Painting in Our Basement

We have been working on our Gingerbread house this winter from the basement of our Marion house.  Five bundles of cedar shingles were delivered to our off-island home.  In the basement, we primed each shingle on all sides.  That was followed by two coats of the C2 Shaker paint, again on all sides.  Allowing them to dry completely between coats before finally packing them up in boxes for travel to the Vineyard.  They are destined to be nailed to the sides of the house.  Hopefully, it will save time and they will last a long time on the island home.  Now we only need to prime and paint another 15 bundles!  Ugh.....

A New Season Begins

Spring is in the air and thoughts of returning to our little gingerbread consume us!  Despite being away for the winter, we have been working on this year's home improvements.  How you might ask?

One project that started back in the Fall was to hire Mike Mitchell to repair the shingles on the rear of the house.  We have no idea when the chimney on the back of the house was taken down, but it has looked like this for at least 20 years, long strip of tar paper running up the back of the house.  First Mike had to remove the tar paper, exposing numerous surprises underneath including some resident bugs.  After repairing, he wove fire-retardant shingles in the blank area to complete the shingles on the back.  The new shingles were not square, so Mike had to cut each shingle to fit.

This spring, we will power wash the entire back of the house and then stain it the C2 Shaker (tan) color.  The screen door will be painted our wonderful Tamale (red) with the Halifax (blue) trim.  We will need to repaint the trim around the second floor window the Halifax color to match.  Currently, it is the Shaker color.  Add a new porch light, it will look like a new house from behind!

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.

Grand Illumination

The third Wednesday in August is the highlight of the summer in the Campground: Grand Illumination. This summer it was on August 18th, 2010. We spent the day putting up over 40 Chinese lanterns, both upstairs and downstairs around the porches. We had help from Melissa, Jeff, Nancy and Kathy. The challenge was determining which lantern to place where, how to hang them and how to light them. We put a large Chinese umbrella on the pulpit porch upstairs too. We used Christmas lights on the lower porch and LED tea lights upstairs. The LED lights were not nearly strong enough.....rookie mistake.

We sat on the porch and enjoyed the Community Sing which included music from the Vineyard Haven Community Band which has been in existance since 1868. At the appointed time (around 9:00 PM), the lanterns around the Tabernacle were lighted which signified the time to light ours. Our lanterns were lit and all other lights were extinguished. Unfortunately, it began to rain lightly. Thousands of people braved the weather and strolled around the campground enjoying the decorations. People stopped by Seas the Day and chatted with us, asking questions and expressing delight in the decorations and the tradition. Anthony Quittadamo, the previous owner, stopped by to say hello and visit the house.

Around 10:30, the fire engines made their rounds indicating it was time to shut down. We had to not only turn off our lights but take down all the lanterns. Nothing could be left up on the house! Most of our houseguests had either gone to sleep or were out getting donuts at Back Door Donuts. Despite the small crew, we were able to get everything down and put away before 11:00 PM. The rain ruined several smaller lanterns but all-in-all it was a great night. I must admit that I was nervous and inimidated about our first Illumination Night....there are high expectations for a cottage on the circle. It is great to have our first one under our belts and we look forward to next year.