House Progress, "The New Room"

Updated 12/17 Please keep looking at the bottom of the page, we'll add pictures as the work progresses.

July 26th What a thrill! After 6 months of waiting and planning and dreaming, we are really starting on gutting the "new room". Actually it's the room that housed the old kitchen, which was a shed that was moved and added onto our 3/4 cape in the 1920's, we think. I am calling it the new room, as I'm not sure what exactly it will be used for when it's done. Yes, it will hide the washer and dryer, and the well pump. But what else? It's in between the keeping room and the kitchen, so that's a hint. Well, stay tuned! All will be revealed, as soon as I figure it out. Here you can see Cy, prybar in hand, starting to take up the 1920's narrow pine floor.

July 27th Here you are looking down through the structure beneath the 1920's floor.  The big joke is that the joists are ridiculously small for the job, only 2" x 4"s, and a 1" x 6", and some of them are broken and one is propped up on some bricks. Its a wonder we didn't fall through! But the treasure is the original 18th C floor about a foot underneath. I don't suppose you can see the early nails and wonderful patina. They must have left the original floor, and added a new one higher up, probably to deal with the slope of the land.

Aug. 27 Here we've removed the 18th C. floorboards (we'll reuse them in our future bathroom) You can see the 18th C hewn logs supporting the floor, but all rotted off on the ends, and dropped out of the sill. In the 18th C they didn't build a foundation, and then add a sill, and then the walls and floor, etc. No, first they laid 4 massive beams, called sills, in a square on 4 rocks, and built up from there. So you can see, if your sill is rotted, as ours was, you have nothing to support your house, and it could fall down. Bad plan.  If you look carefully at the far end of the logs (this is the wall that faces the street) you can see our dark chestnut sill, curved and crooked. It was rotted by carpenter ants and pushed inward by a tree that was growing into the house. You can also see no basement here, just dirt and rocks under the floor, and rocks tucked in under the sill. This is why the floors in old houses can be so cold, and damp, and your house can be invaded by mice and snakes, etc. Yuck! Also you see white "snow" on the dirt, this is "pearls" of foam insulation blown in in the '70s, that of course filtered down and gets into everything.

This is interesting, this is the original outside of the old house. They must have taken off the siding when they added on the shed. You can see the old wide boards, all hand sawn, later whitewashed and papered, maybe for insulation.

Here you are looking up into the roof of the old shed.

 9/26 Here again we are looking at the wall that faces the street. We've removed all the floor and joists and logs, all the loose rock and dirt, and actually removed the sill itself. We put jack posts and car jacks under the house to keep it upright.

Here is the view from the outside. Sorry the bush is hiding the car jack under the corner post.

Here is Cy pushing the new sill in place. We used pressure treated wood, we don't ever want to have to do this again. Who you don't see on the other end of the sill is our wonderful friend Gary Wirth who spent days helping us with this huge project.

Here is the new sill going in from the outside.

And here is the new sill in place, staight and level. You know about old houses, this is probably the only level thing in this room.

Here are Gary and Cy bolting cleats to the wall studs to support the new floor joists.

Here are most of the new joists in place. Yeah! Now I can get from the kitchen to the rest of the house without going outside.

10/25/10
Here you can see the space under the sill is filled in with native rock, as they call it out here, and lots of concrete and squirty foam. This is to keep out wetness and cold drafts, not to mention mice, snakes, etc. All the creatures that love our old houses.

Here you can see that nice rock foundation from the outside. The outside of the house is now closed up with plywood and Tyvek, ready for some siding and trim and paint. Hope the warm weather keeps up and we can get the outside mostly finished this year.

 Here is the outside closed up nice for the winter. Too bad it couldn't stay warm just a littleeee bit longer, so I could get it painted.

12/17

Again, we're looking towards the road. But look at my nice sturdy new joists that will hold up my floor! And look at the clever panels of plywood between the joists. Covered with plastic they will keep out the damp of the dirt floor, and drafts and snakes, and etc. Then we lay the soft pink insulation on top of the panels.

Here is the pink stuff in between the joists, ready to put the plywood subfloor on top. You would think this would be easy, but I forgot to tell you about the well tank we had to move, and the new lines for the washer and dryer that have to go under the joists before we can get this far. Those black pipes in the bottom of the pic are the water lines covered in their tidy black insulation.Oh, and lets not mention the propane gas pipe that took 4 weeks to arrive, that also had to go under the floor. So its been a slow fall as far as progress.

