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This is what a money pit looks like- literally. Zoom in for the full effect!

This hole is roughly four feet deeper than the bottom of the lowest part of the back barn. The forms you see wrapped in tarps will be the footings that will hold the new foundation wall that spans the width of the barn, separates the lower level of the main barn from the lower level under the back barn (roughly 5 feet difference), and keeps the barn from sliding down the hill. This wall will be the most important piece of saving this old barn for future generations. We decided to use poured concrete due to the difficulty in getting machinery under the back barn to stack stone, cost, and no one will ever see it anyway. It will also provide structure for the most critical piece of drainage in this entire project: funneling away the underground stream that comes from the spring under our ell. 

This all began last week when John and Seth (our timber framers) dismantled the wall separating the barn basement to the lower level of the back barn. In doing so, a lot more rot and old patches were uncovered. The intent was to install temporary 6″ x 8″ beams that would carry the load of the entire center of the barn, which would allow digging across the entire width of the barn. You can see in the first image below, the immense weight these beams are carrying. We were saying prayers for the safety of the crew the entire time they were under there.

While dismantling the siding for access to install the beams, this little treasure was exposed- this is called a “scarf joint”, and is used for joining two beams longitudinally. 

Once the barn was adequately supported, Mike’s team (excavation, foundation and boulders) began digging out above the wall so that they could get the baby excavator under the barn to dig the depth for the footings. 

The new wall will sit just under the ends of the beams you see in the last image above, and after the drainage is installed and the pit is backfilled, this area from the new lower wall forward to the two (nearest) posts shown in the second from the last image above, will be leveled off. We’ll (eventually) pour a concrete pad, and this area will be our “garage” where we can jack up and work on cars, weld, grind, and anything else we can’t do on the wood plank floor in the barn upstairs. We’ll put up partition walls on both sides, build an 8-9′ sliding door for entry, and install a couple of windows on the south side (opposite the door) for natural light. The area further forward will be for storage, and we’ll leave that with a gravel floor. We’re thinking we’ll install tubing in the concrete floor should we later decide to add a small boiler for in-floor radiant heat. Our contractor thinks we’ll end up with just over 7′ of head room to the beams. 

While the foundation guys were digging underneath, the timber framers were working on the front sill and door threshold. They installed pressure-treated planks over the sill beams for protection, then the front was backfilled and the new driveway ramp was installed. Next spring they’ll re-install the granite threshold, which will give us a nice, gentle entry into the barn rather than the janky collection of planks we used to use to get the cars inside (and the MG bottomed out anyway).

After Jenny and I took out the loft floor in the first two bays (saving all the lumber possible), they also took out the janky half wall/too-small-post, and replaced it with an 8″ x 8″ hemlock post. It was fun watching it get winched up into place. 

We also worked on painting up a couple more rooms; the mudroom and parlor. The parlor was previously painted salmon pink with reproduction stencils from the second owner of the house (Moses Eaton Jr.) to match a panel left intact with his original stencils from the mid-19th century. Since we are taking the house back to the original owner/builder (Daniel and Abigail Warren), and the plaster in this room is failing, we went ahead and painted something more appropriate (“High Tea” with “Perfect Taupe” trim), but left the single panel of Moses’ original stencils. We decided on a buttercream yellow for the mudroom, with the “Perfect Taupe” trim. Keep in mind, “painting” in this old a home usually means stripping and cleaning layers of paint off of hinges and hardware, planing cabinet door edges to remove layers of paint that keep them from closing, priming just about everything, and changing out the often painted (maybe more than once) outlets and switches, along with the cover plates.

In the mudroom, we’re working on making a plank (that we found in the barn) with antique forged nails we’ll hang above the bench to use to hang coats.

We also ran back to the auction in Vermont and picked up this antique harvest table, shaker chairs, and Windsor bench. Note that the table top is a single, solid board (we think cherry). It’s crazy that no one wants this “old stuff”.

That’s it for now- it’s going to be a crazy week coming up! The contractor will be starting on Monday to replace the granite sill under the front door of the house, along with some other structural work, and install the new, antique, floorboards in the hearth room. Not sure where everyone will park, as most of the yard is filled with staging of heavy equipment, piles of various size rocks, boulders, gravel, and dirt, as well as the barn contractor’s team’s trucks and trailers, etc.

Stay tuned!

Winter has come to the farm, and is making no apparent effort to leave anytime soon. It started snowing the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and hasn’t really let up except for a day or two of rain. While it is beautiful, outside of a couple of nights right at Thanksgiving, it’s been warm, so we’ve been able to get out and play.

Since you last checked in, the front sill beam of the barn has been replaced, and the guys are working on placing the cap stones and preparing the barn to be lowered onto its new foundation. Then they can back fill and finish off the grading in front so we can bring our old cars home and tuck them in for the winter (they’re in a friend’s barn currently). You can see that the sill beam under the barn door was rotted and partially missing in the first image below;

We were able to get the new permanent propane tank installed and buried. Running on fumes and not sure when they would be able to come fill it (with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up and single-digit temps expected), we tried to conserve as much as possible, so Jenny made breakfast on the coals of the hearth. Thankfully, they were able to come out and fill it the day before Thanksgiving, so we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. The final grade will cover all of the tank and riser, but for the very top cap for service and refilling. Hopefully, we can get through most of the winter on this one tank before needing a refill.

Jenny has been fully re-embracing the Yankee lifestyle she grew up in, and has been making furniture from scraps she’s found in the barn- her latest is a dog bed for Tennessee and a side table for the sitting area upstairs.

Allie came home for the long holiday weekend, so we enjoyed having her for a few days. We spent Thanksgiving with some friends, and had a lovely day. We also spent some time snow-hiking with the pup and watching Christmas movies, and we took in our first New England antique auction. 

One of the things we’ve looked forward to is furnishing the house as Daniel and Abigail would have. As historically accurate as we can imagine anyway- resources are pretty thin in that regard. We drove over to Vermont for an auction this past Saturday that was offering the estate of a local man who started a company that had a lot of rock blasting contracts when the interstates were built in the area. He was an avid collector of many things, from Remington statues, pistol canes, geodes, and antique furniture. While there were maybe 80-100 people present, it appeared no one was there for the furniture, so bargains were to be had. We brought home a couple of pieces circa 1760- a tavern table and a four-drawer chest. Both are now in the hearth room- the tavern table will be used as a dining table, and the chest will hold linens and serving wares. While neither are in immaculate condition, or even likely with all their original parts (the drawer fronts of the chest were “pegged” where the original handles would have been), they are both with beautiful patina, and are appropriate to our home. We also picked up a lovely side table that looks to be a bit later- maybe early-to-mid 19th century, along with a later tavern table that we can have in front of the hearth, as we like to play cards in front of the fire in the evening.

That’s it for now. We hope that you all had a nice Thanksgiving holiday, and that you have a blessed Christmas season! Leave us a comment if you have any questions, or just want to say hi.

Until next time.

Fall has come and gone here in New England, but winter has yet to fully arrive, so we’ll call this “cold-Autumn”, or “Frozen-Mud-Season”. It’s been hovering within a few degrees of freezing for the past week or so, occasionally dipping a bit below at night, but nothing we can’t handle. While it dropped to 16 earlier this morning, and there’s a winter storm advisory for the next couple of days, we’ve got plenty of firewood stacked up, some food in the pantry, a deck of cards, and each other. 

There’s currently a lull in the barn work, as the foundation guys now are waiting for our timber framer to replace the sill under the front of the barn door, then they can finish up the cap stones in front, and the front of the barn can be set down on a new, secure, foundation. Then they’ll dismantle the partition wall on the lower level, and prepare to take out what’s left of the stone wall that lays across the barn, holding it from sliding down the hill. Once a new poured concrete wall is set in, the barn can be fully set on its new foundation. There will still be a lot of work needed, such as siding, interior structure, floor patching/rebuilding, and such, but these are things we can be a part of, rather than just spectators. In the photo below, you can see how they will finish the foundation wall as two-sided, so the drainage system is hidden between the two walls of boulders. Once they level it off, the drainage system will be covered with a membrane, then soil, so we can plant hostas and impatiens there. 

One of the things we’ve wrapped up recently was the rebuilding of a window sash from the upstairs bathroom. Most of the windows in the house are period, if not original, and are showing their age. We started out by just replacing a pane of glass that Jenny accidentally broke while hunting down an especially evasive housefly, but when the panes were all pulled out, we found that one of the muntin bars was missing, and the pane was just being held in by glazing putty (face-palm). Jenny, having become quite the frugal, resourceful Yankee, patched it up using an awl, toothpicks, wood glue and a chiseled-down piece of scrap wood. Good as new!

Another thing we wrapped up, well, for the winter anyway, is the rebuilding of the roof on our shed. A large tree fell on the shed several years ago, tearing holes in both sides of the roof as well as the gable end. We patched in a replacement rafter we cut from a board we pulled from our stock in the barn, tore off four rotted-through layers of old shingles/tar paper, patched the sheathing on the west side of the roof (again, using scrap boards from our stock in the barn), then nailed on new shingles. Next spring, we’ll do the same to the east side of the roof, then we can rebuild the doors, fix the windows, add some tie beams/braces, pour in some gravel to level off the floor, then we can park the MG in there (the shed is 12′ x 24′, or the size of a one-car garage.) The shed is currently holding a couple of cords of firewood. When that becomes seasoned by the time spring rolls around, we will move it into the barn.

Jenny has rekindled her love for splitting wood, as she just hasn’t had much of an opportunity outside of the occasional cabin/vacation trip until we moved out here. One day last week, while I was doing some winterization on the house, she bucked, split, and stacked an entire cord. By hand.

We’ve also been enjoying a few sunny days out on the local trails. One nearby trail we recently checked out is at Miller State Park, just on the other side of Peterborough, and just 10-11 miles from the house. Miller State Park is the oldest park in New Hampshire, and includes the peaks of Pack Monadnock and North Monadnock of the Wapack range (visible through the trees from our kitchen window). We drove the auto road to the top of Pack Monadnock for incredible views of the Boston skyline, Mount Washington and the White Mountains, as well as nearby Mount Monadnock, and the Green Mountains of Vermont. While we did do a little hiking, we had to keep Tennessee on a leash (he doesn’t normally need one, as he stays close-by) because there was a lot of porcupine activity in the area. It was a good thing, as we nearly stepped on one that was standing within inches of the trail. Otherwise, it’s a beautiful park, and I’m sure we’ll spend more time there soon.

We’ve spent some time this week clearing downed and dead trees along the old tractor path, as we wish to build a trail around the hillside to walk the dog. We also want to build a fire pit patio on the upper area of the path, as there is already a line of boulders that can be used as a windbreak. We spent quite a bit of time clearing a couple of fallen trees in this area, some dead, diseased, or broken trees, as well as thinning some that were way too crowded to let go much longer. We’ll also trim up the canopy where needed to increase sight lines and expose the rock walls down the path. The first image below is what it looked like for the most part (actually worse, but I forgot to take a “before”), the others are what it looks like cleared and thinned. The fire pit area will be in the area shown in the bottom photo.

With winter approaching, or threatening to, we’re eagerly anticipating the delivery and installation of our 500 gallon propane tank, which will be buried to the side of our barn door/driveway. We’ve been using a small temporary tank, but after last night, we were down to 5% remaining. Since we weren’t sure exactly when they would be able to deliver more, Jenny conserved propane by cooking breakfast on the coals of the hearth! The driver did show up just after breakfast to fill us up, so at least we’ll be able to stay warm until the permanent tank is installed and filled next week.

We are making daily progress on transforming this house into something we feel honors Daniel and Abigail, and for the love that they put into it when they built it and enjoyed living in it for 53 years. There are hard, muddy, tiring days, but we truly love what we’re doing, so it all seems so easy, and the time so quick. I can’t imagine spending my days any other way.

Take care, until next time. Don’t forget to leave us a comment if there is something you want to hear more about, or you have any questions. Also, don’t forget that all images, plus additional ones, can be found full-sized in the Gallery link at the top of the page.

Thanks for following along!

Since we bought this property (a year ago yesterday), everyone has told us that our barn would stand another 100 years, and not to worry. Then we had professionals actually begin the process of rebuilding the structure and restacking the foundation, and they told us, and showed us, that the barn would not likely have stood through this winter. It was failing. Actively. Water is the insidious evil here. If it’s not washing out the foundation, it’s seeping into and rotting the wood structure. It’s pushing on the delicate balance underneath with the incredible force of freezing and heaving. 

The crew has made incredible progress on the stone foundation under the barn this past week. They showed up last Thursday, expecting to work 14 days, but at the pace they’re going, they’ll finish up in 9 or 10. Which is great, as it has since been revealed that the barn needs even more foundation work that cannot wait, so they’ll also be taking out the wall below the back barn that runs across the barn (the barn kinda cantilevers on this wall), and replace it with a poured concrete wall. We decided to go with poured concrete because of the difficulty in getting machinery under that part of the barn, and because no one can see this wall anyway, we don’t need to try to keep the stone. Keep in mind that this barn was originally built on flat ground across the road, and was moved to its current location in 1858, and placed on a timber frame truss-beam and post foundation set into the bank of the hill, making it now a bank barn.

The guys (Mike, Nick, Bailey, Dave, and Kevin) began by digging a trench along the front of the ell to add drainage:

Once they got to the part of the foundation leading under the barn, we realized how fragile the foundation was, as there was a 6-8′ section of concrete block that literally crumbled as they touched it. They pulled it down with their bare hands, as it did not have re-bar or even concrete-filled support; it was just a wet, stack of hollow blocks, holding up this whole corner of this heavy old barn. Some of the boulders nearby rolled under the barn as they opened up the ground outside. They also hammered out the concrete that had been poured to fill in the barn door opening in lieu of a sill beam. The nature of concrete to sweat with temperature changes, further rotted the beams. You can see in the image below how wonky the concrete was due to frost heaving, and the extent of decay to the beams:

They begin by digging out behind the stone, clearing away any dirt and smaller rocks, revealing the boulders:

Then they install the drainage at the bottom of the trench, starting with a membrane to keep soil from infiltrating the drainage, a layer of stone, the perforated drain line, then cover with more stone. Then they pull out the boulders, lay them out in the clearing alongside the barn, and sort them by size, shape, and quality. Note they also pulled out the boulders that had collapsed under the barn:

Once they have the boulders cleared under the barn, they can begin restacking:

While the guys were working on the foundation, Jenny and I turned our attention to our little shed. A tree had come crashing through the roof of the shed many years ago, taking out both sides of the roof, much of the gable, and breaking a couple of rafters and some other structure inside. Since this shed is so old and weathered, we’d love to fix it up and have it live another life as a garage for Jenny’s MG. We began by pulling off the old layers of shingles and tar paper- four layers! Then we copied and hand-cut a new rafter to replace the one that was completely broken, sistered another, and then cut out the damaged roof sheathing, and patched it in using boards we pulled from our lumber stock in the back barn (we’re not “hoarders”, you just never know when you may need something :-)) We were able to lay down new builder’s felt (tar paper) before more rain moved in, shutting down any outside work for a couple of days.

