Burn Baby Burn!

Just in time to warm up the crisp autumn air! Rising from the ground like the claw of some ancient stone giant, a massive fire circle serves as the focal point of our ever-evolving backyard.

About 5 tons of locally sourced reclaimed New England granite foundation block was relocated and buried to create an outdoor living space.

 

The fire circle is nearly 4 feet across. Likewise, the center stone in back rises nearly 4 feet tall (with another 3' or so buried underground)

 

Working from just a vague idea and a tiny picture of something seen once online, our expert landscaping crew once again knew exactly where to get the reclaimed slabs (just a couple miles away!), and worked very quickly to complete the site in less than a day.

Dirt

Thought we could put this off for a while, but as it turns out our tolerance for looking at a rocky minefield is pretty low.  A house just doesn't feel like home without a nice lush lawn to lounge upon.

200+ yards of enriched Dirt plus a few tanks of hydro seed, and with luck (well, luck, sunlight, twice daily watering) we should be rolling in green by summer.)

Marrakesh Express

Having survived an historic first winter in our new home, Spring has arrived and we're getting back to putting some of the finishing touches on the house.   First up is a tiled backsplash for the kitchen.

Surprisingly eclectic, the only thing we ever envisioned for our classic New England Farmhouse was something arabesque. Our tile designer of course immediately knew exactly the right tile, this Cepac Lantern tile, in Cafe Latte. It picks up on both the soft white of our cabinets and the deep browns in the (Coffee Brown) granite counters.

It looks as amazing as we'd envisioned.

(Extra special thanks to the tile installer, who expertly made thousands of individual little cuts in this already funky shaped tile)