T'was the Night Before Christmas

T’was the night before Christmas, we were in our new house

Not a creature was stirring, certainly not a mouse.

For the house had been lifted, chimney removed with care,

We still hoped that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Mark and Michael were sleeping, crashed on the floor in bed,

While visions of bass fishing danced in their heads.

And Glenna in her sweatshirt and me in my cap,

Had just settled down for a full scale collapse.

When out on the dirt piles there arose such a clatter,

I sprang to my new Anderson window to see what was the matter.

I clicked the black lock and pulled down the sash,

It worked like a charm and opened with a flash.

The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,

Gave luster of mid-day to the crap down below.

When what to my wandering eyes should appear

But the Lacey’s trailer and 8 tiny reindeer.

With Chuck the driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment this wasn’t a trick.

White, black and red trucks with diesel they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Hey Kevin, Hey Junior, Hey Quatro and Paul,

There’s Jack and Rick and Todd and all.”

To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Hammering, sawing, soldering and all.

They cranked the tunes and went straight to work

And finished the house then turned with a smirk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod , past the ridge beam (all 52 feet) they rose !

He sprang to the trailer, to his team gave a yell,

And away they all rumbled like a bat out of hell.

But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,

“Thank you thank you to Paul and to all a good night!”

Grand Entrance

Installing Codfish Cupola on the old garage

The day after Thanksgiving was sunny and warm. It was good working weather and the Lacey boys were back. The big trailer was parked in the driveway again and the tools were humming.  They were going to finish the work on the front porch. It had been quiet around Ladd Neck so it was great to have this level of activity bring back some of the energy from the summer.

Tight tongue and groove bead-board ceiling

The front of our house faces northeast which makes it cool and lovely in the summer time but exposes it to northeast gales in the winter.  So weeks beforehand we had decided on an all-natural look for the front porch that would be handsome and durable. We chose bead-board for the ceiling, red cedar casing for the posts and beams and a mahogany banister.  Throughout the day we watched Chuck calculate the angle cut for every rail support so that all the pieces fit perfectly. Chuck Jr. manned the saw while Kevin swung the hammer. Flashbacks to the summer when the construction was moving so fast we couldn’t keep up with it.  Months ago Paul had hand selected cedar caps for the railing posts for the front porch.  When the Lacey boys finally put their tools down Paul glued and nailed the caps in place. Then everyone clambered up the stairs for a team picture.

Aligning the banister

Paul Pacella and the Laceys

Michael had flown in from Chicago to spend the holiday with us. He was anxious to get to the house to see what had been done since his last visit in early September.

While the Laceys were measuring and cutting,I busied myself raking leaves and running them up onto mulch piles. Michael scouted around the property and decided that he wanted to build a bench on the waterfront. He corralled Chris into helping him carry 2 6x6 leftover porch timbers and a 6-foot 2x10 down to a clearing by the river.  This part of the property had been allowed to go wild, chocked with thicket and poison ivy. Chris and Michael had been assiduously working to clear it for the past couple of summers.  He selected a spot with a  panoramic view up and down the river. And after some tough digging, setting of posts, nailing the wide plank, Michael had fashioned a seat for watching life on the water. 

Mike's new bench with a river view

FLOORED

Floored

During one of our initial discussions with Paul, our general contractor, we discussed what kind of flooring we would like in our new house.  Without hesitation, we told him that we wanted wood. We had installed birch floors in our house in Maine and loved them. But what about the existing strip oak in the cottage? It was serviceable, economical and a good reuse of material. If we chose new flooring, there would be labor expense and environmental costs that would go against our budget and our conscience. So we decided to try and preserve the original flooring if we could. Good weather prevaled as the cottage was deconstructed. Then when the roof was removed the rains came and flooded the house. Chris and I spent a whole day baling it out with mop and a shop-vac.  Then it rained that night and the work had to be done all over again.  After that, huge blue tarps were nailed to the rough openings every night until a new roof was built and the windows were installed. 

Blue light cast by window tarps greet the Goodwins

Last week, Paul brought a floor man around to the house to give us an estimate on the cost of installing new floors and reconstructing the old ones. This fellow’s assessment was to rip it all out and start over. I was shaken.  No, we would not abandon our plan, not after 6 months of effort. Needless to say, I asked Paul to bring in the next man from “his ark”. Sturgis St. Peter told us the floor could easily be fixed. He even suggested that Chris and I help keep our labor costs down by helping. Chris pried up the old boards and I hammered out the nails. And at the end of the weekend we had a very respectable pile of boards ready for reuse.