Here is what it looks like on Google Earth (you can see the tree still sticking out):

We were able to find a place just across the border in Mass. that sells new shingles at a deep discount that are classified as “seconds”, meaning the coloration may not be perfect, but since it’s just for our shed, we’re fine with it. Once the weather clears, we’ll strip and repair the other side, then put up the new shingles and finish up the trim, drip edge and soffit. 

This past week, we also received a visit from our dear friends/family from Charlotte, Doug and Tonia. We spent a few days with them exploring the area, including climbing Mount Monadnock. It was a beautify clear day, but a bit chilly and icy at the top. The views were incredible, including the Boston skyline, Mount Washington and the White Mountains, the Green Mountains of Vermont, Mount Sunapee and Mount Kearsarge just north of us. You can also see some early 19th century chiseled graffiti. 🙂

They brought their dog, Riley, who is good buds with Tennessee, so we also spent some time on the local trails, where the dogs very much enjoyed being dogs:

It was on one of our morning walks with the dogs that Jenny found a giant Hen-of-the-Woods (mushroom) near the house. We brought it home and sautéed it up, ate some and froze the rest, so we can add it to eggs or burgers as we need. Delicious.

So you can see it’s been a busy week, but it’s been exciting to see the barn coming together, and it’s such a relief that we’re able to make sure it stands another 236 years. We’re also hoping the rain goes away for a while, as we’ve noticed that we’ve received a full 21″ of rain since we installed our weather station in mid-August.

We’ll keep plugging away here, so we hope you stay in touch, and we’ll be back soon with another update. Leave us a comment, or let us know if you have any questions.

With the upcoming visit by our friends Doug and Tonia, who will be here in a couple of hours, we’ve wrapped up the current projects, cleaned up the ell workshop, and are putting away our work gloves for a bit. It’ll feel good to take a break and do some tourist-y stuff. After four months of living here, we really haven’t done much in the way of siteseeing.

We did run over to Hampton, NH last week with the pup, as we realized he’s likely never seen the ocean. While he enjoyed spending the day with us, and the lobster roll lunch, he was uninterested in the water, but not about the other dogs on the beach.

One project we wrapped up was the stripping and refinishing of our laundry room/back mudroom door. This poor door has been on the sawhorses for at least a month, as we kept getting distracted by other projects. But it’s finished, and it’s beautiful!

Another long-awaited project was the removal of a maple trunk and debris that was cut down a long time ago, along with the removal of about 14-15 other trees in the back yard. Clearing these trees will open up a ton of sky, and bring enough light into the back yard for a pretty healthy garden. It will also (hopefully) allow some seasonal views of the Wapack range to the east/southeast. We’re really pleased with the results, and as long as the machinery was onsite, we had some boulders moved around and rock walls repaired.

Just a quick barn update… the jacking has finished up, amounting to a total of 14″ of level correction, with another one to two inches still to come in some places when it’s set back on its re-stacked foundation. Because of a jacking location, a piece of sill was replaced to give them a solid jack point. A new 8″ x 8″ hemlock beam was slid in and joined. The old sill beam was completely rotted away to roughly 2″ left. Our contractor told us that the sill would likely have failed within the next two years, and the back barn would have fallen. Zoom in on the first picture; what you see literally crumbles when you brush your hand over it. 

Here is an image illustrating the difference in the level of the barn- notice the latch in the photo below. Between the door and the jamb, there is at least an inch of movement. This is why there will need to be so much re-alignment of doors, windows, and roofing, when the barn is back on its feet.

The next step is the drainage system installation and foundation re-stacking, which I expect will start tomorrow, as some heavy machinery was dropped off today. 

Things are really (FINALLY!!) happening here, and we’re making a lot of progress towards restoring Daniel and Abigail’s home. While we’re finally getting to where we can start imagining the finished project (kidding, its never finished), and we’re excited to someday see the outcome, we don’t want to wish away the process either. This is our job, our career… and we’re here for the rest of our lives. Can’t imagine spending our retirement years any other way.

Until next time…. thanks for following along! Leave us a comment or question if you have any questions.

At long last, the day we have been waiting for has arrived- the jacking of our barn has begun! 

The first thing they did was set a laser level up in the loft to map out how out of plumb the barn truly was, as they want to get the top of the posts, and the top plate, level with one another. The roughly 12-14 outside points that need to be level were off by 14″ overall. Once they had a map of where they wanted to take the barn, they began setting small bases of timbers underneath, topped with a post. They would use these to actually jack each point. They also set up “cribs” (stacks of beams- imagine a ginormous Jenga game) so that the barn could “rest” on these points, and to catch the barn in the event a beam gave way during the process. Here are some photos illustrating the process, as well as a video of a granite sill block being dropped out….

Using large hydraulic jacks at several locations, depending on the section being jacked, they would slowly raise the barn off its foundation, leveling as they go along. The back bay of the barn had roughly a 9″ drop over a 10′ span, but they were able to take out the slope, and the floor of the barn is now, for the most part, more level than it’s been in a century or so. It was a bit unsettling working in the barn during this days-long process (we’re doing a LOT of cleaning) as the barn was snapping and booming as it was being leveled. We can already tell some doors will need to be reset, some metal roof panels will need to be taken off and relaid, and some floorboards will need to be taken up and un-gapped, as the barn as a whole needs to be set to its new level stance. 

Next up is the foundation/drainage guy, who is supposed to begin on Wednesday, so we’re pretty excited to get that underway. The ferns you see in the images above will be taken out, along with that soil embankment, and when the stone is restacked, it will be left exposed. This is mostly due to the new drainage system, but it will also alleviate the pressures of the soil heaving into the foundation in the winter.

While all of this was going on, Jenny and I were cleaning out the barn. We are removing the hay loft on the north side of the barn (to the left when you’re standing in the doorway looking inside). In the images below, the first three bays will be completely open, outside of the vertical posts at each bent. All of the horizontal structure will be removed once the barn is back on its feet. This will make the barn much more open, allow us to utilize that wall to highlight the barn’s structure, and to display all the artifacts that have been found around the property. We have more than enough space in the ell and barn, so the loft space won’t be missed. We also spent some time cleaning and organizing the workbench room. Yes, we have a cow skull on our workbench, but we’re not sure why.

By the way, the area behind the flag in the image above, where the storage shelf is currently residing, will become a “porch” of sorts. The back wall is above the back barn shed roof, so when opened up, and windows/screens added, will provide an incredible view, hopefully of the Wapack range to the southeast. After the barn is back on its new foundation, and we take care of some internal structural work, we will rework the current windows, and add some new ones, before wrapping the barn in new plank siding. This will be a lovely place to sit and watch the sunrise as well.

Jenny spent hours in the lower shed addition this week (the “back barn”) removing all the old animal pens, which were mostly made up of pallets and scrap boards, and scooping out yards and yards of bedding material (wood shavings) soaked in animal urine and other “organic matter”. In doing so, it really showed us how much work will be needed in the back barn flooring. The floors are full of loose or “spongy” patch boards, trap doors that are no longer being held together by anything, and most of what is left is very worn down by many hooves walking on it over the centuries. 

The lower back barn, once cleaned and fixed up, will become our garden shed, as it has direct outside access to the back yard where our garden will be. The upper level of the back barn will be, and is currently, our woodshop. It’s where we have our table saw, miter saw, etc. We also have a large supply of boards that we can use for patching, rebuilding, or creating something new.

So you can see it’s been pretty busy here on the farm, and will continue to be a little crazy for a couple more weeks. Stay tuned for the “after” story!

Ever since we first saw this house, and heard the story of Daniel and Abigail (who originally built it), we’ve felt a strong connection to them. Daniel was a patriot. They were young and in love, getting married just days before he went off to fight in The Revolution, and they remained married for 53 years while raising 7 children. They lived a hard life by today’s standard, but we surmise it was a quality life. They knew how, and had to DO things… with their hands. They knew how to take care of themselves, their family, and their neighbors. They built a barn, a house, a farm, a home, a life… in an unforgiving landscape. I cannot imagine farming in this soil- there are literally boulders and rocks everywhere. You cannot stick a shovel in the ground without it hitting something solid. Their answer was to take the rocks from the ground and turn them into something useful- stacking up them into walls to pen the animals, keep critters out of the fields, and any other reason one would build a fence. They were resourceful in ways we can’t relate to today. They just dealt with things, and figured it out.

Daniel (Jr.) was born in Westborough, MA in June of 1752, to Daniel and Martha (Coolidge). We took the 90 minute drive down to Westborough last week (it’s just west of Boston), enjoying the fall colors, and the many small, historical towns along the way. (There are few interstates around here, so it’s pretty much all back roads and two-lane highways to get anywhere). We went with the intention of solidifying the data we have so far, hoping to see Daniel’s boyhood home. The holy grail would be to find a portrait, a direct descendent, or his signature on a document. We started off at the town hall, where we found his birth record, his marriage record to Abigail, and some other tidbits. All records at that time were recorded by the town clerk, so we were unable to find a signature on this trip. We also found that Daniel’s surname was spelled Warrin until his father changed it to Warren in roughly 1726. His great-grandfather, Captain John Warrin, came from Suffolk, England, as an 8 year old boy in 1630, just ten years after the Mayflower, so Daniel Jr was a fifth-generation colonist. You can see in Daniel’s “Intention of Marriage” record (“int.” in the middle image below), his name is still spelled Warrin. We’re not sure if this was his spelling, or an error on the clerk’s part. We also found his father’s death record. The bottom image is the actual town record of Daniel and Abigail’s marriage, written in quill pen. Note that the spelling of “Westborough” is sometimes “Westboro”.

We also spent time in the tax assessors office trying to find what property would have been owned by Daniel’s parents at the time of his birth. We found a house in town that was built by a Jonah Warren, and it was located on Warren Street. We knocked on the door, and received a gracious tour of the house (c1720) by the homeowner. However, the research done by the previous owners of that home led them to the belief that this was the last Warren home still standing in Westborough. We hope this is a bit of oral history that turns out to be false, and we can still locate Daniel’s boyhood home. 

Now that it’s getting dark by 6-6:30, we’re spending a fair bit of time in the evenings reading by one of the hearths… mostly books by Eric Sloane. Eric lived in the early part of the twentieth century (he passed away in 1985 at the age of 80), and he was known as a painter and weather geek. He bought an old farmstead with the intention of salvaging weathered barn wood to make frames for his paintings (he created over 15,000 paintings in his lifetime), but after finding a diary from a young boy from 1805, he began voraciously researching early American life, the tools, how they lived, how they created the things they used…. then he wrote many books about his findings. We read these books over and over again, slowly savoring them. I guess it brings us a bit closer to Daniel and Abigail, and we imagine them using the tools that Eric describes to build this house. Sometimes we imagine the sounds of Daniel planing the planks he used to put up the walls and paneling around the hearth. Or Abigail rocking in her chair nearby, stitching up a repair to some clothes, soothing a fussy infant, or just reading the Bible. If you have any interest in early American life, woodworking, or history, we highly recommend that you check out one of his books. 

While I have always been interested in history, living here has certainly fanned the flames of that passion. We are literally surrounded by Early American history. Unfortunately, for every person with a passion for preserving it, there are just as many who don’t share that appreciation. There are antique houses that are lovingly kept, some that are wrapped in tarps, just barely keeping the rain out, and some that have been left to just return to the earth. We want to preserve the historical integrity of ours, and continue to tell the Warrens’ story of hand-crafted workmanship and beautiful functionality. We dream of someday driving up to our home and seeing the “finished” product of our labor of love. Within the next month or so, we should (hopefully) have the barn foundation rebuilt, its floors leveled, and a major drainage system installed which will alleviate the water issues that destroyed it all in the first place. We still have a lot of projects on the list. It will take a few years, but that’s what we signed up for, and we have set no timetable, other than the rest of our lives.

People have asked what it’s really (REALLY) like to live in such an old home. Well…. toss out any inclinations of OCD- it’ll drive you nuts. Nothing is plumb, or true, or straight. When hanging a picture, you can have it true to the ceiling, to the walls, to a nearby doorjamb, or just to your eye, but not any two of those. The interior walls are typically paneling, which is basically a way of saying a slice of tree. Since nothing was wasted, they would not have cut off the taper to make a board with parallel sides, they would just alternate the boards wide end up, then wide end down, and so on. If the wall were long enough, and the wider ends varied enough that the boards get wonky after a while, they would cut one in half and start over. Doors were cut, or added onto, as the house would settle and shift. Hinges possibly moved, or shims added. Jambs were altered to allow the doorknob to re-engage the jamb, holding the door closed. There are squeaky, uneven floorboards, with gaps, so while there are thin boards under the actual floorboards (called “dusters”) to try to seal the room from the floor below, the gaps that naturally occur with solid-wood plank floors allow dust to be trapped, and released when the gaps re-open.

There are mice, spiders, flies, and other various insect life. We have a cat- Toby, who at the ripe age of 17, blind in one eye, and being a city cat his entire life, has let his instinct kick in and is handling the mouse population should they dare enter the house. Tennessee, while a vicious rodent-killing-machine outside, typically looks at a mouse inside with curiosity, like he’s trying to figure out why we would have let them inside, because, that’s how HE gets in the house. We’ve found our standards of what we deem a clean living environment, are forever altered. This is not to say we live in a dirty home, it’s just a different clean; it may not stay clean as long as we’re used to. You have to let some things go, or you will drive yourself batty. 

