The Process Continued pg. 5
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June 2, 2006 Day 264
The last 22 days have been spent doing little things. Like fixing floor boards, building in plumbing, removing
missed nails or basically getting the house ready for the next step. It is amazing how little you can accomplish
when you work really hard. This is the hardest part of the job, when you put in hours of work and see no
real developments. These are the days I tell Pattie that if we were paying someone to do this I would be
asking what did they do all day. Either way these days are required to finish the job. We also took Memorial
Day weekend off to spend up at the lake. This was a much needed break.
Monday the electricain is coming to the house to start the wiring and the propane company is coming to see
about running the propane lines and installing the fireplace inserts.I am also expecting the siding for the
exterior to arrive on Monday. Amazingly we have not run out of money yet but I think that by the end of
Monday all funds in the renovation account will be spoken for. At least I will have several projects to work
on as we save some more money.
June 30, 2006
During the month of June I was able to accomplish several jobs. The biggest being installing the wide pine
flooring in the attic. This floor measures 39' Lx 20'w. I nailed the floor with flat nails so to reproduce the
look of the flooring in the rest of the house. The most annoying part of the project was dealing with the
crowns on the pine boards and trying to bend them so they would lay tightly against each other. The other
part that was less than fun was counter sinking all 1500 nails. I also finished off the window seats in the attic.
The electrician showed up and we started wiring the house, mostly I drilled the holes as he ran the wires.The
first floor is almost done and the holes are all drilled for the second floor to run the wires.
The propane people came and installed the fireplace inserts. This took several trips by them as each time they
came up with a reason they could not continue with the job. Each time I was able to fix the problem within
five minutes. It is times like these that make me wish I could be there all the time and then this stuff would
not happen. However when you are dealing with a big company and the workers get paid whether they work
or not they will find ways to get out of working. Finally the company sent a guy that was a great worker and
he finished it up last Monday(with my help).
Walter Shea from Knickerbocker kitchen has been working on our kitchen design and was out last week to
tweak a few things and we hope to have the finished plans within the week.
I also started building the window trim for the exterior and plan on installing the window trim and siding over
the 4th of July.
June was a very wet month, however it did provide a few days in which I could get the lawn cut down to
normal height although the last 8 days have rained and I must start the haying process again. The rain also
caused some exterior paint to blister and peel so the exterior door will need to be stripped down and
refinished again. I have hopes of a warm dry July so that I can get a lot of work done on the outside of the
house.
July 17 Day 309
July has proved to be very warm and dry if you consider humid weather to be dry. During the last 17 days I
have been installing some of the window trim that I have built as well as the siding on the back side of the
house and the kitchen extension. Our lawn has finally dried out and I was able to cut the entire lawn for the
first time this year. No more misquito bog.
Alex the electrician has worked his way up to the second floor and Walter has almost finished the kitchen
plans. Both Patrice and I are very pleased with the look of the exterior of the house; it is coming out just as
we envisioned it.
We hope to have the plumber install the first floor bathroom by next week so we can have our party here in
August. Since we have told everyone that this is where the party is going to be we need to make sure that
we have running water and a bathroom! Keep your fingers crossed if you are coming to our Lobster bake or
else you will have to keep your legs crossed at the party.
July 26, 2006
Sunday was spent cleaning and organizing the barns. It is amazing how quickly you can get something
unorganized when you are working on a place. Pattie also spent a fair amount of time scrapping up decades
old chicken shit off the floor on the second level of the barn. This is a dirty and dusty job but it is needed to
be done. She is not able to work at the house very often but when she does she is not afraid to get dirty or
work hard. The barns look so much cleaner and neater. We still have a long way to go on the barns but
they are not a priority yet.
On monday the 24th the rain had finally stopped and I cut our rice patty (lawn). All this rain has really made
for a wet lawn this year. After my lawn I turned my attention to the plumber and getting water running in
our house. He had it all plumbed in but we were not getting any power to the pressure tank. I suggested we
look at the well pump and when we did we noticed that the power line was disconnected. Julian must have
disconnected it when he jacked the house. Luckily Alex the electrician was there that day and he hooked up
the power for us. Now back to the pressure tank.... still not working! I was able to get it to run manually
by holding the switch in the on position and water came out! At least we knew the pump worked.Still the
pressure tank would not operate on its own. I held the switch in the on position manually and the water
started to run. The plumber asked me to hold it in the on position so he could check the fittings for leaks.
While I was doing this the pressure tank switched off on its own. As the pressure dropped the tank once
again came on. This time on its own! YES!! it is working! seems all it needed was to be primed manually.
So we now have running water and we can go forward with the party as planned.