OUR BLOCK

We got our first package in the mail!  It was from the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission of Kingston and had all kinds of information about the four designated historic districts and a list of preservation and restoration guidelines for the homes that are within these areas. 

Our house is in the Chestnut Street Historic District.  It's a small area...only a few blocks long. And it's great because it means that nobody on our street...or the surrounding streets can do anything crazy to their house.  Any changes you make have to be consistent with the period and architectural style of your home. That means no vinyl siding, no crazy paint jobs, and most importantly no tearing down beautiful old buildings. 

The top photo is the view from our front porch.  Our street is a tiny cul-de-sac with only about 6 other houses on it and ours sits at the very end.  Here are a few of the other houses: 

And here's our house:

KLEIN TOOLS

I've always been super into home improvement.  I was comfortable using an electric screwdriver and taking on minor room renovation projects by fourth grade and one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever was a set of power tools from my dad.  

Well, now I have a whole house worth of projects ahead of me...and there's one thing I really want.

A tool belt.

Specifically, a Klein tool belt.  Everything they make is so handsome and classic.  And I love that you buy the belt separately and then choose the tool holders and pouches that best suit your needs.  

And while I'm making a wish list...let me just go ahead and put one of those AMAZING tool bags on it!  Aren't they to die for?! 

NOTE:  If this all seems a bit extreme....you should know that my college roommates used to call me Bob Vila....so, trust me...it wouldn't be THAT weird if I wore a tool belt.

COLOR STORIES

I've been living here for one week and my ideas for each of the rooms are starting to take shape. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow me to do much more than look at free paint samples. But that's okay....I think it is best to really get to know each room before you start buying things anyway. So for the time being I'm just going to pore over this stack of paint chips and come up with some color palettes. 

Here's what I'm thinking so far: 

It wouldn't be MY house without a healthy dose of aqua/mint green/turquoise...so I plan on using these colors VERY liberally. 

For instance...in the dining room.  

I am thinking the lighter shade for the walls...and the darker for the french door that leads to the porch. The natural wood moldings around the windows and door in the dining room have a very warm, almost orangey cast, as do the pine floors...which I think will look LOVELY with the blue/greens. 

NOTE: That is NOT our real dining room table. It is our old kitchen table that happens to be in the dining room. Let's just pretend it's a beautiful, long, old table with some mismatched wooden chairs. Oh...and the color of those paint chips doesn't look terribly accurate on my screen....but you get the idea....right?

ORANGE YOGURT CAKE

Justin and I finally finished unpacking all of our kitchen stuff.  That includes not only the abundance of things we brought from our apartment...but also ALL of our wedding presents. Since there was literally NO room for anything else in our apartment in Brooklyn we decided to store them in my parents' garage until we moved into a bigger house. 

Well, now we're in that bigger house...so we got to open all of our super sweet gifts and start putting them to use!

One of the lovely things we got was a ruffled cake stand with a glass cloche. It was just screaming for a pretty baked thing...so I decided to make it one.

I made an orange yogurt cake using a recipe I had cut out of an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It is available here.  However, I wanted mine to be a little more decorative (after all, it is going onto the world's cutest cake plate) so I also made some royal icing (recipe here) and piped on a few swirls and then topped it with orange zest and a dusting of powdered sugar. 

I think I'm going to be doing a lot more baking.  Here's some reasons why:  a.) I get a big kick out of it, b.) I LOVE sweets, c.) I have all kinds of new baking accessories, d.) I have LOTS of counter space to use said baking accessories....and most importantly, e.) what's a better way to get my NYC friends to come visit than tales of delicious homemade treats?!

IT'S BEEN A BUSY WEEK

MONDAY: Justin and I closed on our house. That means we signed A LOT of papers, wrote A LOT of checks, and officially became homeowners.  

 

That day we saw a deer, a groundhog, and an abundance of birds and little critters in our backyard. It's like the nature channel outside our kitchen window!  

We ate a lovely dinner on the kitchen floor and spent the night on our air mattress. 

The next morning we woke up and caught the tail end of sunrise outside our bedroom window. So dreamy!  

TUESDAY: We had to go back to Brooklyn to finish packing up our apartment...which took WAY longer than we wanted it to.  

WEDNESDAY: The movers came at 8:00 am. It was amazing how fast and efficient they were. We were out of there by 10:30 am and on our way back up to Kingston with Steven Kit Kitterson in tow. 

Justin and I decided that hiring movers was one the the top five best decisions we've ever made. It came in just below getting married, buying a house, and bringing home a cat.  

THURSDAY: We woke up early and went to a local stone quarry where we made the world's largest impulse buy: 10 TONS of rocks. I'll explain more in a later post.  

That evening we drove up to South Hadley, MA for a Bishop Allen show at Mount Holyoke. We played in a big beautiful old hall with a legitimate stage. (You never know what you're gonna get with these college shows. Usually we end up playing in more of a cafeteria / rec center / snack bar type of situation. And it's WEIRD.)

The whole band came back to our house and stayed the night. Our first visitors!

FRIDAY: We woke up early and made breakfast tacos using our newly unpacked cast iron skillet.

Yesterday the Bishop Allen boys loaded a trailer with the ENTIRE contents of the old practice space, hitched it to the van and drove it to our house. Today we hauled ALL of that gear up three flights of stairs to the new attic studio.

And just a few minutes ago we did our first load of dishes......in a DISHWASHER!!!!!!! We had to read the manual because neither of us had ever done it before. To me a dishwasher seems like something from the Jetsons. I mean...you push a button and it does it for you??? Really??? I can't believe I own one of these futuristic contraptions.

OH...AND JUST FYI...

This site has a tipi you can stay in overnight.  It isn't in a tipi park or something...it's just ONE tipi surrounded by 36 acres of wilderness somewhere in New Hampshire.  That's it in the photo above and there's a picture of the interior in my last post.  It's the one with the log couches.  Looks pretty nice...right?  And its big! 22 feet wide x 24 feet high.  Rates vary by season...but it is $50 a night from June to September.  I totally want to do this.  Who's coming?!

BACKYARD DREAMING

On Monday we are going to write some of the biggest checks of our lives.  Lots of them.  And we will be getting an amazing house in return....but we are going to have VERY little money left over. So you would think I would be focusing on important things that we absolutely need for our first house.  You know...necessities.  Tables to eat off of, chairs to sit on, beds to sleep in.  But no...all I can think of are super fun things that are TOTALLY unnecessary.  Like a TIPI!

I mean...a tipi would be such a great addition to our first backyard. Right?  And we have a little patch of woods that wouldn't be good for a garden...but would be PERFECT for a tipi.  

Well, I did a little bit of research and I found a lot of companies that make and sell pretty authentic ones.  This site lists most of the places I came across.  Unfortunately, they are a little bit out of our budget.  Even the smallest, most basic models seem to cost over $1,000.  (As well they should.  After all, it is a HOUSE.)  Amazon sells a $250 makeshift version - but I think I'd rather hold out for the real deal.  And there is always the DIY route.  This guy made one himself using the book The Indian Tipi - Its History, Construction and Use.  His came out beautiful...but between the cost of supplies, extensive labor and math skills required for the project...I think I would rather pay someone else to do it. 

 So, looks like I better start saving up.  And honestly, I'm ready to say that we do, in fact, NEED a tipi.  And if you aren't already convinced...please scroll down to the pictures of the tipi interiors.  SO MAGICAL...right? 

So if you are looking for a good housewarming gift...a 10 to 12 foot tipi would be just fine. Thanks!