New oak flooring arrives

Last week 700 linear feet of new oak was delivered. It sat in the house for a week acclimating to the humidity and the heat. Then on Tuesday Sturgis and Wally moved their tools in and got ready to work. I have been painting in the kitchen so every once in a while I leave my ladder and peak into the other room to see how the work is progressing. It is quickly becoming a whole floor again, a mosaic of fresh blond wood and old dark boards.

Weaving the new and old oak floor

I am grateful to all the people who helped us save the old floors. These boards have history and meaning for our family.  For fifty years they have been crawled on by toddlers, trampled on by kids, scuffed on by summer visitors, stomped on by workers and now danced on by Chris and me. 

PLASTERED

Plastered

The walls were hung in a day and a half with blue board, and plastering started the same  afternoon. Robert Litchfield and his crew of two worked so fast that I hardly had time to get to know them before the job was done. Within four days, all the walls and ceilings were a smooth light gray that captured the sunlight and cast shadows playing in the corners. 

The original cottage had textured ceilings that were popular in the 1950’s.  Robert told me that some people still requested them, but I wanted a more contemporary look. Holding a wide trowel with one hand, and balancing a hawk topped with plaster in the other, he dragged wide swaths up the wall finishing off in an arc over and over again. I found myself mesmerized by the continuous motion. It reminded me of the side stretch yoga poses that I had done the night before.  Plastering the ceiling was not too difficult for Robert.  He stands  6’ 5” and our low ceilings are only 7’ 2” so he didn’t need to wear stilts to do the job. The thought made me laugh as I remembered tradesmen walking around our house in Andover, MA. while balancing on stilts in order to plaster our very high ceilings.

Plastered Blue Board

 After two coats of plaster were applied, Robert and his crew sprayed the surface with water and worked the plaster over and over again to get it perfectly smooth.  It looks easy, but this is a job where experience really counts. After their tools were cleaned and packed up, the dirty paper protecting the floor was thrown in the dumpster.  I did a walk around the house with them touching the walls.  They felt as smooth as silk,  and I told Bob and his crew how impressed I was with their professional work. They suggested that I leave the windows open a crack, with an eye out for inclement weather so the walls could dry quicker.  It will take a week for the plaster to dry thoroughly then I will be the one crouching on the floor and stretching over my head rolling on the primer.

Outside heavy equipment rumbled around and tore into the earth. Our side-yard was dug up for the leaching field. Then the front-yard was excavated for the custom made pump chamber and septic tank.   Finally, a deep trench was gouged from the front steps to the other side of the driveway to connect the two. It seems as if there isn’t a single bit of the yard that hasn’t been violated. Viewing all this mess as well as the unattractive workmen’s “Bouse House,” I thought again about how much simpler it would be to have composting toilets.

Big Digger Creates the Leaching Field

Oh well as the saying goes, it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, and

I’m starting to think that it is going to be too late to plant grass seed this year. 

Warm and Cozy

After months of research, our house is now insulated with dense pack cellulose. Everything I had read and heard from other people in the energy business indicated that this was the stuff for us.  We chose Coastal Insulation to do the job because of their experience with cellulose and their cost effective bid. Before work began, Paul and Chris had multiple conversations with Manny, the owner of the insulation company,  so we would know exactly what to expect with the route we were taking.

On Thursday, Alex, the site-prep man, showed up at the house with rolls of netting and his rapid-fire staple gun. He carefully explained to me how he was going to secure the netting over the studs and strapping to make it as tight as possible. I watched as he stapled the netting on the very inside of all the studs so no cellulose would migrate. Apparently, if this happens it makes it more difficult for the installers to hang the sheetrock.

stapling netting

Alex finished all the ceilings by the end of the day and returned on Friday to do the walls. As he worked he told me about his life as a law student in Brazil, subsequent immigration to Boston, meeting his future wife, and how proud he is of his 7 year-old son's progress in school. He also told me that he was sorry that he would not be the one doing the cellulose installation.

