Happy St. Patrick's Day

We've had a combination of rain and sun this week and a St. Patrick's Day that reached the 60's!  Many signs of spring around the Farm...plus some new windows and a facelift for Eliza's balcony.



Chris and Carl installing the upper windows of
the new family room.





Mike and Ger working on the new roofline above
the old second floor deck.



Weatherproofing the area...

The second floor deck is gone...

Eliza's balcony outside her bedroom gets
a facelift -- preparing the floor for a deck...

A view from inside her bedroom...



Carl finishing removal of the old ceiling...with
the old ceiling down, a new opportunity to insulate!



Insulation is in!  There is a room above the balcony
which will now have a warmer floor!



Chris staining new beadboard for balcony ceiling...



Beadboard drying...



Mike putting the beadboard on the balcony ceiling.



Ceiling finished!  PVC trim to replace old rotten boards.



The last of the snow near the old greenhouse...





A sweet sign of spring.



Another full dumpster!

The deck railing comes off...

The construction crew has done all they can inside until new insulation is put in; while they wait for that to happen, they have gone back outside and are working on the removal of the old deck and replacing some windows.



Before:  awaiting arrival of new windows (over new mudroom)



New windows are in!  They are "awning" style windows
which mean they don't slide up and down but open
out like an awning.  Great for letting in the breeze and
keeping out the rain!



New windows from afar...



The new windows from the second floor hallway
(door straight ahead is to billiard room/Grandma's
sitting room)



New windows looking from Grandma's bedroom...



House with second floor deck over
dining room.  This deck never saw much
use and its flat design caused many water
damage problems over the years, so it is
coming off to be replaced by a gently
sloping roof.  Also, the roofline will change
a bit, again hoping to keep water away
from the house...



Railing has come down; work on new roofline has begun.



A good view of raised roofline





Before:  deck with railing (and old toilet)



Deck without railing (and without toilet)



Eliza sporting a new cast -- she has a tiny
fracture in her thumb so the doctor immobilized
it for two weeks with a cast.  She should be
ready for lacrosse season in two weeks (no
skiing in the meantime, though...)



Cat's still in the bag...



Remember this photo of Caleb mailing his
application to Thayer Academy in December?



His answer arrived in the mail last week...he's been accepted

and will start there as a sixth grader in September!





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!