Home Sweet Home

We've been a bit tardy updating the blog. But we have a good excuse - we moved in two days after Thanksgiving! Since we managed to get virtually everything done before moving in, the move wasn't toooo bad. I (Kirk) declared this was going to be our last move though - I'm really sick of the process. This is the place we're going to be buried.

I went around the house with the camera trying to produce a photo tour. It's always frustrating trying to convey the feel of place with pictures. We feel very comfortable here. I hope the pictures convey that comfortable, lived-in look we so enjoy.

My parents gave us the beautiful welcome sign adjacent to the front door. With the windy storms we've had, it has been a challenge keeping it on the house.


















Our indoor porch. The sitting/dining area is in the southeast corner of the house. It captures the winter sun and provides a view that feels almost like you're sitting outside.











Cheryl's pride and joy - an Amish made wood cookstove. Since we're still in the process of getting settled, we haven't put a fire in it yet. It is lovely just to look at though. Pinkish column in background is a temporary insulated window covering prototype that Kirk is working on. We'll be covering some of these big windows during the night and then swinging them up out of the way during the day. Hopefully next winter we'll have permanent insulated roman shades made to replace them. Even without any windows covered the house is holding heat nicely over night without keeping a fire going. Single digit mornings still find us cozy inside with 61-63 degrees downstairs.

To the right is the dishwashing station. Cheryl bought a dish rack that hangs above the cast iron sink. The dishes drip directly into the sink for drying. They are left on the rack until the next usage. How's that for minimum handling? Plus there is a great view while doing the washing.




Kirk's new office space on the second floor. The storage situation and room to work is much better than any previous spot. A great view down our wooded driveway is a nice plus.

















The upstairs sitting space. Suitable for watching movies, reading or just hanging out.















Another view of the sitting area.
















Here are before and after move-in views of the kitchen. For awhile, we were buried in boxes. Since we don't have a cellar or garage, we pressed the 32ft. travel trail into service as additional storage. Gotta stay flexible!

























The poinsettia in the pic was brought by neighbors welcoming us to the neighborhood. We're pleased to say that we already know several of our new neighbors, have even started neighborly helping each other out with the couple across the road and have plans for farming-type collaboration with the family behind us through the woods.

Once we got halfway settled, it was time for another project. Cheryl bought a starter chicken coop so here we are building the chicken run. Early December was pretty mild, allowing easier building weather. Remember to hit the staple, not your finger, smiley!

We'll be starting with 4 laying hens and will expand once we can get a permanent & larger coop built. Cheryl has one customer for our extra eggs waiting in the wings, so to speak.













Ah, the "Hillbilly Hotel" as we've come to call this structure. It started life as a canopy for the travel trailer. But we needed a surrogate barn/garage so we covered the sides and ends with tarps and made it work. The original canopy roof leaked so we threw another tarp over that too. It houses the table saw, wood storage and rough storage for a variety of larger household items. It may not suit Martha Stewart but we're thrilled to have it!
















When we received the copper light fixture for this spot, we were initially dismayed by how big it was. But we liked how well it worked and its looks. So Cheryl decided to buy a street sign and a "Public Telephone 5 cents" sign to create a street scene motif since the light fixture made us think of an old street light. The Third street sign has special significance to Kirk. It's an actual sign from Bay City, MI where he spent a lot of time as a kid.















The view looking northwest with our stylish woodpile out front. Can't beat the woodpile location for convenience though!


Cheryl has linked up with a nearby farm store called Yesteryears Farm where they have commercial kitchens for cooking/baking products to sell in the store. Cheryl has applied for a commercial food prep license for our farm-to-be, Bird Briar Farm, and she, Jayne and Cheryl's friend, Paula, are making plans to bake & cook their way to a bit of income. Jayne will be knitting & maybe crocheting items to sell there as well. Cheryl's working on learning some new, funky ways to bake bread, seeking out intriguing recipes for catching the fancy of farm store customers, and making connections with other local farmers/growers to use their food in her products. One such is Raven Hill Orchard where they grow fabulous organic, heirloom varieties of apples which she would love to turn into scrumptious applesauce, sweetened with Maine maple syrup of course!

