Beehive Oven

The fireplace in the center room of the brick house was rumored to have a beehive oven. With the help and expertise of Tim Nichols of North Anson, we opened the fireplace just enough to uncover the oven which had been partially removed in order to make way for a refrigerator back in the 1920's.

Tim and Jesse are working on a new chimney to replace this on becaause the crib work under the chimney has failed and the chimney is leaning and twisted from the top to the bottom. The 8' wide mantel will be reused and a new brick oven built along with a Rumford style fireplace that will house a Home Atlantic wood stove similar to the one at the Bradley camp dining room. This project is scheduled for December of 2008.

Barn/Woodshed removal July 19

Alas the decision had to be made to tear down the old woodshed with the attached 3 hole out house. While much of the structure dated from the early 1800's, the roof had been redone in the 1950s and the framing sometime before that. The pitch on the roof was shallow enough that many Maine winters and heavy snow had caused it to crush in several directions. It had been modified several times with many of the main timbers either cut for new doorsor rotting from misalignment. It was a sad day but the true beginning of the rebirth of the old house.

David Hallowell and his associate Jeff made quick work of the project with an excavator. 2 truck loads of debris was hauled off and the dumpster filled. Several of the beams were salvaged and stored for the replacement wing currently being identified as the Dance Hall.

The last of the wiring was removed from the gable end of the summer house and siding applied to clean up the outside. We are planning for 2009 to jack and form a foundation under the summer house which is slated for an overhaul this winter.

New Front Patio

With the help of Nathan and Rick Greenleaf and John Rohner, the new drainage trench was completed the 1st weekend in October. This allowed for the front steps to be reset and for the patio to finally be loamed and reseeded. This completes the major overhaul of the front of the house with the dormers getting a face lift in July by Dennis Olson during the reroofing process made necessary by a leak in one of the dormers.

Nathan was home on leave and is moving to Fort Bragg in Upstate NY before a return later this year to Afganistan. It was a 10 hour day of rolling the granie steps on rollers back so the backhoe could dig the trench. After lining it with rubber and filling with 1 1/2" stone, we reset the steps and finished the project at dark.