More construction as of December 11

Mudroom ceiling cut away to raise it. Stairwell beefed up underneath. Fridge will go below.

Country girls

One thing that's exciting about the farmhouse is that it fulfills our wish (or need?) of getting back into the country for most of the girls' growing-up years. When Addy and I stopped by this week to check on the progress inside the house, she wanted to make sure I gave the hay mow my full attention. I had been telling her that I didn't want her up there alone until I made sure everything was safe and showed her where she could and could not go. I gave my inspection and she is now cleared for playing. And play she did.

I keep this verse from a poem posted above my desk.

Before green apples blush,

Before green nuts embrown,

Why, one day in the country

is worth a month in town ...

— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Lightning rods

I have always loved lightning rods, and it's cool to me that the house has three and the big barn has some, as well. We have an extra blue glass globe for one of the barn rods, but now I'll be on the lookout for one to match this one on the house. Two of the globes are intact on the house, but one is missing. I think it's milk glass.

Buzz, buzz

We had heard the story of the bees making hives in the walls of the house, but hadn't yet found the evidence. Well, here it is. Bob found this over the window in the dining room when he tore off the planking. This is just the bottom of the affected area. From my understanding, we may find more when he removes the upstairs planks.

Progress!

Pat has made enough progress in the house that we can really see the downstairs rooms coming together. It's exciting!

This will be the breakfast nook. I'm thrilled that we could keep the beautiful arch that was between the living room and dining room. We wanted to remove it from its previous location to open up both rooms. We'll be keeping the chimney exposed. I think it's pretty already! Now imagine one of our vintage lights hanging down as a pendant behind the arch.

Here is the new entrance to the kitchen. You can see the pocket door frame at left. The refrigerator will go where the old entrance from the mudroom was.

There must have been an old staircase across the middle of what is now the kitchen (running parallel to the road, from where the sink sits now across to where the current staircase is. Does anyone know more about this? We hadn't even noticed it after the gutting, but Pat pointed out that the joists above had all been cut with an opening about 3 feet wide all the way across. They were spliced together, but he had to beef them up to hold the weight since we'll be having a bathroom and laundry above the kitchen.

It turns out that the planks on the walls have to go. Initially we thought they could stay and be cut into where necessary, but Pat decided they should be removed with the plumber and electrician needing to cut into them to run ducts and wiring, along with the risk that the nails could pop through the new drywall. Bob tore off quite a bit of planking from the downstairs in one evening, with a few more sessions to go.

Vintage lights make me drool

Mom and Dad found a nice quality light fixture for us at the church rummage sale, of all places. It's very nice and looks new, but we (meaning everybody but Bob) decided that the style doesn't fit the farmhouse look, so I gave it to Dale for his foyer. Meanwhile, I pulled some vintage glass shades and a fixture out of Mom's and Dad's garage that have been sitting there for years. No one else laid claim, so I'm taking them for the house.

Bob seems to think it's funny that I passed up the new, shiny light fixture for some old, dirty, cracked and dented ones. C'mon, Bob! They're not old. They're vintage! I think one is from Gordon's house, one is from the Anderson Place, and the others were some church friends thinking Beth might want them.

I've been browsing enough antique lighting sources lately, such as Rejuvenation.com, to know that enough others agree with me to give them significant value. We'll also be reusing the porcelain fixtures that were mounted on the walls of the upstairs bedrooms, which I found priced at $185 on an antique salvage site. And I like them (stomping my feet).

Inside, outside, upside down

Interior construction. I was excited to see that we now have a breakfast nook. We stopped by the house last night after a very nice Thanksgiving dinner made by Diane. Pat had erected the walls of the breakfast nook and relocated the living room arch over it. It looks so nice! I'm glad I planned it plenty big, too, because now that I see it we may even be able to fit in a small table instead of benches. He also created a beam to take the place of the wall that was between the living and dining rooms. I avoid the basement, but Bob said he had braced something down there.

Exterior improvement. Dad came with both his loader and lawnmower a couple weeks ago. He worked all weekend again, doing odd jobs to fix up the farmstead. He and Bob pulled out lots more fenceposts (all the rest, I think?). Dad filled in some holes in the yard with soil from the field, moved rocks to Mark's rock pile, etc. We ordered three loads of gravel for the driveway and Dad spread them around. We could easily use another load, maybe two.

Mark, Bob and Joe (Amish neighbor) have all been cutting down trees. Coming down Grassmere road, you can see every building well now! I can even see good places for Addy and Dori to play, including a spot for their swing set. It was hard to imagine before with such dense tree and brush growth.