Ta ta from Tory Hill

This is our last posting from the rental house we've known as home for almost 2 years. Packing and moving is well under way as we write this. Although temporary, we've really enjoyed living on Tory Hill. Our landlords are wonderful people and we've made some good friends with our neighbors. The new house is not far so we can stay connected.

Over the weekend the refrigerator found its way to the house with the help of our friend Bob, the same great guy who helped put our roof on. Other things happening in the kitchen were the installation of the basic structure of the 7'+ pantry designed by Cheryl which when complete will have lots of slide-out shelves & baskets and circular lazy susans making its entire 19" depth useful space, the pot rack was installed, the floor was finished and the professional chef's floor gel mats were put in place (these make a huge difference to the bod when standing on concrete), and the plate rack from Great Britain was installed over the sink so just washed dishes can be placed to drip dry and then stay for permanent storage. This plate rack took forever to get to us, it was feared lost. When it finally arrived you should have seen the box, if only it could have told us the story of its voyage!

The entire first floor is bare concrete, which you may remember has radiant heat within, we chose to seal & finish the concrete with dark tung oil (the same natural product we used on the wall wood except it's dark brown instead of amber). The floor was washed & dried, oil applied and later in the day wiped with t-shirt rags, then 2nd coat the next day with another wiping. Then the floor isn't walked on with dirty shoes for 7-10 days (we did the floor in sections and made walking trails with waxed paper so we could still get around the place). The floors came out with a mottled look incorporating browns, grays and black and have these funky geometric shapes going on randomly which just occurred naturally. Each room is different in terms of how the concrete took the oil. The kitchen came out particularly cool and we figure people would believe us if we told them we hired an artist to create its effects! It was quite a bit of work but worth it as we are pleased. And we avoided the acid staining that has become very popular lately, which is hazardous and we hear its neat effects fade badly after a few years.

We'll be softening the look & feel of the floors with rugs. Cheryl had a ball finding rugs online getting some great deals on antique & new rugs. She also found some locally via Craigslist, one huge handmade braid rug made in the 1950's by a Newfoundland woman.

Halloween slipped past in a haze of sawdust and oily rags for Kirk & Cheryl, but Jayne who loves the holiday did it up right. She was Mother Earth, her friend Grayson, whom she met doing the production Hair, was David Bowie and they had a great time at several parties in Portland. They spent hours together doing their makeup & hair.

Jayne's been working on her new bedroom. The rug is a genuine hippie 1960's persian! which is a big hit with Jayne. Still to be done is the full wall mural which she designed and she & Grayson are going to paint.



The shower is done and came out nicely. We went with a soaking tub, 2' deep so you can soak up to your neck. The livestock watering trough, which will be our soaking tub (hey, don't laugh, Cheryl got this at the Agway for $83, compare that to several $100 for an actual soaking tub) is not yet installed but it's ready to be. Faucet and drain lines are in putting the tub next to the window for a great soaking view!

Here's our laundry room/extra pantry. It's upstairs and will only have a washer, drying will be on the line which we'll run from outside the window down to a tree. That way heavy wet laundry won't have to be carried downstairs & outside, but rather just pulled from the washer & hung out the window!




We've got ourselves a starter chicken coop for 3-4 laying hens. We're going to add an attached outside run and hope to get started with a few girls right after we get settled in the house. Ultimately we will be building a larger coop for a good sized flock. Then this coop will go to an urban-dweller like Jayne when she moves out.


In the sitting area upstairs we chose to break up the wood look with partially painted walls. This pic shows some of Kirk's beautiful trim work, but you'll just have to come to Maine to really see it! The rug is one of Cheryl's antique finds. We went with pale taupe on this floor rather than the deep sage of the other upstairs wood floors to bring more light into an otherwise quite dark space.

