The Best Made Plans (for Doors) and Other Adventures

Hello blog watchers,

No, we’re not done adding to this means of recording progress and life that goes on while fixing up “this old house.” So, if you are so inclined, read on. I will try to make a quick, yet clear description of what’s happened since our last post in August of last year.

I reported then that we hoped to remove all the paint from the interior doors and get them freshly painted and installed last fall. Well, out of twelve doors we got TWO finished. Yes, only two. We now know that it takes about 15 person hours to refinish just one door. So in the spring we recruited some help. Our friend Sharon S. took on the task of stripping the paint from the remaining doors in her free time. Sharon stripped paint, Bob filled and sanded and I painted. We exchanged sets of doors in twos and threes.

Bob has undergone an in-depth study of the inner workings of Victorian doorknobs and latches. God bless his patience! So after being throughly cleaned and repainted they are being reinstalled to do what they were designed to do over a hundred years ago. 

On the inside of a door knob...

A doorknob in working order!

Currently we have five doors in complete working order; five that just need doorknob hardware installed; and the remaining three that might be ready for paint this week. 

But last fall we did get the wheels in motion to begin our landscaping improvements. First task at hand was changing the driveway. Though a three car wide driveway was handy during the construction, we prefer using the space for other things like yard and gardens. 

A drawing of our plans for hardscaping and landscaping. 

Click on images to enlarge.

We plan to enlarge the existing garage to allow space for a walk through door on the north side, workshop space for Bob and attic storage. The 20’ x 22’ garage only has room for two cars and not much more. (Right now it is full of everything but cars!) 

Between the house and the garage we are envisioning a three level patio and walkway to the side entrance. We’ve completed work on a kitchen garden close to the side entrance to make it easy to cut herbs, onions and other veggies for meal preparation and a parking pad to serve as a space for guest parking with access to the front door and for turning around when exiting the garage. 

We’ve also narrowed down the driveway at the street end to one car width to make room for a vegetable garden along the edge of the property. That side and the front of the house get the most sun. The backyard is small and shady a good portion of the day. Bob put to use his wall building skills to create retaining walls along the driveway and parking pad. Thank you to Kathy B. for giving us the field stones she no longer wanted to use for retaining walls. We spent three days taking apart flower beds and carting home rocks of all sizes. We had some help, too. Our utility trailer (once a 1978 pop up trailer) gave up the ghost in the process, however. So sad! One too many loads of firewood, rocks and mulch over the years.

We began the project by bringing in the big machines to move things around. Our neighbor to the south wanted to extend his driveway, so we did a swap. We traded his top soil for our extra gravel. Ed R. and his crew got to it with a track hoe and skid steer.

Leveling off the ground for the kitchen garden.
The foundation shrubs were pulled out.

The pile of rocks were used to create retaining walls 

along the driveway and parking pad.

The parking pad goes on this side of the kitchen garden.
The ground level needed to be raised as
our yard has a gentle slope from side to side.

We removed the white vinyl privacy fence that ran between the properties.
We’ll use some of the posts to create trellises instead.

We used a long rope to layout the new edges
of the driveway before spray painting the lines.

Ed and his crew went about removing the gravel and
putting it where it was needed before removing the soil and
putting it where it was needed. Amazing!

Here Ed removed sod with the skid steer so we can
create a foundation for the new sidewalk.

Then winter settled in and painting and yard work was done for the year. Bob built the planned bookcase in the wall of the guest room. After recovering from neck surgery in January, I worked on designs for sawn balusters for the porch and deck railings. As spring made its return we planted trees in the front yard and laid out the gardens. Bob built fun gates for each! No more stepping over the fence.

We decided on red maples for the front yard. We’ll eventually have to
take down the “not so healthy” sugar maple—but we’ll wait as long as we can!
More trees to come later.

Bob excavates the holes. I wasn’t allowed to help
because of healing from my surgery.

I planted herbs, spinach, greens and lettuce in the kitchen garden

Grass is taking hold around the just planted vegetable garden.
I started the tomato plants from seeds inside in March.
Hadn’t done that in a long time.

We laid an underground pipe to drain the front downspouts.
Bob begins to lay out the stones in preparation for wall building.

Bob built this temporary patio with the slate that had been
the front sidewalk out to the street. Eventually we will use it for
the sidewalk between the house and kitchen garden.

Bob in the midst of major puzzle building. The two long rectangular stones are
the steps down to the sidewalk. They were part of the old basement stairs.

We hope to soon post another blog installment so you can see the work that followed this past summer. Until then, enjoy the autumn season.

ChrisAnn (for both of us)

P.S.--I’ve decided that Bob and I are beavers. We like to build things. And like beavers who respond to the sound of flowing water by building and repairing, when we see something that needs fixing we go to work. Hope this helps you understand a bit.