House by Peter Binacci

My printmaking professor at the College of Charleston had a term for describing the action of messing up your own piece of art by going back to it too often. It is a natural inclination to keep returning to a work to "fix" things about it.

She described the infamous Peter Binacci, a neighbor from her childhood who spent the weekend painting the garage and trim. He got a little paint from the trim on the garage paint, and then when fixing that got a little paint from the garage on the trim, then when fixing that got a little paint from the trim on the garage, then... well you get the point.

The moral of the story is that there is a fine line between perfection and ruination.

Mike heard this story from me years ago, and we have brought it up a lot lately. The spirit of Peter Binacci is alive and well at Gronausevoetpad 102.

Mike has been working like crazy to finish things off. We have a potential buyer coming to see the house this Friday... a young single guy whom we hope finds exactly what he is looking for in this place. The house is really looking amazing. It is a shame we will have to leave it just as it is looking so great, but that's just the way things go. We knew we would not be in this house long.

In other news, our plans for coming to the states are solidifying. Still no plane tickets, but nearly so. Ghost is on a "fit under the price break" diet. At his current weight it will only cost us 150 Euros each to bring the dogs home. If Ghost gains a kilo he jumps to the 450 Euro price category. No thanksgiving turkey for him this year.

We called the plumber to give us an estimate on two radiators that were not working in the house. We'd put this off for weeks because we assumed it meant something was really wrong. I finally convinced Mike just to let me call the guy who'd saved me this summer, Ronnie, for an estimate. He fixed them both for 40 Euros, and remains my plumber-hero.

There are some new photos of the house on the huis te koop website. You can see the bathroom and kitchen floors now. Don't they look good! You can also see both sides of the glass-block wall, Mike's last big project. It focuses the view as you enter the house, while providing a ton of storage space and a thermal break between the front door and the rest of the house. Chuckle to yourself as you imagine how many times we had to say "no don't touch the wet paint" to James this week.

Finally, I had a telephone interview with the department head from the University of Hartford in CT last week. They are narrowing down the field to choose 2-3 candidates to interview on campus. We spoke for about one hour; it went really well, and she was super friendly and encouraging. It is a small, private school (approximately 5000 undergraduates) and they want to begin an undergraduate program (major and minor) in Environmental Studies in the next few years. It is also relatively close to the Heartwood School where Mike spent the summer, which means he feels especially confident about the possibility of joining the local timber framers network.

We will see what happens. We've been reading about the area ever since-- Laurens pointed out that the school was founded by Mark Twain's wife (Mrs. Samuel Clemens) and Harriet Beecher Stowe. I am dying to check out the museum of trash and Avery's beverage factory.