George Washington Slept Here

Spent yesterday with friends Larry (not her real name) and her husband Jim for one of our jaunts into Boston. We hopped onto the "T" near Quincy and rode straight to Harvard Square. Our plan was to walk around, pop into a few stores and grab lunch. Larry's husband suggested we eat at Charlie's Kitchen at 10 Eliot Street in Cambridge.

The atmosphere at Charlie's is a cross between a 50's style diner and a sports bar. Charlie's has a decent selection of beers so in honor of the season Larry and I ordered the Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin beer. Definitely a good choice with my buffalo burger. Our waitress has been waiting tables at Charlie's for over 50 years, although she told us she was not planning on making this a career. She was a real hoot and kept us entertained throughout our meal.

My passion for buffalo burgers started with my first buffalo burger at the Meers Store and Restaurant outside of Lawton, Oklahoma in 1977. Meers was this eclectic"dump" out in the middle of nowhere that served buffalo burgers the size of a pie plate. I remember that burger like it was yesterday and  have dreamed about it for over 30 years. I had to insert a picture because it is such a shack, no one in their right mind would walk in.

After my Meers buffalo burger, I never saw buffalo again on a menu until this past spring when we discovered Ted’s Montana Grill during a visit to Washington D.C.  Ted's serves up many of their burgers with a choice of beef or bison. My favorite Ted's burger is the America's Cup. YUM! When we came back from DC, I was telling my friend Gail about how delicious my buffalo burger was she told me there is a Ted's Montana Grill in Westborough, MA not far from where we live. How could I have not known??

After lunch, Larry’s husband led the way to the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow home. The two husbands are both members of the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.). So we were really there because George Washington slept there, not because we are die-hard poetry fans.  Yes, George Washington really did sleep here. The inside of the home was closed for the season but the grounds were open.  I definitely want to go back when it is open. What a beautiful home.

I love Greek Revival! The widow's walk, the short colonnade fence, the tiered steps and the symmetry; love it all. I would love to incorporate some these elements somehow into our home.

We walked around to the back of the house and into what must be beautiful gardens during the spring and summer. What took my breathe away was the pergola garden shelter. We have a spot in the backyard where the kid's swing set used to be and I can envision this type of garden hideaway in my backyard.

On the way there and back, we saw this beautiful home. I should of taken more pictures of the house. I was trying to capture the fence and pergola covered entry. I thought this was such a perfect design. The entry is inviting but still allows for maximum privacy.  Another idea for a future project?

Of course, no trip to Harvard Square is complete without a stop into the Harvard COOP. Back in 1882, Harvard students started the COOP (Harvard Cooperative Society) as a place to buy their textbooks, school supplies, coal and wood. The COOP is a rambling collection of buildings and several floors stocked with all types of books (not just textbooks) and more Harvard swag then anyone could possibly desire. Membership in 1882 was $1 and it is still a $1.

We jumped back on the T and made our way to Government Center and a short walk to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Faneuil Hall has been a marketplace since 1742.

Every corner you turn walking through Boston, there's another historic building, another piece of history, another reason to love being a New Englander.

Even though Larry and I love history we had an ulterior motive. No trip to Boston for us is complete without a stop at our favorite store Christmas in Boston. Not sure our husbands agree but there is a husband bench strategically placed right outside the store for non-believers. 

Larry has two trees and was shopping for her Elvis tree. I found two ornaments. One in honor of our cat, Prince.

and the other for my love of science fiction..

My favorite purchase was the two nightlights below. Santa and the Snowman's bellies are like snow globes with the heat from the bulb making the sparkles move like the inside of a lava lamp. 

Of course, if you have walked all the way to Faneuil Hall, you may as well walk a little farther to Boston’s North End. So far every one of our trips to Boston, we always found a way to squeeze in time to stop at the Café dello Sporto at 308 Hanover St.  It's right next to the famous Mike's Pastry which always has a line out the door of tourists and locals picking up pastries and grabbing something to drink. Not being, wait for a table people, we stumbled into Café dello Sporto a year or two ago.  Most of the tables at the Cafe' are filled with locals watching soccer games but we have always managed to find a table and get our Caffe Mochas and cannolis.

One last picture on our way home out of the North End after a perfect day with friends in Boston.

Veterans' Day

Do you say Happy Veterans’ Day? Thank you seems to say it best, so...

Thank you to all of this country's veterans and especially to my brother, Uncle Jack, Uncle John and my cousins who have served this country.

I decided to take Monday off, and with the Veterans Day holiday that makes this a four-day weekend. Of course, I have made plans to work on my new space. The area is now completely empty!! The rest of the house-not so empty.  “Hoarders” and “Clean House” should be knocking on the door any time now. 

This weekend, I will post the work we did last weekend and share an “oops.”  The next step is going to be the subfloor. I've been doing research on-line about the best way to go about putting in a subfloor and have decided to use a ready-made system. We'll be heading to Home Depot and Lowe's at some point to check out these systems. 

However, today my husband and I are meeting friends in Boston. They have only given us hints as to what they have planned for the day. What I do know is that the North End is involved for at least part of the day. Yummy!

The Start of My New Office/Craft/Exercise/Storage Room

It did not take long for me to find a use for "my blog." I plan on using this as a journal of all my projects. I have so many of them I will have to live to be 783 years old in order to finish  them all. At the moment, I am most desperate to have a place of my own. There are still two college students living at home and for a year now, my MIL and her sister have been living with us. If I want to craft, bring work home, or sew I have to find a spot, bring all my supplies, tools and equipment and set up shop. Of course, I never had everything I needed and would search all over the house trying to remember where I last left whatever it was I was looking for.

When my husband's new job allowed him to work from home; I offered to convert the storage area under the sunroom into a new office for him. He preferred the small one he was in. So what could I do? I decided to make a room for myself.

I started by cleaning out all the "stuff" we have been collecting in there. Ugh! Dirty, dusty, dingy and disgusting. Several trips to the Salvation Army and I am still cleaning, sorting, packing and getting rid of tons of, "why did I save this?", "what is this?" and "OMG, I forgot I had this!!".  I still have two storage racks of this to get rid of and tons of boxes scattered throughout the house. The rest of this weekend will be devoted to moving and tossing the rest of collection.

As you can see, I am starting from a blank slate. The wall you are looking at with the window was the exterior of original house. When we had the sunroom added, since we paid for the backhoe for the whole day, it did not cost us anymore to dig a full basement as it would if they only dug a crawl space. Of course, we paid a little more for concrete and the forms but it was well worth it. You can see I still have more "stuff" to get out of the room.

After, the concrete was poured, we hired a company with a huge, wet saw to come in and they used the other basement window as the start of cutting out a doorway into the basement of the original house. You can see the door opening into the basement. It is a exterior door as the basement is unheated.

The basement has stayed dry for the 8 years since it was poured but we do need to run a dehumidifier in the summer. (That's the white box in the corner). I worry about mold and mildew, so I have been doing a lot of research on-line on how to treat the walls and floors. So the next step will be prepping the walls. The plan is to paint the walls and floor with a deep penetrating silicate sealer. I have found many, many advertised on the web, but I think we will go to our local masonry supply store.

Starting My Blog

This is me testing how blogger works. Not sure what content I would like to add or what I want to talk about but you have to start somewhere.

Hopefully I will find my voice and post something of interest.