Fits & Starts....

The title to this post is how a friend of ours, Taylor, put it when I described that I felt like sometimes the project was moving quickly & sometimes, such as last week, I felt like nothing really happened.  Knowing all too well, this is the way it goes, it however feels slow & frustrating sometimes not to see "visual" progress.

However, this week we did get the kitchen layout confirmed, and sketched out onto the subfloor which is cool to see.  Found out 93" of cabinetry cannot fit in 90.5" of raw space in the pantry.
The guys completed the framing & the furnace is "almost" fixed....
We also found out that the concrete custom shower of our dreams would run us (sit down for this), $10,000 (that's with out fixtures too!) ha! So back to the drawing board on that one!

Tomorrow my favorite electrician, Steve, will be on site to rough in the electrical in the new space and prepare the old part of the house for electric updates as well!


Anxious to get paint on the walls & decorate the place.....or put myself to work someway, somehow!  (I know I'll be regretting this statement!)

We'll see what the week brings.....next year today we will be handing out Trick-or-Treat to goobs & goblins at 64 High St...yay!

Picture, Picture.....

a shot from the kitchen looking up into the new bathroom which Matt is framing out.



Our Jeldwen windows arrive from Middleton Lavalley! 




The transom window which will sit in the gable end of our new addition!




White trim boards have arrived & the 2 fir beams which will be installed across the kitchen ceiling.




From the upstairs bath looking across.




Believe it or not, this will be a beautiful bathroom one day!




This was a very intresting process to watch and see the result of....How were they going to blend the new roof line with the old....?  & now we know!



From the back of the house, plywood getting put in place.

 

My brother, Matt....on the phone, Jeff doing all the work- typical! ha, ha! :)





We just both think this series of pictures are SO cool! 

  



One last look before the addition goes....back on!

 



The first disaster!

Our entire house has old plaster, no sheetrock, so we are having the walls skimcoated, and the spots that are loose will be tightened with magic anchors that look like screws! (amazing!) On Monday 11/11, we awaited the infamous plasterer, Skoog,  to arrive, he finally showed up at 10:30 as my father was cursing him and doubting his appearance at all.

He and his helper worked to tighten the walls upstairs, set up tools, and plastered the first coat of walls & ceiling in our master bedroom.  How exciting!

The following morning, Tuesday, the mission was clear: get license, register car, inspect car.  Seems simple enough right? Well proved to be, but timely. started with my first trip to Kennebunk DMV, print a number…and wait, an hour later I was helped, got a temp. license-yay! (the real one will come in the mail soon…), then fill out these 2 forms, go to Kennebunk town office, pay excise tax, then back to DMV…ugh! 

Back at the DMV round 2, got to skip the line and go to the attendant, got the registration done, Maine plates in hand!!! Yay! Drove to the Sunoco dealership in downtown Kennebunk and left my car for an inspection, Sadie and I walked home to see what the boys were up to. (LOVE the fact I can walk from town to home so easily!)

In the mean time, Early morning I recieve a phone call from my Dad, "We got here this morning and the entire ceiling in the bedroom was on the floor!" I immediately think the weight of the plaster has pulled the entire ceiling down!  But then I comprehend what he's saying, all the new plaster Skoog put up on Monday, did not adhere and was ALL on the floor now! 

Somehow it did not bond properly.  AHHH! So they had a MESS to clean up, and began a patch test to see what we will do from here.  We all have our fingers and toes crossed that the new bonder will work & that my pained hours of scraping were not a waste!

Heat men are scheduled to come make furnace work next Wed, and oil will come next Monday….Skoog feels the temp is too cool- could be a factor.

Fingers crossed!

It is JUST a mailbox!

Ah!  So much has been happening & I'm not blogging nearly enough!  Part of the issue has been pictures are everywhere & not anywhere close enough to my computer!  So this weekend my goal is to get the blog up to date!  So lots of updates coming w/in days!

 It was Monday (10/11), and Scott is off to Moose Hunting Camp in Jackman ME....my plan today is to achieve putting up a mailbox.  (simple enough eh? .... for the average non-type "A" person yes!)
Here's the mailbox story quoted from my "diary for Scott of  'While You Were Hunting' ": (those of you that know me well will find this absolutely typical & amusing!  The scary thing is there is SO many more decisions to come....& this was after all ONLY a mailbox! ha!

"Sunday 10/10 I went to Lowe’s and hung out admittedly in the mailbox aisle (which was why I went) for probably 25 minutes, debating!  I get this paralysis when I have to make decisions sometimes!  I want to do “the right thing” and put SO much pressure on myself about it!  Then budget comes into play and I get MORE mixed up!  I had 4 people ask if they could help me (I must have look disorientated!) lol! Finally this old Frenchman employee chatted w/me a bit, told me he took home 3 boxes before he and "the wife" decided on one! Yikes!  I wanted the pretty $70 one, (post not included!!!) but could just picture myself chasing the plow truck down the street screaming in my bathrobe as he hits it on the first storm!  So I finally settled on a box for $35 but could not settle on a post, so I went to Home Depot (across the st.).  At first I thought the post would just be wooden (the typical), but then I realized they have aluminum ones, that never rot….the less maintance the better was my thought!  Home Depot worked out, bought a black post for $40, used your Verizon rebate card at the self checkout.  By the time I got home, I was questioning the purchases, was a bronze box going to go w/ the black post? Oh dear God!! AHHH!"

