Annual Tech Director's Meeting on MV

Once again this June, Dave Crawford and the West Tisbury School hosted the regional technology directors' meeting. After gathering in Falmouth at 7:30 AM to catch the 8:15 ferry, Steve Kawalski from Apple bought us a cab to get to the school. This year, Dave shared his iPad deployment experience! It was very informative.

We then moved our meeting to 23 Trinity Park for some lunch. Only four of the twelve individuals saw the cottage last year and could appreciate all the changes, but they did! The weather was a bit cool so we stayed indoors. After lunch, we all walked into town for a few minutes and then caught the 1:15 ferry out of Oak Bluffs back home. Of course, the ferry rides to and from MV were spent sharing ideas, apps, and experiences with one another.

It was a fun, informative day. Thanks Dave for hosting and Steve for supporting it. Steve took the picture with his iPhone for the blog!

Good-bye Purple Bedroom

Despite being next door to the Purple Angel, we were not too thrilled with the bedroom at the back of the house that was painted purple. After painting all the rooms on the first floor, the first room upstairs to get a fresh coat of paint was going to be that purple room!

We bought a power painter, hoping it would spray paint inbetween the ceiling slats upstairs. It is a pain to tape and cover everything, but necessary to protect from the overspray. Barry dressed in his hazmat suit, attacked the room. The first coat on the entire room was with a special paint called Gripper. It is supposed to attach to everything. We did a second coat of eggshell ceiling paint that gives it a lovely, reflective sheen. The walls got the ever-present, white down and the trim the brilliant decorator's white. It looks so much brighter. We LOVE it!

Let There Be Light...

One of the ugliest features in our little gingerbread was the 1950's brown lighting fixture in the dining room. A friend who does interior design suggested the first thing we do was switch out that light! It took some time trying to find what we thought would be the most appropriate light for our little house. We looked for something simple, yet attractive. Finally, we settled in on a series of lights that we liked. We purchased the new dining room light, as well as hall lights and kitchen lights.

After ordering them off the Internet, we had many issues actually getting the lights! The order was not complete: the dining room feature was missing! After many phone calls, we got a replacement, only to open it to find it in a million pieces! Finally, we got our light.

Barry installed it and it is stricking yet modest. It is perfect and we enjoy using it to lighten up our family dinners!

The Heat is On....

Remembering the Gingerbread is really a hard-sided tent. There is no insulation or even inside walls. When the wind blows, the curtains wave! We do have heat, a floor unit in the center of the house on the first floor that can really pump out heat. However, we wanted to take our closed up fireplace and use it! We also needed to deal with our chimney that is falling down.

The Plan: take down the top of the chimney and install a gas fired "wood stove" with a stove pipe out the top of the chimney. The results are spectacular. We have a fabulous new stove that is a new heat source and is beautiful to look at. We are really enjoying it.