Ode to Autumn

Autumn is fallin down again...

In my last blog post just two weeks back, I was musing about my current love/fear relationship with the autumn season. Autumn means cold, means snow approaching, means time running out to get heat up and running and all of those other renovation worries. But as I was reminded last week after spending five straight days up at the farmhouse, autumn can also mean a level of beauty that is at times downright incomprehensible. 

I don't know if it was the cold spring, the endless amounts of summer rain, or just plain good luck, but I do believe we've been blessed with the loveliest bounty of fall foliage I've seen since we purchased the farmhouse in 2010. Last week, I spent Wednesday through Sunday working on the farmhouse and had the pleasure of taking a few long drives along Route 30 to run basically any errand I could think, from wedding planning to farm stand browsing. (Apparently I just couldn't get through the day without fresh-picked berries and corn from Dutton Farm Stand, a cool 25 minutes from the house...)

Not a bad view for running errands...

These drives set me in a bit of a fall foliage frenzy. The trees of early October were glowing in absolutely every shade of yellow and red you could imagine. Even though I have become so accustomed to the drive from Manchester to Jamaica that I can basically do it with my eyes closed, I found my breath being taken away by every twist and turn in the road. Day after day, these views never got old. It was a helpful reminder of why we first embarked on this undertaking in the first place... because after only one visit, we fell head-over-heels in love with the many glories, both big and small, of Southern Vermont. Nature is queen in this part of the country.

So, instead of updating the blog with photos and stories of all of the fun progress we've made over the last few weeks, I want to dedicate this entry to Vermont herself. I had no choice but to stop the car on a few occasions to snap some photos of the beautiful views that lay ahead and want to post just a few of those photos here. They certainly don't do the real thing justice, but it's a good illustration of why this state has so captured our hearts. So please enjoy clicking through, and if you're feeling particularly autumnal, listen to my favorite "Driving Along Route 30 on an Autumn Afternoon" song (which I basically kept on repeat all week long) while viewing these photos. No one seems to do a country road justice quite like Gregory Alan Isakov!

 

The interior of Dutton Farm Stand is getting into the spirit...

And our yard isn't looking too shabby either!

Hope you enjoyed this small sampling of autumn spirit, and please check back with the blog in the next week or so for tons of new photos and updates on plumbing, painting, and... HEAT! Glorious, glorious, cast iron radiator heat. 

(Furiously knocking on wood...)

Until next time,

Melissa

Autumn's Arrival

It is with both love and fear that I welcome the return of our old friend... Autumn. The Autumn season just happens to be my favorite time of year, and for good reason - Autumn brings with it both mine and Tony's birthdays, the anniversary of our engagement, and as of next September, our wedding anniversary! Growing up in New Jersey, there was nothing more exciting than driving out to the farms of Colts Neck to go pumpkin picking, complete with a roadside stop to buy hot apple cider and cider donuts, while taking in the rows of trees bursting to life with shades of red, yellow, and orange.

As an adult I still get giddy at the first sight of a chilly evening, breaking out my best sweaters to run to the nearest bar for a hot toddy. Before you know it, I have apple sauce cooking on the stove and something pumpkin-related is in the oven. So believe me, I really do love Autumn. I could wax poetic about it for hours. But the fact of the matter is we own a creaky, old farmhouse now, and it could benefit from two years of endless summer which would allow us to just work - work - work. Now, when Autumn comes around, all I can hear is the overwhelming tick tock of a quickly disappearing timeframe in which to get anything done. Autumn is the last leg in our race against the Vermont winter, and we are sprinting the entire way to the finish line.

Early falling leaves of late August - both foe and friend!

With winter just around the corner, we have a few MAJOR tasks we need to pull off in the next six weeks or so. If we fail at this mission, we are looking at our THIRD winter without heat. This simply cannot, cannot happen... I will most likely pull my hair out and run screaming from the house if it comes to that point. Thankfully, family and friends have offered to come help us crank through this work as we make a mad dash for a successful fall finish! Here's where we're at with our five major to-do's...

Painting

When I last updated this blog in July, we were days away from getting our electric lift so I could hopefully speed through sanding and painting the house peaks. Well, we did get the lift, and I must admit... I have never loved a piece of mechanized equipment so much in my life. It is a 34' electric Genie lift, and it is indeed magical.

