A great day here on the Farm!

I, Laura, feel absolutely giddy with all the exciting progress and news of the day.  The tree company came back to work more on the Elephant Tree, bringing its skirt up to +/- 12" from the ground and cleaning up the cuts they made last week.  A crew of three have worked hard all day.  The construction team, meanwhile, is doing a lot of "clean up" work, preparing for the insulation which will be put in early next week followed by the board and plastering.  Our team of plumbers and electricians have been here all week, moving pipes, running wires...oh my, the house is so big!  Our architect, Michael Wang, stopped by yesterday and suggested they take out the door and frame along the Stuart Little wall, leaving the closet, but opening that area up even more.  Chris has done that work today and it's looking great.  We are also in the process of selecting tiles for the master bath shower and for the children's bathrooms.  We are ready to make a decision on that and put in an order soon.  See the photos for some other fun surprises!




The screens for the family rooms doors and
windows arrived today from Pella.



Choosing marble tiles for the master bath shower -
trying to match the preexisting marble sink.



An old fuse box on the third floor...



New wiring for...



...a new fuse box on the third floor
(this one has more capacity).



Dermot wiring "Audubon", a
small room off the master bath.



Grandma's sitting room, a.k.a. the billiard room.
Can anyone tell what's missing????????



Barlett Tree Co. working on the Elephant Tree, again.



This is the old "back" door of the house...
now it will have a new life as an inside
door separating the mudroom from the kitchen.



Liam, one of our plumbers, who has moved the
low-hanging kitchen pipes up into the ceiling!



Another plumber working a cool machine that
threads pipes...



Here's that gizmo up close -- don't know the name of it.



Here's Carl working on the second floor, readying
the hallway for the plasterers.



Here's Chris taking out the door and
frame from Stuart Little.  The closet
will stay as it's bearing weight.



Mike, our contractor, sealing the area around the
steel beams so no water will ever get in when the
bay is built.



Some signs of spring!

Friday, March 4, was a very exciting day here in Milton.  Earlier in the week, the project's electrical and plumbing work passed inspection, and on Friday, the building inspector came by and gave our contractor the go ahead to start the process of boarding and plastering.  Also on Friday, we had a delightful visit from two Bartol relatives, Laura's first cousins once removed, Dan and John Sebastian Grace.  It was so interesting to hear some of their remembrances of their time in the Big House (including the fact that the dining room fireplace ALWAYS smoked).  Quite helpful information!  Also on Friday, our two fabulous "specimen" trees, the elephant tree (a weeping beech) and the fern-leaf beech, were fastidiously pruned by a crew from Bartlett Tree Company. 



A sure sign of spring!  The first pussy willows...



Men in the fern-leaf beech!



The Elephant Tree (a weeping beech)

 

Look who needs a haircut!
(That's a human up top)




A member of the tree crew up closer...




A chipper...we kept the chips for mulch.



Some dead "elephant" skin...now wood chips!



Electrical wiring

Another less than glamorous but very essential part of construction is the electrical wiring.  The electrician and his crew of two have been here in the house for weeks taking down old defunct wiring and lighting and replacing them with up-to-code materials.  Fortunately they found no knob and tube wiring which was a great relief as that is a no-no with insurance companies.  Below are some photos of the kind of work our electricians have been doing.



A new switch box in the kitchen.



An electrician's gear.



New wiring in the "sewing room", which will be
the children's shared common area.




An electrician's way of taking notes:  painter's tape.  To this
wall we are adding three light switches and an intercom.



Wiring for the new half bath
off the kitchen.



Wiring the kitchen ceiling.



A new fuse box in the basement.



A new recessed light in the vestibule outside
the dining room.



There's Dermot himself installing the recessed
lights in the cathedral ceiling of the family room!



Four recessed lights and a ceiling fan for the family
room!



Trail of wires...



An electrician's collection of outlets and switches...
note the monster-size drill on top!

Plumbing work

The focus of the last couple of weeks here at the house has been the infrastructure including the electrical work and the plumbing.  For those of you interested in the less glamorous aspects of construction, here are a series of photos focusing on the plumbing upgrades.  Before looking at some of the "finer" touches of the plumbing work, one first has to take into account the miles of pipes that start in the basement and thread their way throughout the house.  Most of these pipes were unmarked and the plumbers have spent hours following them through the house.  Some pipes had been replaced, rerouted, and cut off over time, so it's been quite a feat!  And they're still looking for the pipes to the third floor!



Basement pipes...white PVC pipes are new...



More basement pipes



Basement pipes along with new wiring...




One last shot of the basement hallway pipes




These are a mix of old and new pipes in the basement
apartment where we live. 



The master bathroom.  The "hole" is where the toilet
used to be.  They have spent a great deal of time in
this area while plumbing the new 1/2 bath off the kitchen
below and installing what we need to have a small
stacked washer/dryer in a closet behind the master bath.



Up close in the master bath...



Same view with new piping...




Plumbing the new shower in the master bathroom



This is a copper pan which goes
in the bottom of a shower.  One has
been installed in the kids' bathroom and one
in the new shower of the master bath.




The plumbers made a drain in the pan using a blowtorch.




Master bath shower with the copper
pan installed...

The shower valves are now in place in the
master bath shower




New plumbing in Eliza's half bath -- for her sink



Searching for those third floor pipes -- hole is in the
ceiling of Hernando's Hideaway in the basement.