Garden of Weedin'

Well, spring came back this year. We had some very beautiful,

warm days in early April. It gave us a head start on garden and yard work.

Even with all the work to be done inside, the weather was so beautiful,

it was impossible to stay inside.

Sand, salt, and plow marks covered the grass and tore into the ground.

It looked so bad that I thought about entering the "desperate landscape"

competition, but, because our house is so cute, I thought... we would never win.

We are lucky to have such nutrient-rich soil. There is a hill of conservation

land backing up to our property. The spring thaw melts right down into

our land. Everything is recovering well, especially the weeds.

I was prepared for the pollen, the black flies, and a long day in the yard.

In the end, I didn't need the surgical mask or the ear plugs. When our hand-me-down* lawn mower started to smoke, I gave it, and myself, a short break. Everything worked out just fine. The following morning at breakfast we read an advertisement on our place-mat for a Yard and Lawn Care company. The next day he was at The Little Brick House giving us an estimate.

*This high-powered work horse came from my sister Kathy's house and before that my Mom and Dad's house in Canton.

It is quite likely 25 years old.

Decoration and Renovation

The Little Brick House has furniture. An antiqued gate-leg table was added to the Dining

Room, and a sofa and lamps were added to the Living Room. Because we are living in the house,

we wanted to add enough furniture to make it feel comfy and cozy, but, not too much furniture

as there is still much work to be done.

The preliminary furniture plans were done early on. Many people don't realize how critical the scale of furniture is to a space. The furniture plan is the number one tool a designer uses for space analysis. It will give you a general sense of how much furniture feels right and how to place it for the best functionality.

Wallpaper and fabric. I looked for inspiration in Marie Finnerty's* portrait. There is a beautiful flower rendered in pastel yellow and green on her lapel. The transom windows are also yellow and green. When I came across a linen plaid fabric by Rogers and Goffigon, I knew I had found the perfect compliment. The walls were painted BM antique white. The sofa is in a stock fabric from Crate and Barrel.

The house has such a simple form. I thought wallpaper in the entry and bedrooms would be a nice choice. And a nature theme seemed to make sense in our "country house". The charcoal gray and off-white printed paper I selected for the Entry is very appealing. Simultaneously, simple and sophisticated. And I think the faded quality will work well in an antique home. The bedroom papers will follow suit. All the decor will be very simple in the bedrooms, the wallpaper will do all the work!

*Bill has a beautiful portrait of his mother, Marie. It hangs in the Living Room.

The Twenty-Ten Sequence

The storm that brought the east coast into twenty-ten was like a dream. Delicately falling snowflakes day after day after day. The Little Brick House was peaceful, in other words... not a whole lot of work was getting done. Sometimes life gets in the way of 2nd home renovations.

I have about twenty (20) items ready to roll into the project and Bill has ten(10) items to get done before any of them can be completed. Patience is a virtue. (3) wallpapers; (1) wall mural; (3) painted floors; (1) painted stairwell; and (12) window curtains...

Bill has continued his investigations in the basement. There was more to be cleaned off the dirt floor, bags full of old bricks, wood, wires, pipes, etc. Now the dirt floor can breathe and Bill can see the ebb and flow of our basement creek. It's looking like the water table sits 5" below the floor. In the recent storm, it was about one inch below! Our house floats.

We received a very thorough assessment of the brick house exterior from our brick mason, Duncan Trails. He will begin work next month and continue to update us as things unfold. His 10-page document included quotes from brick house experts. His approach to a written proposal is so thoughtful that it gives us confidence in his skill and approach to this project.

July-August-September

A whirlwind of mid-to-late summer fun in the sun took us away from some of our work-load in the house...and also our blogging-time...but, we are back now and making up for the lost time by hiring some professionals this season.

We had the 1st floor Brick House maple floors sanded and refinished by G.E.Miller of Windham, Maine; Bill met with a brick mason, Duncan Traills, who will be sending us a "worst-case scenario" cost on repointing and repairing the exterior; I met with artist and muralist, Sandy Howe, to understand her process and to view her portfolio of Rufus Porter-style murals (see 4.4.09 post). We are still planning a folk-art mural for our central room. We are so excited to be making progress, little by little.

By late August we finished* the little, middle, bedroom on the 2nd floor and had our first overnight guests. Miss Erin Heinert and her bff Kelli brought their own pillows and a Batman** blanket and stayed with us for one night. On Saturday night, the temptation of movie-watching got the best of them, and they stayed at the Kimball's Guest House.

We went to our first Fryeburg Fair with our second house guest, Colleen***. It was an old-fashioned country day at a fair. The usual suspects were present...big oxen, little goats, some very large pumpkins, an old red school house, harness races, maple cotton candy...need I say more? It was fantastic. The fair is 158 years old...just a wee bit younger than our house. We have it on our calendar for Oct. 3-10, 2010.

Our 3rd house guests arrived that same weekend. Lisa Reilly and Bill Bomar brought their newest family member, Leo, a six-month-old Pyrenees-lab mix. Leo is really cute and loves to jump and play. He was all tuckered out by dinner time. Our full day of activities ended with a game of poker for matchsticks. Colleen was the winner, hands-down.

*"finished" refers to a room with a new ceiling, painted floors, and a bed w/ blankets and pillows.

**Erin is a college senior and a South Dakota public radio personality! Kelly is her super-fun and adventurous friend on her first trip to Boston and Maine. Because we had a bat siting in August, Kelli thought the Batman blanket would be a great thing to have for protection.