A painted peak, complete with accents!

In a classic case of "Murphy's law for restoration", we received a call from the rental company saying the lift had broken and wouldn't be available for the first few days of our week-long rental. So, instead of having the lift for a straight Saturday to the following Sunday, we had to split it up between two 4 and 3 day rentals. This hiccup in scheduling certainly slowed down my work flow some over the dwindling summer months, but all in all we seem to find ourselves in a pretty good position for mid-September!

We now have the south side of the house completely done (minus the bay window), and the front of the house is finished from the second floor up. Sadly, the first floor in the front still needs to be redone (sanding, priming and all) as it was the first wall we painted and ended up not being done properly. It's a sad price to pay for not understanding the depth of the painting work ahead of us when we first began, but I'd rather do this house the right way now so I don't even have to look at a gallon of exterior paint for years to come. Ergo, time to sand my seemingly finished paint job and start from scratch :/ Restoration is not for the faint of heart, people...

All that's left to do is one pretty bay window!

The painting work that needs to be redone in the front of the house shouldn't take more than two days, and I'm hoping to accomplish it in one of my now common mid-week trips up to the house, during which I attempt to squeeze in a solid day or two of work. I've also begun work on the north side of the house (facing the orchard), and managed to prime that peak and get one coat of trim color on the roofline and attic/second floor windows. This coming weekend we'll be renting the lift once again, so I'm hoping to get the north peak and as much roofline painting done on that side as possible. There's still a bit to go on the second half of this side, so the whole shebang definitely won't get finished in two days, but I intend on powering through as much as possible!

First half of the north side... coming along!

Our goal for the winter: have three sides of the house completely painted. I am very sure that this CAN be done! I just need more time. And an electric lift. And endless daylight. And a weekend without rain. That's not too much to ask for, right?!

Meanwhile, there happens to be a minor downfall to getting the exterior looking better. A beautiful house only highlights how rough looking our next big to-do item is...

Windows

Oh these darn windows. The better the house looks, the worse our chipping, dirty windows appear. But do these windows want to be fixed up with nice, new paint and a cozy layer of glazing to prevent the cold winter air from leaking in? Apparently, no. Flashback to repairing the bay window earlier this week: after fighting for THREE HOURS with stripped screws and trim so warped by the sun it has bowed up around the screws, I finally managed to get 3 measly sets of windows out from the bay window. The amount of time lost on that simple task was mind numbing. By the time I had passed the windows on to Momma Merkel for her signature caulking removal, I found myself wondering why on earth I fought the battle to keep these lovely, wavy old window panes in this house.

The answer is, of course, because they are original and beautiful, but the 5 + hours it takes to sand, scrape out the old caulking, reglaze, prime and finally paint a single window starts to wear on your soul a little once you really start to think about it. Therefore, it's best not to think about it!

One window dolled up in Lincoln Cottage Black - in place!

Our goal for the winter: get all of the first story windows totally refinished so we can run heat on the first floor without losing too much heat. We've also managed to glaze quite a few windows on the second floor, but as I sadly found out last month, any windows that were glazed and then not painted soon after are already starting to dry and crack. We will somehow have to find the time to sand and paint those beauties as well. If only Tony and I could evolve beyond sleep we might actually stand a chance of accomplishing these gargantuan tasks before November!

Bay windows are getting the star treatment

All of this talk about 'heat loss' brings us to our next and biggest checklist item(s)...

Plumbing and Heating!

It's crazy to think that our plumbing was actually run one year ago, but without a working bathroom we had no way to test the lines. That brings us to the most transformed room in the house... the downstairs bath! Thanks to Tony, now a master tile setter as well as master everything else, we are the proud owners of one Victorian-inspired bathroom.

Looking good as far as the eye can see!

Here's a sneak peek at the downstairs bath, complete with a floor-to-ceiling subway tile shower and Victorian hexagon tile floor. With the grouting just finished on the room last week, we can proudly say that the bathroom is "done"! At least for now, anyway. This coming weekend Tony hopes to update our antique marble vanity with our new sink and faucet fixtures, and once that is in place our plumbing team can return and officially hook all of the fixtures up.

