Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Digging In


It was a busy day at the Farm... truckload upon truckload of gravel and sand were delivered to the backyard and dumped; a septic tank was lowered by crane into the ground; a leach field was piped in; and more scraping and painting happened. The scraping of paint seems endless, I thought I was pretty much done with it after today but realized that I still have the trim to do! I suppose this should have been obvious, but on the upside Jeff's recent Craigslist find was a paint sprayer and it is incredible...

Realized that I hadn't put a full photo of the Farm up yet! Here's a picture from May... when we were first under contract!



the Farm this morning



the Farm this evening

Archway to be installed between kitchen and dining room

Wall between kitchen and living room is mostly out

The Den/Downstairs Bath: we (i.e. pretty much Kathi and Michelle) pulled up lots of flooring and took out a wall. The Trash Guys (yeah that's their name) are coming to pick it all up tomorrow!
 Septic Installation Montage!

It's a funny thing to be so excited about a... um... waste receptacle (to put it appropriately and maturely)


Septic Tank about to be picked up





Les, Andy, and Kathi came by to visit this evening! It looks more like they're in a quarry... not our backyard



Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Yesterday and Today

Hurricane Irene was both good and bad for us. Because Jeff's work did not have power- he did not need to go in (yesterday and part of today). Which meant more walls getting knocked down at the Farm. Of course it also meant we didn't have power. Here's the recap on yesterday: Demo continued: mostly on the downstairs bathroom, although the wall between the kitchen and living room came down as well; Jacques our Electrician stopped by to review our plan for electricity (not that we had any to speak of at the time anyways- due to Irene); stopped by the town office: received welcome packet and dump stickers; Painting contractors stopped by to estimate the cost of painting the home (oh, the cost you ask? too too much- more than enough to inspire me to do it myself); and Jeff and I tried out Goody's pizza in Gray (it's worth mentioning that sharing a pizza mid-workday is not a good idea due to the intense desire to nap that follows such a lunch).

Pics leftover from Saturday:

Lucy looking regal. She's keeping an eye on things and has no tolerance for slackers.   



Michelle adding to the already big pile started by Kathi tearing up the floorboards in the Den



Pics from Yesterday:


Ok, so remember from the last post how Makenna and Kathi kept finding pennies heads up... check out what I found yesterday while sweeping up: an 1898 Indian head penny- heads up!
 
 
New door replacing the old door... don't worry we'll be re-purposing the originals!

Wall between Kitchen and Living Room coming down!

Check out the awesome welcome packet that New Gloucester gives to new residents! A Town of New Gloucester Welcome pamphlet with all sorts of helpful info (like when the knitting club meets at the library and what you can and cannot recycle); 2 packets of seasoning from the Shakers; Pamphlets and brochures galore; a stack of random business cards from the areas' entrepreneurs; mini fridge calendars; and a full-length CD from the Choir of New Gloucester Congregational Church. We love this town!

Pics from Today:
We may have caused a little bit of a backup during the evening commute. If you look closely at the far center- that's a Gi-nor-mous excavator being unloaded by an 18-wheeler.

The wait will be short people... we really need this hunk of equipment because we'd like to use the toilets in the Farmhouse at some point.

This was so ridiculously awesome to watch get knocked down- I don't think it took anymore than 2 minutes.

The start of our new septic- yay for useable toilets!

Granite Falls Blue


To cap off a great day of work on the Farm, we had a surprise visit from an Emory descendent (the original owners of the home) and his wife: Scott and Sharon! It was so exciting to have them stop by and share their memories of the place and they were happy to see the home being loved again. Turns out the Farm has a good story that we've only just begun to discover. It originally was a meeting house/dance hall. Apparently the entire upstairs was an open space with 11 ft. ceilings and functioned as the dance hall. Scott said that he believed at one point the place was also used to make shoes for Union soldiers. We'll dig into the history a little more because 160 years is a long time for a home to be standing- can't wait to find out more!

We're Breaking Ground!

Demo has begun people! This past weekend we got started and we're just now getting things posted because of a lovely little hurricane named Irene. So we'll have to catch you up until this point. As we speak, I mean blog, Jeff and I are sitting enjoying WiFi courtesy of Cole Farms in Gray Maine (i.e. our new spot to hang out with all the q-tips while we take a break from The Farm). We officially closed on the house last Tuesday- exactly a week ago! We've been waiting for this day since May 8th 2011, the day that we first went under contract. So last Tuesday was a BIG day.

This past weekend we enlisted the help of Kathi, Michelle, and Makenna to demo. Let me tell you these ladies are the equivalent of having at least 6 people doing demo- these Peterson gals don't mess around. Ok so without further ado... the pictures!

Sorry... there's a lot.

The Farm's Luck was upside down
Makenna and Kathi kept finding heads up pennies
Makenna's Lego Luck sign!
Foyah! and Stairs
The Dining Room
                                                             
This was the first bit of demo done and the house apparently didn't like it!


The Living Room

The Kitchen

More Kitchen

Even more Kitchen

The Den

Downstairs bathroom


Living room into Kitchen

Bedroom #1

Upstairs Bath


Current Laundry Area
Bedroom #2

Bedroom #3


Tracing out Makenna before the archway gets knocked down

Can you believe I let my mother-in-law clean up this mess!?

Old Wallpaper sequence...


December 2nd 1945 (only about 100 years after the home was built)

December 2nd 1945- Buy Victory Bonds!

Our New Neighbor Bill mowing the yard and field for us

We inherited a BIG collection of old Mason jars and Skippy peanut butter jars