Isn't this exciting? It's the water tank for the well. I hate spending money on this stuff. I could have bought a heck of a nice piece of furniture for what all this cost, of course it is nice to have fresh well water to drink! We do live in Stafford SPRINGS, CT you know, famous for it's healthy spring water. (If you're lost, you're looking at the door into the keeping room, and that big mess to the far right is my future washing machine.)

Walker Homestead Show

Aren't they cute? These were "customers" at the Walker Homestead show last weekend.

 

Here is the line at 9 a.m. We opened at 10 a.m.

Here is Kris the owner of these beautiful properties welcoming customers.

 Here is a row of booths where we were.

Here are some pics of our booth.

Here is the booth of our friend Sue Wirth shared with her daughter Molly.

Here is Kris's great old garden shop.
Kathleen McStay Foynes paying for her table in another cute booth.

This show mixed antiques and crafts. Here are some great penny rugs.

Some dealers relaxing in the afternoon.

Friend Karen Oberg trying to get set up on Friday. Kris's fine old house in the background.

Really beautiful hooked rugs by Michelle Harter in this booth.

Gardens, chickens, delicious food and a bluegrass band that played ALL day and were great. What else could you want from a show? Oh lets not forget dealer friends and customer friends, hello again to Edith and Jack from Texas. A fun day was had by all.

Tour of the old Gaol in York, ME

Here is a picture of my friend Marion in the stocks in front of the old Gaol. The gaol was first a stone building in the 17th C., and later in the 18th C. it was added onto with living quarters for the jailer and his wife. She has to cook for her family and the prisoners. There was quite a bit of info about how jails were used in the old days, as short term holding cells, until their trial and sentence, hanging, branding, flogging etc. The idea was to get their punishment over with so they could get back to work for the community needed every one's contribution.

Here's one of the 18th C. cells with a cobbler's bench. This was so he could work and pay off his debts. Look at the great early light. Sorry I did not get any pics of the 17th C area, so dark, the windows were only 8" square. No glass, so I guess it was pretty cold in the winter.

Here's a favorite from the jailer's family quarters.I can't wait to try one of my cutting boards this way, as a game table. Here the children were learning to count.

Again in the 18th C part, a built in privy that drains to the outdoors. What luxury!

Here's Marion posing next to an idiot's chair, a sad commentary on the treatment of the mentally ill in the old days. Look at the holes for tying the person in, and tying it to the floor. And of course the potty underneath.

I thought you'd like this "ancient" treen plate from the museum area.

Tour of Plymouth

On our way south from Maine, we decided to spend a day and tour a classic New England piece of history. We went to Plymouth, MA. I did not go to Plimouth Plantation, as I have been there before, but I do recommend you go if you're in the area. We viewed the Plymouth rock, OK, its a rock, and toured the Mayflower 2, an accurate copy of the famous ship that brought the pilgrim here.

What a pretty view, no? Next we went to the famous Pilgrim Hall, a museum showing many of the pilgrim's actual possessions, and a lot of great information about their lives and the era.

A great early carved chest and carver type chair.

A fabulous writing box from Holland, inlaid with shell. Look at the early glasses and their carved wooden case.

Another early chair, a wainscot style this time, and a great large gateleg table.

After that we hiked around town, saw the sarcophagus that commemorates the burial after dark of the first settlers who died. This was done to hide from the Indians the terrible loss of life. Further up the hill we walked through the early graveyard, so lonely and beautiful. 

 Aren't these sweet, leaning together in death as in life.

Of course after all of this hiking about,  we needed lunch. Here is the view from our table at the Lobster Hut. Great shore lunch, sweetest scallops I think I've ever had.

 Then we got the car and visited a few old houses. Here is the Howland house.

Here is a great old broom I thought you'd like, the top is bound up with fishing twine.

And here is a great rush light we found in the parlor. Isn't it great? Wish I could have bought it, but no, its a museum Judi!

Here is the earliest remaining house, the Sparrow house. I'm only showing you the exterior, as the interior was pretty dire.

After that we went home and collapsed. What a great time, looking at all that American history, it makes you feel so in touch with the old days. I'm glad I wasn't a Pilgrim, but I am proud that they were our ancestors. If you want to read a riveting book about their trials and tribulations, read Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.  It's kind of hard to read, I kept having to put it down for a day or two, as he wrote so clearly that I felt their difficulties keenly.

Don't you love history?