Plaster & Paint July 2009

JULY 2009

After replacing the front windows of the brick house, we began to paint and plaster in order to get the house ready for family visitor July 31st. Zimba Plastering of Fairfield did a fabulous job. We removed wallpaper from the front rooms and painted the blue floors with a British tan. Keith Moore of Skowhegan ran the painting crew and did a great job making all of the old woodwork come alive.

New Windows

How do you replace wooden windows in an old brick farmhouse? Call your best one eyed carpenter. Nearly an impossible job as the building has settled and nothing is square. This we knew would require the skills of the one and only Jeff Coffin who has solved similar problems for and with us in the past. Jeff has spent a good part of April working thru the issues and the windows look great.

The other major improvement to the house is the removal of the ceiling in the great room. John Rohner painstakingly removed the plaster and then the lathe to find that the 5" dip in the ceiling was caused by the square nails holding the strapping, having given way. The floor joists between the hand hewn beams were very level and will not require additional structural work. Ron Pare the electrician who rewired the first floor last year will soon be back to run a few more cables before we close up the ceiling.

Out on the farm, we cleared the acre north of the orchard for expansion of the fruit trees and we cleared the ridge field back to the stone wall to the east. While the stumping is not yet complete, we now have the land to plant grapes and berries where they belong. Mark Fulford, our soils adviser made a recent visit and has given us guidance on the next steps to prep for the new planting areas.




Out in the big field the fall crop of oats did well and we are preparing to plant again within a few weeks. Above the tillage field, we began clearing for an equipment barn late last year. David Hallowell our sitework contractor has been busy and has cleared some more after advising us to move the barn back up the hill. We have added an irrigation pond in our laydown yard and stone cribs for storing rock, mulch and compost.

Bradley was home several weekends this winter for skiing at Sugarloaf and he managed to add some ideas to how things should look and work. Pictured below from left to right are, John Rohner, Bradley Abbott and David Hallowell.

Lakeshore Farm 2009

The farm continued it's rebirth right thru the month of Jan when the front parlor chimney was relined for use with a wood stove. The Vermont Casting Intrepid woodstove had been purchased from the illustrious Bryant Stove Company over in Thorndike. If you haven't been there, Bee Bryant and her stove collection are world famous. A real Maine treasure.

The upstairs has a refurbished bathroom and the bedrooms have had the falling ceilings removed, reframed and replaced along with insulation and a fine coat of paint.

These rooms will be ready for summer 2009 occupancy. We are hopeful that with the front patio completed in October 2008 that we can now start living and enjoying the farm from the front side as we continue to work on the rest of the house.

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.