The contractors have another couple of weeks before they’ll be back to finish up the barn foundation, grading the yard, and repairing the rock walls (they have to wait for the spring road restrictions to be lifted). We’re looking forward to having a freshly graded yard to seed for a lawn and plant our garden and food forest. With all that going on, we’re going to be very busy, so we’ve been busy wrapping up as much as we can beforehand. That break we thought we’d have, never actually happened, but that’s okay- we love what we’re doing!
One thing we did do was to put together a new front storm door using leftover antique boards from the hearth room project. We used the “Z” brace from the old storm to hold the new boards together, and cut each board so they lap each other side-to-side (rabbet joint), so the new door will hold off most of the weather from hitting the front door. Then we cut and beveled the door to fit the not-square opening. Once we’re finished applying boiled linseed oil and urethane to both sides, we’ll hang the new door using the salvaged strap hinges we picked up a while ago (the hinges in the photo of the front of the house below still has the old hinges, the strap hinges are shown in the next photo laid on the door).
While working near the front entry, we also decided to go ahead and restore/refinish the floors in that room, as it is small, and we thought it would be quick and easy. Well. It wasn’t. Over 200 years of shoes shuffling across the floor had folded layers of paint into the raised grain of softwood, which was wet and spongy from leaks and muddy boots. We did not want to just grind away the wear and patina of the boards, so we used a heat gun, then stripper, and finally, careful hand-sanding to remove five layers of paint and one original layer of stain. Then we applied five coats of the same boiled linseed oil/turpentine mixture we used throughout the house. Then we added two coats of matte urethane for water protection, as we plan to use the front door. These are now our favorite floors in the entire house!
One of the things we’ve wanted to do since the beginning, was to grow most of our own food, so we wanted to create a “food forest” on the hillside behind the house. We will fill it with fruit trees and shrubs, and other crops that we won’t have room for in our vegetable garden. Since we had a few trees removed last year, and had all the brush and smaller trees ground up, there was a lot of debris on the hillside that was just too large to break down anytime soon. We started by picking up the larger chunks for burning in a brush fire, then we raked up the smaller pieces down to clean soil so we could see anything still rooted. Anything remaining was mostly invasives, such as sumac, wild rose, and bittersweet vine. Once we had everything cleaned out, our arborist dropped off a full truckload of clean wood chips, which we thickly spread out on the hillside. As soon as the frost is completely out of there ground, we’ll start planting the fruit trees we’ve already picked up (two cherries, a peach, and a dwarf apple). The last photo (lower right below) is our lower driveway, which leads directly to where our vegetable garden will be, which is the area above the rock walls in the other photos below. Easy access!
In clearing the yard and the old foundation (which we just learned today was once a blacksmith shed), we’ve found many old bottles, an antique hand-forged auger bit and other metal bits, plus many other “shards of farm life”, as we call them. We’ll add them to the collection we’ve been keeping as an archive for the house.
When we’re not working on the house, we enjoy hiking the area trails, which there are many. In fact, we’re still exploring and discovering more all the time. We found yet another trail less than a mile from our house (literally just down the hill!) At the other end of the dirt road that passes by our house is a summer camp owned and operated by Boston University, so we think this newly discovered trail (by us) is used for orientation courses, as it has signs posted around listing coordinates, and the trail also features handy pencil sharpeners!
Spring is definitely springing here, and the yard (or what’s left of it) is coming alive with bulbs and blooms. Once the grading is finished, and we re-lay the brick walkways, we’ll add some more plants and flowers. This summer is going to bring such a dramatic change for this house, with new siding and color, landscaping, and repaired rock walls. While it’s going to look so different, it will definitely be beautiful and appropriate for a 1782 farmhouse.
Stay tuned, as there will be a lot of action here shortly! Click the subscribe button for notifications of new posts, which we’ll try to do more often. Leave us a comment if you have any questions, or just want to say hi. Until next time- God bless!
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