528 in it's Final Fall moments

The following images are courtesy of Bill Lee Imaging- every so often he'll swing by the house- even when we are not there and take some shots of the progress and play with Bartlett. He has been very thoughtful and generous with sharing the images for the blog. His very creative eye which captures some of the nicest shots, images of details and places that sometimes I overlook in my photos- as I am often trying to show you the big picture. You can find more of his work at http://www.bleeimaging.com/ and http://digitalaundry.blogspot.com. The tool belt photo and the before & after represent his work too.

Little Mudroom-Garage

Dumpster #4 leaves the garage. Sad to see it go- as it was so easy to throw everything away- no need to separate the wood waste from the insulation from the dirt, just toss it in. It barely fits through the door!

But, we needed the space- the "glowing" opening goes right into the great room/kitchen from the garage. We don't want to just open the door into the garage from the house, we planned on a little buffer room- a little mud room space. A place with a little closet and a landing- maybe some hooks, a place to hold heat from the conditioned space inside. It is important to get this laid out, since we'll be heating the space- and we need to have it built in order to run the radiant in the space. We need to get heat in here- fast. As Old Man Winter is fast on his way.

Here it is! It still needs some steps and insulation, but the door is in. Last weekend, I couldn't figure out how Bartlett was getting out of the house- I thought I closed all the doors- except there wasn't a finished backside on the little mudroom and she was sneaking out between the studs. She was so proud of herself too. Stay tuned...for more finished projects.

Roofin the other half, BEFORE WInter

The goal for the weekend, was to roof the other half before winter. The other half, this was the half of the roof that we didn't redo in April. In April, just after we bought the house we realized there was some issues with the roof, when we had buckets of rain pouring in around the chimney and in the furnace room. The front half seemed okay- okay to live with it for a bit longer. We were hoping to get the mud room and new roof tied in before we re-roofed this roof, but it looks like we have to wait a bit on that phase- but we needed to re-roof what was there as there were some leaks in the garage and we were afraid it wasn't going to last through any more hurricanes or ice damning from the winter. So I took on the task of stripping the roof. I started at 1:30pm on Friday afternoon. By 3:30 Rufus Deering was unloading the supplies.

A start of a pile of roofing.

That's me at my beauty best. Yes, that's a pitch fork. Yes, I stripped the roof, for real.

On Saturday, I had to bring the asphalt shingles to the dump. Yes, in the volvo. We had the last dumpster taken away a few weeks ago to make room for the little mudroom entry from the garage Erik needed to build. The dumpster was taking up too much space in the garage. More on that later.
3 wagon loads of roofing felt, nails, asphalt shingles and metal drip edge and various wood waste, made it to the dump. Funny thing is, they don't charge you if you have a car but if I brought the truck they would have charge me- each load. I think I got just as much in the car as I would the back of the truck.

Erik, finishing off the trim on the edge of the garage, looking good.

New trim on the front and a stripped roof. We were able to get the roof water-tight by Saturday afternoon. Productive day. We also have some helpers coming on Sunday, Cousin Pete and Lisa have wanted to help out, so roofing for the guys and Lisa will help me finish the edge of the garage with laying some stone, so that the dirt doesn't splash back onto the shingles and some plantings of perennials.

The dogs sleeping in the volvo- ALL day. The back was open, but they just wanted to nap in the front seats in the sun. Silly.

Erik finishing the drip edge on the front. Bye- bye red trim, not too sad to see you go.

Erik & Cousin Pete, wearing his volley-ball outfit from college! Look under their feet- new 30 year architectural asphalt shingles. Perfect blue bird day, a bit chilly in the morning but t-shirts by noon. Nice job, the roof was all most done by the time they had to leave, around 3:30pm. Awesome, to have the help.