Back to the farm, we’re working on a bunch of little projects to clean up the landscape, and to get ready for winter. We had our excavator guy come by with his skid steer to pop out the boulders that we couldn’t handle by hand in the front walkway. While he had the machine off the trailer, we had him dump in a few cubic yards of stone dust base. We’ll spread it out and compact it, then wait until after the front stoop gets pulled away next month to replace the piece of granite sill under the front door, then we can do a final level and lay down the tumbled concrete cobbles. Note that there was one nugget in the walkway that was too large for the machine to remove, so we’ll just work the walkway around it. You have to have a little flexibility around here.

We also spent a little time clearing some underbrush and old maple tap lines below the hill behind the barn. Eventually, we want to create a trail or clearing around the perimeter of the property in which we can walk the pup. This gives you an idea of the rocks around here…

We’re still enjoying the many trails nearby, and hiking in relatively bug-free weather. The colors are starting to pop, even though it’s been cloudy more often than not, lately. With the amount of physical labor that we’re putting in (FarmFit!), we’re finding we’re both getting back in shape. We feel good, we sleep well, and we eat like teenagers. Ice cream has become a regular part of our diet (Ava Marie’s in Peterborough is one of our faves!). We do get sore on big days, but for the most part, we feel great.

More words than pictures for this post, but we promise that there is lots more to come. That’s it for now, it’s time to get busy. We try to post once a week or so, so check back often, or click the subscribe button. Thanks again for following along, and as always, leave us a comment if you have any questions. 

Trying to determine the history of an antique home is a bit like the telephone game you played as children- oral history can vary widely from source to source, and can vary again over time. Where you end up usually doesn’t resemble anything like where you started.

We’ve been trying to verify the age of the barn, as well as when it was moved to its current location, as some observations and details within the barn differ from the oral history. We’ve already pretty much confirmed that the barn is much older than the build date of 1840 that we were originally told. We’ve also noted that the barn used to be a drive-through English-style barn, and was not built as a bank barn, as it is currently oriented. We have since confirmed that the barn pre-dates 1803, and likely predates the house by a year or two. We did find two newspaper articles from 1982 and 1995 that both note the date that the barn was moved from across the road to its current site in 1858, not the 1916 noted by the oral history, or in the Federal Historic Registry application (1983). The actual move date coincides with the day that the daughter of the owner at the time, passed away from Tuberculosis- June 7, 1858. Regardless of the date it was moved, the fact that it was moved from a flat field where it was a drive-through English barn (doors on the two opposing longer sides) and made into a bank barn with the door moved to the gable end (shorter side) answers a lot of structural questions.

We spent some time at the Dublin town archives this past week (the house used to be in Dublin before Harrisville was formed in 1870), and using the 1796 tax records, we were able to finally piece together the size of the original homestead. It appears that it was originally roughly 176 acres, and was spread much further south than we had thought. I’ve highlighted the original homestead on this copy of Fisk’s map from the mid-nineteenth century (updated in 1907);

The current property is the small area noted by my penciled hashmarks in the northeast corner of the intersection, in the middle of the highlighted area, and is now roughly 2.3 acres. The house is noted by the dark dot. Interesting thing to note is the house which is at the bottom of the highlighted area, noted as “2”, is still there today. This house was noted in the 1850’s book “The History of Dublin” by Rev. Levi Leonard as being occupied by John and Margaret Gilchrest, and is now on the Federal Historic Registry as the “Gilchrest Homestead” c1817. We’re not sure if the Gilchrest’s leased the land from the Warrens, or if they rented the house, but it is no longer part of the original property. The land is still shown as being owned by the Warrens in the 1826 property tax map, so we’re not sure when it was sold. In addition, a large portion of the original homestead land was “eminent-domained” over to the Corps of Engineers for the Edward MacDowell Flood Risk Management project in 1948- the dam and reservoir are just southeast of our house, and now control the water levels in the Contoocook and Merrimack rivers. The rest has been parceled off over the years by the subsequent residents, and is now under ownership by roughly a dozen different owners. A mere 2.3 acres remains with the original home.

The lower portion of the triangular intersection across from our house is no longer used, but you can still see the rock walls that used to delineate the road (Lower Road), and is where we often walk the pup. It’s a beautiful area along the Nubanusit River, and contains many rock walls, remains of an old storage shed, and a very large downed tree- one of the largest we’ve seen in the area;

We’re still trying to (hopefully) get more information about Daniel and Abigail, and possibly some links to nearby descendents soon. We’re waiting for a rainy day or two, then we’ll head down to Westborough and Waltham, MA where Daniel was born, and where he enlisted, respectively. Our ultimate dream would be to find a portrait. 

Aside from all this detective work, we’re taking advantage of the lower bug populations (thanks to a couple of nights in the low 40’s/upper 30’s) and enjoying some hiking. There are so many trail options just within a few miles of the house, and they’re all beautiful- lakes, rivers, mountains, forests….

We’re also wrapping up some landscaping projects before winter sets in- mainly, adding a front walkway. We’ve dug out (yes, by hand) roughly an 8-10″ deep mix of beautiful soil: clay perfect for making pottery, crumbly loam, and yes, lots of roots and rocks. There are a few “nuggets” that are too large for us to remove, so the next time our excavator guy is here, he’ll pluck them out for us. Once cleared, we can put down a minimum bed of 6″ of stone dust, then top off with tumbled pavers. We’re not in any hurry, as the granite front stoop will be pulled out in about a month or so to allow a new granite sill to be placed under the front door, as the original was pulled out at some point and replaced by (deteriorating) brick and concrete. That very well may have been the original sill that we just dug out of the back yard and drug around to the front to be placed in the walkway.

While we’re working harder than we’ve ever worked, physically, we’re having the time of our lives. We like to say it’s not Crossfit, it’s Farmfit. 

This was a bit of a rambling post, but we’ve recently discovered so much about the history of the house that we just wanted to get it recorded. We’ll let you know what we find out when we head down to MA to visit the towns that Daniel and Abigail were born in, lived, married, and enlisted. At some point, we’ll also head to Boston to visit the Bunker Hill Battlefield Historic Park to see if they have anything concrete there regarding Daniel or his infantry unit.

Thanks for following along on our adventure. Please leave us a comment if you have any questions, or would like more information about anything we’ve talked about.

There is a crispness in the air, the colors are starting to change, and the mice are trying to get in out of the cold…. ahh, farm life. 

We are trying to wrap up our outside projects for the season. We’ve leveled the grade, cleaned up any remaining roots and rocks that are near the surface, and spread grass seed on most of the side yard, and around to the front. We’re also finishing up the driveway circle, and the side of the house. We’ve been placing the nuggets (small boulders) we find around the wildflowers at the front of the house to make the bed look more intentional. We love the cycle of blooms in this bed, and would like to spread them to the other side of the walk eventually.

We’ve worked our way around to the front walk area, and have been hard at work removing roots, nuggets, and preparing the base for pavers. This area doesn’t look like it has had any formal walkway, at least in modern history, but we want to add one, and begin using the original front door again. Once finished, we’ll move the mail box next to the walk, and mount it on a granite post. While we originally thought about using granite cobbles, we’ve been told they tend to get pretty slippery with the frost and dew, so we’re leaning towards a tumbled concrete paver (3.5″ x 7″ x 1.75″ thick). While digging out the walkway, we did uncover a large nugget that we’d love to incorporate into the walk, so we’re working the grade and slope based from there. You can see it in the photo below just beyond the nearest stake on the left side of the walk.

We thought long and hard about how to end the walk at the street, as with a dirt road, the plow will just rip up bricks or pavers. Then we remembered seeing a piece of granite sill buried in the yard near the back deck, so we dug it out, and dragged it around the corner so we can use it for a sort of threshold at the end of the walkway. The block easily weighs 300+ pounds, but we used an old solid axle we found in the yard by the shed as a pry bar, a piece of tin for a sled, and wrapped some straps around the block and moved it where we wanted it for now. Daniel and Abigail would be so proud…

Jenny channeled her inner pioneer woman and hand-dug out the stump from the “dinosaur plant” that used to sit by the main entry at the side of the ell. Eventually, we will turn this area between the house and walkway into a small patio area/herb garden.

We finally fired up the chainsaw and bucked (cut to length) the giant pile of timber that’s been laying in front of the shed since the new septic was installed last year. At some point, we’ll rent a log splitter, and split it up for firepit wood. There’s also a pretty good sized pile of apple wood, which should be amazing in the hearth while cooking up a pot of pork stew, eh? We also braced up the shed to (hopefully) enable it to stay intact until we can rebuild it next year. We really want to save that little old shed, and make it useful once again.

We recently primed and repainted the hearth room walls an “Olive Suede”, with the trim and paneling “Perfect Taupe”. We love the new look in this room, and love how it makes the artwork and mural “pop”. Here are the before, during, and afters….

We’ve been working on stripping some doors during rainy days, and have finished the bathroom door-

We’re currently working on the door to the back laundry/mudroom area. We’re hoping we can get them all stripped of all paint and stain, then we’ll use the same “Gunstock” stain and oil finish we used for the bathroom door, but most of the wood in the house was long ago coated with a linseed oil/beeswax/iodine stain (which you can see in the upper right image above), which seems impervious to anything. If we encounter any more of that, I think we’ll just prime and paint. At least it’ll only be two coats rather than the current 6-10 coats on most everything. We’re also cleaning the antique hardware and hinges, and coating the iron with machine oil to keep them from rusting. Much of the hardware for these doors is early 19th century, if not older. Some hinges are nailed, and some are held in place by lathe-cut screws. The screws are non-tapered with cut slots on the head as if they were cut on a lathe (likely water-powered), and the hinges are cast iron hidden pin butt hinges. We’re learning so much about the history of not only the people, but the way they lived, and the way things were made and used.

We spent a day cleaning all the lumber from the loft in the barn in preparation for the jacking and stone foundation’s rebuild. This side of the barn loft, which once held hay, will be dismantled so we can have one side completely open to the center (with the exception of the posts). One of these bays (the one to the right in the “before” photo below) was where the original doors would have been when the barn was across the road. English barns were drive-through, so the doors would have been on each side, so you could drive your horses and hay wagon in one side and out the other once unloaded. Once the barn was moved to it’s current location, the door was moved to one gable end. We hope to somehow feature this structure accordingly.

It hasn’t been all work however, as we do try to occasionally take some time off to explore our new home in New England. On a warm, sunny day last week we put the top down on the MG and drove over to Brattleboro, Vermont for lunch at a little BBQ joint, picking up some Vermont maple syrup on the way. (Self serve; cash box and syrup on the side of the road.) Another day we ran up to Walpole, NH, which is a beautiful little town nestled in the Connecticut River valley, picked some apples at a lovely little orchard that featured dozens of heirloom varieties (Old Ciderpress Farm), then had dinner at The Hungry Diner- YUM!!!

So yeah, we’ve been pretty busy. In fact, we’re always busy, whether we’re working on the house or land, or if we’re just busy sitting by the fire thinking about stuff. It’s more physically demanding work than we’ve ever experienced in our lives, but we love this place. We feel so blessed to be able to spend the rest of our lives taking care of and loving on this house. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what’s been happening at the farm!

As you may know from our recent posts, we’re beginning the process of saving our barn. From what, how, and why? Read on, my friends…

When we first looked at this property, we fell in love with the barn. It was full of massive, hand-hewn timbers, old worn boards where countless animals had walked, chewed, leaned, and well, did other things that farm animals do… Oral history of the property stated that the barn was built in 1840, and was dismantled and moved from across the road to its current location behind the house in 1916. After experiencing some rain here, we observed the way water naturally wants to run down the hill between the house and the barn, right where the ell was built when the barn was moved over. When the ell was rebuilt back in the mid-2000’s (after nearly collapsing from, you guessed it, water running under it), it received a new foundation, which then redirected the water down under the barn, first through cracks and between boulders/stones that make up the perimeter foundation, then over time, washing out larger and larger crevices through which it can run down the hill. There were also freeze/thaw cycles that would create heaves of more than 20 inches each season, caused by water in the soil behind the boulders freezing and expanding. This heaving has been getting worse and worse, causing gaps to expand to a point where the boulders fall in, onto the dirt floor. Plus each time the barn would ride up and down with the frost, it did not necessarily fall back into the same place from which it heaved. There were also issues with the foundation under the back barn heaving even further due to two centuries of animals doing their thing, and it piling up under the barn. We just had about 25-30 cubic yards of “organic matter” dug out from under the back barn, just so crushed stone could be laid down to provide a solid footing for the jacking process. When the muck was being dug out, it became apparent how the structure was wonky when one of the posts fell out because it was bearing no weight, but it’s adjoining post was actually “crushed” into the beam due to so much weight. Photos below show the damage of water and heaving:

We knew the footings under the barn proper were failing when we bought the property, so one of the first things we did was to have 12 new footings installed under the center part of the barn. Here are 6 of them:

We had drain tile installed around the perimeter under the barn, draining out down the hill behind the barn: 

We also had gutters installed everywhere they could be hung. I’m sure this got us to where we are today, because without them (and the new roof), we would likely be looking at a salvage operation rather than a renovation. People have been saying, “oh, that barn will stand another 100 years!” But the 100 years have passed now, with the chronic issues still unaddressed, and now it’s truly urgent. Keep in mind that if it does fall down, we still have to spend $30 – $40K just to have somebody dismantle what’s left and haul it away. That work would be far more unstable and dangerous, as well. There’s literally no backing out now.

There was also water damage from a roof that leaked for decades. This caused some rot in the gunstock joints at which all the principle structural members meet. All of the parts that make up this joint (up to seven!) are hand-scribed and cut by hand to fit perfectly, and must fit together so tightly so that when the weight of the structure and the load placed on it carries to the joint, it actually tightens up and makes it even stronger. This is a gunstock post:

There were many repairs made to the frame over the years, a lot of sistering (adding a board alongside a failing board to provide structure without removing the weakened board), braces and steel rod-and-turnbuckles were added, plus other structural supports, but the main cause of all the damage was never fully addressed- water. Due to this movement and structural weakening, we’re seeing more and more issues, such as studs snapping in the back barn (a twelve foot deep by full width addition built onto the back of the barn in the early-20th century). There are also rotted and broken joists in the loft of the barn- the photo in the lower right below shows a broken loft joist above the tack room. But, it’s being “held up” by a scrap of lumber, lol.

