Basement work, day 1
Today was the first big day of work on our project to turn the basement into a habitable space. The overall plan is to turn half of the basement into a living room, while the other half will be used for storage and laundry. Ken and Dianne came over, and while Dianne watched Catherine, Ken led the way in starting to make the downstairs take shape. The first order of business was to remove a wall that formed a large closet downstairs, so that we could create a larger living room space. Next, we prepared the joists so that we could attach the new walls. Finally, we framed up the new walls that would separate the living room area. We also purchased a set of French doors and temporarily put them in place to see how they’d look. All in all, a big day of work, and we got a lot accomplished!
We’ll probably have one more day to frame one more small wall and take care of a few other outstanding roughing issues. Then there will be some electrical and plumbing work, and then we’ll get our rough inspection from the town. After that inspection, we can put up drywall on the ceiling and walls, finish things off, and then have the finish inspection. Then we can start moving things in! We’ll keep you posted here with news and photos as things progress. For now, you can take a look at the photos from day one!
By Peter | 04.26.2008 | 10:19 PM | Permalink | Categories: House | 2 Comments
Dane Street Beach
Today was a simply gorgeous day, so we headed to Dane Street Beach in Beverly for dinner and some playtime.
Catherine digging some sand
Catherine had a blast on the beach! We’re really looking forward to summer time and more trips to various beaches in the area! You can see more pics from today here.
By Peter | 04.23.2008 | 10:01 PM | Permalink | Categories: Catherine, Family, Photography | 1 Comment
Historic Churches of Boston
Today I headed in to Boston to meet up with 20 or so other photographers to take in some Historic Churches of Boston. I had a terrific time, walking around Boston all day, photographing churches (and other things), and talking to other photography-minded people.
There were an overwhelming number of Nikon DSLR shooters there, which was quite surprising. I expected it to be fairly even, but everywhere I looked I saw the telltale black-and-yellow straps! Talk about branding!
I met some terrific people, and got to see how others used their cameras. I also doled out a few helpings of advice, particularly to people with compact cameras. Those little things are pretty powerful once you get beyond ‘Auto’ mode! I’m really looking forward to seeing the photos everyone came away with, particularly where we were all taking photos of the same things. Should be interesting to see some different perspectives.
As a follow-up for those who I talked to at the meetup, here is some of the information I promised:
People I met:
- John Donovan (lots of hockey photos)
- Kris QuiƱones (may be showing some of her work soon!)
- Meng Yang (ate the biggest plate of ribs!)
- Dana Pearson (has a home gallery in Somerville)
- Roger Ramirez (ask him about his domain name)
- Drew Bennett (has done a photo a day for the past four years)
Stuff I recommended that people check out:
- Tips From The Top Floor (digital photography podcast with Chris Marquardt)
- Discover The Top Floor workshops (run by the above, one to be held in Portland, ME)
- What The Duck (photography comic strip)
- Ken Rockwell (opinionated, no-holds-barred Nikon photographer. Site has lots of great resources, and he writes his own in-depth user guide for each Nikon DSLR. You’ll either love him or hate him.)
As I mentioned to a few of you, I am working on my own dedicated photography website. Stay tuned to this website for more details on that. Hopefully it will be launching soon!
Last but not least, here is a link to the photos I took during the course of the day!
If you were at the meetup, please leave me a comment and say hello! Also if you’ve got a website, feel free to share it here. I hope to attend another one of these meetups and see some of you folks again!
By Peter | 04.19.2008 | 09:28 PM | Permalink | Categories: Photography | 4 Comments
Since she returned
I’m glad that Catherine and Rebecca made it home safely from their trip to Ohio. The house was pretty lonely without them. In celebration, I’ve put up a gallery of some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken of my favorite photographic subject since her return. Enjoy!
By Peter | 04.15.2008 | 09:27 PM | Permalink | Categories: Catherine, Family, Photography, Travel | No Comments
I (heart) my new towel rack.
Our towel shelf in the bathroom has always been a bit of a disaster. I can’t get one towel down without pulling down all the others as well. I can never fold the towels so they look nice and it has bothered me right from the start.
I’ve always loved the towel racks I’ve seen at various hotels. They hold the towels so neatly and there’s never any risk of toppling the pile when you only want one. For years I thought these fantastic racks were found only in hotels. Now I have one of my very own. Who’d've thought I’d find one at the Beverly Bootstraps Thrift Shop?

We installed it today and reorganized the bathroom a bit. Frankly, I’m thrilled.
By Rebecca | 04.13.2008 | 07:57 PM | Permalink | Categories: House | 4 Comments
Driving Photos
By holding the camera facing backwards and aiming ‘blind’, I was able to capture some photos in the car during our trip last week. I think they tell a great story of our adventure.
Sometimes Catherine was awake:
Sometimes she was asleep:
Sometimes Momma drove the car:
And sometimes Baby drove
By Rebecca | 04.13.2008 | 07:37 PM | Permalink | Categories: Catherine, Travel | 3 Comments
Heading Home
Friday morning saw Catherine and I packing up, eating breakfast and saying our goodbyes to Kirsten and Mark. We hopped in the car and proceeded to shuffle off to Buffalo. The rain stayed with us the whole trip, but we enjoyed the tap, tap, tap that it played on the roof.
Catherine especially liked playing with the Lyttles, our hosts for the night:
By Rebecca | 04.06.2008 | 02:47 PM | Permalink | Categories: Friends, Travel | 3 Comments
Party!
We were happy to get to celebrate Kirsten’s birthday with her.
By Rebecca | 04.06.2008 | 02:21 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Travel | No Comments
Corn Field
I had the opportunity to visit my lovely friend Heather today while Catherine had some quality time with Grandma.
Heather and I had a little knitting lesson, became engrossed in some philosophical discussions about life, drank some tea, ate lunch at Biddie’s and visited some giant ears of corn. Not necessarily in that order.
By Rebecca | 04.02.2008 | 10:28 PM | Permalink | Categories: Friends, Travel | 2 Comments
Solo week update
- Sunday: cleaned up house, worked on some financial stuff, did some blogging. Did a bit of photography around the house. Result: Study of an empty house.
- Monday night: watched Hitman. Actually pretty good. A few cheesy bits and some totally unnecessary nudity, but otherwise a fun action film. Also didn’t have to pay for it thanks to a Redbox promo code. Played around with some website ideas.
- Tuesday night: watched X-Men: The Last Stand. Terrible. Terrible. Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Alcatraz? Are you kidding me? At least I didn’t have to put Becky through watching it. Can’t believe it got 7/10 on IMDB.
- Tonight: Taking care of some paperwork and filing, exploring Muxtape, Twittering, surfing, possibly playing around with more website ideas.
- Tomorrow night: no plans as yet.
- Friday: Have the day scheduled off work. Plan was to take a photo excursion. However, I seem to have picked a day that is forecast for an 80% chance of rain. So we’ll see what happens.
- Saturday: The ladies get home. Hooray!
By Peter | 04.02.2008 | 06:25 PM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | No Comments