Lisa & I in front of OUR handiwork. We laid stone 12" out from the foundation of the house along the entire side, making a planting bed in front of the stone for some ornamental grass, lamb's ear, salvia, and another plant that looks like coral bells, but is meant for full sun exposure. This side is officially finished now- well except for the painting part-

which reminds me of what to do this weekend!

can we get ONE more side done before Winter- part deux

Yeah, so we have flying squirrels. I think some of you may have heard the story of how we know they are the flying type already. If your curious, I'll tell you in person, it would freak most people out, so I am withholding the whole story. Just trust me, it was a gruesome discovery and I was lucky to be out of town that day.

Most of the summer we kept hearing the critters above our heads at night. They started to get pretty frisky a few weeks ago. It got so bad, that we called an exterminator Andy from macandquacks.com, he seemed like the best fit for us. This was something I knew Orkin couldn't deal with. Andy came and gave us a thorough evaluation of our issues. He could see that we were on the right track with spray foaming any hole that a critter could get into. He gave us some hardware cloth to fit in the holes and some super duper spray foam. And some large rat traps, with the plastic touch mount which snap to lighter touch, to catch the *&^!%$*'s. It was going to be a challenge with our situation, given that we are re-doing the existing sides one at a time, and where they seem to be getting into the house, was not on our list of "must do". That first night of spray foaming up all the entry points was exciting, we could hear him or her racing through the walls trying to get out. It was in a panic. I think it finally either calmed down or found a way out, and we haven't heard from it again. However, we are not taking any chances and have traps ready for it when it decides it wants to get back in again.

The finished side! Well, lower half. New windows, new clapboard siding stained, and trim painted. Just in time for snow!!
I will paint those windows, maybe this weekend, if it is nice out?

Nature walk- across the street

Here are a few photos from the nature walk across the street from our house. It goes along the marsh and one of the reasons why we love living here. It is such a treat to be able to walk out the front door and have access to this open beautiful space. Even in the midst of the chaos of living in a renovation, we keep saying "we love it here". These are just a few reasons why we think it is so important to bring this house back to life and make it our own.

Doghouse- before & after

Doghouse BEFORE

This isn't Bartlett's house, it is the entry into the cellar, called a doghouse. This is before it was stripped, rebuilt (some of the sheathing was rotted, reshingled, and slate roofed.

Pile of Slate- BEFORE

Yip, evidently this pile of slate was salvaged from a building at Portland Head Light, by the previous owners.Along with the greenhouse too. Erik salvaged it again and used it to roof the roof. Woof.

Erik -Moving stone

So there was a bit of a stone wall here, but we kind of destroyed it when we put the deck in, so Erik is rearranging the stones to make a little bit of a retaining wall for flower beds between the deck and the doghouse. He also moved the concrete pad in front of the doghouse so that wasn't tipped into the structure and water would shed away from the stairs. Hopefully, this helps the cellar be a bit dryer here.

Doghouse-AFTER

The Boys of Fall

Well it’s turn to face the stars and stripes

It’s fighting back them butterflies

It’s call it in the air, alright

Yes sir, we want the ball

And it’s knocking heads and talking trash

It’s slinging mud and dirt and grass

It’s I got your number, I got your back

When your back’s against the wall

You mess with one man, you got us all

The boys of fall

In little towns like mine, that’s all they’ve got

Newspaper clippings fill the coffee shops

The old men will always think they know it all

Young girls will dream about the boys of fall....

Ahhh, Kenny Chesney song has got me nostalgic about fall, not that I was a cheerleader (Ha!) or even went to a football game in high school, but the small town stuff and the cool air this time of year, totally gets me.

Erik and I went down to see Jarrett (Erik's nephew) play his first football game. It was great, Kendra (Erik's sister) warned us that it was their first game and the practices were challenging for this age (Jarrett is 7, looks like he is about 13, he might be shaving?). But we were pleasantly surprised, the coaches did a super job reeling the kids in and getting them involved in the plays.
Check out the line coach, scratching his head, cute. The game was a little like corralling cats, but the Laurence team won against Chelmsford! Which was a nice way to start the season. Jarrett is so focused on football right now, I think he is eating and sleeping it. Kendra even said he practices the plays every night.

No wonder their team won, look at how big these two are?!!!