One of the other issues concerns the bumps in the roof, caused by the timber frame itself sliding off the top plate. 

If you look at the photo below, you can see the main rafter section, which is called a “bent”. A bent is made up of posts on the outside, left and right, that start at the sill plate on the ground, and end at the gunstock, or outward flare, on top. Then with the inside posts, left and right, are joined together by a horizontal beam, or “tie beam” that runs side-to-side. Above the tie beam are two braces that run up from just inside the inner posts to the rafters (the beams that the roof is attached to)- these braces are “queen posts”. All these parts, along with a few minor braces and posts, make up a bent. Once the bents are assembled and lifted into place, they’re tied together by horizontal beams called “girts”, and at the gunstock by a “top plate”, which delineates the top of the wall, and is the main front-to-back horizontal beam that the rafters are attached to. Our top plates are full length beams that are 46 feet long! Those trees likely began growing over 400 years ago!

Due to rot from water leaks, and the heaving and sagging of the foundation, has caused a couple of the rafters to have slid off the tie beams, causing the bumps in the roof. One being the second bent in on the photo above- the cable is holding the tie beam, but nothing is holding the rafter back from outward movement. The last bay at the back of the barn has also settled a full foot, so as you walk from the third bay to the fourth to go to the back barn, you’ve dropped about a foot in roughly 10 feet. The photo below is from the back barn looking towards the front. Not sure if you can see the “drop”:

Now that you understand the issues, why don’t we just pull it down and build a new one, or rebuild this one you ask? Good question! Having three independent representatives from the Timber Framer’s Guild here to look at our barn, we’ve been told just how special it is. Because of the construction methods used, the barn is no later than 1803, and likely predates the house by a year or two (1780-1781). It is technically a scribe-ruled English barn with gunstock posts and Dutch-style tie beams (they taper outwardly from the center). Outside of the issues described above, it is in “good” shape, and should be saved. We feel we have a responsibility to make sure we do what we can to preserve it for the next stewards of this property, just as we are for the house. 

Starting in a few days, the barn will be lifted from its foundation and placed on stacks of beams called “cribs”, then the old boulder foundation will be taken out, drainage will be dug around the front of the ell, continuing down the side of the barn down the hill, then a new foundation stacked using the existing boulders, along with other boulders laying around our property as needed. Then the barn will get lowered onto its new foundation, leveling each bay as it goes down, so that the barn will be level, the foundation secure and dry, and the barn ready to stand another 236+ years. Once level and secure, we’ll focus on cleaning out the loft space, repairing what we can structurally, and making it weather-tight. Then in a couple of years, we can have some of the structure repaired and strengthened, install a new floor and siding, then enjoy it!

This place really speaks to us, and we feel very fortunate to be able to experience this place everyday for as long as we are able. We truly love this place. We feel like Daniel and Abigail are watching over our shoulders, hopefully approving of what we’re doing, likely awed at the power tools we have at our disposal, and are likely amused by our trying so hard to understand something that was so elementary to them.

Thanks for coming along on our adventure! We hope that this explains what we’re doing with the barn, and why it’s so important to get wrapped up before winter, and another freeze/thaw cycle.

Stay tuned!

We’ve had some long, hard days here on the farm. We’re taking on a couple of projects that would have been easier to just call a contractor to take care of, but we’re here to live a simple, self-reliant lifestyle, so we’ll take care of them ourselves. While it means long, hard, exhausting days, it comes with a great deal of satisfaction when we can look behind us to see what we’ve accomplished.

One such project is the final grading of our yard. When the excavator was here almost two weeks ago to dig out all the stumps that punctuated our yard (eight dump truck loads to be exact), not only was there a lot of there was a lot of damage from digging out the stumps, but also from driving a 25 ton excavator around the property. After digging everything out, he was able to shake off enough dirt from the stumps to even out the yard to some degree, and after packing with the excavator, and running a power rake around on a small track-drive skid steer, the yard was mostly leveled out with little settling. That said, before seeding with new grass, there was still need for the yard to be raked over by hand to take out any roots and rocks that were near the surface, and put a final finished grade around to eliminate any unevenness. We spent three full sunup-to-sundown days working on the front side (which is actually the side of our house), which included the inside of our circular drive. This area had been full of overgrown lilacs, forsythia, mountain ash, and vinca vine, and also included some hemlocks and a couple of huge old maple stumps. While we don’t have a lot of traffic on the road alongside our house, the plantings made it difficult to see if there were any cars or trucks approaching. We also wanted to expose the boulders that were there, and then add back in some plantings to accentuate the rocks, which will then eventually grow into a smaller-scale screen to block some of the road without impeding visibility when pulling out of the drive. After clearing the remaining rocks and roots, smoothing the final grade, and adding back in some plants that we relocated from other areas (lillies, irises, vinca vine, and some bulbs we found), we also planted some rhododendrons, and a crabapple tree we’ve been carrying around since our last house in Medina. There was a beautiful crab in our front yard back on Pin Oak Road. Jenny took a new little baby tree that had sprouted from a seed, stuck it in a pot, and we’ve been caring for it ever since, with the intent of planting it here. We’re not sure what it will be, as you never know what you’ll get from a grafted (not the actual) tree, but it appears to be some kind of crabapple. Hopefully it can live in this zone. 

While digging around, we also found many little treasures, such as a few horseshoes, a handful of old forged nails, spikes, a wood dog, the head of an old hammer, garden trowel, silverware, shards of pottery and glass, and some old bottles. We still need to have our tree guy drop us a load of wood chip mulch, then we can seed grass around the bed, and come spring, we’ll have a beautiful little side yard. Here’s what it looked like before vs. what it looks like now:

We also smoothed the grade and prepped for seeding over in front of the old shed (to the left in the large photo above), as well as began the final grading going around to the front of the house. We’re in a few days of hot weather here, so when it cools down later this week, we’ll get back out there. 

Another large project we’ve wrapped up (for the most part) is our main bathroom. We were going to completely remodel this room, taking out the tub to add a tiled walk-in shower, but with the rapidly deteriorating condition of our barn, we’ve had to hold off on a major remodel for now. All those funds are now going toward saving the barn and shoring up urgent structural needs; any interior/cosmetic work will be up to us. Our intent was to just repaint the bathroom, but things tend to snowball here, especially when you touch the paint brush to the window sill and it break off and falls into the yard, due to rot. We ended up taking out the window completely (see photos in the previous post), milled ourselves a new sill, reglazed the old sashes, and built new exterior trim. We stripped the paint from the wall behind the vanity, exposing the original planks, demo’d the partition around the tub and toilet, and used some of the old bead board to trim out the tub. Another thing that snowballed a bit was installing a new bath fan, as the old one just didn’t seem to move much air anymore. While the fan was small and old, it was more likely the wasp nest we found completely blocking the old ductwork (Jenny had long-since “encouraged” the wasps with Raid to search out a new home). The new fan box was quite a bit larger than the old, so some modifications of the ceiling were in order. In a house this old, you’re never certain what you’re going to find when you open something up, and the ceiling in our bathroom was no exception; layers of sheet rock, plaster, lath, and insulation. This quickly snowballed into an all-day job, and created quite a mess in our freshly painted bathroom. We are, however, very pleased with the results of our “refreshment” of our bathroom, and in a few years, we’ll eventually change out the tub for a tiled shower. We ordered some towel bars, so when they get delivered, that will wrap up the renovation for now. Here are some before, during, and afters:

We’ve also started chipping up the maple that was recently taken down in our back yard. We’re chipping up the smaller branches and leaves to use as a base for our deep mulch garden, then the rest we’ll cut up for firewood. As we take out more of the trees in back, the view of the pasture below, and the hillside beyond, is beginning to reveal itself, and our garden will be able to enjoy full sunlight all summer long. We’ve learned that trees are not hard to grow here, and while we still have plenty on our property, if we wished, we could let this area return to being a forest very quickly. After we clear this area down the hill, it will get planted with fruit trees, various berry bushes, and other crops, and will be our “food forest”.

Since our last post, we also brought Allie over to Durham and moved her into her dorm. It wasn’t as traumatic an experience as you often hear about, but we’re only an hour-and-a-half away, and we text daily. Allie was ready to begin this next chapter, and we had all long prepared for the day, so it went off without a hitch. She found her roommate through a group chat after she committed, they both requested each other when applying for housing, and so far, they get along great. She’s since had her first week of classes, and is enjoying her new life. We did have to run over a few things that she needed during the first week, but not from lack of preparation, but from necessity due to extraordinary temperatures there (highs in the 90’s and no AC). It was so hot the first week that many classes were cancelled, and many students were suffering. We brought over a redneck air conditioner (a bucket with holes drilled in the sides and a small fan on the top, into which she can place frozen water bottles, and the fan blows the cooled air out the holes into the room – thanks YouTube!), and a few other things to help out with the heat. We’re supposed to have a couple more hot days in the upper 80’s, but then things will get back into the lower 70’s for highs. Allie’s still excited about her chosen major (nutrition), enjoying her classes, and has been finding UNH to be a perfect fit. One of the things UNH excels at is their dining program, as most everything is grown right on the campus by the Ag program, and most everything else is sourced from the campus itself, or through the local area. There are many healthy options available, so it’s been easy for Allie to practice what she’s learning in her nutrition classes. She’s made friends with a bunch of active girls that are much like her, so they’ve been going to a lot of the classes at the rec center, such as Zumba, Cardio Kick Boxing, and others, or just swimming at the pool.

After we finish up a couple of smaller projects we’re working on, such as making a bench for our mudroom, as well as a kitchen table, we’re going to clean up and put away our tools for a bit. We’re going to take a well-deserved break to explore the area, enjoy the oncoming fall weather, and to get our old cars out on the road before winter. Hope you’re all well, and thanks again for following along!

There is so much going on at the farm, we’re not sure we can fit it into one post, but here goes…

  We’ve been busy working on building ourselves a little kitchen table, and a bench for the mudroom, both from boards we pulled from our stock in the barn. While we do have some power tools, and quite a few hand tools, we’re lacking in the area of cabinetry/furniture making tools, but Jenny was able to borrow some pipe clamps from one of the ladies with whom she swims in the mornings (whose husband is a carpenter), so we could glue up our table top. We began by washing down the boards (see below), running them through the table saw to even up the edges and make them square, cut biscuit slots in the edges, then joined them together. After curing, we used a hand planer to take off any edges sticking up board-to-board, then sanded and applied a satin urethane. There are few things in life more satifying than the feel of hand planing boards- feeling the blade cut into the grain, and peeling up a layer so thin you can nearly see through it. Most of the paneling in our home still shows the marks from Daniel’s planer back when he built this home 236 years ago. We just have to add skirts and attach the legs to both the table and the bench, but we got distracted by getting the kitchen chimney ready to be re-tuckpointed, lined, and capped. 

  This chimney, which used to be the summer kitchen fireplace, is in the wall between our kitchen and laundry room, and we will be using it for an exhaust fan over our stove. We just have to wire up an outlet and install a fan/hood. The chimney, being wide open all these years, has allowed rain to drop in and run down to the beam below the kitchen floor, so we now have to shore up that beam, and add a couple of lally columns down below to support the wall and chimney. 

  Our mason came Friday morning to re-tuckpoint the top three courses of brick, which had come loose. After he had finished up, we had him cover the top of the chimney with plastic as we were expecting rain Friday afternoon/evening, and it was a good thing, because, it RAINED!

  The rain started around 1PM, and came down hard for a couple of hours, then let up. Jenny and Allie had given me a weather station for my birthday, which I set up on the back deck to calibrate once the storm had let up. When the rain started again around 7PM, the weather station was indicating that it was coming down at rates of up to 5.5″ per hour. We could hear the rain coming down the chimney (which we found out was due to holes in the plastic put up by the mason), and we also discovered that the outlet pipe for our sump pump in the basement was broken and taped together, so every time the pump would discharge, it was spraying back onto the dirt basement floor. We put a bucket under the leak, and we set our alarm for every hour to empty the bucket. We did lose power for a while, so the water was just building up in the basement. Our basement is only under a small portion of the house, and the walls are just stone boulders, so with the ground so saturated from all the rain we’ve had, it’s just running through the walls and pooling on the floor. We then heard Allie screaming frantically that there was water coming through her ceiling, which we found out later was from a missing shingle on the roof. So between cleaning up Allie’s room, the sump pipe, the chimney, and everything else, it was a very long, stressful night. We later heard our area had received about 9″ of rain in 12 hours. This was on top of very saturated ground because of weeks of nearly daily rain. When morning broke, we began to see how lucky we were, as we tried to get to the town dump (we do not have trash service out here), all the roads were washed out, people’s driveways had been destroyed, and we heard of many people with water in their basements, including an antique house up the road from us with three FEET of water in the cellar. We feel fortunate that we didn’t sustain more damage than we did. We’re so thankful we had the gutters installed last fall, and have been working hard to address any water issues around the house and barn. Here are some images of the storm damage….

  The next morning, after finally making it to the dump, we ran to Home Depot for repair supplies. When we got back home, we fixed the sump outlet, and we covered the missing shingle area with plastic (so we can let the roof dry out before installing a new shingle). We also covered the chimney with a tarp in case of any more rain before the mason returned on Monday to finish installing the cap.

  We finished painting the hearth room, with the exception of the paneled hearth wall. At some point (likely this winter), we want to pull the paneling off the hearth wall, strip the paint, and apply a glossy urathane to both preserve the wood, and reveal the marks from where the boards were hand-planed by Daniel. Once our contractor finishes repairing the structure under the floor, and we lay down new (salvaged) antique floor planks, we’ll finish the room with a couple of cozy wing-back recliners in front of the hearth, and a small drop-leaf dining table and chairs on the far side. The trim is the same taupe as we’ve used in most of the house, and the walls a soft green, but we may repaint in a darker, olive-y green. At some point, we also intend on pulling down the ceiling to reveal the beams that we’re reasonably certain are there. 