Finalizing the flower design

Unfortunately (because there's always a catch!) we have determined that a few more big projects need to get done before the plumbing can be tested. Mainly, we need to install a new septic tank (boo!) and a new line from the basement out to the septic. This old septic has a lot going against it: 1) it is made of metal and has rusted straight through in the ground - you can literally break pieces off with your hand, and 2) its capacity is for a single bathroom, not three bathrooms and a laundry to boot. She simply has to go.

One useless septic line...

Our septic team also thinks there is a possibility our leech field will need to be reconfigured, but the added cost of that work is a doozy. They believe it is best to test the leech field when all bathrooms are up and running to see if it can handle the flow of water, and we are more than happy to wait it out and save our pennies until then.

And of course, it must also be mentioned that you need heaters to run a heating system! We've lugged up all of the first floor radiators to VT and intend on priming and painting them this week with our handy dandy spray gun. Father Merkel, master restorer of cars, has volunteered for the task. We have the utmost faith in his abilities.

And if that wasn't enough on our plate, the final tasks on our agenda involve...

The Basement

Specifically, shoring up the basement for the winter so there are no major cracks or leaks to the outside. And boy are there still plenty! There are three major things to accomplish down there:

1. Install our new basement ventilation fan with built-in dehumidistat in the back window frame to try and control our humidity problem.
2. Install a door to block off the basement cellar doors from the rest of the basement.
3. Replace a rotten sill that was attached to the old side porch and close up that hole to the outside.

Tony has already done a fabulous job of installing two new basement windows, so things are functioning a little better already!

Snug as a bug!

Oh, and somewhere in that to-do list we must throw in finishing up with our insulation upstairs. So... yeah.... we can get all of this done before winter! It might be an intimidating amount of work, but there's nothing like a giant to-do list and a short timeframe to light a fire under your butt. And if we don't accomplish these tasks, we will need an actual fire under our butts to keep warm during winter #3. 

Will we make it to the finish line?? Only one way to find out - stay tuned! And maybe send positive thoughts our way in your downtime ;)

As always, please check out our slideshows from the summer to see our big summer push to paint and tile the bathroom, Tony's time-consuming tiling while I blast through peak painting, and the bathroom wrap-up.

Thank you for reading and for all of your supportive comments! Until next time...

We bid a fond farewell to the joys of summer...

... and throw welcoming arms around the fall season!

Summer Shower(s)

A drop fell on the apple tree,
Another on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,
And made the gables laugh.

- Emily Dickinson

The sun peeks through the branches after a wallop of a storm...

Hear ye, hear ye... summer is back and in full force. If you have any doubts, just take a look at your local weather report. If you live anywhere near the northeastern seaboard, you will most likely see a 10 Day forecast with 90% + humidity, chance of daily thunderstorms, and temperatures that could cook your Sunday roast. And it's been that way, week after week...after week.

Summer, we get it! You're here, you love to oppress us with your ridiculous humidity levels, so just cool it and give us a few decent days of weather! You're raining on my renovation parade, literally. (Apparently I complain about the weather in both winter and summer equally... I need to pick a side!)

At least all of this rain is good for our hedge wall!

So now that school is out and unemployment is in for the summer months (and hopefully not much beyond that...) I see no reason not to update this blog as often as possible. After all, who doesn't love new pictures?! So it's time to do a brief recap of our last few visits to the farmhouse with Tony and Co.

While the summer showers were slowing down my painting outside, Tony was facing down an entirely different sort of shower. As of this month, Tony finally began the...

Bathroom Build-Out

That's right, people... work has FINALLY begun on a bathroom! A real bathroom, with a shower, and a sink, and... be still my beating heart... a toilet. Our plans for the downstairs bathroom include a Victorian tile floor and a subway tiled walk-in shower with two large glass doors. First on our to-do list: research and then build out the shower pan, customized to fit our glass door specifications. But how does one build a shower pan, you might ask...

With a little positivity and a lot of mortar, that's how!

Building a customized shower pan begins with a little old fashioned wood framing, as you establish the size of your shower and the height of the curb on the floor. There's a million tiny factors to keep in mind as you frame it out, especially if you're using pre-made glass doors like we are, such as the width of the tile, and where the framing sits in the walls so you'll have something to attach your shower doors to. Tony spent hours measuring, remeasuring, and adding in bits of framing to the walls here and there to make sure all of our fixtures and doors will have a secure place to latch onto when it comes time for the install. Once the framing was set up, it was a multi-step process to turn our wood floor into something concrete and waterproof; Tony achieved it by creating multiple layers of rubber membrane, sand mortar mix, and roofing paper, with a dash of ingenuity and love thrown in for good measure. It was a bit like building a lasagna, except it required a trowel and wasn't nearly as delicious.

