive visitors.

I made the metal mat out of stuff I found in the plumbing department at Lowes. I nailed the metal plates onto plywood with nice black flat head nails. Come summer time I can just put it in the basement.

The music room now has a full complement of instruments that were the gracious donations of many of my dear friends and fantastic yard sale finds. Let the jam sessions begin.
And here's some exterior shots of the church and the beautiful village of Coxsackie:

This last shot shows the Church as seen from the village. You can see her sitting high up on the hill. The photo makes it look so big and majestic!
Finally, I've been struggling with a chandelier for two years. I thought I'd make one but I realized that the design that I loved would not throw off enough light to be effective. I was crestfallen. But last weekend, my friend Laura and I went hunting for props for a video I'm directing with Jenny Owen Youngs and we found this:

A few hours of NevrDull and elbow grease and it was looking pretty good. Now if I can get it rewired...

Winter Hiatus

 I found something out about the church over the Martin Luther King Day long weekend. When the temperature dips to single digits, there's just no way to keep the house above 55 degrees. The 10 huge original windows are rattling in their sashes. I'm going to have to price out custom storm windows for 10 approximately 40" x 80" windows. Can you hear my intake of breath? I'll have one more gasp for the invoice I'm going to receive when I can finally save up enough money to paint the exterior.
I've been working on the interior as the weather got colder. Here's the finished bookcase that adds a privacy screen to the staircase up to my bedroom.
Here's the before:

And here's the after:

I can pull out the two middle verticals (they are on casters) and there's further storage behind the bookcase. Like where you put the kind of stuff you need to get to twice a year.

Here's my new office. I bought two old doors at the local junk store. They had a nice patina so I cleaned and polished them up, fixed the aluminum edges and David made them into desktops.
The two chairs cost a total of $7 at various yard sales. I have to save wherever I can so I can keep striving for those custom storms!
Here's the approach to the steeple. I'm designing a safer and easier approach but this will have to do for now.

Here's the view from the steeple:

So you can see that it's totally worth risking your life to climb up into this view. I love when the tugboats come down the river.

Also, I was sooooo happy to have the main staircase finally finished. I remember how much I hated, hated, hated it when I first bought the church:

And now here it is. New balusters and handrail, sanded, stained, varnished, repeat 4X.

I made a metal mat for the woodstove with plumbing parts from Lowe's, black flat finishing nails and 1/4" plywood. Total cost $47. Now, I won't set Sparky's bed on fire like I did with his old one and when summer comes, I can just put it down in the basement.

Also, the music room is really shaping up. I found an old Hammond Church organ at Leisure Time in Ravena. Bob fired it up and once the tubes warmed it sounded great. Some dude in a ponytail came out to look at it. I asked him if he could play. He started the opening notes of "Summer In The City". I said "SOLD!" Bob dropped it off the next day and it nestled into its new home perfectly.

I'm so happy with the way the church is coming along. Here she stands proudly with new steeple and weathervane:

Finally, I'm having the first open house for my NYC apartment on the UES tomorrow. I'm going to look for a studio in the village or Chelsea. One of the first spaces I saw was a complete and total gut renovation. Here's a photo of that west village studio.

 I'm seriously considering it.  I have nerves of steel.