  With more resources than we had planned for now going to save the barn, we made the difficult decision to hold off on a full bathroom remodel for now. So we began with the intention of just repainting the main bath to brighten it up, but that quickly snowballed once we decided to open up the partition wall, and we discovered the window sill was badly rotted. We ended up taking out the window completely, and using an old growth hemlock plank we found in the barn, we milled ourselves a new sill. Once the weather dries out (hopefully today or tomorrow), we’ll install the new sill, along with new trim, and reinstall the freshly reglazed and painted sashes. We installed new trim around the tub, and reused some of the bead board to build a wainscoting to cover the front. We also stripped the paint from the wall behind our vanity, as it is an original plank wall (the bathroom was originally one of the two bedrooms). Revealing the grain and story of the old planks is always such a treat. These boards reveal shadows of split lath, so this wall was covered with plaster at one time. Back in the days when this house was built, they used to take a thin board, and using a sharp tool (typically a “froe”), would split the board on one side (but not all the way across), then the other, and so on, until they had split the board into a fan, or an accordion. They could then apply that to the wall, and plaster over it. We have revealed the back side of this type of lath in our front hall closet. We’ll cover the stripped plank wall with linseed oil to preserve it, and the rest of the bath we’ll paint “Dove” on the walls, and “Perfect Taupe” on the trim. We’ve used these colors elsewhere in the house, and they are not only appropriate, but they really brighten it up. Here are some images of the process so far… the bright yellow paint will be gone by the next post!

  We currently have a very large excavator in our yard, or what’s left of our yard, as we have a contractor here removing all the old stumps from trees that have fallen the past few years, as well as the ones we had removed last fall. We’ll have a full before-and-after story in the next post, but here’s a little preview…

  We’re going to take a couple of days off now to help Allie finish packing, and tomorrow we’ll take her off to college! Yikes! 

 We’re supposed to have a few sunny days ahead, so hopefully things can dry out, and we’ll be back to work on Saturday to finish up the bathroom. More to come, as the next couple of months are going to be very, very busy! 

 Thanks for following along!

Well, not entirely nothing, but not much in the way of bigger projects being worked on. We have locked down a contractor to help us remodel the bathrooms, fix some structure under the hearth room, lay new salvaged floors in the hearth room (most of ours are too far gone to save), and pull the paneling (which is hand-planed) off the hearth wall to restructure the framing behind it, while our mason re-tucks the brick above the firebox due to some settling/splitting. We are on his schedule to start in early November, as they want to lay the floor boards when the heat has been on for a while, and the boards have contracted as much as possible. The plank floors shrink and swell (more across the grain rather than with it, so they get wide and narrow, but not so much movement in length) with the seasons, but after a time, this movement is minimized. Laying down seasoned, salvaged antique boards, we should be safe laying them without a gap. If they do end up gapping over time, we’ll just do what the original settlers did, and push some twine or natural rope into the cracks. We’ll be meeting the contractor again soon to select the tiles for the bathrooms, and lay out what we will be doing ourselves, vs. what we’re expecting from him. 

There will be a lot going on late fall/early winter this year, between the bathrooms being remodeled, the barn foundation being re-stacked, the barn leveled and strengthened, and new floors in the hearth room. We’ll also be remodeling the kitchen, and stripping the floors in the two parlors. 

One of the challenges of an antique post and beam home is that you’re never sure if what you THINK you can do, you can actually do. Take for instance the gas range. It seemed like a slam dunk to install a gas range against the old summer kitchen fireplace, as it seemed wide open below to run a gas line, and we could take advantage of the old chimney to run an exhaust hood. Well, when the gas company techs came to install the gas line from the propane tank, there was actually a beam that runs exactly where we would have wanted the line to come up through the floor. So, we’ll utilize our developing yankee ingenuity, and cut out the back of this little curio we have, and slide it over the gas line, both protecting the line and providing more storage in the kitchen. Notice the yellow walls and red trim are now a less-festive, more Colonial, “Dove” and “Perfect Taupe.”

Speaking of Yankee ingenuity/New England frugality, we’ve also begun making our own kitchen table from boards we’ve found in our barn. Since receiving the great news that the shed addition (102 years old) on the back of the barn doesn’t need to be pulled down, and can actually be used to stabilize the back bay of the barn, we’ve begun setting it up as a wood shop. We need to update the lighting, and create some hinge-mechanism to open the windows (there are three windows on the left side, just out of the frame of the picture below), but it’ll be a really nice space.

Cutting into these boards was a surprise: all different densities, and aromas. The board on the far left smelled distinctly of cinnamon! Was it apple wood? Used in making spiced cider? Anyone know?

This week, we did take a day to drive over to coastal Maine. We stopped in Kennebunkport for lobster rolls and a bit of shopping, then hit a couple of sites along the way to Woolwich/Bath, where we had dinner on a wharf in a beautiful little cove. It was a great little getaway.

While we enjoyed our day in Maine, the purpose of the trip was mostly to check on the condition of a house with which we’d fallen in love, before we found our house, but we were not able to close that deal. It was, however, purchased by someone else, and thankfully, the new owners are restoring the house beautifully, and it is clearly being “loved,” so for that, we are thankful. These antique houses are far bigger than we are, so it’s far more about someone loving and caring for the house than it is about us owning it. We see so many antique homes around here just going back to the earth, and it’s really sad to lose them. These homes were built at the same time as our country itself, and they were built by hand, with love and care, and they were expected to be passed down from father to son, so they were built to last. 

Our neighbor recently loaned us a couple of books by Eric Sloane, which we devoured so quickly, we ordered all we could from Amazon. Eric Sloane, while being a meteorologist and weather geek, fell in love with early American history, and his books are full of first hand accounts (from journals and diaries) of early-American life, and are accented by Eric’s illustrations that really bring it to life. The early settlers were far more in tune with their surroundings that I had ever known. They understood the weather patterns, the stars, how to work wood and iron to do exactly what you wanted, how to move boulders weighing more than a ton with ease (using ramps, fulcrums, and an ox), as well as every day things we don’t even think about. If you have any interest in life in early America, I highly recommend you check them out!

Less than two weeks from now, and we’ll be taking Allie over to Durham for her first year at UNH. We’ll certainly miss her, but she’s ready to take on the world and bloom, plus she’s been traveling most of the summer, so we’ve gotten somewhat accustomed to her not being here. She’ll only be an hour-and-a-half away, so we’ll still see her easily.

That’s it for now. Thanks for following along!

Another busy week here on the farm- contractors, projects, hiking with the pup, running to Boston to pick up Allie from the airport, the almost daily trips to Home Depot…. little by little, things are being accomplished. 

We’re locking down contractors and getting on their schedules for the larger projects that we can’t do ourselves, such as: repairing the sill and framing structure under the hearth room, new salvaged flooring in the hearth room (ours is mostly too far gone to reuse), remodeling both bathrooms with tile showers and floors, repairing and tuck pointing the brick above the firebox in the hearth, capping the summer kitchen’s chimney, tuck pointing the top three courses of brick on that chimney, then running a liner down for a range hood, raising the barn, restacking the stone perimeter foundation, then stabilizing and leveling the timber frame structure, and adding plenty of drainage around the outside to keep water from further eating away at the freshly repaired foundation….

While the drainage is being dug around the barn, we’ll also have the contractor dig a hole for the installation of a 500 gallon underground propane tank on the north side. This will allow us to purchase a season’s worth of propane during the summer, when the prices are the lowest. Most of our heating is accomplished by means of a heat pump, but that is only effective to about 20 degrees, anything below that, the propane furnace takes over.

Projects we’ll be taking on soon will be: begin pulling out the window sashes and stripping, repairing, reglazing, and adding weatherstripping before reinstalling, repairing sills and frames where necessary, helping with demo on the bathrooms, installing fixtures, painting, etc., stripping and refinishing the floors in the parlors, remodeling the kitchen, stripping the millwork/doors/paneling and repainting or coating with linseed oil, and addressing the yard.

Our yard is an obstacle course of mostly-buried boulders, or “nuggets” as we call them here, various un-tended flower beds and shrubs, woodchuck holes and divots, rock walls, and many stumps. We’re hoping the excavator comes back this week to pull the stumps and thickets of overgrown lilacs, so we can start filling holes and leveling the ground, so we can build up the landscape as fall approaches. We’d like to add a Catalpa tree to the front corner, add some apple trees, relocate some plants to different areas, install a new walkway from the front door to the relocated mailbox (likely brick or granite cobbles), take up and reinstall the brick walkway to the main door in the ell/kitchen mudroom, and add a new granite slab that’s big enough that you can step aside while opening the door. We’ll also install some critter fence and begin laying mulch/wood chips/compost/soil for our garden next spring. We’re going to use the deep mulch method, as we can get all the wood chips we want, and we have plenty of leaves and compost from under the barn. 

Below are pictures of some of the granite “nuggets” and overgrown beds that are scattered about:

Recently, we finished up the back screen porch and the back laundry/mudroom. The screen porch was unfinished when we moved in, so we added shiplap to the walls, board and batten to the ceiling, and painted the walls a lovely “Shark” gray, the ceiling and window trim “Dove” white, and stained the floors a light “Cape Cod” gray. We’ve also hung one of our antique barn lanterns in the corner, and have another on a table for ambient lighting. The porch has become one of our favorite places, both for coffee in the morning, and for a glass of wine at night, while listening to the quiet sounds of nature around us. The porch is located on the east side of the kitchen, off the back mudroom/laundry, so it’s a cool spot to relax at night. Below is the before-during-after:

We also (finally!) finished reinstalling the laundry room/closet doors in the relocated wall. If you remember, we had to take out the wall that separated the laundry area from the mudroom, as the washer/dryer we purchased didn’t fit due to the new dryer’s vent location. We ended up having the run a new vent straight back through the wall into the front mudroom, then down through the floor, and back around to vent under the screen porch. We also changed out the switches, outlets, and cover plates to a new crisp white.

We’ve been hiking pretty much every day, as there are trails everywhere around here. Tennessee loves the country life, and enjoys the hikes, although he usually collapses onto the cool hearth floor and takes a nap as soon as we get back. We still find ourselves awed by the beauty of this place, and often exclaim to each other how lucky we are that we LIVE here. We really love this place. It’s definitely our forever home.

The rain is softening up, so we’re going to go take the pup for a walk. Stay tuned for kitchen remodel progress pictures. Thanks for following along, and as always, let us know if you have any questions or comments- follow us on Instagram (we just don’t have time to keep up with Facebook anymore), and we’ll see you again soon!

It’s been a good productive week. We’re wrapping up the finishing touches on the screen porch, had our new refrigerator and gas (propane) range delivered and installed, started repainting the kitchen, explored some of the lovely trails within just a couple of miles from the farm, had a delicious lobster roll at the general store while stopping at the post office…. we love this life in New England.

Jenny still gets up most mornings and rides her bike up to Harrisville Pond to swim with the local ladies (they call themselves the Mermaids). It’s such a treasure that these 10-12+ ladies go wading into the mist-covered pond/lake every morning for a swim to the point and back, rain or shine (just not when there is any lightning). They’ll continue to meet until the weather cools too much for comfort, then they’ll start meeting at one of the (many) trailheads nearby for a morning hike.

Speaking of trailheads, we’ve started exploring some of the trails nearby. There are over a hundred miles of trails within 10 minutes of the farm. Just under a mile down the dirt road from us is Sargent Center, a camp owned by Boston University, which has about 22 miles of trails around Halfmoon Pond. A mile-and-a-half south of us is the Hiroshi Loop trail; a 1.9 mile loop along the Nubanusit Brook. At one point there is a skiff/raft that you can pull yourself across the river, and join up with the Sargent Center trails. Closer to “downtown” Harrisville is the old railroad trail that runs along the Nubanusit. Then just three miles south of us are a couple of the trails that run to the summit of Mount Monadnock. Tennessee has enjoyed some time on the trails, as with us working on the house, he feels neglected, and pretty bored. With all of the rain we’ve had recently, the forests are lush with colorful mushrooms, and the rivers are running fast and cool, which is great for a hot, thirsty pup.

Jenny is beginning the process of stripping some of the millwork and antique built-in cabinetry around the house. We’re hoping our current heat gun can take the pressure, but we may need to upgrade to a commercial-strength model at some point. Yes, precautions are taken for lead paint abatement (for all you OSHA fans out there). It will be nice to peel back the layers of paint to reveal the crisp lines of antique mortise and tenon cabinetry and hand-planed boards. Although, Jenny is considering just painting a 9th coat on everything since it is more tedious than it looks on YouTube videos.

We also began the project of remodeling the kitchen this week, and had a new refrigerator and range delivered. Where the old range was will be replaced by a new soapstone farmers sink and soapstone countertop along that wall. We’ll also replace the open shelves with upper cabinetry on that wall (and new lower cabinetry). Then where the current sink is will be opened up for a seating area with a small table and chairs, so we can enjoy breakfast with the sunrise. There are no current plans for a dishwasher, as with just the two of us (while Allie is away at college), it’s not a big deal to wash up the day’s dishes before going to bed.

This week, we were finally able to pull out the pressure canner, and we canned up some beef stew to enjoy this fall/winter. Jenny has also been collecting berries from our property, and was able to gather enough to make up some delicious jam- YUM!

Since buying this property, we’ve been digging into the history of Daniel and Abigail Warren, the couple who built the farm, and we knew they were buried at the Dublin cemetery down the road. Having not gotten around to calling the town caretaker to get a location of their grave site, we decided to just stop in one day while coming back from town. As we were driving by just before, Jenny pointed to a spot and said “we should start looking there by those pink flowers on the hill”, so when we pulled in and parked the truck, she walked over to where she pointed, and there they were! It appears to be a replacement gravestone, as the original has likely long since been worn away as many others also have. Two of their seven children are buried alongside them (Jesse and Abigail, both of whom died unmarried). It was nice to also see a flag placed by the Sons of the American Revolution, recognizing Daniel’s service in the Revolutionary War.