The end result was basically a mortar block in the corner of the room with a center drain... not exactly the most exciting thing ever built, but boy did that change when we started to build out the shower walls! With cement backer board up behind the shower and throughout the entire bathroom, we discovered we had a room with walls... real walls! If you've been following this blog closely you'll know walls in this home have been a sight unseen for some time. Finally, the time had come for...

Bathroom Tiles

Before we knew it (aka after many days of hard work), Tony had the bathroom looking like this! As hard as it is to believe, this is the first room ever built in this house with the intention of truly serving as a bathroom. The Victorian era was delightful and all, but give me indoor plumbing any day.

There are days when it feels like this renovation is taking forever, but it's always uplifting to look back and see how far we've come. When I look back at photos of the old pantry and compare them to this newly tiled room, I am just ecstatic!

Summer 2010: The downstairs bath was a rotted out pantry with a gaping hole in the floor, a leaking roof, snakes in the ceiling and slanted walls.

Summer 2013: Hoorah! So clean, so classy! A temporary design for the floor has been laid out... 

Tony and I are heading up to Vermont for an entire week of renovation fun starting tomorrow, when the bathroom build-out will shift into high gear. Stay tuned for even more impressive photos in the weeks ahead!

Painting

Oh, painting. You were once the apple of my eye. That was two years ago, when I never imagined I'd still be sanding and priming in 2013!! Now, depending on the day, we are enemies.

So goes the love/hate relationship of renovation. It's just crazy to believe that two years down the road, I am still getting a face full of lead dust every time I climb a ladder! I try to comfort myself with the thought that we really are in the final leg of this "painting prep" race, but it does seem to be taking forever. This is due mainly to the fact that the last corners of the house that still need sanding/priming are highhhhh, high up and require me to get help every single time I need to move the ladder more than 1 inch in either direction. Just painting around the attic windows requires moving the ladder (and lifting and lowering the rungs) no less than 5 times. All of that added work  = time killer!

Not my favorite place to be...

But, with that said, things are looking UP in a big way!! Tony and I have finally bit the bullet and signed up for a week-long rental of a 34' personal bucket lift. We were hoping to avoid such a rental because of the cost, but at this point time is money too! Finally, this painter will be headed straight for the roof peaks in comfort and safety. With the mere touch of a button, I will be able to lift myself in any ole direction I please, without having to worry about a long fall or bugging Tony every 20 minutes to move the ladder another 1/2 centimeter.

We have some pretty lofty goals for the coming week: have ALL of the peaks and ALL of the rooflines not just primed but painted too! I'm talking about a finished paint job, complete with accent colors and everything. Tony will also use the safety of the bucket lift to repair all of the rotten wood along the roofline. Personally, I'm much more comfortable with him wielding a Sawzall when he has a protective railing behind him. Man can those things gyrate - not a good situation at 30+ feet!

Looking lovely on a summer's afternoon!

It's a big to-do list for one week, but we are going to give it our all. I've already told Tony we can get a basket pulley system ready to send my lunch up in, because I am not coming down from that lift until this house is painted!

Looks like I might be up there for awhile...

We've been up to more than just painting and bathroom building at the house too, so please check out our slideshows for more photos! Click here to see the us finally take on the gable over the bay window and Tony's build-out of the shower pan, and click here for our 4th of July slideshow when we declared war on blank bathroom walls, switching out muskets for trowels and subway tiles!

This house never gives us a shortage of things to do! There's always...

Windows! Slow and steady wins the race, or in this case slow and steady prevents the 100 year old glass from breaking. We're finally all caught up with our window glazing, and are waiting on the return of Sues Merkel to continue with her masterful glass removal skills. Once the glass has been removed, we can sand them down and prep them for glazing.

In the meantime, we have a few window frame paint colors in mind that we plan to test this weekend!

The basement! What a delight it was to discover ungodly amounts of condensation dripping from all of the support beams and ceilings in the basement during our 4th of July visit. Seemingly all of the rain and humidity have caught up with our damp home. Mairim and Alastair got to work on emptying out the basement ASAP, and Alastair has plans to grade the land downward to a drain by the front of the house. Anything to help get that moisture out of there! This will definitely be a bigger problem we'll be tackling in the coming months.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hope you're all staying cool out there, and come back soon for more photos and updates!

