the mud room is framed in

Martin has the mud room framed in. He needs to frame in for the windows and storm door.

we have electricity

 Central Maine Power, the local electric company, arrived and hooked the electric cable up to the power lines. 

Martin has access to one outlet in the basement for electricity. He doesn't need to run the generator any more.

driveway regrade done, for now

vintage gas range

We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. We started our trip after refilling the electric and water trench. Taking time to try to refill the trench delayed our departure to my mom's and we ended up driving several hours in the winter storm with a night spent in a hotel. We made it to my mom's Thanksgiving morning.

So Friday morning Martin and I (mostly Martin) loaded this lovely Oriole gas range into the back of his truck. It will need to be refurbished. The back and bottom are very rusty. It needs cleaning up and the oven, broiler, and warming oven need to be cleaned up too.

The challenging thing is that the range doesn't seem to have pilot lights and the oven doesn't seem to have a pilot light or thermometer. It will take some practice to learn how to use it well enough to do any baking.

regrading the driveway

Along with the front and side yards, the driveway slopes from the road toward the house and barn. We need to raise the grade. Because it is the driveway, we didn't want to raise it with only sand. Martin is hauling rocks. Those rocks were the foundation of the original kitchen addition, which we hauled and piled on the property line in the back yard. Now we get to haul them into the driveway and then cover them with gravel.

 We've made progress. The driveway is up to the grade that we want across its entire width and from the garage even with the mudroom foundation. The more rocks we haul, the less material we need to buy and have trucked in.

Unfortunately, the winter storm that arrived the day before Thanksgiving, has buried the driveway and the rock pile. Martin is spending today digging out and assessing if he can continue to make driveway regrade progress.

Water and electric

After Martin dug a five foot deep trench from the main waterline to the basement, the Cornish Water District installed a valve and hooked us up.

 Martin ran piping from the water main to the house.

 Then he covered the waterline with 2 inches of hard insulation.

 In the picture below, you can see where the water line comes in through the basement retaining wall.

 Then Martin was able to contact a local electrician who stopped by to let him know what needed to be done to get the electricity run from the pole to the house (underground).

 This trench only needed to be 30 inches deep.

 We are all set and just waiting for the electrician to come back with materials.

barn foundation is back filled

As you can see, there are three courses of cement blocks on top of the concrete pads that we poured.

 Martin needed to back fill inside of the foundation to have the ground nearly level to the top of the cement blocks. We will be pouring a slab once it is backfilled and the weather is warm enough

The picture below has the barn foundation back filled. It took a couple of days with a backhoe and a lot of back-breaking work to spread the sand, level it, tamp and roll it so it is well packed.

Above is the sandpile before the barn foundation was backfilled.

Below is what is left.

The grading is done, planting starts in the spring.

Yeah - no more moving dirt!!

At least for now.

mud room

Martin has the foundation of the mud room backfilled with sand and poured a slab on it. The floor is framed in. Walls, roof, and flooring are next.

a cute little find

Our neighbor with the backhoe came over for a couple of days and moved sand from the huge dune in the backyard to fill the foundation of the barn. He also removed a few small stumps along one barn wall and moved top soil from the driveway.  In the process he dug up this little perfume bottle. We were amazed that it survived being dug up an d dumped by a back hoe, but here it is.

I haven't taken time to see if I can figure out how old it is or what type of perfume it held.  If you get a chance to search and find something, send me a comment.

home stretch

Finally the end is in sight. We just have this little stretch of side yard left to put top soil on and the regrading is done.

cement slab poured for the mud room

Martin spent a lot of time and effort to back fill the mud room foundation with sand from our giant sand dune. Then I got to be a mason tender. We set up the cement mixer and made several batches of concrete. Martin hauled buckets of concrete, dumped them into the mud room foundation and then smoothed them out.

barn roof

 Martin has the barn roof built, sheathed, and weather proof.

stone walkway

I've been collecting pavers to make a stone walkway in front of the house.  The walkway will go along the front porch, in front of the bay window, and to the bulkhead entrance to the basement, that is once I have enough pavers and time to put them in.

barn renovations coming along

Martin has finished putting in the rafters on the barn roof.  He also changed how it was tied into the house with snow and water in mind.

The east side of the barn roof is sheathed.

 The connecting roof between the house and the barn is sheathed.

 Martin has covered the east roof and the connector to the house to protect it from the weather.

Clarification of the regrading

 A friend had some clarifying questions about the regrading, and I realized that, even though I know what the pictures are showing, it doesn't mean that everyone else can decipher them.

The picture below shows the difference in the new grade (background) and the old grade (foreground).  

 I am working in sections to remove sod, top soil, sub soil.  Then hauling in sand and putting the sub soil, top soil, and sod back down.

I've staked out the area that will be a hedgerow between an tigin and the neighbor's property.

 There isn't much regrading left to do. I am nearly at the road.