I enlisted Dad's help with the installation of the mailbox, he taught me to use a post hole digger, which was cool & an old tool from our late family friend, Roland Junkins. We installed the mailbox post and box to perfection according to Kennebunk regulations and our type A personalities! It was fun but ridiculously time consuming!  I'm sure the neighbors had a good show! 

Ta Da!

 

Brrr....its cold!

I cannot imagine what it cost to heat this home with the lack of insulation that existed in it...(read: none) 

From the beginning of this project, blowing in insulation to the main house was a MUST in the budget.  With my new found knowledge, I understand now the time to do this is when the siding is off, so the insulation can be blown from outside...the process proved to be very interesting to watch, and I feel better already knowing we'll be a bit warmer this winter....& can put to use the money the government is printing (wink & a smile), by cashing in on the $1500 energy saving tax credit!

the polka dot house....(so the insulators drill holes in each "bay" and then using a hose, blow insulation in a measured amount, then plug the hole with a wood plug.  These pics are from day 1 of the 2 day project.

Mystery

We found when stripping the siding, that there once was a door on the back of the house, which was not a huge surprise, because we knew the "el" or addition was added on later.
What was interesting and remains unsolved, was how there were 2 large window openings on the front porch...directly behind these window openings now is the stair casing, which runs along this outside wall.  This discovery led us to believe the stairs were not always in this place...where were they? and also, that the stained glass window was NOT original?!

These mysteries have been fun discoveries, we are hopeful we will have the honor to obtain or view a picture sometime in the future and solve these mysteries!

& She now stands Naked!

So off came the siding...
After a lesson from Dad, I tried my best to master the "flat bar" and stayed away from the crowbar & the ladder...managed to remove the siding that I could reach safely with my feet on the ground. (okay, maybe I dared to go a few feet off the ground, on the SHORT ladder!)

 
This process I found to be quite fun, as did Scott, being that he very much enjoys "monkey-ing" around and demoing things....It was fun in the respect also, that when complete the house now looks like "naked house", a blank canvas, where even the unimaginative minds can start to see the possibilities.

Hilti. Outperform. Outlast. Knock out teeth!

Scott was called in to help with drilling a  hole through the new foundation for our lovely sewer pipe we decided to replace due to its age...using the ever powerful "Hilti" drill, (we've now rented this tool twice from Taylor Rental in Biddeford, although they are nice, I'm thinking of buying my own and renting one out! Please don't make me go get that darn thing again!) Scott survived the drilling, however it took about 45 minutes to get thru 8" of cement, and involved a sledge hammer, and the Hilti spinning around and kicking back giving Scott a heck of a war mark on his face! (his teeth are all intact-thank goodness!)
Once I saw the event in action, I soon understood why Dad told me I was NOT doing it, and a strong boy must! (this time I DID agree, thank you!)

Ah yes, scooping ice cream really wasn't that bad was it? (We all agreed no one should use this tool 8hrs a day- you'd go crazy!)

The Writing is on The Walls....



About 2 weeks ago, I thought to "google" the folks name I found written on 3 walls of the house underneath the wallpaper.  It was "Phyllis and Curtis Tolman and the dates were in '73 and '78".  I found out sadly that Mr. Tolman had passed away, this led me to knowing however that they lived in Old Saybrook, CT (ironically one of the only 2 towns in CT I've ever spent significant time in!), Being a bit of a sleuth as I am, I figured out Mrs.Tolman was still residing in their home, and I decided to write & mail a letter to her asking her a bit about the property, how she came to being there (because I couldn't find "Tolman" on the deed so I knew she didn't ever own it.) I knew it was a bit of a chance, but what did I have to lose? I was/am craving to know more about the home we are going to inhabit!

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I checked my emails, to find a return response from Mrs.Phyllis Tolman!  I of course wrote back with a thousand more questions which continue to surface!!

Dear Emily.

I received your letter and was sadden to learn the house was in such "horrible condition" and in "terrible shape" Believe me it was well kept house for many years.

My folks (George & Helen Clark) purchased the house in the early 1930s from Richard & Irene Dresser.  My brothers and I lived there until we were married in the late 1940s.

My Mother lived there until her death in 1980.

After my Father passed away, Curt and I papered all the rooms between 1973 and 1978.  In most cases all the old wallpaper (many layers) were removed before adding the new paper.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Phyllis Clark Tolman