Until then...

Happy Summer!

Con ⋅ ti ⋅ nu ⋅ i ⋅ ty

Continuity (noun): Uninterrupted connection, succession or union.

After finally returning home following a very, very late Vermont-to-Brooklyn drive this past Tuesday night, I decided to hop onto the computer and peruse the old world wide web for awhile before enjoying a well-earned sleep. I went to Country Living's site to check out the most recent house tour in their Home and Decorating section (a favorite activity of mine), and was moved by a quote from the homeowner of this month's tour. This couple recently finished a years-long renovation on their upstate NY farmhouse. The article concluded with the following quote from homeowner Paul:

"The man who built our home is buried across the street," says Paul. "We own this house now, but eventually, it'll belong to someone else. Living with history provides a feeling of continuity. It puts things in perspective." 

Paul's view on their homeownership really moved me, as this idea is something Tony and I have talked about often. Our connections to the family who built this house and called it Home for over 100 years are very strong. Thanks to the nature of this small town, whose residents have known each other for generations and take great pride in both their history and their present, we have come to know so many details about Wales Cheney (the builder of the home) and Florence Crowninshield, Wales' granddaughter and the last official resident of the house.

Florence the Fashionista

So, what can we tell you about Florence? Well, she was well-loved by everyone, and she baked the meanest angel food cake in all of Jamaica. Her husband Marcus was a farmer and managed the family dairy. Her favorite room in the house was the living room with the bay window; she loved to entertain guests there, and placed her Christmas tree in the middle of the bay window every December. Her bedroom was at the top of the stairs, and is now affectionately referred to by us as Florence's room. We have some lovely plans for decorating it, and I like to think she'd approve!

Marcus and his oxen next to the sugar shack

Her grandfather Wales was a Civil War veteran and cabinet maker. In 1861 at the age of 25, Wales enlisted in the Union army. He fought in a series of battles until a gunshot wound to his right knee received during the Second Battle of Bull Run led to his honorary discharge. After living through the horrors of the Civil War, I can't even imagine what an unbelievable reprieve it was to come home to the Green Mountains. Also, it is beyond me how a man who endured a gun shot to his knee in the 1860s (I'm quite sure battlefield surgery isn't quite on par with the quality of care you'd receive today) had the personal strength to go on and build not one but two different houses for his family. After just a typical day of laboring at the farmhouse, I'm achy all over and have no problem complaining about it. This Wales must have been one heck of a human being.

Wales and the family dog during the early days of the house 

Owning this house is a healthy reminder about the passing of time. Three generations of the Cheney/Crowninshield family lived in this farmhouse. They put their love, positive energy and hard work into the soil and the home itself. Their mark can be seen everywhere you look. If anything, I find this knowledge to be comforting; put good things into the earth and they will last well beyond your years.

I feel Tony and I are achieving 'continuity' with every project we finish. For now, our family is the caretaker of this lovely home. We have planted trees that will someday grow to be giants, and an orchard that will give fruit for years to come. We are shoring up this house so it can survive another 130 years. While there are days when we feel this renovation has beaten us, that it's simply too much work, most days I know that we are incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to build something lasting.

Pre-snowblower... yikes.

According to Marlene, Florence's wonderful granddaughter and a huge supporter of our project, Florence used to fill the lawn alongside the now-extinct side porch with flowers. Every spring, tulips still bloom there; her handiwork continues to be seen to this day. This small act truly sums up what this farmhouse restoration is about; creating something lovely that will be enjoyed for future generations to come!

Please enjoy this amazing slideshow of original photos of the house and its former owners, courtesy of Marlene. Here's hoping we can restore this house to its former glory before another hundred years pass!

Tony and I have just completed a five day work marathon this past week, so expect another update soon with new photos and exciting changes to the home. In the meantime, let's take a moment to enjoy this glimpse back into its past :)

- Melissa, current caretaker of the Cheney/Crowninshield/Dallaryan Homestead

"Mud Season" to Summer and Back Again

Apparently summer has just been itching to return to Southern Vermont this year! Mud season, the infamous post-winter period that plagues New England in the weeks after the snow melts, seemed to forget to clock in for work this year. The typical VT landscape for April, a cornucopia of varying shades of taupe,  was looking surprisingly green when we ventured up there in late April with family and friends in tow. The 45 degree days we were accustomed to for that time of year were replaced with 65 degrees and sunny. These early warming temps might be a scary sign for summer, but for the moment we're happy to take what we can get.

