House Update

There is progress on the house! Demolition is complete. All of the old (er, new) flooring has been removed and we can see the original tongue and groove which we will soon refinish. More importantly, the Cancerous Growth has been removed! We can now see the façade of the house as it was meant to be. Removal of said C.G. revealed the stone foundation, along with a corner-stone carved by hand with the initials of the original owner and the date, 1886. This is a later date than we were originally told, but after doing a bit of historical research we had begun to be suspicious of the veracity of the family lore handed down to us by the previous owner. Still, 1886 is old enough! And we were thrilled to uncover some history.

Anyway. Removing the addition has relieved the weird lopsided-ness of the house, but now we can see daylight through the wall where the kitchen will be. There was no salvageable siding under the plaster. So the front of the house must be sided pronto.

This has been a bit of an issue for us. We have opinions on siding. Our opinions being that wood, and only wood, is an acceptable material for siding a home. And real stone, and brick. I hate vinyl siding with a deep and abiding passion. However, we do not have the *ahem* resources to side the house with cedar lap at this time, and the house must be sided. So, we are going to use Smartside, which is a wood composite. I am terrified that I will hate it. And part of me feels like I have betrayed some deeply held principle. But there it is. It must be done. The siding goes up today.

Other than that: The new rooms are framed. We are plumbed. Devin will be putting in insulation in the next few weeks and then sheetrock!

We went up this weekend to “get some work done,” which really means mow. It was a pristine early September day (have I told you how much I love September?), but a frustrating trip because something is wrong with the mower. So Devin spent several unprofitable hours tinkering with the John Deere, while I hacked away at an old “flower” bed in preparation for a new perennial garden I hope to plant. I managed to save a bag full of iris tubers, but mainly succeeded in damaging my back as I hacked through a fierce web of mature weed roots. All in all I cleared out a little square about three feet by three feet. The bed runs for thirty feet along the road.

There is so much work to be done. It is so good for me. I am so tired.