A Day Trip

I played hookie again Wednesday and was lucky to catch a beautiful day

between all the rainy ones we've had this week. 

One of the greatest things about living in New England is you

can hop into your car and in two shakes of a lambs tail

you can be in city, country, mountains or ocean.

First-class museums, quaint antique shops or beautiful farms.

I headed the car north and ended up in Maine.  I'm sure it's no surprise.

 

Here are some of my favorite haunts:

I'm not sure this sea life in indigenous to Maine but

it sure looked great in a tray at Withington Antiques in York, Maine.

 

I love old portraits and it's hard to find really good ones.

 

Here's your great, great uncle Charles.  An instant heirloom.

 

 

From York, travel north on Route 1 and just north of Ogunquit, Maine is

R. Jorgensen Antiques.  Look at the stunning three-pear espaliers covering their building.

This shop is like a museum comprised of two large building filled with a nice mix of

formal and rustic antiques.  If you ever need a farm table, this is your place.

 

 

Paula Marshall, here's a plate for you.

 

 

This is one of the most amazing pieces I've ever seen...a 1785 Hepplewhite

 working chest.  The details on this were amazing.  The marquetry, the hand carved

ivory pulls, everything original and perfect.  And they chose a mahogany

Empire armoire as the perfect backdrop.

 

But bring your checkbook.  They don't take any credit cards!

 

I stopped by the Fisherman's Catch in Wells...

 

...for a quick lunch to go.

 

 

One of my favorite places is Smith-Zukas Antiques in Wells, Maine.

 

I often walk around an antique or salvage shop and find pieces of old things that

I'd like to turn into something else.  Proprietor Art Smith is backed up by a team of

artists and craftsman that turn your ideas in reality.

 

I love these column capitals.  Great end tables or bedside stands. 

 

Perhaps plaster ornaments from an old theater?

 

I fell in love with this brass nautical light fixture.   I'm not sure where this

will go right now but I couldn't leave it behind.

 

I also picked up a pair of nickel-plated Brasscrafter mirrors.  Just the perfect

size for my bathrooms!  They just need a little cleaning and they're a

perfect match for my Thomas O'Brien Bryant sconces.

 

And to find a perfect pair...I almost wish I had double sinks somewhere!

 

 

Just a few doors down from Smith-Zukas is Peggy Carboni Antiques.  Peggy's

shop wins the prize for "best look."  I could just move right in.

 

I want to do a collection of tiny "heads" in my downstairs bathroom and I thought

this was perfect thing to start my collection.  The entire thing is about three inches square.

 I first thought she was Madonna but now I'm not sure.  Do you know who she is? 

I love the frame and she appeals to my inner nun.

 

Continuing north on Route 1, I stopped at Corey Daniels Gallery but

I'll be doing an entire post on the gallery soon.  I love that place!

 

 

 

Continue north on Route 1 and turn right on Route 9.

 

I always need to get a little dose of country from Snug Harbor Farm.

They've incorporated part of the barn into their shop up by the road

and it just oozes charm.  It's another place I could just move right in to.

 

 

There's always lots to explore here from terracotta pots...

 

 

...to ponies...

 

 

...to peacocks showing off for their girlfriends...

 

 

 

...to plants, topiaries and beautiful gardens.

 

I picked up some Goat's Beard for my garden.

 

The doves were being shy and wouldn't come out of their dovecote

so I had to visit them. 

 

 

Before heading back home, I thought I'd stop at Parson's Beach.

The rosa rugosa was in full bloom.  I would have expected them to have such a

powerful scent but en masse, the walk over the dune was pure heaven.

 

 

I love visiting the ocean.  It looks different every single time.  The low tide can

reveal all kinds of tempest-tossed treasures.  This days' high tide and gray skies

with distant showers left me feeling quite icy.  Perhaps it was my wet feet.

 

Visiting Maine for a day always feels like two days off.

Carpe Diem: Essex, Massachusetts

When you work full time, sometimes you need to take a day off to run errands

that you can only do during business hours.  Yesterday I did just that.  I ran my

errands, went on a search for a marble remnant for my vanity table and as I was

headed back home to finish stripping the paint off my bathroom door.

But instead of driving home, my car went in the other direction and I ended up

in Essex, Massachusetts, a quaint Colonial-era village about 40 minutes north of Boston.

Main Street is lined with antique shops and I usually stop

at the White Elephant first.  The White Elephant is the kind of place

you rummage through to look for gems.  Things are not usually well

organized and I don't mean that to be disparaging.  It's a treasure hunt.

I was surprised to see such a nice collection of marble lamps.

When I posted this photo on instagram, someone replied it looked

like a large and well lit game of chess.

This seems like some old version of a hot plate.  The plate was set into

a larger metal tray and it's my guess that you would fill the tray with hot

water through the nozzle on the top side to keep the plate warm. 

This area of Massachusetts known as Cape Ann has long been a

popular destination for artists so it's always good to keep a keen eye

out for good artwork.  This Esther Heins geranium painting seemed

very well executed so I used my smart phone (how did I live without one

for so long!) to google her and found she was a Marblehead-based artist

known for her botanical paintings, did illustrations for Horticulture

magazine and exhibited work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

and the Smithsonian Institution.  Isn't it a little treasure?

White Elephant also has an outlet only open on Saturdays and Sundays.

After White Elephant, I stopped in David Neligan Antiques where

I was greeted by a pair large and wonderful pair of foo dogs.  This

shop is filled to the brim with traditional antiques. 

It's almost unbelievable to me that you can find a pair of

ca. 1770 "King George III" armchairs newly reupholstered

in oatmeal linen just sitting in a shop and ready to take home.