All is green, all is bright...

After our late April visit, we had to take a month-long break from the farmhouse while I finished up my LAST MONTH of graduate school! Now, as a proud but unemployed graduate from the Global Institute for Public Health at NYU, I can focus my time the way I'd prefer - all things farmhouse!

The Merkel parents joined Tony and I for a week-long work marathon the week after graduation. To say it was family fun for people of all ages would be a misnomer, but the four of us left there feeling very accomplished, if not a little exhausted (aka physically broken). Between the past two visits, we've checked a few big items off of our to-do list. Let's take a look!

The Side Porch

She was ugly on the day we bought her, and she was ugly on the day we took her down. The side porch has been one (of many) aspects of the outdoor property of this house that has taunted me for 31 + months. Its rotten roof, its missing floorboards, its haven of spider nests... I have been dying to see the day this thing disappeared. With the help of Steve, Meredith and good ole Artie Merkel, that day came and went this past April.

My hopes that the snow would demo the roof for me... gone.

As with all things in this house, it was built too well for its own good. Taking down this seemingly rickety little side porch was, of course, a chore and a half and took far longer than any of us expected. What seemed like an hour or two task at best was practically an all-day affair. Marlene, the granddaughter of Florence Crowninshield (the last woman to live here), brought by an amazing set of photographs of the house and its residents last week, dating all the way back to Wales Cheney's Civil War days. One photo of the house shows the side porch looking rather elegant and extending all the way to the back of the house. Therefore, this excuse for a side porch was just a sad shadow of its former self. With that bit of information went any guilt I may have felt at tearing this bad boy down. It was time for her to go.

The Sawzall solves all

What was left of this porch was still so well made that it put up one heck of a fight coming down. Hours passed as we slowly (and awkwardly) dismantled the roof, the flooring, the ceiling joists and finally the porch post. Much to our dismay, we discovered Mr. Cheney had been so confident that this porch would withstand the test of time that he built the porch floor INTO the house foundation. Our dismay doubled when we discovered, as we took floor beams out, that the foundation sills in said porch corner were also rotted through. Was it wrong to hope that the rotted sills Tony replaced two summers ago on the right side of the house were the only ones?

Yes, yes it was. I actually wouldn't be surprised if all of the house sills are rotted through, a fact that we hope to blissfully ignore as long as we can leave the foundation untouched elsewhere. For now, the corner support of the house near the bay window is M.I.A., and poor Tony will have to find the emotional and physical strength to take on replacing another rotten sill beam at some point this summer. We wish him godspeed.

Donezo.

The Hedge Wall

Oh, the hedge wall...

When Tony first suggested the idea, I was not on the pro-side of that wall. My great hope was to build a stone wall that ran the entire length of the lawn, but as Tony rightfully pointed out, this would be insanely time consuming and also a guaranteed death sentence for our spinal health. Tony's idea was to end the stone wall at the small creek, and on the opposite side create a hedge wall that would run along the road until the woods creeps in. Once I realized the hedge wall was yet another opportunity to get creative and design something, I got behind the idea 100%. 

And so began my obsession with landscaping. Shrubbery, to be specific. I researched the hell out of shrubs and hedges, even investing in a lovely guide titled "Native Plants of the Northeast" by Donald Leopold. In doing so I discovered the amazing array of native plants that exist and thrive in our little corner of the world. After coordinating shrubs by spring blooming color and fall foliage (and after much discussion with every kind and patient friend who would listen), we settled on three: Mt. Airy Fothergilla, the Highbush Blueberry and the Gray Dogwood. The blueberry bushes will give us actual blueberries in the summer, and the mix of these three shrubs will provide us with a rainbow of oranges, bright reds and maroons when fall arrives. After hunting these plants down via Amazon, it was time to get planting.