Jenny’s home from her swim now, and making breakfast, so I’d better wrap up this post. It’s time to get busy, and since it’s Friday, we get to go to the dump today! YAY! We hope to wrap up the screen porch today (before and after’s will be in the next post!), and get a second/final coat of paint on the kitchen walls. 

Thanks for following along, and as always, let us know if you have any questions about life in New England, living in an antique home, or anything else.

See you next time!

It’s the height of summer here on the farm, and it was forty-eight degrees when we woke up this morning. It warms quickly, but it makes for awesome sleeping weather! We’ve talked about the cycles of life here- the black flies, then the yellow flies, then the “hover-bugs”, then the next… same with the flowers. The lilies are wrapping it up for the year, so we can begin digging out the plants in areas of the yard we want to return to yard, and move them down to the freshly-cleared hillside food garden we’re creating. We can tuck lilies among the boulders and create some color on the hill. While the lilies and others are fading, there are many more newcomers to take their place. There is always something blooming in this old, mostly natural landscape.

Since you last visited the farm, we’ve been busy talking to contractors and experts in timber frame construction about what we need to do to save our barn. When we first looked at this property, we fell in love with the barn. It’s an English scribe-rule barn with gunstock posts and Dutch tie beams (tapered). 

Gunstock joints or beams get their name from their outward taper at the top, which resembles the stock/butt from a rifle. The taper provides a solid foundation onto which the other beams and bracing can rest. The plate beams, or main horizontal beams that sit at the top of each vertical wall, are solid beams that run the length of the barn, which is 46 feet! It’s a four bay barn, so it is made up of five “bents”, or rafter sections. Then it has an early-twentieth century two-story shed addition that extends twelve feet off the back. We were told the barn was built in about 1840, but the timber frame experts that have looked at it have all confirmed that it is much earlier, and likely pre-dates the house by a bit. It was a working barn up to a few years ago, and has had a lot of patching over the years, but it’s reached a point where it needs some dire, immediate attention. Most of the gunstock joints have enough rot that two of the rafters have actually slid off the tie beams, creating gaps in the roof. There is also a bit of rot in some of the purlins, which are the horizontal members between each bent. 

Gunstock joints are hugely complex hand-scribed joints that can contain up to seven or more independent parts, all connected perfectly, without any mechanical fastening. The joints in our barn still show the crisp markings from the framers who built it, identifying each component as belonging to each joint. You can see the Roman numerals, below.

There was a standard numbering system used to identify each joint in it’s place within the entire structure. Starting with the front of the barn, each joint/bent would be identified by a Roman numeral “I”, then “II”, and so on to the back. Then from the right side (facing the barn), each joint would be noted as “IA”, then “IB”, and so on to the other side. 

There have been many patches and stabilizing methods added to the barn over the years- plates sistered over the joints, cut-thread turnbuckles and staples added to hold joints together, but we’re at the tipping point. We did buy some time having the twelve new footings and posts installed under the barn last fall, as well as the gutters and some other things we’ve done, but there is still much to do. A couple of the timber frame guys with whom we consulted this week, recommend dismantling the barn, laying the frame on the ground and rebuilding it. Both estimates match what we bought the entire property and house for. 

Another idea offered was to sell the frame, then build a new modern barn in its place. This is our least favorite option, as we really love the history of the barn. Plus, it belongs here. 

Our favorite option at this point is to further stabilize the foundation by restacking the stone boulders that are left underneath, filling in from one of the collapsed stone walls behind the barn as needed, and sealing up the gaps between the stones. We’ll also excavate to add below-frost-line drain tile and a water barrier around the back of the house, west side of the ell, and front of the barn, draining any water away from the barn altogether. 

Once that’s done, we can patch and stabilize the bents using interior cables and turnbuckles. From the outside, you would only notice the plates and nuts from the cables going through the wall, but many old homes and barns have these. You most often see old brick homes with these plates fashioned into stars, or other decorative shapes. This may buy another 75-100 years, hopefully. 

No matter what, the shed addition needs to come off as soon as possible. It’s sagging heavily, and sinking into the muck from decades of being a working livestock barn, and it’s dragging the rest of the original, old, historic barn down with it. 

We’re meeting with another contractor later today, but for now, we need to make a Home Depot run. Being almost a half hour to town, we try to maximize our trips as much as possible- Home Depot, ALDI, Walmart, and a bike shop (my mountain bike’s brakes got jammed up during the move). 

Thanks for following along. Leave us a comment or question, and we’ll do our best to respond. See you next time!

***UPDATE*** (07/20/18)- we found our guy! We found a contractor who can rebuild the foundation, address the water drainage issues, and shore up the structure, giving it another 100+ years. AND all within our budget! YAY!

I’m not sure how long it’s been since the last post. I have no idea what day it is. I haven’t read the news in almost a month. Facebook has become a thing of the past. I don’t commute to a job, but I’m working harder than I’ve worked in a long, long time. We’re still slowly unpacking and sorting as we work on projects, but every day we see a bit of progress. The house seems to smile as we work. We really love this house, this place. It’s such a simple life, but it isn’t an easy one. Most days end with groans, aches, and sore muscles, but are accompanied by feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction. And we wouldn’t change a thing.

There’s been a lot of action at the farm this week. Our new friend Sturdy brought over his…, well, I’m not sure what to call his machine, but it eats trees (up to 4″ in diameter) and shrubs. We know from talking to folks familiar with the history of this house that it was a working farm up until a few years ago, and the land was cleared, for the most part. Since the goats and other animals are gone, no one is keeping the forest at bay, and the forest wants to take over. When we first moved in and started working in the yard, we were careful to keep all the lilies, the ferns, the maple and oak trees, all the wildflowers everywhere, but we quickly realized that these things, while beautiful, are trying to take over the world. They want to be EVERYWHERE. We started by clearing out the plants taking over the rock walls, then some of the plants in the yard, more of the plants in the yard, some trees in bad places, and moved on to clearing out the hillside, which is where Sturdy and his machine come in. Have you ever seen the scene in the movie “Avatar” where the bad guys come in with their machines and mow down the forest? That is what this machine is like. The results, however, are amazing. We now have views through to the pasture down the hillside, and the boulders that dot our property are once again exposed for us to enjoy. Once our arborist friend John can get in and raise the canopy of some of the more mature trees, and remove some dead and dying ones, it’ll be even better. Sturdy will be back in a week or so to take out some stumps around the property. Then we can get in and clear out the old sap lines and vines out back, and build a dog-walking trail around the rock walls that surround and cross our property. Then we’ll start building the landscape back up.

Tennessee has settled into country life as quickly and easily as we have. He has many favorite places to nap depending on the weather: the driveway, the front yard, or the hearth inside if it’s hot out (provided I’ve vacuumed it out). He also spends a lot of time hunting the ground hogs that have burrows among the rock walls, and visiting his friends nearby: Bella, Gaucho, and Buddy.

Last weekend, our town had its summer festival (Old Home Days), so we went over to browse the art fair, pick up some local maple syrup, and enjoy some fair food. Our town, Harrisville, essentially sits on top of Harrisville Pond, which was used to run the woolen mills that built the town. It’s a beautiful setting for a fair, and it seemed most of the town was there. The library had a book sale ($1 for a shopping bag full), and there was a kids parade and boat race on the pond.

For the fourth, since Allie was back in MN visiting friends, Jenny and I took the day off. We loaded up the pup for a drive to explore the area around us, and we discovered some treasures, such as Witt Hill Rd in Jaffrey, which allowed incredible views of Mount Monadnock. We also drove up the road to the Hancock Inn/Fox Tavern for a light dinner date, which is one of our favorite places in the area.

We’re continuing to clean, paint, and organize the ell workshop, and it’s really coming together- nice, bright, climate-controlled workspace. We’ll soon add a large work table in the center for sewing and clean assembly work. The empty shelf along the wall will act as our pantry until we remodel the kitchen. Now we have a clean workshop to begin tackling some of the larger projects, such as reglazing the window sashes and stripping the old millwork. Below are some before and after pictures of the new paint and trim work, which brightened it up a bit. 

One thing we’ve learned living this lifestyle is that there are cycles to everything. We’re watching the cycles of nature right before our eyes. There is always some wildflower in bloom, some bird singing a sing we’ve never heard, black flies, then yellow flies, etc. There’s an ebb and flow to everything around us. And we’re listening and noticing… One of the things we’ve noticed is that we have some kind of dinosaur plant in our front yard, with pretty yellow flowers… it looks like some kind of yucca?

We’re having the time of our lives, and we really love living here and taking care of this house. Thanks for coming along on our adventure, and leave us a note if you have any questions or comments. We’re not on Facebook much anymore, but you can sometimes find us on Instagram (linked to this page) or here on ours.

Until next time….

When we first discussed embarking on this adventure, one of the things we told each other was that we were going to be patient, take our time, and let the house lead us in the restoration. A couple of the first pieces of advice our friend John told us was: 1) Tackle no more than two projects at a time, and 2) Take at least one day off per week. We really took those to heart. We planned them. We preached them. When we got here, we tossed them into the trash. It’s so easy to get caught up in “we need to do this, this, this, this, this, and this, NOW!” Between unpacking (which after going on three weeks is about halfway complete), cleaning (which is a challenge in a 236 year-old house in the country), fixing the little things that we can fix, and scheduling contractors to look at the big things that we cannot fix (like leveling and cleaning the floors of lead paint, and restoring the windows, of which most are original). We’re beginning to accept the reality that even as a full time “job”, taking on a restoration and the caring for a house like this is a long-term project. Long term, like for the rest of our lives, which is OK, as that is what we signed up for. We think we know which project we need to work on, but we find that something else needs to be fixed first. It’s just so easy to get distracted and pulled in too many directions to be effective.

Deep breath. Grab a cold beer and head to the screen porch….. Ahhhhh…..

We ARE making progress, and we DO have something to show for the last couple of week’s work. In addition to what I’ve shown in previous posts, we finished our workshop area in the ell, so we can start unpacking our tools and have a clean heated/cooled area in which to work.

We’re finishing the interior of the screen porch in shiplap, and will install beadboard on the ceiling. The shiplap will be stained a semi-transparent colonial gray, with light gray paint on the trim and windows

We also painted the front closet so we could finish unpacking our room, making room for a little reading/writing area in front of the fireplace, which we hope to open and restore at some point.

We’ve also spent more time exploring the area, handling the transfer of the car’s titles, getting them inspected, transferring our drivers licenses, doing general maintenance like mowing, grocery shopping, looking for a church home, walking the dog, looking for the cat (who has learned to explore the ell and barn whenever he gets the chance), trimming shrubs and trees, and all the things that make the day go by. 

Yesterday, we drove Allie down to Boston to catch a flight back to MN to attend a Harry Styles concert and to see some high school friends once more before college starts. 

I felt the closer I got to town, the more uptight I became. It’s not so much that I’m not used to commuting, but we live in a very rural, mountainous place; there is no traffic, no stoplights, no freeways, no noise….. there is no good way to get to anywhere from here. You can look at the map and see that it appears where you want to go is just an inch or so on the map, but it may be 50 miles, and take an hour-and-a-half to drive. Don’t get me wrong, this is one of the things we love about living here. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. While we technically live in Harrisville (our house was in Dublin, NH until Harrisville was created in 1870), we’re closest to Hancock. Hancock is basically a one-block town with an inn/tavern (The Hancock Inn and Fox Tavern, c1789), a delicious bakery/cafe (Fiddleheads), a general store (Hancock Market), and an historic church and cemetery (the church still rings its original bell cast by Paul Revere). The Hancock Inn has 14 rooms named after famous people from the area, one of whom once owned our house (The Moses Eaton room). We love running up to the Fox Tavern for Innkeeper’s dinner on Sunday nights, which is a 3-course meal of whatever they feel like serving, but it’s always fresh, creative, very-local, and delicious.

The next closest town would be either Harrisville or Dublin. Harrisville was created in 1870 from land from four surrounding towns in order to bring the railroad into the Harris family’s woolen mills. Harrisville is one of the best preserved mill towns in the world. Most of the original mill buildings have been restored and are now used for art studio space, residential, and learning spaces. Harrisville is also home to one of our favorite restaurants in the area; the Harrisville General Store. Super-fresh, creative food, all sourced from within a few miles. The scones are worth the trip alone, and we stop every chance we’re in town. Harrisville is just a short 4ish-mile drive west along the shore of Skatutakee Lake, and the town center is built over the peninsular outlet of Harrisville Pond (where Jenny swims with the other ladies in town on weekday mornings), which is fed by Brickyard Brook. In New Hampshire, natural lakes seem to be called “lakes”, where “ponds” appear to be reservoirs. Dublin (pop. 1600) is just south of us, and its claim to fame is that it is the home of Yankee Publishing, which produces the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” and “Yankee Magazine”.

Peterbourough is the closest town of any size, and it’s just eight miles down the mountain. It has several restaurants, a grocery store, a hardware store, an auto parts store, and more, such as a beautiful little shopping district in its town center that sits on the Contoocook River.

We’re located in what is known as the Monadnock region, named after Mount Monadnock (Grand Monadnock), which at 3166′ is the tallest mountain in the area. It’s just a few miles down the road from us. The top 1000′ was denuded in a fire set between 1810 an 1820 by local farmers, who thought that wolves were denning in the blowdowns.

While Monadnock is a stand-alone mountain, and not part of a range, just 10 miles east of us is Pack Monadnock and North Monadnock, which are part of the Wapack range, a 20 mile long range that starts in MA and runs into NH.

The closest body of water from our property, outside of the Nubanusit River, would be Halfmoon Pond, just a half-mile down the road. There are roughly 20+ miles of hiking trails down there, between the Sargent Center (a camp operated by BU), and the Army Corps of Engineer’s Lake McDowell area.

We’re still discovering little treasures everywhere we look, from wildflowers, to some perennial that may have been planted generations ago, to various fruit- all within our property or along the old road along the Nubanusit. Here’s a little slideshow for this week….

It’s now cooling down, and we’re winding down for the day… thanks again for coming along on our adventure. Send us a message or comment if you have any questions, ideas, funny jokes, etc. See you next time.