The pillow is a Folly Cove design which you'll see much more of

at the next shop.

You just can't go to Essex without stopping by Andrew Spindler Antiques.

The first time I went in a few years ago, I had never heard of Andrew Spindler

but was impressed with his beautifully curated shop--very much my taste-- with

a mix of classics from a variety of time periods.  You might find an English

gate leg table next to mid-century leather Breuer dining chairs.

Andrew's home got a write up in the New York Times a few years ago

and the slide show is still on-line if you'd like to see his interesting interiors.

I love his living room and its view to what I would guess is a porch.  And I

especially love his quote, "I've always paid attention to what this house wants."

I often feel those cues from my house.  

Here I was greeted with a wonderful wall of Folly Cove pieces.

The Folly Cove Designers were a group of mostly (but not exclusively) women

artists in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  All of their work is block printed and often

come in the form of placemats and table runners.  This is a collection of

placements that have been archivally framed as artwork.

The group revolved around design classes given by Virginia Lee Burton

and they worked from 1938 to about 1968.  Burton was a children's book author

and illustrator.  I love this old photograph of Burton in her office/studio.  Folly Cove

pieces are highly collectible and have become quite rare in good condition.

Here are a few more Folly Cove pieces at Andrew's shop:

This is a delightful and humorous print called "The Gossips"

by Virginia Lee Burton from the 1940s.

This beautiful garden bench with Folly cove pillows in the

Diamond Jubilee by Eino Natti, ca. 1947.

Peony, ca. 1964 by Mary Maletskos in a deep navy blue.

Does this not look totally current?

I couldn't resist this one.

If you'd like to know more about the Folly Cover Designers,

check out this post on the Streets of Salem blog.

 I can tell that Andrew has a passion for ironstone as there's

always a wonderful collection of pieces available.

I'm attracted to anything with a crown since my first

name means crown.  Not Folly Cove but this is a 1930s hand-printed

linen textile made for Cunard.  Wouldn't it make a great throw?

So much more unique than the ubiquitous Hermes throws.

I also couldn't resist these brass and porcelain transferware

drawer pulls.  I love being able to incorporate unique items into

my house and since I'm working on the design for my new kitchen,

I can strategically plan where they'll go beforehand.

 

The next time you're on your way to visit Rockport or Gloucester,

you should plan some extra time to stop in Essex.  Or make a day

of it and stop by Woodman's of Essex for some fried clams and lobster.

Guest Bathroom Progress

I don't have any pretty pictures of the new bathroom yet but good progress is being made.

If you're new to the blog--or need a refresher--this new bathroom is being carved from

space in the center of my house that was a hallway, a closet, the dining room and kitchen.

It's the space outlined in yellow in the floor plan above.  I already have a bathroom

on the first floor but by moving it, I can get kitchen that's larger and laid out much better.

The bathroom and pantry (that are highlighted in green) will be demoed in the next phase.

These are the two doors you can see in the photo above.

Here you can see the new floor plan.  The new bathroom again is

outlined in yellow.   And the space I'll be gaining in the kitchen is in green.

There's still an issue with the plumbing chase to the bathroom upstairs

(just to the left of the kitchen sink in the new floor plan) but

I'll talk about that when we get to it. 

So the wall that separates the bathroom from the dining room is the 

continuation of a load-breaking wall with a major beam underneath it

in the basement.  To get plumbing in and out of the space, the pipes enter

on the floor and then turn into the wall cavity.  Some of the plumbing will

be hidden by the bed for the floor tile and the shelf in the vanity table

will hide anything else that protrudes.

The floor was also really out of level with the low point being right 

where the sink sits.  Before pouring a floor leveler, all the cracks around the edges 

of the subfloor and holes where pipes go in and out need to be filled with foam

insulation.  With even the tiniest hole or crack and the leveler will leak into the basement.

Here's Sam moving around the floor leveler just after pouring it.

I found this process really scary...but it all held.

While I think of it, three different inspectors had to come to sign off on the job.  

One for building, one for electric and one for plumbing.  When the plumbing

inspector came early on to see how the project was going, he asked for all

the approval codes for my plumbing fixtures.  Remember the toilet that I couldn't

get because it wasn't approved for use in Massachusetts?  I guess, every piece of

equipment sold goes through an approval process and has an approval code for the state.

The inspector was saying that a lot of people are buying things on the internet that

aren't approved for use in Massachusetts.  I was able to call the store I purchased

all the fixtures from to get the approval codes but it's just a warning about 

buying things on the internet if you're doing a project that's being inspected.

To abate any noise coming from the bathroom, we used green glue to apply

the sheetrock on the dining room side of the wall.  Once the inspections were

complete,  the walls were filled with denim insulation for additional insurance.

There's no telling how well it will work but I'll find out.

And then the walls were closed up.  Wonderboard around the tub and

moisture and mildew resistant sheetrock on the walls and ceiling.

The room was about three inches larger than a standard tub so instead

of making the room a little smaller, I opted to fill the space at the back

of the tub to make a little shelf.  It's small but I'll cap it with a slightly

larger piece of marble and it will be a great place for a few extra bottles

of shampoo and shower gel for guests.

The horizontal planking will be made from Southern yellow pine.

Sam made me a few samples of moisture resistent MDF with various sliplap joints

but they seemed too smooth.  So I opted to use pine so it's texture will show.

And that's where we are today.

* * * * *

Zephirine Drouhin rose, thornless and will tolerate some shade.

Rosalind, just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you.

I'm sending you some roses from my garden.  They're an old

bourbon rose and their scent is from heaven.