When you read this I’ll be in New York looking at the renovations to our summer cottage in person. But since there’s an excellent chance the Internet won’t be working–along with the kitchen and any number of other basics–I thought I’d blog ahead of time to let you see more photos of our work in progress. Then when the finished product is revealed you can breathe a sigh of relief along with me.

So without further ado, here are some updates. If you haven’t been following along, just click on Renovations under categories to your right, and you’ll see what I’ve posted thus far.

Here are some shots of the back of our house. We had a smidgen of room allowable–restrictions are tight in this community–but we were able to build two bathroom-closet combinations, one on top of the other. Each connects to a bedroom which will no longer have a closet built into the room taking up space. Remember this house was built in Victorian times when closets (in some places at least) were taxed as rooms. Or thought of as unnecessary. Take your pick. When added later, they took up half the bedrooms.

And do you remember what our kitchen looked like? There were three rooms opening into each other. One was actually a kitchen, one a utility room and one a laundry area where I was often forced to make dinner since I had no other counter space. Here’s a recap, then you’ll see the room’s been opened into one larger area. The washer and dryer will be stacked where the fridge used to be and out of the way. I opted for no upper cabinets–ask me how I like that in a year–and cottagey shelves on brackets. Our architect decided to put them across some of the windows. There’s no view except the wall of the house next door, but now we’ll have light and lots of jars filled with goodies.

One of the best features of this house is a big open porch on the side.  We eat all our meals there, entertain, it’s my favorite spot.  Above it was a glassed-in porch with windows that swung out and locked in place with a peg–at least a few did–and a sagging flat ceiling.  But the view out of the multiple windows is wonderful, and the room is large.  Next to the kitchen, the biggest and best changes were made here.

I’m told the most dangerous phrase when a renovation is in progress is “while you’re in there. . .” And so we’ve been in danger since the beginning. This was an old house and we knew when we opened it up, not everything we would find would be pretty. Originally I asked my wonderful architect and contractor to replace the awful insulation board walls and renovate the kitchen and add a bathroom. I got a new roof line, a gazillion new windows, insulation, air-conditioning, heat–for the first time, new walls, a sunroom with a cathedral ceiling, two baths and two new closets. Plus, oh, new floors and appliances and . . . The list goes on and on.

Am I sorry? I don’t think so. But then, I haven’t seen it yet. Ask me next week. Stay tuned.