Over this past summer, Matthew and I spent a lot of time renovating our first floor apartment. We started with fixing up the kitchen. Then our tenant told us she was moving out. After she left, we took to renovating the rest of the apartment. It was a big undertaking, one which we would not have gotten through without the help of a generous group of friends. In late August my grandmother passed away and then Matt’s appendix ruptured, so we lost a week and a half of work. For that reason, there is still some work left to do, but it was definitely good enough for our new tenant to move in this week.
I created a gallery of the goings-on. Here are some of the dramatic before-and-after shots.
The living and dining room had ill-fitted carpet and dark wood-paneled walls.
Painted walls and laminate floors open up this space.
The kitchen before renovation was cluttered and the cabinets were decades old.
The new kitchen has new cabinets against the back wall and a more spacious feel. The blue walls add a cozy touch.
For more photos of the dramatic changes, see my flickr gallery.
One thing we’d like to do in the near future is to order and install a plaque with the “historic” name of our home: The John D. Wood House. The following link is to the official historical record for the house.
Historical Record (Ignore the coffee stain on it.)
We think this would be a fun idea, but I’m now wondering if naming it after the first guy who lived there really makes any sense. How do houses get their names? Or maybe we could make it the John and Sarah Wood house? I guess we’d have to find out if these people were worthy of having a house named after them.
I suppose we can call it anything we want, since we own it.
A couple of weeks ago, I got my crafty on once again. I had taken a long break after more than a year of sewing a lot of beambags, because my hands pretty much gave out on me. But I was inspired by this fabric I picked up at IKEA.
I really could have bought a lot of fabric at IKEA, but I only got a yard of this on sale for $4 a yard.
With half of the yard, I made the bag. With the other half, I made this wall hanging.
Truthfully, the wall hanging was what I made first. The bag was an afterthought. The frame for the wall hanging was also purchased at IKEA and was Matthew’s idea.
I don’t see myself jumping headfirst into craftiness. I think a few projects at a time are all I can handle. My next project is going to be curtains for the dining room.
People were asking me all week what I was doing during my week off.
On Monday it was about 60 degrees in the shade. I scraped and painted the floor of our front porch. Our doorway is on the right (the one with the cute home plate mat — which was an engagement gift from Jennifer Myszkowski. We also got a cute new floor mat for our wedding from Alyson and Bill. It has monkeys on it. We are saving that one for when this one wears out. But, enough about the doormats). One of our tenants gave me the news that it was going to rain that night, so I only got to put one coat of paint on the floor. When the weather gets warmer again, we plan to do more painting on the porch.
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Along with our new computer we got a new printer/scanner combination thingy. So I’ve been scanning in photos. My most recent scan is this photo of Miles as a kitteh.
He was born in October 2002 in Springfield and spent his formative months in my apartment in Amherst. Here is what he looks like now.
Over the weekend, we did a Miles photo shoot for a Fat Cat Flickr Off. Miles did not win on account of his fat-concealing fur, but look at the competition. He’s really more big-boned than anything.
My friend Tony experienced something quite shocking in the city of Holyoke a few weeks ago. When I first heard the story, I was, quite honestly, in disbelief. It wasn’t until yesterday when he sent me this testimony that I was able to see the horrifying event unfold. Many of you who read this blog also know Tony so I thought you should read this.
Here is, in his words, what happened.
My name is Anthony Jones. I am a 29 year-old college educated, professional African-American male who resides in Northampton, MA. I am writing to discuss a complaint against a public establishment in Holyoke named The Clover, as well as against the Holyoke Police Department.
Recently, my partner and I were out for the evening when we decided to go to The Clover Pub in Holyoke for a couple drinks. As we thought this establishment to be friendly enough (as it is in gay marriage friendly Massachusetts), my partner and I kissed one another on the lips. We were told that this behavior was “unacceptable” in this bar. We were told to stop. As I believe I have the right to kiss anyone I want, I asked why we were being asked to stop kissing. We were told that this bar was not “that kind of place.” I explained that what we were doing was not inappropriate. My partner and I were asked to leave. I said I would not leave the bar because I kissed my boyfriend and because we did nothing wrong.
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Choosing Holyoke as a place to make our home has been a wonderful decision so far. And it’s a decision made even more wonderful when friends buy houses within walking distance. Jennifer and Scott celebrated their recent purchase with a housewarming yesterday — it included delicious pancakes and the music of The Primate Fiasco. Photos here.
One of our tenants is painting the side of our house to help pay off some of her rent. For some reason the previous owners decided to paint the house a few years ago using paint that was not meant for brick. Over the course of the summer, the tenants have been chipping away at the paint, filling in holes with cement and reconstructing bad bricks. One day we discovered that an advertisement used to be painted on the side of the house. This must have been from when the storefront was a grocery store many decades ago. We thought it was pretty neat. But I still like the after photo better.
I have yet to get a proper photo of Molly using her spider-like skills to get down from our balcony, but I did catch this photo of her waiting for me to leave so that when I was out of view she could shimmy down. Sure enough, as soon as I came back upstairs after grabbing this shot, she had traded places with me and was looking up at me from the yard. I didn’t catch that shot, because I was just too exasperated. In this photo she is likely spying on some birds.
holyoke, home improvement, western mass | kristen September 18, 2009 | 
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