Here's the interior front wall of the house. Note the incredibly beautiful logs (on the right) that are holding the whole thing together. More evidence of the early 1800's construction. We had originally wanted to put a front door here, flanked by two windows, but in order to do this, we learned, we (aka Mark Rist our contractor, and his crew) would have to tear down and re frame the entire front of the house. Which would suck because a) it would cost a fortune and b) we'd be losing one of the few original walls we've still got. Which seems heretical, for some inexplicable reason. A french door was proposed by Carl (our architect) to keep the maximum light flowing in, but the idea of a french door as the front door to the house freaks me out (don't ask why, it just does.) So we compromised, deciding to go with a three foot wide solid door (that we will now hunt through vintage places to find-- any suggestions would be greatly appreciated) with long narrow windows on either side. Josh drew it out (he sketches EVERYTHING... all of our meals have become napkin drawing sessions) to make sure it wouldn't look too odd, and we're happy with it. Less light than is ideal for that area, but better than nothing for sure. In general, we're feeling very good about our little spot. Knock on wood.

Now it's onto all of the decision making that needs to be done. Windows first, as I mentioned. Then tiles/floors/countertops/appliances/heating systems... the list is staggering. I have finally started to take this all seriously (about time..) and am starting to organize the hundreds of tear sheets, etc that I've been dutifully collecting in various random corners of the apartment. It's actually incredibly helpful to have concrete visuals when trying to make all of these choices. I'm putting them into little piles, which is something I love to do. Not so into creating a filing system for them, but maybe that's where my super organized husband Josh comes in (?) Here's a photo of my progress in this area to close out this entry. This was taken inside of my parents' house, which is right next door to ours. Sitcom, anyone?