A bird’s-eye view from the front
In sharp contrast
I recall two poet-friends:
One a public high school teacher, quite prolific as both excellent poet and gallery-exhibited photographer, did most of his work during the busy school year rather than the summer; he could never quite figure out why the pattern was exactly opposite of what people would expect.
The other, having all the time in the world to write, could produce only disconnected flashes – nothing sustained or full but wild all the same.
They were buddies.
Qualities I most like in a woman
In no particular order:
- Sensuality.
- Unconventional beauty. Think of waking up and opening your eyes in the morning and this is the first thing you see.
- Grace.
- Playfulness. Which I also sense as a dimension of creativity, which enlivens me.
- Scent.
- Intelligence. Extending to curiosity and an artistic awareness, in my mind.
- Understanding.
- Cleanliness.
- Self-control.
- Peacefulness.
~*~
Well, that’s what’s first coming to mind …
As for you?
Tight rendering, 1964
Some house maintenance that remains to be done
Good luck to the new owners. They’ll have their plate full. As I’ve said, we bought the place as a fixer-upper, and two decades later, after a lot of big work, it’s still a fixer-upper.
- The roof, again. If they’re really ambitious, they’ll go for standing seam rather than asphalt shingles.
- Replace the upstairs windows. Winter gets cold.
- Paint the exterior. We had a tradesman lined up, but he backed out after his wife died.
- Scrape and paint the hallway. Caulk the floor, too.
- Repaint the floors. The interior rooms could also use refreshing.
- Retackle the mother-in-law apartment. When we added it when we first moved in, it was the nicest room we had. But a two-pack-a-day habit took a toll.
- Downstairs toilet. Minor, but annoying.
- Regrade and repave the driveway.
- Minor landscaping issues, but they add up. I’d start by felling the trees next to the house.
- Improve the insulation. Seriously.
According to some owners, a boat is a hole in the water where you pour endless amounts of money.
In the same vein, an old house is a hole in the ground where you pour endless amounts of money.
Kinisi 52
Cause and Defect
Still possible, spring snow
Truly subversive
After his conversion in prison, Charles Colson held aloft Francis of Assisi and the early Quaker George Fox as his two examples of what happens when a person devotes his whole life to Christ.
Earlier, when Colson was in the White House, he oversaw the FBI creating subversives’ files for Fox and fellow Quaker William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, and anybody else whose name they found on public Quaker Meeting newsletters.
Yes, beware of true religion.
With open arms, uptown
what upset me was the basic ineptitude that causes such accidents and delays to happen, still, if it hadn’t been for a couple of foolhardy neighbors one-thirty a.m., fire alarm, dashing outside before smoke in a neighboring apartment turned into flames, only then did I think who brought the blaze under control with fire extinguishers while eating way too much smoke, the fire trucks would have arrived to an attic entirely aflame so I should have carried my computer files out, too, but why the fire department took thirteen minutes to respond from a station just five blocks away is inexcusable
Ten big things to tackle right away in our new project
The Cape we bought was listed as circa 1865, but from some of the detailing, we’re guessing it was more likely around 1835. A bird’s-eye view map from the 1835 shows a house on this site, though maybe not this one.
Many potential buyers passed on the place, for whatever reasons. It is definitely a fixer-upper, but it feels good, and we like its in-town, close-to-the-ocean location.
One chimney was in peril of collapse, and it’s already been removed. The fuel-oil tank had to be replaced. Also done.
We’re looking at the work ahead in two stages.
The first, of course, is more essential. The second, renovating the place more for our dreams.
Not that I especially wanted another This Old House kind of series, but this time we think we can tackle the project more comprehensively, rather than piecemeal.
Here’s what’s on our plate as soon as possible:
- Insulate exterior walls.
- Repair foundation and cellar. Work from the bottom up.
- Level the flooring.
- Rewire, to accommodate more electronics and appliances, especially, and add grounded outlets.
- Replace windows.
- Straighten and fix gutters.
- Touch up and repaint exterior trim.
- Add a garden shed. We really miss our barn and need more storage space.
- Remove the old fireplace iron insert (now sitting in the middle of a room) and the big wood cookstove.
- Remodel and update kitchen.
Jnana's Red Barn 