***Colleen was a perfect house guest, trivia-player, poker-player, and all-around great company. We hope she'll visit again and again.

Big Poppy

Today's post is again brought to you by 'Bill'

As we pulled into the driveway we could see all my efforts from two weeks ago, mowing the lawn with a donated mower from Jeanne's sister Kathy, had gone for naught. With the rain forest type weather and fertile soil, the grass, the trees, the weeds and the gardens (see poppy plant to the right) are out of control. We consulted our friend Judy, the realtor that sold us the house and fellow UNH alum, and we will employ her son to cut our lawn on an "as needed" basis. This way we can focus our efforts inside the house.

But before we head inside, some exciting news. Jeanne spotted some new guests making themselves at home in the "single family" bird house out back. The female was busy gathering twigs and I believe the male (with a yellow chest) was surveying the new neighborhood. i'll try and snap a photo of the happy couple!

We did make good progress inside, again with the help of Phil, closing up the ceiling in the middle bedroom upstairs. This room will eventually be renovated into a bathroom, but for now it will serve as our initial sleeping room. With the ceiling structure now level and strapped, we cut and installed the sheetrock in a 9 square pattern to be finished with battens* and a small cove trim around the perimeter. This will allow removal and replacement of the squares for future access and avoid having to tape and plaster the joints, as typically done today.

Day two we took advantage of Phil's son** and his friend to demo the brick hearth and wall that the old Glenwood stove occupied. With a sledge hammer and youth, our demo crew took turns swinging away and chipping away at the brick. It was a battle, but youth won out and the brick was reduced to rubble. Although we would have loved to keep the wood stove, it was not functioning or repairable and it took up a lot of space. With each dollar and hour invested in the kitchen, it looks like we will work with the timber structure we've inherited and not "raze and rebuild."

Work in the bathroom is also near completion and we had an installer give us an estimate $$$ for a new, one piece, linoleum floor. Because we plan on renovating later (when we add the bathroom upstairs) i think we will live with a self-stick tile from home depot!

Jeanne has been busy prepping and painting the living room and actually was able to coax some more wallpaper off the middle bedroom upstairs. We think we see paint behind it, so there's hope to remove it all. Next trip up will be an extended stay over the Fourth of July holiday and hopefully will spend our first night together in the "little brick house!"

* A batten is flat wood stock for nailing across a joint or seam
** Glen and Brent love to demo !

Best Laid Plans

Today's post is brought to you by 'Bill'

Even the best laid plans are no match for an antique house. With high expectations and armed with environmentally safe cleaning products (to protect our delicate septic system as well as the creeks running either side of the lot) we scheduled the water to be turned on at the street by the Harrison* Water District.

All went smoothly, with no leaks or burst pipes, but when we went to turn on the oil fired hot water tank ............. nothing. After fiddling and diddling for an hour and a half i discovered there was a short in the fuse box. No cleaning this weekend! We'll have to call an electrician.

On a brighter note, Gordon* stopped by to say hello. He had removed some trees and a treehouse on the property last fall and offered to remove the construction debris for us at about a third of the cost of renting a dumpster. He had arranged with a friend to burn all the wood scraps for a bon-fire and haul the rest to the town dump.

So, with some time freed up i took to building those bird houses for our feathered friends and if they like them i'll build some more!

*North Bridgton's water is supplied by the town of Harrison, Maine, just to the north.
*Gordon is our local go-to guy for tree service, general home repairs, and all around Mainer-way-of-life consultant.

Rocky the Squirrel and Other Tales

Spring has begun in Bridgton and our recent visit was all about raking leaves and uncovering early blooms. It was the most perfect weather for cleaning up after a long, snowy winter.


After opening all the windows in the Little Brick House, and slathering on the SPF 30 and a new pair of lime-green garden gloves, I set out for the backyard and didn't look back. A yard full of deep, matted-down, soggy leaves and scattered broken tree branches seemed very manageable when compared to what needed to be done inside the house.

There was two very small snow mounds at the end of the driveway, but, we expected snow-out* by the end of the weekend. We started in the front of the property and worked our way back without really knowing what we were going to do with our new pile of leaves: bag or burn,
that is the question...

When I needed a break from raking, I began cleaning the small garden plots. It was too early to weed - I know a blade of grass when I see one, but- grass roots run deep, and I didn't want to disturb anything. When Bill needed a brake from raking, he was moving boulders and rebuilding the stone walls that had loosened out of place. Great therapy.


We are searching for the perfect birdhouses for our yard. We want them to function well for the birds that come to visit with Rocky*. (i.e. we read that the "perch" outside a birdhouse hole, is a no-no because predators can rest there-who knew?) Bill may end up building them himself from scraps from the house and lath that was removed from the window walls in the Living Room. Maybe I'll select the paint colors.


It will be an exciting new season for us. We will never know what we will find upon our arrival!


*Rocky is a baby squirrel that has found our shed to be quite a comfortable nest. He greeted us in the morning and was playing and jumping all over the small trees in the side yard. He was on top of the shed watching Bill work in the yard. He seems to be a very happy little squirrel.



*Snow-out at the LBH was April 20th. I learned the term "ice-out" while working on a project in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee. In general, it refers to the date when the lake is ice-free There are many variations on the definition.
www.me.water.usgs.gov/iceout.html