In non-house news...Kirk is still playing his bass at jams about once a week...Kirk's job is stressful and a music buddy suggests that he take up smoking pot...Jayne is doing fine grade-wise in her 2 college classes but hates the formal education gig and plans to seek adventures other than college in the new year...Cheryl was bit by a tick which Kirk found lurking out of sight almost on her back, it was engorged and thoroughly disgusting -- couldn't feel a thing, healing well and no signs of disease...bought ourselves a new used car -- 2000 Honda Civic with 83k miles on it -- for us that's a new car (our van now has 255,000+), we're going to let her stretch her legs on a trip to Michigan for a short Christmas visit to both families to celebrate getting into the house.

ADVANCE! ADVANCE! ADVANCE!

We've reached the hardest part of the project: it feels almost done causing increasing fantasies of it truly being done & images of living in it, almost done is relative meaning there's actually a fair amount still to do, and we're tired of working on it in nearly every available moment. But we are committed to a November move in so we keep on keepin' on. Current tasks are plumbing for Kirk and painting and other finish work for Cheryl. Jayne makes a periodic guest appearance to function as helper to a job needing 2 people or to sling a little paint and then she's off to much socializing with new friends she met doing the show Hair or to work on her 2 college classes, writing & history or her voice work.














In the interest of getting a living space quicker we decided to go with temporary countertops in the kitchen. On the left is Kirk's handiwork in using some used laminate pieces and filling in with a wood section made from the beautiful pine used throughout the house. On the right is an old interior door cut down to form a section of counter, papered with Paper Illusion to look like stone and polyurethaned to help it last for a while.

The middle of September saw red letter days at Anam Cara when our 800 lbs wood cookstove was delivered to the end of our drive and hauled to the house by Kirk & Ollie, our tractor. The next day the guys came with our heating wood stove and installed both beauties in the house. Here's to being toasty & cooking without fossil fuels!


















This is our water boiler to provide hot water to our radiant floor, which is our backup heat, and our domestic hot water until we get our solar hot water put in. Above is the bathroom vanity Kirk made with the vanity top that arrived with both corners broken. Still waiting for another we'll go ahead and use this one temporarily if need be since the damage doesn't affect its functionality.










This is the prep sink. It's handmade from copper in Mexico. The cabinet is handmade from white pine by Kirk in Maine. Our approach has been to use frugality as our guiding principle and then to here and there accent with something more expensive.

Stairwell to the right with Brian's pine sheathing handiwork and an antique light fixture we've been moving around with us for years.







We take time out to notice the beautiful New England autumn all around us. We all celebrated together our first fire in the wood stove. Kirk & Cheryl celebrated their 30th anniversary with dinner out and a dozen gorgeous white roses. And we'll be gathering with friends, the Weyer family, at their off-grid house for Thanksgiving. So we're not completely obsessed with housebuilding.

By the way, the inspiration for the title came the retired general in the movie "White Christmas". Being big movie buffs, we tend to think in terms of great lines from movies.

H.T.S.

I'm kind of late this month getting the blog update out. Brian, our loyal building helper was injured playing frisbee. He has been off our job for a couple weeks, slowing progress considerably. So Cheryl and I have been working even harder to make up the difference.


H.T.S. has become our favorite acronym. Jayne's rehearsals for HAIR or working on the house, this acronym says it all lately. The weather has continued to be hot and humid. Despite that, all us are pushing hard to reach our goals.

Cheryl has become the queen of staining and finishing. Single-handedly she stained 1800 sq. ft. of shiplap siding, both sides. She even did two coats on the finish side. Showing her trademark smile here, she kept at it day after, despite backpain and heat. We did have to finagle a worksite for her that was in the shade all day. With that and a book on tape, she was went at the job with a will.