Hole digging 101

When Meredith and Steve came to 'visit' in April, they helped get the hedge wall going. We have decided on doing four Blue Princess Holly bushes partnered with Red Twig Dogwood bushes as anchoring points for the ends of the hedge wall. We are also going to install a wrought iron gate near the far end of the wall, so trucks heading up to the maple orchard can pull onto the property. These gates (leftovers that we found in the backyard) will be attached to two lovely wood beams from the basement. We laid out the dimensions for the gate and planted a set of holly + dogwood bushes on either side as the final two anchoring points. These will provide a lovely bit of color in the dreary winter months!

Tony putting the 'edge' in hedge

The Mt. Airy Fothergilla will be the star of our shrub wall. For every one Highbush Blueberry or Gray Dogwood bush we have, we have two Fothergillas. As long as our little shrubs manage to survive the coming summer (and a few summers and winters to come), we will have an impressive shrub wall that delights in both spring and fall in just a few years. Perhaps by then the house will finally be painted haha.

Tis a wee hedge wall for now...

We are waiting on a few remaining plants from Amazon to be delivered, and once we receive those we will be in business! Fingers crossed they come soon because it certainly isn't getting any cooler out there, and we don't want those baby shrubs to fry in the July heat.

Painting

The saga continues! There is not too much exciting news to report on this front. After taking down the side porch during our previous visit, I took to the ladder and sanded and prepped the second floor on that side of the house, along with the porch corner. Artie Merkel, master painter and primer, took to the rungs and got the entire side primed in one day. Unfortunately, we have to leave the upper corner of the house alone for the next month, give or take flight time, as I discovered a nest of baby birds chirping their little heads off in the far reaches of the roofline. With momma bird in a pure panic nearby, we opted to leave that corner alone until the younguns take to the sky. Wikipedia tells me this should take about 5 weeks. Let's see if they're right! Oh the things restoring a farmhouse will teach you... even the growth cycle of sparrows.

Artie Merkel in his element

My grand plan for this coming weekend, when we'll be spending a whopping four straight days at the house, will be to put on my brave pants and climb to the highest reaches of the peaks to sand and prime up to the very top of the house. Our new ladder is a sturdy one, so I shall place unwavering faith in its ability to also not waver, and we'll see what comes of it. As long as no birds or bees attack me at 30 feet up, I'm anticipating the yellow will be GONE from that side of the house by Sunday evening.

 Up, up, and awayyyy

The Foundation

It's like a bad cold that you just can't seem to kick. It's the gnat buzzing around your head. It's my accruing student loan interest. Foundation work... it's annoying, and it never goes away. Just when Tony thought it was safe to get out of the basement and up into the light, he was pulled back down by more crumbling brick walls. Truth be told, we knew this work was coming but didn't want to acknowledge it. The main foundation wall under the library, which connects to the wall Tony replaced last summer, was buckling in at the corners. This wall also had some bricks knocked out so the new pipes for the oil tank could be run through it, which required patching anyway. Add to that the need to rebuild the wall where the new basement windows are going in, and you have a foundation wall not worth keeping. Taking down a brick wall in an afternoon? Why, that's just old news to Anthony Dallaryan.

The most handsome bricklayer in all of Vermont...

During our week-long visit two weeks ago, Tony managed to take down and rebuild the entire brick wall in a matter of days. The end product - perfection! We now only have the back left corner of the house left to do, which should be a piece of cake for this young man, and rebuilding the areas around the new basement windows. Tony will have it all done in no time flat! We believe in him.

Done and done.

Other Happenings...

 The Windows! Sues is keeping at it with window repairs. I haven't had the heart to count how many are left to clean out, re-peg and glaze, but suffice it to say... plenty. We're making progress though! Fingers crossed the entire first floor is done and glazed by summer's end.

The Orchard! Here I am, gettin all down and dirty with the orchard trees. The orchard plan has been finalized. We now have a total of 15 trees, with plenty of variety to go around: peach, nectarine, plum, 2 kinds of pear, 2 cherries and 6 varieties of apple.

Anyone care for a homemade fruit pie? We'll have plenty of fruit to share!

Well, people, that is everything for now! As always, tons of pictures are stored away on our Photobucket page. Check out our album from late April, when we demo the side porch, or our latest week-long priming, gardening and brick building extravaganza! We'll be back at the house in a mere two days, and with so many beautiful summer weeks ahead, you can expect many updates!

Until then, Toto Merkel just has one question...

"When will this all be over???"

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

- Melissa