new blog

I have a new blog on typepad. Our Life On The Hill

Our roof progress

Here are some roof progress pictures. As you can see it's a dirty job! We are saving so much money by doing it ourselves though.

Finally, this is what one of the finished sections looks like from the ground. It's so much better than that hideous green, don't you think?

Wow, I've neglected this blog

I can't believe it's been over a year since I've blogged. I have so many things to share. I guess I'll just jump right back in.

We have alot going on with the house. We are in the process of doing the roof. It was a total tear off, and the original cedar shakes were still there with 3 layers of shingles over them. I could hear the house breath a sigh of relief when the roof came off.

We also have more of the exterior done.

The barn

These are pictures of the barn that Jerry took down. I'm just glad that Jerry was able to do it, so we could salvage the wood to use on our barns. I hate that the owners wanted it gone, it was such a beautiful barn.

Wow, it's been a long break!

I kind of took a break since we weren't working on any HUGE projects. Let's see, we did get our outdoor furnace in and it's working great! It's so nice not having a gas bill! lol

We have done a few small decorative projects, like my daughter's bedroom, family room and the toyroom.

We are in the process of working on one of the small buildings. It was a milk house and we are going to use it as a chicken coop. It's going to be really cute. Of course, the previous owners also let this building go, so we are having to replace some of the wood. I will be sure to share pictures of it. We will paint it to match the house, and I have an adorable chicken weathervane that I'm going to put on the cupola.

Jerry is in the process of tearing down an old barn. It always makes me so incredibly sad when a barn is torn down, especially when the barn still has good bones and pretty good skin! It's a barn that I have loved since I was a child. I remember the farmhouse with this barn burning when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, in the early 80's. We could see the fire from our house. The barn has stood on this pretty homestead property all these years, admired by many. It is owned by a family that has formed a corporation. They want it torn down so they don't have to pay the taxes on it anymore! :( They farm a ton of land. The only silver lining is the fact that my husband is the one that gets to take it down and salvage the wood. We plan on using the wood to reside our barn, because our poor barn's exterior is in SAD shape! So, this wood will get a 2nd life. We also plan on using the wood for our porches. I will share pictures of this barn soon. This corporation also has another barn, possibly 2 more that they want taken down, so Jerry is really anxious to get those jobs as well. There is a house with one of the barns, and it's just gorgeous. It's been let go for many years, but it's awesome! The family that rents it now, farms for them, and is in the process of building a new house. My fear is that they will destroy the house too! :( I'll be sure to keep you updated!

It feels good to be back!

Goodbye ugly cement porch!

Last weekend, we tore out the ugly cement porch that was added after the orginal porch was taken down. I hated this porch from the moment we looked at the house. It was pretty old, I'd guess the 1950's, but I'm not positive who added it. We have an aerial picture of the house from 1964 and it was in the picture. I have pictures of the house from the 1930's and the original porch was still there and looked great.

This little porch took much more time than we anticipated. It was about 4 tons of concrete, and my poor husband had to shovel in onto a trailer and then off again. It does look better though. We did fine a wood decking under the porch, and we think it was from the original porch. Of course, it was rotten. The concrete also rotted away the sill plate where it was connected to the house. I never knew that concrete would do that, but Jerry explained it to me. How sad! We have to fix that now, but the bright side is the porch was small and only in a small area.

Our 6 year old son helped with the demolition and had such a good time. He told us that it was so much fun, he wishes he could do that every day and night! lol Of course, our 19 month old son also wanted to help, and had the biggest fit when I wouldn't let him stand near when the concrete was flying! lol Our 3 1/2 year old daughter was great at helping to pick up pieces of the concrete. What a chore! I'm just thrilled that it's gone!

The finished section!

This isn't the greatest picture, but it will have to do for now. We finished the touching up last night and moved the scaffolding away! I LOVE it! It's such a change! I can't wait until the entire house is done!

We used Benjamin Moore paints and the colors are Kennebunkport Green, Windham Cream, and New London Burgandy.

We have primer!

Jerry primed the house on Sunday. We have the body paint and trim paint and will be working on it this week and weekend. The primer ran out before he could do the window trim.