June 27th - June 29th - Staging for Maine Beach RentalI had been planning on coming up on Thursday night to stage Lupine for our renters who were scheduled to begin renting for a week on Saturday, the 28th. However, they canceled citing health reasons. We were bummed, as it was our first rental, and it's always fun to have the first one show up. I canceled my planned day off for Friday, but as the week at work went on, I realized, renters-or-not, I really could use the day off. It was a bad week in my little IT world, and I thought disconnecting for the day and doing some cleaning and staging would be a good thing. It was. Last weekend, Jeremy had demolished the upstairs kitchen, and moved the cabinet base downstairs to see if Jim could use it. We weren't planning on having any more cabinets built but since this was already there, we figured it might be worth saving. Jim did not disappoint. He broke it up into two sections, and it fits in perfectly. Our unit is quickly become a museum to wood, but as eclectic as all these different woods/grains/finishes are, they really do go well together. Here's a picture of what he built.
His idea for an inexpensive counter top is to use a sheet of plywood with Birch veneer. He can trim it with oak and do the entire thing for about $120 plus two hours labor. It will look great, and will add to our museum of wood. The only drawback is that if the tenants decide to use it as a cutting board, they will ruin it. But it should hold up to any regular kitchen wear and tear. Look for pictures in next week's post. On Friday, my job was to stage the house so it will be ready for our first renter. The downstairs of Lupine should have been all set to move stuff in, but the floors needed scrubbing. Due to the incredibly humid air over the last week, the Penofin hadn't time to dry/cure so when the contractors walked on them with their black rubber soled boots, they left scuff marks. Lots of scuff marks. I spent the first half of Friday just scrubbing the floors with a green scrubby pad. They ended up looking great, but it was a half-day I didn't plan on. I was behind schedule, but was able to get most of the upstairs cleaned, and the bulk of the furniture that we were going to use out of the garage, which wasn't much. Jim and Larry saved the day by helping me with the heavy/awkward pieces that I couldn't move by myself. We brought from home a futon that we will use as a couch for now, and an old table that I bought from Ethan Vogt when I was working on Funny Ha Ha.
I cleaned up the fireplace, and got rid of all the building material that had been blocking it for the last few months. Wow, I had forgotten how nice it is. And the chimney was fixed a few weeks ago, so it is a working fireplace, not just for show. 
While I was there on Friday, Jim, Larry, and Tom were finishing up the front porch of Equinox. Jeremy and I had primed the ceiling bead boards last week while they were still on the ground. We ran out of one brand of primer midway through, and apparently the second can of primer was a slightly different color... 
Here's Larry finishing up the front of the porch. He's using Azek so it'll be maintenance free. 
On Saturday, Jeremy did a bunch of sanding and priming in Equinox. Here's a picture of him stopping to have lunch with the kids in our newly staged dining room. 
We left Saturday night so we could get ready for Zoe's 2nd birthday party. We had scheduled it in Gorham because we had renters. We almost moved the location to the beach house, but we had guests coming from Boston who just weren't willing (rightfully so) to drive the extra 1.25 hours. Dan and Jane stayed and did more sanding on Equinox. Next weekend we should be able to get some paint on the walls. I'll make a more concerted effort to get some pictures of Equinox to post. It's really coming together nicely. Posted by Laura
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