While Cheryl was hard at staining the siding, I was having a blast wiring. Since this house is basic a timber frame structure, the usual wiring method of drilling holes through stud walls was of virtually no use. After a false start that I'd rather not give the details of (especially since it cost me, time, pride and money), I came upon the idea of notching the foam and burying the wire. This method is similar to what is used to wire a SIP (structural insulated panel) home. So I got an electric chain saw and went to work. WHAT A MESS! Everyday I said to myself, "this job really sucks but I'm one day closer to done!" Last weekend, I finished installing the wire and sealed up the channels with spray foam. Thank you Jesus!


Part of the wiring required a lot of work about 8ft. off the ground. Rather than trying to use the ladder, I made a poor man's scaffold. The 5 gallon buckets are partially full of water. I used ratchet tie-downs to secure the plank and buckets. It may look hokey but it was a very stable work platform. Good ol'e ingenuity strikes again.


















With the exterior wiring completed, all that remains before installing siding is installation of 3 exterior doors. We hope to get the doors set this week. We will finally be weathered in! The siding may take awhile unless Brian can come back to work soon. Let's hope he heals quick!!

The heating/hot water system installation is set to begin soon. We are putting in a tankless combination radiant heat boiler/domestic hot water unit. They are very efficient and fairly compact. We also have 3 cords of firewood on the way and a woodstove to be delivered in early September. None too soon.

This is second floor stairway. I told Brian I wanted an angled pattern to make things more interesting. The only additional criteria was the angle couldn't be 45 degrees. So he picked some other angle and here is the result. It is beautiful. I also went with vertical sheathing on the stairwell walls to emphasize the stairway verticality and relieve the horizontalness of the outside wall pattern.

















Oh yeah - H.T.S. That's Cheryl acronym for Hot, Tired, Sore. With all the manual labor, we both been getting plenty of H.T.S. It is gratifying to see the progress though. The house is actually starting to feel like a home.

Hot, Damn Hot!

For at least the last week, it has been in the low 90's, sunny and very humid. Not the kind of weather a person wishes for when building a house. We finished about 2/3's of the metal roof installation when the hot weather hit. Since then we've been working on installing windows and inside work such as partition building.

The well installation was also completed - yahoo!

Cheryl and Brian have also been busy applying two coats of tung oil to all our beautiful wood. The wood has a golden glow from their hard work.

The chimney people came and installed two Metalbestos chimneys. One is for our high efficiency wood stove and the other is for a wood cookstove. We'll be warm and fed even if the power goes out.

Our friend Bob came over to bail us out on the metal rood installation. Has a quite a bit of experience installing metal and showed. Here Bob and Brian are putting up the first two pieces. They are the most critical as they establish the "squareness" of the rest of the installation. It is difficult to locate these panels square to the house since there little in the way of reference points. Bob is a careful worker and he did a great job getting the roof on the right track.

I was especially impressed by how comfortable these two guys are the roof. No safety harnesses - just furring strips to keep them from sliding off. It's a 9/12 roof and I've been up there a couple times. Not that easy to stay on!











Here I am cutting the metal roof. I'm using an abrasive cutting wheel in my old circular saw to do this job. With sparks flying all over the place, it's not the most fun job. But like many parts of home building, ya just have to do it keep doing it until its done.















Cheryl is busy applying tung oil to all the wood in the house. It looks so nice! And it has a fine, fresh citrus scent.

She always seems to smiling, no matter how mundane the job.












The chimney folks came and cut two big holes in my beautiful roof. Kind of hard to run a woodstove without a chimney though. They did a nice job installing the stacks.



















Unfortunately Brian and I had the unenviable task of installing metal roof and flashing around these stacks. We finally finished yesterday. If we'd know how hard it would be we probably would have never done it. Kind of ridiculous thing to say though since the this part had to get done to have roof.

















Brian and I installing the first roofing panel over a stack. Every part of this job was hard!



















View when you walk in the front door. This is pretty close to the finished lo0k of the house. We decided to go vertical with the wood on the stairway to emphasize height. We are very pleased with the look. It is already very homey.














A view of our bedroom. The wall on the left will have multiple small shelves installed for storing food preserves. We plan on utilizing every bit of space in our new house to store food. There is not much storage space so creativity is a vital ingredient.