60:40... Also known as: My Fault: Your Fault

So the past few days have been eventful. Lots of paint going up and underlayment going down! We also had our first major mishap on the job site this past Friday...

The Mishap

The boards that caused The Mishap. Some people (*ahem, Jeff)  might say that I caused The Mishap; however I like to consider this situation as being nearly equal parts in fault (i.e. 60 % mine and 40% his). Had Jeff reminded me about the boards sticking out 3 feet beyond the length of the truck (that can't be seen at all due to their height) before I had started backing up, well we might not have a giant dent in the back of the Jeep at present time. Therefore I like to think of The Mishap as being shared in the blame. Jeff, however disagrees and says, "70:30 and that's just me being nice."

See, who would see those while backing up?

 More Friday:

Progress in the Den: Trash cleaned up on the left and insulation and underlayment going down on the right

The backside of the house gets a "Granite Falls Blue" makeover

We worked until the light left the skies (and when you only have light in the basement- that is about as late as you can work)

Saturday:

I can't believe these are my only Saturday pics...

People will start to think this is a blog about food and not about renovating!

Thompson's Orchard! Less than a minute up the road: Dangerous!

Pumpkin donut cheers!

Umm, because sugar covered donuts are never enough and you need a bin of fudge to go with them?

Oh, you're welcome and we'll be glad to come again

Sunday:

Jeff setting up his new air compressor. Apparently his 50 gallon one is too big and the 2 gallon one is too small and this 8 gallon one is just right. Alright Goldilocks, I suppose if it gets the job done a little bit quicker it should be worth it!

Progress in the Den:

Crazy Deals! We looked for months and months and we finally found the right crazy deals... We found this french door fridge for the same price we were going to pay for a side-by-side fridge plus we got an extra hundred off. The dishwasher was on sale- plus 20% off- plus I found a dent in the inside back and they took another hundred off the price. Oh the thrill of Crazy Deals...

***Big time thank yous to Verrill, Michelle, and Makenna for help moving these!

Paint progress...

You really can't tell but some of the trim is now painted a cream color

Well, that's it for now! We're hoping that tomorrow will bring even more progress... I will be braving/attempting to paint the top half of the house and standing on the roof of the porch- should be interesting!

Roll Over!

Glen Dube's Excavating out of Sabbatus is to thank for our backyard/field of dirt. But seriously now we have a Waste Receptacle! This is probably the biggest news of today- we have a fully installed septic system...  if only we had a fully installed toilet inside the house to use! But, alas, this is not on Jeff's agenda. So quick run-ins into town or out with mother-nature will have to do for now. Oh and it's not on Jeff's agenda because he just doesn't feel like it; but because he has an absurd list of other "to-do's" that need doin' first! Lemme tell you- this guy is busy... tearin' out walls, framing up walls, making archways with a cool CNC system-thing he's got. Umm, no I don't understand exactly what this is; but I do know that it involves a computer and Jeff telling that computer what to cut and then it just cuts it! So essentially, in my mind anyways, its pretty much magic.

As for me... well I spent about 6 hours cleaning today. And frankly, it is not nearly as gratifying as spending 6 hours scraping and painting. But The Trash Guyz came today for that big pile of wood in the Den (add-on) and the "Bagster" (a bag bought from Lowes that holds lots of trash... Jury is still out on it's effectiveness) Anyhow... here are today's pictures!

Richard (i.e. excavator operator) separated some of the field stones/boulders for us! So that we can use in landscaping later on.

He also separated out what's left over of the shed so that it's easier to burn!

Nah, nah, nah, nah!  (set to cool music of your choice) LUCY Montage! (yeah, that's how productive I was today.)

Lucy: the biggest St. Bernard in World by some beautiful Sedum in bloom.

"Lucy! Lucy! Look here!" Somehow I thought it'd be the most adorable thing to have Lucy looking up at me with the blooms next to her.

Just lovely.

Ugh. Leave me alone!

Archway... Courtesy of CNC (... or magic)

Cleaned up Den... well at least cleaned up compared to before!

The field that looked like a Rock Quarry just yesterday.

The Front wheels of an old 1926 Essex Car. The wooden spokes aren't rotted out!

We have a stone wall!

So ends another day! The upcoming weekend should allow lots of opportunity for continued progress on the Farm. We are so excited about our new place. And for our friends and family that have heard all the highs and lows this past year has brought, well, you know this Home means the world to us. We feel really blessed. The opportunity to dig in and work to transform this place into a Home is BIG. This long weekend ahead, also brings with it our 2nd anniversary! And this year instead of moving out of our home (and into the in-laws basement ;) )... we'll be working hard towards getting the Farm ready for new life. 

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

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!