Upstairs porch reveal: sleeping porch to guest room, fall 2013 to fall 2014

Back in the day, we had this porch:

It's always been a funny room at the back of the house on the upper storey, way at the end of a long hall we never went down.

Plaster walls crumbling, uninsulated and unheated, lead paint flaking from (single pane) windows and walls - it was a combination storage and get-away room, but very rarely used over the 15 years we've been in the house.

We'd finally reached the end of a lot of other projects, and decided it was time to (literally?) tackle this one...  fall of 2013:

Jeff got the walls down and new ceiling rafters put in before our long hard winter started.

Then there was a long winter wait:

Finally, spring.  We decided to take out the window in the wall, that went to a small storage room off the hallway.  We didn't want to take it out, but neither of us could figure out a reason why we shouldn't.  There were lots of reasons why we should, starting with not having to refinish a whole window.

After Jeff rebuilds the walls and adds insulation, the window guys come:

and the drywall guy comes (if you need a drywall guy in the Mpls area, we can tell you who not to call - but he did get the job done):

Painting is always exciting:

And the last bits always seem to take the longest (especially when we can't find the trim we want off the rack, so Jeff makes his own and I prime and paint it).  Summer is moving along, I'm buying things here and there that we'll need to finish the space.

We get bogged down in the details...  I have an idea what I'd like for new sheets, but have trouble matching the ones I choose (lovely nice ones on clearance, so no returns) to anything else, like duvet covers or curtains or flannel sheets.  The things you work out in your head are sometimes so hard to convert to a real space!

Being an area people need to comfortably sleep, and facing directly east, the porch needed good curtains.  This turned out to be a huge hassle of time and energy and money, but we did eventually figure out a cozy and dark plan that should keep out the 5 am summer sun, and maybe even help keep out the 4:30 pm winter sun-set cold, all the while making the space feel private and secure.

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Finally, end of the summer, "finished":

The girls give their own high praise:  "it's like a hotel!" they exclaim.  To me, that means finishing touches are still needed, like pictures and little things that make it a home.  These will come along the way, I'm in no hurry to fill the space with things just to fill it.  There will be adjustments that need to be made, too;  so far the new windows and insulation has kept the fall cold out, but we'll see how the heater can compete with the -20's winter. 

Now we walk down the hall just to stand in the room and enjoy the space.  We hope our houseguests will enjoy it, too!

galette, summer.

Summer wouldn't be summer with out all the activity;  thankfully workmen are finished tramping through our house, the experiment (for our family) of summer day camps is over, and we can get to mid-summer lazy-busy.  (After we cleaned up from all the workmen, we put the porch work on hiatus whilst we work on our next adventure.  I'm happy to take this break from it, and we will hopefully come back to it excited to keep working.)

The fresh pea soup (made from every pea harvested in the garden) was wonderful, Greta enjoyed the process from plant to supper all in one afternoon.  We used this recipe, but used onion instead of shallots.  We should have strained it, like the recipe said, but didn't and didn't too much mind the pea "shells."  We barely had the three cups of peas, so I guess I didn't want to lose any to straining!

I've had galettes on the mind recently, with their promise of summer easy.  After picking from this recipe and that, we've had raspberry galette twice now, with my cups of slightly over-ripe berries every couple days from the bushes.  It seems, even with picking often, the berries are always overripe!  Perfect for galette.  So easy!  Try for yourself.

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Raspberry Galette
~ 4 very generous servings

Make dough first, must rest an hour:
Put ice in a cup of water, put in fridge.
Cut 6 Tbs cold butter into small cubes, set in fridge.

1 C (5 oz) all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Mix these briefly in food processor.  Add cold butter, pulse just until grainy (don't overmix).

With processor running, drizzle in ice water 1 Tbs at a time, until dough forms a ball, and no more.  (Will use maybe 2-4 Tbs.)  Place ball in a plastic bag, gently form a 1" thick disk, set in refrigerator at least one hour.

Meanwhile (about 1/2 hour later):

Preheat oven to 400 F.

2 C fresh raspberries
2 T sugar (can use more, quite tart)
2 tsp cornstarch

Sprinkle sugar and cornstarch over berries, mix gently.

On parchment paper, lay dough, then cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Roll out until approx 1/8" thick in a rough round or oval shape.  Pile berries in center and gently spread, leaving 1" edge of crust.  Fold this edge over the berries, around the sides.  Brush crust with milk, sprinkle turbinado sugar over everything.  Transfer parchment with galette onto cookie sheet, bake 35-40 minutes.

Excellent with ice cream (especially chocolate)!

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(Now it's packing time again...  hooray!!)

(everyone's walls don't look like this?)

June:

~ the first year we've enjoyed a whole (very late) strawberry crop
~ I instigate a chalk solar system on the driveway, Kaatje decorates
~ friends over for a stormy Saturday afternoon
~ Jeff in the stifling attic, me with my arm in the walls, but we got seven wires run from the attic to the basement that same Saturday, thanks to those friends
~ last-minute new haircut
~ (red geraniums remind me of Germany; love, love.)

welcome, indeed.

Summer has really come when Saturdays are two-shower days:  first to wash the morning's run off, then before dinner to scrub the knees of dirt and the hair from sweating in a hat all day.  Jeff's working up in the porch when he's not at the home improvement store, but after some on-and-off rain in the week, then helping the girls makes skirts for dolls Saturday morning (while I'm on the phone, why always when I'm on the phone?!), the rest of the day was outside with garden:  planting out more veggies, cleaning up, and running through the sprinkler with the girls.  At the end of the afternoon I sat outside happily with a Reed's Extra Ginger, and called the day good.

The start of the summer *has* been good.  Following a trip out of state for more than a week with a week of leading crafts in VBS was a challenge, but oh those kids do love their VBS.  (Please note Greta's class actually had close to 30 students, she and cousin and friend were at the overflow table.)  Jeff and I finished that week with going out for our anniversary at the local tea-shop-gone-restaurant-in-historic-home.  Closer to 20 than 10! 

This past week was our first "real" week off, we celebrated by continuing to get the girls up on time (to get them to bed on time), cleaning the front porch entirely, sending K to basketball camp, Gret sewing her own new skirt, finishing a scarf (older than many of my nieces and nephews) to send away, then throwing in the towel (literally?) by heading to the beach Friday afternoon.  (Thursday night I said to myself, "Myself," I said, "It's finally summer.  What do we need to do to get through the upcoming 6 months of winter??  Sun and water and sand, as much as possible.")  (Aside:  why do 12-year-olds balk at absolutely every thing?  Then proceed to enjoy themselves.)

So the weeks ahead look like lots of work upstairs, tired kids, thick gardening, more camps, sneaking off as much as possible for a swim, and going through a half-gallon of whipping cream with all the berries our yard will give us.  Bring on humidity and bugs and that tingle on the shoulders that says I should find some sunscreen or a t-shirt over my tank...and let's plan that vacation!  (welcome, summer!)