OOOOOHHHHHH a Treasure!

On the veranda there was a sign that had been completely painted over. Every time I walked through the veranda I wondered what kind of sign it was. You see the veranda and the part off the veranda had once been the local store so I had an idea that this was an advertisment. It looked like tin or some kind of metal. Finally curiosity killed this cat and I stripped it. Now I was careful not to scratch it so I still haven't uncovered the screws that hold it to the wall. But I think it is beautiful, the colours are still so vibrant after all these years behind all those coats of paint.

For those of you who don't know the brand King Cole, it is from the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) in Canada. It is still being sold and I believe the maritimes is the only place you can get it.

Nancy

The Old Red Shack

On the property is a building which is lovingly referred to as "The Red Shack". This building has historical significance since it was used by Willard as a cook house for the men who worked in the woods. Over the years the building was just used for "storage". Most of the "storage" was lots of broken stuff that should have really been thrown away but ended up in the "Red Shack" because I guess it was just easier. This past weekend we decided it was time to clean out the "Red Shack" to:


1. Get ready for garbage day
2. Because we had the metal recycling fellow coming
3. Maybe just maybe there might be some hidden treasure.


Oh well two out of three ain't bad. We certainly got lots of garbage. Two half ton loads that went for metal recycling. And some doors and windows that might be able to be used in the house or at least the glass since just about every piece of glass is cracked in the house. We did find something that was rather interesting was a large bag (about 40 lbs by Clarke's estimate) of red oxide. We figured that Willard (because his name was on the tag) had it to make paint for the barns. We can't think of anything else he could have used it for, what else would a person use red oxide for in the 20 or 30's?


We are not sure that the structure can be saved. The front doesn't look too bad.

The back shows signs of collapse. I didn't take a picture of the tree growing out the side.

Clarke is struggling with the decision. Too me I think it is just too far gone to save but I don't have the sentimental attactment to it that Clarke has. I am sure that the racoon that we found living in "Red Shack" is hoping that sentiment prevails.

Nancy

Now that spring is here......ok summer!

It is time to finish the front of the barn. The restoration of the structure and the inside took place last summer and fall. Winter hit before all the cedar shingles were able to be put up.

This is as far as was done.

My, it doesn't look nearly as crooked with the new shingles on.

With the new window and a new upper door and some barn red paint I think it looks wonderful!!!!!!!

Here is the finished product.

Nice work Clarke.
Nancy

One thing leads to another....interesting piece of history!

Well, remember in my last post we had removed a small doorway that lead from the kitchen to the dining room. When we were removing that doorway a piece of the tiles in the dining room came down and through the hole we could see hand hewn beams! So what were we to do but........tear down the ceiling. I think in the project management role it is called scope creep. Well we creeped right into the dining room and began demolition.

Under the ceiling tiles was, what was left of a plaster ceiling and lath.

After all the plaster and lath had been removed we discovered something that was very puzzling. We knew that we were in the oldest part of the house (1878) so the fact that there was hand hewn beams under all that didn't suprise us but what did suprise us is part way through the room the beams changed from hand hewn to mill sawn which was not possible at the time the orginal house was built.

So Clarke went into the attic and there too was a change in the beams but the interesting part was the very front of the house went back to hand hewn. So we figure that the very orignal house was actually quite small and Willard (determined through process of elimination) wanted/needed the house to be bigger so he cut the front off the house with the windows and doors still intact and moved it forward and built in between and then reatached the front piece.

It is times like this you would really like to be able to talk with your ancestors about why they decided to do it that way or if our assumption is even correct. If only the walls could talk.

Nancy

Kitchen Demolition Continued......

I am not sure it is ever going to end. It just keeps going and going....not the Energizer bunny but the kitchen demolition. It seems everytime we go into the kitchen we decide we should tear out something else. Case in point. After hours and hours of wallpaper removal it came to the wall that encased the brick chimney. I said "I wonder what the brick looks like? Maybe it would look good exposed!" Clarke said "let's see!" So off comes the wall.

We liked what we saw so we are keeping the bricks exposed. This also solves another problem for us because we would have had to redo the wall anyway because of how close it is to the woodstove. For insurance purposes the wall behind the stove had to be made out of non-combustible materials.


There was this little doorway that went from the kitchen into the dining room that had a swinging door. The corner of the wall came out pretty close (too close) to the woodstove so we decided that had to go too! Willard and Sarah again weren't here to explain their reasoning behind the doorway and it just didn't make any sense to us so it's, off with its door frame!

If you look at the ceiling you can see how big this little doorway was. Although the doorway was small, its removal makes the kitchen look so much bigger. This also gives us opportunity to fix the rot in that corner. This is where the old part of the house (1878) attaches to a newer part (1943). When you look at where they join you can see that the old part of the house has birch bark under the clapboards. We are guessing that it was 19th century tyvek.

So the kitchen has one wall torn down to the studs. The rot repaired and reinsulated. The cupboards removed, the floors removed. The doorway removed and rot fixed. The chimney exposed. Now we have to put it all back together but before we can we have to decided about the electrical and where it is going upstairs. Which poses a whole new area of demolition.

sigh!

Nancy