We still have scattered patches of snow on the ground, and still plenty of frost below, but the temps are warming up, and the sun is getting higher. Now that spring has sprung (supposedly) and mud season is in full swing (definitely), we’re waiting for the frost to come out of the ground, and things to dry up, then the contractors will be back to finish up the barn, the drainage systems, yard grading, and rock walls. We’ll admit, living on what looks like a missile test site isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but we have hope that someday it’ll all be worth it- once it’s a distant memory, anyway.
We’ve been busy dreaming and planning what we want the yard to look like, and we’ve just begun ordering some trees. Since reading Eric Sloane’s books about early American life, we’ve wanted to have a couple of the “Westfield Seek-No-Further” apple trees he talked about. They originated in Westfield, MA in the late 18th/early 19th century, so we can well imagine they would have been an apple that Daniel and Abigail would have enjoyed. If we can find any (they’re very difficult to propagate), we’ll plant them down the old cow path (in the clearing to the right of the image below, below the barn) to begin to create our food forest. Then our vegetable garden will be on the plateau just above that area, on top of the rock wall you see in the center of the photo. There is an access door to the lower level of the back barn, just below the large, rectangular window, that we will make a gardening/potting shed, once we install a floor that doesn’t contain holes, janky trap doors, broken joists and other assorted rotted wood. By the way, the larger maple trees you see to the right of the photo below are the ones we tapped to make maple syrup this year.
One thing that we’ve been neglecting since summer is the front entry hall- we finally finished stripping the old wallpaper, patching/repairing the plaster, filling the many holes in the wood trim, and painting the upper walls and ceiling a lovely sky blue, and hanging new wallpaper on the lower walls. The light fixture is an inexpensive flush mount Home Depot light that we modified so that we could use the antique glass shade that used to hang in Jenny’s great aunt’s house. All we have left is to strip the paint from the floor and apply the same boiled linseed oil/turpentine finish as the hearth room. This summer, we’ll build a new storm door, and get everything cleaned up and operating smoothly, as we want to begin using the front door. We’ll finish the front walk once the yard has been re-graded, and we know the level to build the walk up to; we found enough brick in the basement to hopefully complete both walkways (front and side). Here are the before, during, and afters of the entry hall:
We also spent some time with our daughter, Allison, while she was home for spring break, taking one day to drive down to Salem, MA and walk around the historic area, and touring the House of Seven Gables. We found lots of inspiration and ideas for our house, and we saw a house nearby (bottom two pictures- built in 1771) that is exactly what we have in our mind’s eye for the color of our house: dark brown on dark brown, and we really liked the beaded treatment on the clapboard! We also noticed some cool features we can hopefully incorporate, such as the Dutch door (two-piece) for the door between our garden area and the lower back barn potting shed, and the original-style storm windows, which hang on brass hooks above the window frame, so you can just lift them off for summer. We also saw a door within a door (center-right photo below) that the lower hinge is actually hinged in the middle so it works for either door! Clever Yankees.
As far as our day-to-day, we keep plenty busy with many little projects, such as scribing and cutting a new threshold between the hearth room and parlor, finding a wrought “S” hook in the barn to hang pots from our hearth crane, and boiling lots of maple sap (4-5 gallons every 2-3 days). We put some screening under the back porch to keep the wasps, barn spiders, and swallows from building nests under there, and we still have to box in the soffits of the porch, as they’re currently open to the elements and various winged and four-legged critters. There’s always maintenance to do with our vehicles as well, like giving the truck some new front hubs, or cleaning the mud and dirt out of the carpets. But it’s all fulfilling and we truly enjoy (most of) it.
We’re so eager for spring to finally, really arrive, so we can get busy outside. We’re having the last part of the roofing replaced soon (the back side of the house wasn’t replaced with everything else for some reason), and we’ll soon begin taking off the old siding. We need to take down the old cinder block chimney that was used with the old oil furnace because it disintegrated long ago and water flows freely into the holes. Then we can add some insulation to the walls, install house wrap (so the wind doesn’t blow THROUGH the house anymore), then new hemlock siding, which we’ll paint a dark mink brown. We’ll also do a lot of landscaping this summer once the yard has been regraded from all the construction, and the removal of all the dead and diseased trees and stumps last year. We can envision what it will look like, and are so excited to begin the process of bringing it back to life.
Thanks for following along!
Feel free to share, comment, or just say “hi”. Happy Mud Season everyone!
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