Week 3

I didn't get as much done this week as I hoped, but it was a good shake down week for bigger projects.  I was able to get a couple of small jobs done; I put in a new ladder to the loft in the barn....

and I also replaced the small doors on the front of the barn......

I tried to dismantle the doors so that I could reuse the panels on the new door frames, but when I took the doors apart, the panel broke apart.  I also learned a lot about repairing barns.  The first set of frames that I put in were beautifully square, but when I put them in the doorway, I realized that the old door frame was not only not level (to to be expected) it was also not square and slightly rotting.  A single day of building new doors turned into three days of redoing the entire frame and the paneling on either side of the frame.  The entire process was also not helped by the fact that it was friggin cold out all week.
    Otherwise the rest of the week went well.  The architect came by to do some detailed measurements and take some pictures.  I also spoke to our plumber, who suggested that we rip out the entire, existing heating system and just replace it all.  At the end of the meeting he says to me, "do you like old houses?"  Of course I responded , "we love old houses.  He says, "thats good, because that is exactly what you got, congrats."
   This week I also met the next door neighbors grand daughter, that had tons of great stories about the house.  She also said that she may still have a bunch of old pictures of the house.  She remembered having a picture of the old popcorn factory.  She said her grandfather used to take care of the house for the old owner, and that he would a lot of stuff to tell me about.  Her grandfather stopped by today and was able to answer a bunch of questions that I had about the house.  I asked about whether or not there was a fireplace in what is now the formal dining room.  He said that there wasn't a big fireplace in that room, only the old cooking hearth.  Excited, I asked him if he thought it was still there, and he said it was just behind the wall. I though to myself, "quick get me a sledge hammer, but I took a deep breath and decided to wait until the pros were in there to take the wall down.
     The other tidbit the neighbor told me about was some information about the tavern that used to in our house.  He said that the house across the street from his (The Gay family house) and our house were part of a stage coach run.  The coach would stop at the Gay House, drop off the tired horses, and the people would go to the tavern (our house) hangout, eat, drink, whatever.  Then the drivers would change horses and complete the next leg to Boston.  They would leave the horses behind for the next stage coach to come through.
     All in all, it was good week, and I am looking forward to getting some things done this week before we head out of town for the holidays.