Back when we were looking at moving to Montana (Whitefish to be exact), we found Fresh Life Church, and pastor Levi Lusko. His messages really spoke to us, and we also felt a connection to him as he had also lost a child (his daughter Lenya died of an asthma attack). One of his most meaningful messages to us spoke of “little by little”, which was a message of patience and trust. We really felt led to this house, and we feel through the circumstances involved that we were meant to be here. We trust. We have patience. And we will need both. In heaping gobs. Taking care of this house in a way that honors its past will be a lifelong project, nothing to be rushed. This renovation will be best enjoyed and appreciated “little by little”.

With Allie having attended orientation this past week, and meeting a bunch of new friends with whom she’ll be attending UNH, we worried about her getting bored with weeks to go before move-in day. While she has some things on her calendar (flying back to Minneapolis for a few days to attend a concert, as well as to Colorado for a mission trip), Harrisville has fewer options for this city-dwelt teenage girl. No malls, no nail salons, coffee shops, no familiar places to hang out. There are a few antique shops, some good cafe/restaurants, and some hardware stores, but not much else. Which is appealing to those of us who want to step off the carnival ride that is today’s suburban/urban life, but I can see where it may be dreadfully boring for this teen girl. Then, in comes a few neighbors, a community, and some girls from Georgia. Our neighbor’s daughter has kids Allie’s age, and they had some visitors from Georgia, and they all connected right away. We have not seen Allie now for three days. They went kayaking in the pond down the hill, thrift-store shopping, climbed Mount Monadnock, had a 50’s theme party, dyed one of the girls hair, did henna tattoos on each other, watched scary movies, and just hung out being teenagers. We couldn’t be more thankful. We met up with them all at their church this past Sunday over in Keene, and fell in love with their church. We ended up sitting for over an hour after the service ended, talking to people, and even got some names of folks who may be resources for help on the restoration.

We still occasionally stop and realize that we’re actually HERE. We’re actually living our dream, taking care of this historic house. In an absolutely breathtaking location. While driving around running our errands, there are countless views of nature and history… mountains, lakes, rock walls, historic homes and buildings…. We’ve seen so much wildlife around the farm, from beautiful moths, birds, turkeys, the ground hogs that live in the rock walls in our back yard, the porcupines that stripped our pear trees behind the barn…. good with the bad I guess…. 

Everyone is so friendly and helpful, easily willing to lend a hand with whatever you need, expecting nothing in return. We’ve met so many lovely people- while cutting one of the trees blocking the road the other day (after the storm mentioned in our last post), we met a local woman who grew up in this house, and we hope to have her over soon to talk about her memories here, and show her what we’ve done so far to preserve her childhood home and its memories. 

We are still working on the land- clearing brush, exposing the rock walls and boulders, and trimming up what needs to be trimmed. Our arborist (and friend) John is working to clear stumps in the yard, as well as the hillside below the house to open up the views to the pasture below, and hopefully expose some of the Wapack range to the east. We bartered our old dining set which was too large for our house with John, in exchange for some firewood. An excellent trade all around, and we are so happy another family will love the furniture which ours loved for so many years. We’ve met most of our neighbors, and are already trading house-watching duties while folks are away. We met a couple of ladies trying to find their way to a concert in town, gave directions,and one of them returned to bring us a basket of beautiful fresh-picked strawberries as a thank-you. They are delicious.

We’re still unpacking and sorting, and making headway making it look like we live here. We were able to set up the back parlor as our “living room”, and actually enjoyed a fire in its beautiful fireplace last night for the first time. This parlor would have been the more casual room, where the family would have “hung out”, as the other parlor, which is now our bedroom, has a more elegant fireplace, and would have likely been the formal parlor for entertaining guests. This back parlor is the room which still shows a section of Moses Eaton Jr’s original stenciling from the late 1830’s.

Jenny is working on painting the front closet and foyer, and while we originally intended to try to save the very old wallpaper in that room, we’ve found it’s not in as good a shape as we thought, so we’ll strip it, and find an historically suitable reproduction to put up. Most of the trim in the closet appears to be original, still showing the square hand-cut nails and horsehair plaster. Everywhere we look, we’re finding little treasures for the eyes. We’ll show more detail once we’re finished, and we can put up proper before-and-after photos.

That’s it for now. We’re going to finish up our morning coffee, take the pup for a walk down the road, and get busy. If we do just a little every day- little by little…

Thanks for coming along!

It’s been a blur of a week here at the farm- unpacking, sorting, college orientation, bad storms, changing auto titles, driver’s licenses, insurance, etc., etc., etc….. the days just go by. We can see we’re making headway on our mental to-do lists, but we have no idea how we got there. All days start with a cup of coffee in front of a fire in the hearth while reading devotions, and end with a glass of wine or beer on the screened sleeping porch out back enjoying the sounds of nature, and nothing else. We finally identified the beautiful bird calls we’ve been hearing as “veery thrushes”, and another that a neighbor told us was a “peewee”, but sounds a bit more exaggerated than the sound loops I can find online, so maybe the one in our area is a bit more dramatic than most. Otherwise, it’s robins, finches, sparrows, hummingbirds, and a few I’m not familiar with, and haven’t yet identified. The pets absolutely love it here. Tennessee is definitely in his element being a country dog, but even Toby (our rescue cat) has never been happier… napping in windowsills or on the sleeping porch. The weather is amazing here- 80 or so in the peak of the day, but quickly cooling into the low 60’s/upper 50’s as soon as the sun sets. There seems to be about a 25-30 degree swing between the highs and lows, so we just keep the windows open, and have yet to turn on the AC. We’ve even gotten up at night to close windows, but most often, sleep so soundly that we just wake up wanting to snuggle under the covers until the sun warms up the floors. But we get up with the sun, and set upon our days. We’re making headway sorting through boxes, and working on projects around the house/ell/barn. It’s going to be a long-term process, but that’s why we’re doing this. We’re just happy to be here. This house really speaks to us- it’s history, quiet surroundings, simple lifestyle… all of it. We truly feel honored to be the house’s caretakers.

Nothing’s easy in moving cross-country. Any trip to the DMV involves at least three actual trips to find and bring the obscure paperwork that you never thought you’d need, but they require. Or different states have different rules, and depending on who is on the other side of the window, different interpretations of said rules. After several trips to Keene (the county seat here in Cheshire County, NH), tomorrow (we think, hope, and pray) we will become official New Hampshire residents as we will attain New Hampshire driver’s licenses and plates for our two old cars. In New Hampshire, much is done at the town level, so we spent quite a bit of time at the Harrisville Town Hall today to apply for New Hampshire titles, registration, and plates for most of our vehicles (the Tahoe has to wait until we get the actual MN title, which is another story). I was able to find “year of manufacture” plates on Ebay for the Corvair (1963) and MGB (1972), which was not easy, as the 1963 plates were a one-year-only design. We can run these on the cars, just keeping the “official” antique plates in the car somewhere. We were able to get NH plates on Allie’s car today. 

We were able to get both old cars unpacked and out of the barn for Father’s Day this week- the MG still has the vinyl from the last rally in October, and the Corvair hadn’t been driven since last September. We really missed our little old cars.

We drove the Corvair up the road to the Fox Tavern’s “Innkeeper’s dinner” Sunday night. Most of the Monadnock area is a quiet, almost secret, foodie area, very “farm-to-table”. Everything the Fox Tavern serves is from within just a few miles- most veggies and herbs are from the garden out back, cheese and milk from the goat farm next door…. but everything is amazing, fresh, creative, and all served with a smile from the Innkeepers Duncan and Sue, and prepared by the owner/chef Jasper. Most of the restaurants in the area follow a similar philosophy. There are really not a lot of fast food options here, which is fine with us. One of the finest examples is up the road at the Harrisville General Store. Harrisville, which was annexed from four surrounding towns in 1870, was created as a means of bringing the railroad into the Harris family’s woolen mills, and is now one of the most well-preserved mill town centers in the world. The Harrisville general store, which while pretty much off-grid (seriously, there is no cell service for miles around here without a cell booster or something similar), has your basic general store items, such as coffee, cereal, mouse traps, laundry detergent, etc…. but it differs when you step up to the counter to order your lunch or scone with your coffee. The place is heaven when it comes to eating- all local, organic, fresh, and creatively-prepared. We eat there whenever we get the chance, and the scones are worth the drive alone- simply the best we’ve ever enjoyed. Today’s was candied ginger, and we picked up a half-dozen to take to a neighbors for coffee this morning. I’m also still remembering the simple tuna melt we enjoyed for lunch, made with sushi-grade tuna. Oh. Em. Gee.

After dropping Allie off on Monday, and attending the parent’s orientation, no sooner had I arrived home when a severe thunderstorm hit. With a vengence that we have not seen in a while. We really thought “tornado” (which are quite rare here) when we were watching the rain and debris flying around. We did end up losing power, and we could see some branches down out back (thankfully we had a bunch of trees near the house taken down last fall), but really sustained no other damage. Texting our neighbor, who was trying to get home, and not finding any luck, we set out with our chainsaw to find all four ways out of here blocked by downed trees, most tangled in the (downed) power lines. 

Living barely on the grid doesn’t mean much most of the time other than a quiet, simple lifestyle, but without power, our well pump doesn’t work, so no flushing of toilets and no showers. We cleaned up best we could, and set out to pick up Allie from Durham, picking up a generator on the way home. Thankfully, the power was back on when we got home, but now we’re ready for the next storm.

The projects we’re currently working on are clearing out the parlor, finishing a workshop space in the ell, finishing the inside of the sleeping porch, and clearing the land of overgrown and encroaching nature- the woods really want to reclaim the house! We’ll post before and after pictures, as well as in-process pics once we finish an area.

Oh, the title of this blog entry? Because Allie will be studying nutrition at UNH, she will be in the “Life-Sciences and Agriculture school, and one of the other classes offered is eco-gastronomy, which is the study of not only food, but where it comes from and how everything affects food, from the soil to the plate. One of the orientation tour guides was in the eco-gastronomy program, and he was about to leave for a semester abroad (in San Gimignano, Italy!) I would sign up for that program if I were in college.

By all means, let us know if there is anything you’d like us to add, go into more detail about, or leave out altogether… we’re doing this as an archive, but want it interesting to read as well. So let me know if the posts are too long, too short, too many pictures or not enough…. really. Feedback is always welcome.

Project pictures to come soon! We’re going to go watch the nightly firefly show!

For my entire life, I’ve never felt truly at home. I never thought about it until I was older, and even then I attributed it to other things, but I just don’t think I was where God wanted me yet, so my soul never felt settled. I began to think “home” was not so much a place, as it was a frame of mind. Until I arrived in New Hampshire/New England. I’m home.

Our last week in Minnetonka was a whirlwind, with Allie graduating, me retiring, and all of us wrapping up loose ends, canceling what needed to be cancelled, moving what needed to be moved, packing, sorting, setting up Allie’s grad/going-away party, and attending to the very last of all the hundreds of details. We were packed and ready to go mid-Monday-afternoon, and our little caravan of the three of us hit the road. Simmons, our creepy doll (what, like you don’t have a family creepy doll?) rode in the truck with me, so he had the best view as the miles rolled on by…..

We ended up taking 42 hours total, between taking non-toll roads, napping, stopping to let the dog out, and so on, so we arrived home early Wednesday morning. After sleeping a while, we unloaded the truck, and took a walk around the property. The house certainly put on a pretty outfit for our homecoming- we had just missed the lilacs, but the irises, Beauty bush, dame’s rocket, and many other wildflowers and perennials were in full display. 

Tennessee has never been happier since we arrived. He started sniffing the air as we were coming up the road to home, and couldn’t wait to get out of the car and start exploring. Even Toby (the cat) seems to love the house, and spends a lot of time curled up in one window or another. 

It’s just so quiet here. No air traffic, not a lot of car traffic, no sirens, no sounds but the wind, birds, a crackling fire in the hearth, and that’s about it. The days just go by, unpacking, sorting, exploring, going into town to take care of legal things (residency, licensing, etc.), and the mundane aspects of a simple country lifestyle. 

Today (Friday), we were brought two cords of firewood, which we stacked up in one corner of the barn. One cord was semi-seasoned for later this fall, and one fully-seasoned for burning now. 

The weather has been amazing- highs in the low 70’s, cooling off well into the mid-to-lower 50’s at night. We’ve just had a few windows open, and love the cool breezes that blow through the house. It sounds like it’s going to get pretty warm Sunday and Monday, but we have to head over to Durham for Allie’s orientation at UNH. 

We had to run to the nearest Home Depot (30 minutes away) to pick up a new lawn mower today, as the one we stored, and had hauled out, ceased to operate. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up some heirloom tomatoes, and Jenny made a lovely salad with tomato, red onion, vinegar, basil, olive oil, and salt and pepper- it was like summer in a bowl. These are the simple things we so look forward to enjoying in our new life. We are falling into a rhythm of morning coffee and devotions in front of the hearth, working for most of the day, then a simple dinner and a glass of wine or beer in front of the hearth before falling into the soundest sleep we’ve ever had. 

We’ll be continuing to unpack and sort, and hope to get our little old cars out for a ride soon. Then it’ll be back to work.

Thanks for stopping by- next update soon!

With any home, especially an older home, there are things you want to change or repair right away (“needs”), and things you have in the back of your mind for later (“wants”). With a home that’s over 236 years old, there may be things that need to be done before you can even think of doing anything else, because the level of the floors (or lack thereof) will prevent you from proceeding with your initial plan, or you have to move a wall or remove old wiring, plumbing, etc. There are also very limited resources when looking for inspiration with a home this old… there are no magazines, websites, or other places you’d normally go for ideas, (which is part of the reason we decided to start this blog). You really have to listen to the house, to look at how it was used and lived in, and by whom, then ask yourself how you want to live in it, and use all that to come up with something that will work, given the limitations of the age of the home, and then be prepared for all your plans to fall apart anyway 🙂

Our projects actually began before closing, as it was found that the septic system had failed and a new one was needed. We wanted to upgrade to a larger system than the one that was going to be replaced by the seller. This way we’d have capacity to add a guest bathroom or a powder room in the ell, along with a gardening bench with sink, etc. We also wanted to have the septic contractor correct some grading issues in front while they installed the new tank, so we had to have the very old, very large apple tree out front taken down. We took care of the septic upgrade, as well as the grading, and we were able to close (mostly) on time at the end of October. 

