As the above article attests, Mom and Dad have contributed greatly to the mission of Springhouse, but they have decided it's time to retire. I know they are going to be sadly missed.
So, Mom and Dad are packing up their things and moving into the house on June 1, the day I arrive. We have been talking about this for a while and I made some changes along the way to the house to accommodate them. Their bedroom will be in the basement and they will have their own kitchenette and bathroom, for when I rent the rest of the house out. There will still be a lot to do but their space will be finished and ready to paint, and the mechanical room doubles as a storage room, so we can put all of their stuff, plus what I have in the storage unit in Montague, in there when I'm back and they will be able to work away at some projects at their leisure. I'm very happy that they can live in and enjoy the house. It would be a shame to go through all of this and then just let it sit empty for 10 months of a year.
Carter made a site visit yesterday and took the following pictures. It has changed A LOT in a week.
The picture below was taken from inside Mom and Dad's bedroom. That door used to be between the kitchen and dining room. Note the 9 foot ceiling.
This door, originally between the kitchen and pantry, is to the large walk-in closet in Mom and Dad's bedroom. The window was sized to be an egress window and looks out at the Confederation Trail on the back of the house.
This door is at the bottom of the stairs and accesses the storage closet under the stairs. This door came from Kerras.
Most of the house is now insulated! This is looking up the back hall. The bathroom door is at center. The skylights will make this a bright and cheery space, and the window at the end provides cross ventilation as well as a view along the back of the house towards the west. It will get late afternoon sun.
The main floor bathroom is just about ready for the plumbing fixtures. The ceiling is drywalled and the walls are covered with 1x6 tongue and groove boards. The boards will be painted and the trim will match the finely detailed trim of the Parlour.
Another shot of the bathroom. The flooring as I mentioned before, came from the front main floor bedroom which now is the Parlour.
The plumbing is for the double slipper tub which will go in front of this window overlooking the field.
This was taken from the kitchen looking across the back hall into the bathroom. A transom window will be inserted above the door to let second hand light from the skylights into the bathroom.
The craftsmanship is perfect.
Looking down the stairs of the back hall out to the field.
This is looking south at the back porch. The stairs wind to the basement to the right.
The kitchen windows were removed and boarded over for when they reframed the kitchen, but are now back in.
The kitchen will feel a lot bigger and will be very bright. The cabinets will run along the wall to the left.
The doorway from the kitchen to the oldest part of the house was a door, now in Mom and Dad's bedroom. I had the opening widened to 4 feet so the kitchen flows more openly into the old dining room, which I'm now calling the butlers pantry, and into the new dining room, which was the parlour.
This plank wall was originally the exterior wall of the main house. Mike will cover over the gaps between the boards from behind and they will be left exposed. I'll seal them with a clear matte preservative.
This is my favourite part of this photo shoot. Mike reshingled the north and west walls of the porch and used old floorboards for the south and east walls. I think it looks fantastic, and I love the idea of using as much of the original building stock as possible.
Look at how tight the corner joints are. Again, the work is impeccable.
The new porch door, built to replicate the original with the original hardware.
The kitchen door to the porch, now with weatherstripping!
A small bit of chair rail and wainscot in the kitchen that was not removed. The rest will be put back where it came from.
This is in the butler's pantry. I had the little closet under the stairs extended to the kitchen door opening, and the door came from Kerras. This will be the closet for coats, boots, the vacuum cleaner, etc. I call it the butler's pantry because the old built-in china cabinet will go in this room, in the corner where the sideboard used to be.
Looking along the new closet at right through the door to the new Pantry and out the front door.
The Parlour is almost completely insulated.
The second floor is ready for insulation.
The house looks so much more finished with the kitchen windows back in. I asked Carter to take the tape off the windows. Looks a lot better.
Ready for the exterior lights!
Thanks once again Carter. The photos are fantastic, and the work is amazing. We are coming close to the end of Phase I!!!
Nice to have actual insulation in the walls. The hardwood in the bathroom and on the porch door looks nice, is it spruce?
ReplyDeleteHi james
ReplyDeleteThe door is actually pine and the old flooring in the bathroom, back hall and porch is also pine, as are the walls of the bathroom and porch. The bathroom walls are obviously new wood, but the walls of the porch is the salvaged flooring of parlor and dining room, the subfloor below the hardwood, which is why it's so rough. It is apparently full of little nail holes from the hardwood and pretty rough, but I like the effect and seeing the original and authentic condition of it. we can decide later if it should be crack filled and painted, but for now, it's finished. There will also be a pine wainscoting in the Back hall as well. In fact, it might be done by now. Some walls in the basement will have the same finish. The closets will have cedar walls. This will make clothes smell good, but also will deter moths, who don't like cedar.