Lots of small changes have been happening around here, many of which seem too small to document, but hey...it's our house and our blog, so why not?  Besides, we're pretty much wrapping up the interiors.  Which is really the point, after all!

This is one seemingly minor change that actually had a big impact.  We installed solid brass sash locks in our formal living room and formal dining room.  Amazing how much of a change they made in the overall look of the space!  It's little details like this that can really make a space feel complete.

Similarly small details, of which we're inordinately proud, can be found in our downstairs powder room.  This little space was outfitted with pink and black tile and an acoustic ceiling when we bought the house.  Big change!  The print is a hand colored antique print of the terrace at Central Park, a place which holds a lot of great memories for us.

Another random project that looks incredibly unimpressive to other people but which makes a big difference in our everyday lives:  we replaced several back doors around the house.  Here's the one we use most often...yay, it opens, closes, LOCKS, and is airtight!

And another gratuitous nook shot...this is Brian's pet project on the interior of the house, and he's justifiably proud of his decorating enedeavors.

Next up...this is our front door, which is still really really old, but at least now looks pretty nice.  We're still planning on replacing the door (no boos from the peanut gallery, please!  It's OLD but not original, and it's in really rough shape.  And we're replacing it with a solid wood door.), but in the meantime, I'd say Brian did an awesome job refinishing it and the interesting surround.  We'ved 86-ed the scary aluminum screen door from 1950, by the way, but if you want it, it's sitting in our barn

And last but not least, here are some shots of the area's wildlife...more or less wild, depending on the particular subject matter.

Here's a Golden Eagle we observed hunting in our front yard. 

And the more commonly seen Red-Tailed Hawk, a pair of which nest in our woods.

Hee hee!  Funny photo of a deer in our yard.

And no big post would be complete without the dog photos.  Here's Jack in a shirt (necessitated by a little sore spot which his brother kept licking):

And my two gorgeous blondes together, enjoying the early spring weather:

While I'm in the posting mode, I figured I'd also do a quick post on the progress of our formal living room.  This is not the room where we hang around and watch TV; this is more of an entertaining space and to be used for cocktails before dinner parties, etc.  Assuming that people with twin infants ever actually entertain, that is.  Hahahaha!

At any rate...here are the BEFORE shots of the living room when we bought the house.  All of the stuff in these photos belonged to the former owner of the house.  It was dark, gloomy, filled with mismatched furniture (some of which was actually gorgeous, I must say), and just run-down.  Not to mention the faded and stained wallpaper, yucky sooty fireplace, disgusting bookcases made out of plywood, and so on.  I know the photos are dark, but that really is what it looked like!

And here it is today--not 100% finished yet, but we've come a long way.  The most obvious changes are refinished floors, totally re-plastered walls, new moldings (including removing a lot of corner moldings and other weirdly placed ones that chopped up the room), a ceiling light fixture for the first time (!), new bookcases, and, of course, draperies, paint and new furniture.  We're still missing two chairs that are apparently being built out of mahogany trees that haven't yet been cut down, but when they arrive the big pieces will all be in place.  Then we need some proper art for over the mantel, and we'll be just about done.  Until we decide to replace the rug...what can I say, it never ends!

FINALLY!  We had a chance to sit down and organize all of our new pics, so here goes.  The overwhelming response from all three voters (hee hee) was to post pics of the nursery, so that is where I'll start.

First off, here's the "in progress" shot.  Brian stripped the windowsills and various other old surfaces, as well as refinishing the floors.  He also refinished the original bead and batten door that leads into the nursery, though we ended up replacing other doors in the room.  We DID save the old doors and may put them back at some point, but for the time being we're using fresh new lead-free doors.

And here's how it looks now.  Only a few details remain, such as window treatments and the finishing touches in the adjoining bathroom.  Cute, huh?

The bathroom still needs a few finishing touches (like a toilet seat, LOL) but it's come a long way!

This is what the bathroom looked like when we bought the house. 

And finally, as a special treat...here's an image of the two future inhabitants of this space...this image was taken from a 3-D ultrasound.  Neat, huh?

More posts to come soon!