By Donna Cain
Happy New Years from Donna, Byron and Harrison too! We have been having fun walking the beaches. The weather continues to be mild on Cape Cod and Harrison loves to swim in the ocean year round.
We just completed Week 9 of our renovation of the Captain Freeman Inn. Our contractors have been great, and we have seen steady progress over the last month. Our finish carpenter, Danny, told us that the last part of big projects always go much faster then the tear down and buildup, which includes the waiting in between for the town inspectors to permit the progress. We have a goal to be reopen for Valentines Day. With unpainted walls, inches of dust throughout the inn, a nonfunctional kitchen, electric fuses blowing all the time…..hmmmmm……time will tell.
While most of our blogs center around cooking, beaches and Cape Cod activities, we are breaking the norm by sharing some pictures of our remodel which includes updating the rear of the property for our home. Innkeepers always smile as usually our quarters are small and not very luxurious. We have lived happily at our sister property, Brewster by the Sea for over 10 years now. While being very comfortable, I have missed not having a large eat in kitchen, personal storage and a deluxe bath. (those nice baths are only for guests:)
Shown below is a little glimpse of our progress.
I love mixing a little bit of old with the new. We found this old barn timber to use as our mantle in the living room (owner’s quarter- leaving the beautiful marble in the formal living room) . Byron is going to stain it tomorrow with a dark danish oil.
Gas fireplace all ready to go (after the new gas lines get hooked up). Wall will be painted a soft grey and we ordered a Carrara marble hearth which will blend perfectly with the dark oak hardwood floors.
One of my favorite purchases are these elegant sconces which will flank each side of the wood mantle. We have used several brass fixtures throughout this remodel and these have the perfect combination of metal, glamour, function and glitz!
Beautiful oak french doors and windows leading to a small screened in porch. I am staining the windows and doors tomorrow.
New stairwell leading to Byron’s office/family room. Since our new private area is small we are making use of any extra storage area and have added bookcases along the side of the stairwell for all of our treasured books.
Great family story! When we were visiting Byron’s family in Wyoming this fall, we were walking around the old family cabin just outside of Yellowstone. We found this old door on an old side building that use to house the family generator. We knew we could find a new use for this door and had it shipped back home. We later learned from family that Byron’s Dad transferred this door from an old building that use to be a central location for families to pick up their mail back in the 40’s. You can see the original metal mail opening. We are going to repurpose this door in Byron’s office for storage under the stairwell.
Byron’s new storage area.
We are getting pretty good at remodeling bathrooms and are not afraid to tear things back to the bare studs. Shown above is our new bath in progress which will include heated floors, shower, tub and pretty vanity…so excited as it’s been years since I had a personal tub. Antonio is painting the walls tomorrow and the tilers starting on Wednesday.
Every remodeling project has a fun story……ours is about the color of the doors. We have been remodeling and redecorating several of the rooms at Brewster by the Sea. My new favorite wall color is grey, and we painted several of the room and closet doors black. I think they look great and have been VERY pleased with the results. Byron does not like them as he thinks a black door has a symbolic meaning of walking into an abyss. Sounds silly to me but because I love my husband and this is our private area, I had to come up with a compromise. So after many trips to the paint store, I came up with this color which I love. It’s a dark grey/green which looks like a door you would see in Europe. It blends perfectly with our new granite, dark floors and wall colors. We reused several of the doors, and I was pleased with the reproduction door handles that actually make the doors look old.
Onto my favorite part…our new Farm to Table kitchen.
We repurposed the cherry cabinets and are adding 2 farmhouse sinks. The upper cabinets will be white and the lower ones my new favorite grey/green color. We are keeping one of the islands and have a spanky new granite top for the island along with some functional brass over head lamps. The kitchen will also include a large farmhouse table with plenty of chairs to entertain in the kitchen.
New gas fireplace with bookcases on the left for Donna’s cookbooks. We also have on order a new commercial frig along with a 3 minute cycle commercial dishwasher. …….exciting ehhhh? Only for us innkeepers:)
A dear family friend gave us this great sign for our kitchen. (thanks Randy) As soon as the wall was painted I just had to hang this picture….every time I look at it it helps to remind me that soon we will be dining with friends, family and guest’s in our new kitchen.
New gas fireplaces installed and ready to go in Barnstable and Eastham.
New gas fireplace in P’Town. We are also building a vanity/desk to the right of the fireplace.
New hardwood floors in Wellfellet and Truro. Beautiful area rugs on order to compliment the decor and to act as a sound barrier for the rooms below.
We are also upgrading our electric for future central air and adding a back up gas generator. While we rarely loose power it’s comforting to know that our guests will be comfortable for any upcoming storms that may play havoc with the grid.
I’ll save the next renovation blog for when we are officially open. We will certainly have some grand opening specials. Once the contractors are finished at the Freeman they are moving over to Brewster by the Sea to create a new luxury suite and to add hardwood floors to several of the rooms…..no rest for the weary with a goal to be totally done by mid April when we start thinking about the gardens and moving outside again.
Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year and a world that is peaceful.
