My Mom's sister passed away naturally yesterday in her 90's; with her daughters by her side and not far from her sister. They were reunited after many years by my cousin since having an older sister still is special! Pictures: Mom and I with our sisters.
Old farmhouses often have side doors which serve as a "main" entrance and this vintage; large pane one is used exclusively. I stripped it while Christian sanded surfaces and glued joints. It is painted a high gloss marine paint from "Fine Paints Of Europe" called "Wooden Shoes" which will blend into the house color and stand out for it's remarkable mirror finish.
The old brass doorknobs were polished with red rouge on a wheel.
The antique windows in this farmhouse are now mostly painted and look wonderful. Those in front (Southern exposure) or on side areas of the house do not have storm windows because of the newer Roxul insulation we added. I love looking through the ripply glass. Recently, an original old barn window was stripped, repaired and had two panes replaced with antique glass from a salvage window.
Alex and Nina have post-phoned their wedding to next summer, but we have their pictures in Boston while the weather is lovely still. (photos by Alex Paul Photography)
The front porch now has new column trim and an apron. Old white primer on the columns was stripped to raw wood and newly primed. All (including a new step and skirt) will next be painted "White Dove" by Benjamin Moore, with the bead board ceiling a marine gloss in the same color. The house itself will be painted a creamy "Navaho White".
While the porch roof was jacked and supported, the new front porch floor of Meranti Mahogany was installed. Copper flashing was used against the building and clear pine boards will wrap around the lower apron.
We will wait until next Spring when the floor has weathered and wood grain opened up, to apply "Coronado Maxum 7300" translucent deck and siding stain. This is an oil based sealer by Benjamin Moore.
We are splitting the enormous Siberian Elm logs for next winter's wood, from two felled and fading trees here. Luckily the wood is quite easy to split with a log splitter except for it's size, and snaps apart quickly. Four of us split about a third the wood; will split a third more for our two houses and give away the rest. Meanwhile, Christian and Leif are hand splitting an enormous fallen pine tree in the upper field for fire pit burning.
All bark from larger logs has been peeled off and stacked by the stream to erode since burning it produces too much smoke. The fire pit wood is stored in the small animal barn now.
Carrara Marble in an old farmhouse seems a natural and timeless addition. The new backsplash of subway tiles match the counters and frame the old window of wavy glass. We used Jeffrey Court tiles spaced 1/16" apart with white "Versa Bond Professional Thin Set Mortar" from Home Depot, and "Avalanch" Mapei Grout with "Miracle" Tile, Stone and Grout Sealer from Lowes. "Home Art Tile" did the installation with two professionals in one day.
Christian has also cleared the nearby downspout drainage pipe of a 15 ft. twined mass of roots leading out to the road, barely discovered by running a water hose through it. The entire clog was pulled out by hand and he is now trying to restore the old well pump housed by a lovely round stone well reservoir underground and next to it. The connecting pipe shows this well to be the original water source to the house when built.
After digging holes for new porch foundation footings, Bill mixed up concrete to cement the house foundation wall now dug out and exposed. Eight inch diameter by 3 ft. deep footings were poured under the front porch columns next and our cement mixer was out of the barn in use again
When I first saw these enormous half sphere modern concrete planters, I thought of putting them on two gigantic elm stumps to be created here. Now that the two very old Siberian Elms have been taken down, I ordered planters from Paolini's in Easton, PA to be custom made. Christian has picked them up in his truck and we face somehow unloading and placing them in the midst of so many logs yet to be split. They will be planted with Little Lime Hydrangeas like the concrete driveway planter.
Bill is up at Old Farm finishing corner repair work to the garage. Trim boards were painted first and then added before cedar siding was installed. In between this work, Bill has hauled a chipper here to make mulch of the many fallen branches that have piled up and will now cover the new garden beds.
Bill is now repairing one of the old barn windows in the worst shape. Six or half of the very old wavy glass panes were broken between two sashes, and all frames were sanded down to wood before being primed. Finding such old glass window panes isn't easy and we removed all from historic windows stored here. Below is the opening.
