Day 7 - March 31, 2009

Today's post is dedicated to our parents, for all of your love and support. Susan, John and Ellen, you will see the first sign of something going in instead of being taken out - so hopefully this will be the beginning of your worries being asuaged!

Today Mark and Rocky started the process of replacing the sill on one side of the house. They first built a brace to support the wall, then removed the rest of the old sill and put in a plate on which the new sill will sit.

Meanwhile, Rob and I started the day shoveling out coal from the basement on the other side of the house. After taking out several loads and realizing how much coal was still there, we decided to postpone this task until we might have a bobcat or other equipment on site.

So, we moved on to continuing to demo the second floor. As a result of a great idea by Rob, we were able to make significant progress. As you can see in the photo, he put together a system for getting buckets of plaster, lathe and insulation down to the ground without having to haul them down the stairs. Guess he can brag about that Bates education after all. While pulling down the interior walls, we found what are probably squirrel nests. Someone told us that when they drove by previously, they saw the squirrels looking out of the windows. Time to move on squirrels!

In the mid-afternoon, our work crew increased by three. David, Sparhawk and Rowan, our new neighbors, came by to help out (and to give mom Gallaudet a little peace and quiet!). They are very enthusiastic and we hope to have them back often!

Day 6, March 30, 2009

Today was a bit of slow going. The weather was more like Seattle than Newburyport with a light damp drizzle all day. Nevertheless we kept going. Today we continued demo and took out the old back stairs. While we were doing this, Rocky took out the floor joists in the Library. Mark returned from Home Depot and revealed the game plan. Over the next week or so, each of the sills will be replaced. To do this, Mark will support the house by attaching braces to the exterior of the house - he will then pull out the old sills and replace them with new pressure treated lumber. Rocky and Mark will also be putting in footings and new joists to support the new first floor.

While they work on that, Leigh and I will finish the demo on the second floor, which we started today. As I've mentioned before, the house has blown in insulation -- today, in the attic we found some that was blackened with mold. Things are going a little slower than we would hope, but I'm told that's the nature of renovation projects. We'll see what the next few days bring.

Fun Fact: For a couple of years the formal "parlor" was used to store hay for Arrowhead farm.

Day 5 - March 27, 2009 - End of Week 1

While yesterday was full of unwelcome discoveries (termite damage galore) today was full of pleasant surprises. We spent most of today pulling down the ceilings in the Library and the Living Room. This was quite a bit more difficult than taking the lathe off of the walls. What we found made the hard work worthwhile. Once the plaster and lathe was uncovered we found that the floor joists for the second floor rooms are in great shape.

Our other task for the day was to take up the floor of the Library. We discovered the other day that most of the joists under the floor, along with many of the floor boards were rotted or destroyed by termites. So our last project for the day was to pull up the floor to prepare for Monday when we will put in a new floor system. Unfortunately we were not able to save much of what we pulled up because it was so damaged.

Before we pulled up the floor, we added a few braces to help support the second floor. If you look at the photo carefully you can see one of the 2x4 studs in the middle of the window on the side of the house. After one week we have completely filled one dumpster with plaster and lathe -- it's amazing how much can come out of a couple rooms.

The general plan for next week is to continue the demo and to repair the structure of the house. We have been working with William March, a local architect, and he is hoping to finish up our plans for the addition by the middle of next week. Once we have a complete set of drawings, we will apply for the building permit for the entire job and the fun will begin.

Day 4 - March 26, 2009

Today was a day of continued exploration and discovery! It was also the first day that Mark and his crew, Rocky and Sue began to work with us. We began work on the Living Room -- took down the plaster, lathe, wainscoting and fireplace trim. We have been able to remove the mantles from both of the fireplaces so far and will hopefully be able to re-use them -- if not, then we'll be able to re-create them with new wood. As our 'exploration" has progressed we have found considerable termite damage in many of the supporting pieces. A few of the photos below will show that once we took of the bottom piece of sheathing on the exterior, there wasn't much of the posts left. Fortunately it seems that the corner posts are in decent shape and that they, along with some major beams are doing a good job of holding the house up.

While Leigh and I were working on the interior, Rocky and Sue were continuing to take shingles off of the exterior - to truly assess the structural needs of the house we need to find as many clues as possible so we're going at it from both the inside and the outside. Note in one of the photos below all of the wood that is stacked against the house..this was all taken out of the ell that John and Chrissy took down last year. Our hope is that we will be able to use these materials as we shore up the main house. If not, then we may use some of it for a kitchen table or maybe for a counter top on the kitchen island.

Every day we seem to find some fun things in the house. Today, I was pulling up the carpet when I discovered that they used newspaper for carpet pad! See the photo below.

Finally and update on Riley vs. the Guinea Hens. It seems that Riley has gained the upper hand. The photo below is of the unsuspecting Guinea Hens before Riley noticed them. Today, Riley, feeling more at home, decided to let the Hens know that she is actually a dog and not just a poser. Anyway the result was about an hour of Hen squawks from 30 feet up in a tree.

We'll see how this story develops -- Score at the moment: Hens 1 Riley 1

Day 3 - March 25, 2009

The big news today is that our storage trailer arrived so we can store equipment as well as salvaged pieces of the house. We started slowly this morning, doing work outside, mainly picking up siding and debris in the yard. Among the more interesting things we found were a bunch of glass jars - mostly broken but some still filled. We're not sure what was in them and we decided not to open them.

Once we got inside, we focused on finishing the demo in the library. In the back corner of the room there was a small closet that we took out. Once we had the lathe and plaster down, we discovered an area under the back stairs, where the chimney system is. Hidden beneath the stairs we found some old stove pipe, an iron, fireplace tools, an old box and a wool hat. As we got further into the demo of the walls, we uncovered some old Indian shutters that had been covered by pine board.
The other exciting event of the day as that Riley met the Guinea hens...no harm no foul...err fowl? She ignored the hens...the hens, however let her know who was boss.

It should be fun watching their relationship develop!

Day 2 - March 24, 2009

Leigh and I just returned home from Day 2 of our project on Old Ferry Road. Today we focused on doing some demo work in what will ultimately be the Library of our home. This consisted mainly of us pulling plaster and lathe off of the walls and removing some wooden wainscoting and trim. So now the post and beam construction of the home has been revealed and we're seeing the sheathing from the inside of the house. In the photos you'll see the nice detail of the mantel that we hope to pull off in once piece, sand down and re-use. We're also taking tons of photos so that we can recreate the trim with some historical accuracy. We are under the impression that most of the house is original - all of the nails are square head and we actually found some corn cobs in the insulation (which was blown in sometime in the last 100 years). We're not sure if we'll use the wainscoting as wainscoting but how often do you find an 18' x 2' piece of wood? We're certain that we'll be able to reclaim that lumber for some purpose, maybe a kitchen table, maybe as a floor board? We're open to suggestions.

Day 1 - March 23, 2009

Leigh and I headed out to Newburyport to do a little work on the house. Since we don't have a dumpster yet, or a ladder we were a bit constrained in what we could accomplish but we enjoyed spending some time out there. We saw some guinea hens in the neighbors yard...Riley, however, did not notice them. For the most part, we removed some siding and nails and spent time deciding what we could save from the interior and what we cannot. Mark and his crew will start on Wednesday. They will be taking the chimney down to the second floor and next week, the mason will begin to rebuild it using as many of the original bricks as possible. You can see from some of these photos that the house is post and beam and was framed with large oak timbers. As expected, there is a good amount of rot, but there is also quite a bit of sound wood.