Decisions, decisions.

When I started this renovation project, I thought I knew what I wanted.

I wanted the half bath off the kitchen torn out, and put in the "old pantry" that I use for fabric storage, on the other side of the house.

Enter bff, who says, why are you doing it that way?

Well, I stumble, uh, I'm not sure.

So I listen to her suggestions, and her ideas, mull them over, and decide........aha.  That is a better idea.  What the hell was I thinking?

It saved me a much bigger mess, MONEY, and it meant I didn't have to lose my lovely, and oh so appreciated, shelves.

 Here's the view from the door.

Here's the view from the end of the pantry.

And here's the view from the toidy.

It works, so much better than I thought.

You see, with an old house, there is a lot to think about.
It isn't a 50 year old house, or even a 100 year old house.  It was built in 1790, because the old house that was here was burned when Burgoyne made his march from Quebec, to Fort Ticonderoga, and on to the Battle of Saratoga in the Revolutionary War in 1777.

The family that built is is buried just across the road and down a bit.

I am only the fourth owner of this place, and I feel some responsibility to do the right thing.

With the bathroom, and the kitchen too, I could do  a remodel that would rival any you see in the kitchen magazines.  I could gut, and tear, and do it from the ground up.  I could.  And it would look like every other modern, state of the art, kitchen that you have ever seen.

And that would mean tearing out these lovely old cupboards in the pantry.  It would mean tearing out the old windows with the wavy glass in the kitchen, even the one with "Jonathan Bellamy", the name of the original owner, etched into it. 
A lot of history.  A lot of irretrievable past.

I have been gifted, really, to own this old post and beam house.
See the "posts" in the corners of the room?
Imagine the feet that have trod these pitch pine floors?
The eyes that have looked out these old windows?

I can't put a sterile new kitchen into this house.
Or a marble bathroom.

It just isn't possible.

So......

The doors and the bathroom......on the right in this picture.......are gone.  And that is where the new peninsula will go, but the old one is staying.  Because that's the only way to protect the uniqueness of this house.

There have been many changes to this old house over the years.  A little change here, a little there.
But nothing that has taken away from it's total personality, and it has one.
Believe me.

So I will have a "new" old kitchen, if that makes any sense to anyone but me.  New sink, new microwave, new countertops, another work area with new cupboards underneath.  And otherwise, all the old stuff that is there now.  A mix of old and new, because I don't want to wipe out what has been there, I just want to bring the past and the present together.

I finally finished the warp on my AVL, there are a bunch of new towels on the web site.
They are thick and I still love the pattern, even after weaving so many of them.

But my favorites from this warp, are the ones done with organic cotton in off white for the weft.

They are soft, and absorbent, and just right.

Understated.

Sometimes that is just the way to go.