During the septic installation, we were able to see why New Hampshire is called the Granite State. Huge boulders.

With a functioning septic system now in place, we turned our focus to the barn foundation, which was heaving quite badly. We had it jacked up, and had eleven new footings dug and installed under the barn, along with perimeter drain tile to run any water that gets in down the hill behind the barn. We still need to do some re-grading, drain tile, and soil work under the shed addition before we can replace those footings. Saving the barn will be the biggest and most urgent part of this restoration, as water seepage has been an ongoing issue for decades. When the ell was added, it was placed directly in the path of where all snow melt and rainwater naturally wanted to flow. Many boulders in the barn’s foundation have heaved and literally rolled out of place, onto the wet, dirt floor.

We still have some work to do on the stone perimeter foundation, then we can frame and install a garage door for access, and to keep the critters out. I guess porcupines like to nibble the plastic handles of your mowers, bikes, or anything else they can get their teeth into.

Having found a local (recommended and trusted) arborist to take down the apple tree out front for the septic work, we had him and his team take down some trees that were 1) too close to the house, 2) growing into or near the power lines, 3) sick and diseased, or 4) shading our garden area. There were also some that were just going to be problematic in a few short years, like the small stand of hemlock in the driveway circle. They also trimmed up and removed some overgrown shrubs and bushes. Wow, it really opened up the house! We’ll be adding some landscaping back this summer, so it won’t look this bare for long. Not sure what Daniel and Abigail would have had for landscaping, but we like old-fashioned roses, ranunculus, lilies, crabapple, almond, and honeysuckle. I really want to build an arbor over the walkway to the ell door with old roses climbing over it, and have Jenny build a sapling-arch fence along the driveway.

Understanding water is the absolute enemy, we had gutters installed on the house, ell, and barn, to try to get as much water away from the foundation as possible. By the way, an “ell” is the building that connects the house to the barn, typically at a right angle. It’s a New England thing. If you want the history or more information behind this, check out Thomas Hubka’s book “Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn”.

While putting up the gutters, it was noted that the metal roof on the north side of the barn was very corroded and thin, and would likely start leaking very soon, so since it was a quiet time of year for the roofers, we got a deal. We had them leave us the old metal from the roof, because it had a lot of patina, and we have some ideas to utilize it. Yankee ingenuity and all…. nothing is thrown away.

We also wanted to have the cooking hearth fully checked out, as we really wanted to use it- who wouldn’t want a firepit in their living room?!?!? We knew the bricks weren’t in great shape, but when the mason took the first brick out of the hearth, the rest fully collapsed! Most of the bricks were not re-usable for the hearth sadly (but we’ll use what we can to patch the front walk- remember, nothing wasted!) Fortunately, there is a company in Maine that still makes brick by hand as they would have 200+ years ago. We also had a chimney cap made and installed. 

We spent time this spring unpacking, painting, installing a cell phone booster, DSL (I told you, we’re rural!), and security system. We also ran over to Manchester for the New Hampshire Preservation Society’s “Old House and Barn Expo”, where we were recognized as the new owners of the Moses Eaton Jr. House, which we’re finding is a humble responsibility. We explored our property and the nearby area, including the old road along the Nubanusit River, which is just south of our property. We also painted and prepared the laundry closet for the new washer/dryer we ordered after so carefully measuring the space, only to find out that the vent outlet for the dryer was in the wrong place, so they were not going to fit. We’ll just move the vent pipe in the floor and move on (what’s another hole?). One good thing about a post and beam home is that there are no load-bearing walls, and everything is pretty accessible.

And that pretty well catches us up to where we are today. Things are about to get really exciting! Buckle up!

Coming in the front door, which while we’re not sure of its originality, is certainly old, you step over the granite threshold, and enter into the front foyer. Unfortunately, this door doesn’t open due to someone taking out the stone sill beneath it, and replacing it with a single stack of bricks.

From there you can go left into the formal parlor, which will be our living room/TV room, where there are reproduction, as well as original (original panel is behind the white door below), c1840 Moses Eaton Jr. stencils on the original horsehair plaster walls, a mid-to-late 19th century iron fireplace insert, on which we can heat a pot of tea, original floors, and paneled doors/cubbies in the walls. Sadly, the plaster on the lower portion has failed.

If you were to go right from the front door, you’ll enter the other parlor, which will become our master bedroom. It too has original floors, and reproduction Moses Eaton Jr stenciling on the (failing) horsehair plaster walls.

Behind the two parlors is the keeping room, which is our favorite space, and where we will spend most of our time. This room features the original cooking hearth, very bouncy, patched, and worn floors (which turned out to be rotten with broken joists below), a c2005 reproduction Rufus Porter-style mural (Rufus Porter was a famous muralist of the early 19th century, and a friend of Moses Eaton Jr.), and original hand-planed paneled walls.

To the right facing the hearth is the “Birthing Room” or “Borning Room”, which is a small bedroom where mothers would have given birth, and would have been used as a nursery, as it is right off the warmth of the hearth room. This room we will decorate as close to late 18th century as we can, and we will feature the late 17th century rope bed that Jenny slept on as a child, along with period furnishings and decor. 

To the left of the hearth is a hallway that passes a full bathroom, and leads to an outside door. This bathroom we will quickly remodel to add a walk-in shower in which we can wash the pup, who will be getting very dirty living on the farm. The area where the bathroom and hallway currently stands used to be a bedroom, mirroring the borning room.

Just to the left of the side hall/bathroom above is the staircase to the attic, which will be Allie’s room. The stairs are narrow, steep, and most likely too small to get a queen-sized bed up, and the sides are decoupaged with cutouts from late-19th century magazines and news articles, including one story regarding the scandalous tale of President Lincoln’s niece, who ran off to marry a meter-man, but after a week, came home to “no forgiveness”.

At the top of the stairs, you can go left into the full bath, which we will be remodeling, and adding a clawfoot tub and walk-in shower.

If you go straight, you’ll enter a small sitting room within one of the front dormers. 

To the right are closets on both sides of the chimney, then beyond will be Allie’s room with a fireplace, into which we’ll likely install the gas stove that’s currently in the kitchen. She has dormers on both sides, original unfinished floors, and exposed beamwork. (Furniture in the pics below was from the former owners).

Back downstairs, as you leave the hearth room, you exit the house and enter the kitchen, which is in the ell. We will be installing a wood cook stove in this room where the former summer kitchen hearth was (just out of view to the left in the photo below); we saved some of the old metal roofing from the barn (story to come) to put up on the wall behind the stove, because patina… We’ll also be moving the sink to the wall adjoining the house, opening up the windows behind the current sink location, and eliminating the dishwasher, electric oven/range, and possibly the microwave as well. 

If you go left from the refrigerator above, you enter into the back mudroom/laundry room. You can see part of the old summer hearth chimney to the left…

Through the mudroom/laundry you walk out into the screened sleeping porch that overlooks the backyard. The sleeping porch then steps out onto the back deck.

Back through the kitchen, you can step into the front mudroom, where you can step out the main door by the drive, or go through into the ell. We don’t have any pictures of the ell, as our neighbor is currently operating a small business there (spice and essential oils). The ell is roughly 15 feet wide, and 25-30 feet long, and is two stories. Just inside behind the staircase is an area that we will open up to the back mudroom/laundry and install a half bath powder room. Then the upstairs of the ell we’ll finish into a guest suite with a bedroom, full bath, and a small sitting area. There are windows on both sides, so there is plenty of natural light. The downstairs will be our heated, clean shop space, where we can have Jenny’s sewing area, a large sink and hot plate for canning, plus pantry and storage space.

Through the ell is the barn. The barn was an active livestock barn up until about a decade ago, and needs the most work of the entire property. 

The old tack room, where I want to make my shop, has a broken joist above, and broken floorboards below. 

Behind the tack room is the workbench area, then behind that are two horse stalls. 

On the left across from the stalls are the stairs to go to the lower level. Behind the stairs is an outhouse (that just dumped waste under the barn). At the back of the barn is a two-story shed addition. The lower level of the shed is currently split into several goat pens and a large chicken coop. We’ll clean these out, but leave them in case we decide to get some animals once things settle down with the house. 

In the rafter area of the barn is an early hay crane, which still works.

Most of the work needed on the house will be:

-reglazing the original windows, and possibly replacing the storm windows with something more appropriate.

-stripping the paint from the floorboards, and as much trim as possible, especially the hand-planed paneling in the hearth room.

-remodeling the two current bathrooms, and adding a new guest powder room.

-remodeling the kitchen; possibly sealing the dirt floor in the basement, which is only under half the house (boulders).

-pulling down the ceiling in the hearth room to expose the beams we desperately hope are hidden under the modern sheet rock.

-and overall painting and freshening.

The barn needs the most work, structurally. But we are madly in love with it, so we’ll gladly give it what it needs.

This concludes our tour of the house and barn as it was. Next up we’ll start getting dirty!

With our daughter, Allison, attending the University of New Hampshire beginning in the fall of 2018, and Jenny having grown up in Connecticut, we were looking to move full-time to New England, and really wanted to rescue, or just love, an antique home. After searching Zillow for a year or so, and after a couple of trips out east to Maine and New Hampshire to look at specific properties, we were led to the little village of Harrisville, NH after losing out on a couple of other “project properties”. The Moses Eaton Jr. house, as it is known on the Historic Registry, was not as much of a project as we were originally looking for (or so we thought), as the sellers had already done “some” restorative work in the fifteen years they had owned it. There are certainly many things to do with the house, and the barn needs more than a bit of TLC, but we loved the rural location, the site, and the historical character of the home. After looking it over, and actually spending a night there (the house was used as an AirBnB), we decided to call it home, and became just the fifth family to own this 227 year old home. We closed on October 31st, 2017. 

Our house was built c1790 by Daniel and Abigail (Drury) Warren. Daniel was born in 1752 in Westborough, MA, while Abigail was born in Shrewsbury, MA in 1751. Daniel and Abigail married on May 18th, 1775, just days before Daniel left to fight at Bunker Hill. The Warrens were long time residents of this land, with Daniel’s great-great-grandfather John Warren arriving from Suffolk, England in 1630, (just ten years after the landing of the Mayflower). John Warren arrived on the “Arabella”, the flagship of an 11 ship fleet commanded by Governor John Winthrop, which then founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Daniel was a Minuteman, answering the call of Lexington to fight in Concord, then on to Charlestown. He then enlisted in May 1775 with the Selectmen of Waltham, MA, married Abigail five days later, and within a month, was at the Battle at Bunker Hill under Col. Thomas Gardner, and at Horseneck, Stamford, and continued to serve various enlistments until August 1780. At that time, he received $40.60 (we assume Continental dollars, as our current currency didn’t exist yet) for his last six month enlistment, and made his way back to Abigail at their home in Peterborough, NH. In 1790, he purchased 176 acres on a small rise on the Nubanusit River overlooking the Wapack mountains, Mount Monadnock, and Mount Skatutakee, from one of the original Masonian Proprietors; Range 9, Lot 2, which was at the time part of Dublin, NH, and built our little farmhouse. They went on to raise eight children in the house before selling it to William Davis in 1826. Daniel passed away in 1833, with Abigail following in 1840. They are buried at the Dublin town cemetery just down the road. In 1833, William sold the house to Moses Eaton Jr.

Moses Eaton Jr. was a man of some acclaim as an itinerant stencil artist like his father. There is still a section of wall in one of the parlors that shows Moses Jr’s original stenciling from about 1840. He became known as a flax farmer after settling here, weaving it into the best linen to be found.

A conservator from the Center for Painted Wall Preservation visited and copied the pattern to finish out the room in 2005. The home has been featured in magazines, and is well known to Moses Eaton Jr. followers. Moses Jr. married Rebecca Plant, raised three children, and lived here until his death in 1886. The house remained in his family for six generations.

Our house is a simple, yet elegant, farmhouse, with sidelights at the front door, grand-sized parlors, and unusually tall ceilings for the time (9-1/2′ tall!) It contains 4 fireplaces within its massive chimney, with one of the largest flues our mason had ever seen. It still has its original cooking hearth with beehive oven. 

The house still contains a few original features, such as the wide-plank floors, paneling, and a few pieces of hardware. Most has been lost to time, past renovations, thrown out, or sold off. The modern kitchen is now in the ell, in an older section which was likely at one time the summer kitchen. There is a portion of chimney in one wall, which we make use of for a wood stove. 

The barn, dated to the same time frame as the house, is a hand-scribed English Bay Barn, with gunstock posts and Dutch tie beams. It was originally built in the field that is now across the road, but was moved (in one piece) in 1858 to its current site, and turned into a bank barn. At some point, likely in the early 20th century, the barn was shortened by nearly half due to rot and structural failure, which is why the stone foundation extends quite a bit beyond the barn. Then a two-story shed addition was added to the back wall. The 2-story ell (connecting the house and barn) was built at this time as well, but the barn is in critical shape, as the foundation is failing due to severe frost heaves. After generations of animal waste being slopped under the barn, the soil is so water-logged that it creates huge frost heaves (20+”!). Every time the barn goes up, it doesn’t necessarily come back down in the same place, knocking the boulders that make up the foundation in. There is also high ground water under the barn, adding to the rapid failure of the foundation.

The property has been cut up over the years, and is now roughly 2.3 acres. It contains an old stone foundation behind the barn, which we were told was an old blacksmith shed (we think Daniel was a blacksmith). There is also an old shed out front, about the size of a one-car garage. We were told that in the early 20th century, the shed housed an early 20’s Ford Model TT one-ton logging truck. (We did find remnants of such a truck in the woods across the road). There are lots of very large boulders scattered about, many types of trees, including pear, maple, hemlock, oak, black birch, ash, and others. Our vision is to restore the house to reflect the time of Daniel and Abigail Warren- its first owners, but with plumbing and climate control. And power tools. Sadly, we received no information or artifacts of this house’s past. We will be doing our own research, and will put together a binder and keepsake box to keep with the house as it gets passed on to its next caretaker.

The next post will be a tour of the house as it was when we started…. stay tuned!