old house restoration | just ponderin'

… on a wedding destiny-ation

March 30, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

When we were done restoring The Inn, our place that was an inn during the late 1800s and early 1900s but is not an inn so don’t come by expecting to stay because you’ll freak Marshal Dillon Dingle right out… Anyway, when we were ‘done’ restoring The Inn, we moved straight over – okay, a bit of a curve over – to restoring the old barn. Which looked like this part way through restoration… After we jacked it up, some […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Barn restoration, home, just ponderin', Maine, memories, musings, old house restoration, the maine thing, Uncategorized • Tags: acid etching, acid stained floor, barns, concrete barn floor, humor, just ponderin', maine, maine barns, musings, old barn restoration, old house restoration

… on dreams of a garden (wedding)

January 4, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

Yesterday, I was googling away, in total wedding planning mode. The Nearly Perfect Husband walked by as I was looking up “skinny evergreens”. Then he walked by again when I was researching “Cornus Alternifolia”. Then he walked by again (lots of walking, this guy) when I was looking at the results of “Favorite flowery tree that looks good in winter for cardinals; titmouse”. Why? What do you do when you google when you are planning a wedding? JoHn finally stopped. Him: […]

Categories: Barn restoration, Feel good stuff, gardens, Granny, joy, just ponderin', Maine, musings, my perfect cherubs, Nearly Perfect Husband, old house restoration, the maine thing • Tags: family, gardens, humor, joy, just ponderin', landscape architecture, landscaping, landscaping in maine, maine, maine garden wedding, Maine gardens, maine wedding, musings, old house restoration, photography, wedding

… on ‘oh yah, a renovation!’

June 14, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

One funny moment after Jack proposed to Mac (and Mac dissolved, pretty much, into a melted snowman puddle (but recovered quickly enough for us not to call 911)) was when we all headed back to the house. I had completely forgotten that no one in my family had laid eyes on the ‘el’ since it looked like this: And it isn’t as if things looked ‘bad’, not at all. But we are about to move up to Maine full time. […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, just ponderin', Maine, old house restoration, the maine thing • Tags: comedic writing, comedy, humor, maine, musings, old house renovation, old house restoration, photography, this old house

… on the potential promotion of a half kid (part three)

June 8, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

When last I left you, I’d picked up the ring and all who knew squealed and May was upon us with long drives and graduations and parties and putting The Inn back together. Oh. And decorating. Which we did here and there and any time that we could. I’d come up on a Monday and clean out some of the barn and meet the painter or carpenter or floor guy. I’d drive home Monday night. Sam and I would come […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Barn restoration, entertaining, family, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', Maine, musings, my perfect cherubs, secrets to happiness, the maine thing • Tags: barn decorating, barn engagement, barn proposal, comedic writing, comedy, engagement, engagement decorating, family, humor, joy, just ponderin', Love, maine, old house restoration, photography, proposal

… on found stuff (and evening the score)

March 3, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Dear Sam, I know! Cool right?! It’s a mousetrap! There are five little holes drilled in the side, beneath each steel thing-a-ma-bub. You push the do-hickeys down, insert the cheese in the bottom of it, hook a little hook and set it. But it is actually a wicked cruel torture device because nothing ‘snapped’. A little u-shaped thingie just grabbed and held the mouse. I know. Awful. Turns out the Tower of London torture stuff had nothing on our Maine house. The […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, family, just ponderin', Maine, musings, old house restoration, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: antique mousetrap, comedic writing, comedy, humor, just ponderin', maine, musings, old house restoration, vampire slaying, zombie apocalypse

… on renovating and mistakes (and recovering from them)

February 11, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

I absolutely love renovating. Redecorating. Heck, just moving things around is a lot of fun. I know, sounds trite right? But there is something about shifting and changing and just… playing with the spaces where I live – inside and outside – that is such a great combination of satisfaction and fun. Satis-fun-tion? Fun-isfaction? Doesn’t matter. I love to do it. Even as a kid, in my own bedroom, where the grain on my plywood closet doors was as good for […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Feel good stuff, home, joy, just ponderin', Maine, memories, musings, old house restoration, secrets to happiness, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: childhood memories, decorating, home design, interior design, just ponderin', maine, musings, old house restoration, secrets to happiness

… on changes and change… oh and changes

January 26, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

There were a lot of things we forgot to check out before we put an offer on our house in Maine in 2005. As a matter of fact, here are the things we did not see, or had not seen, by the time our realtor presented the offer to the owners (which was about three hours after we saw it for the first time): Boothbay Harbor (seriously, we had never been, and drove ‘around it’ to get to the island, so […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, home, just ponderin', Maine, memories, musings, Nearly Perfect Husband, the maine thing, Uncategorized, unique observation • Tags: comedic writing, humor, maine, moving, moving to maine, musings, old house restoration

… on living, and learning (and lighting)

January 12, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

The very first house we moved to, all together with Granny and Grampa in 1993, was referred to as ‘The Big Brown House on the Top of the Hill’ in every original, on-the-fly bedtime story that I told a very young Mac, then Sam, and then much later (wHoops) Gabe. As in, “Once upon a time, in a Big Brown House on the Top of the Hill lived a little girl named Mac, and a little boy named Sam, and an […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, child rearing, family, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', Maine, memories, musings • Tags: Christmas lights, house design, humor, musings, old house restoration

… on garden therapy

July 11, 2015 by Lisa Dingle

On our little street, on our little island (i know, I totally co-opted the street and the island right there, but I’m gonna stick to it), there are – wait let me count… 14. There are 14 houses. Well, one is a wicked cute house – almost like a tree house, but not (I have to take a pic for you) right next to Bald Eagle Pond (not its real name but totally fitting) and Dean and Sarah live there […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Feel good stuff, gardens, just ponderin', Maine, musings, old house restoration, the maine thing • Tags: comedic writing, comedy, death of a parent, gardens, grief, humor, just ponderin', musings, old house restoration

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