Early on Saturday morning a team of 6 arrived from off Cape to do the job. With my dust mask firmly in place, I took on the roll of observer, watching as the team attacked this simple yet laborious process.  Two blowers were set up in the front hall along side the bales of cellulose. All day long big chunks of the stuff were fed into these machines. It was quickly propelled through the tubing held by Brian, the foreman and shot out into the cavity. Within minutes a portion of the wall filled up. Another cut was quickly made in the net to insert the tube again to continue the job. When the tube was moved and some of the cellulose fell on the floor it was simply swept up and put back in the machine, leaving no waste.

cellulose blower

Currently, I am reading a book about the 1930's Dust Bowl called The Worst Hard Time, and I am reminded that those pioneers also used newspaper for insulation. "Some nesters even arranged the papers in neat, horizontal rows, so they could read the fading news stories." But I didn't need Chris to remind me that rodents also use it to line their nests in the walls. Fortunately, critters are repelled by the boric acid impregnating the cellulose.

As soon as the machines were turned on, the room became hazy with dust. Everyone wore masks but no one covered their eyes. Within minutes it started to bother me so I grabbed a pair of goggles from the garage. I'm sure I was a sight with mask, goggles, and hair up in a baseball cap hiding behind the camera. While work continued on the first floor several members of the crew worked on the installation of Ecotouch fiberglass batts in the crawl space under the house. By five o'clock the house was swept clean and the job was done. It is going to be a very tight house. The next step is the insulation inspection that we hope will happen in a day or two.

cellulose ejected into ceiling

Out on the riverfront we have been experiencing astronomical high tides. Yesterday, I watched as water covered the parking lot next to us. Fishermen who left their trucks and trailers there earlier in the day were going to return to wet tires. Inspired by the high water I dragged my kayak down to the river for a paddle upstream. Along the way, I noticed the gritty gray berries on the bayberry bushes flanking the path. I grabbed a couple off a stubby branch and crushed them between my fingers. The pungent smell always reminds me of the early settlers who used to boil these berries to collect the wax for candle making. As I paddled down the river past the old 1920's mansions, my mind drifted between the economic problems facing a newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt and the ravages of the Oklahoma panhandle and the challenges of the Pilgrims in a new land who discovered that this fragrant berry could provide them with light. It is reassuring to consider that in spite of all this we persist and endure.

Inspection Time

South Side

Jack and his assistant Chris have finished the rough plumbing and it has already been inspected.
Somehow  they also maneuvered the furnace under the stairs and it is ready to be hooked up to the new gas line that was installed last week. Rick is almost done with the rough wiring and it will be ready for inspection soon.  Each has packed up their tools and equipment and we won't see them again for awhile.

Furnace

 Robbie has shingled the whole house finishing up around the front door and it looks mighty fine. It seems that he has been around most of the summer  and we've become accustomed to his banter and are sorry to see him move on.

So we turn our attention to insulation next. We are busy comparing the different types and getting bids from 3 different contractors. I am well aware that conventional fiberglass insulation will be the most cost effective but dense pack cellulose was high on my list of green things that I wanted to use in the house. But again it will all depend upon the cost.

We certainly have had our encounters with fiberglass insulation. When our water heater leaked last December Chris had to crawl underneath the house and remove a lot of it. The rest of it we took down with garden hoes when the house was off its foundation. After 25 years it had become really nasty stuff and I swore I never wanted to see it again. Spray insulation has become popular but it is a lot more expensive to install and it is made with petroleum so I just don't think that it is environmentally friendly. Dense back cellulose insulation has been around for a long time. It is simply recycled newspaper that is shredded and pulverised. Then the fibers are impregnated with non toxic borate compounds . This makes it fire retarding, rodent resistant and mold and mildew inhibiting. It also makes a great sound barrier. The process entails stapling netting to the interior framing and blowing cellulose into the wall and ceiling cavities filling every nook and cranny around pipes, wires and recessed lighting fixtures. That's something that fiberglass batts can't do.  Tests have shown that cellulose insulation resists air infiltration 40% more effectively than conventional insulation.  We know that it is going to be more expensive but we are willing to pay a bit more for a green product.

Lake Wequaquet boathouse

I think that September is the most beautiful month of the year on Cape Cod. Generally it is warm and sunny. The light is deep and heavy with color. Tourists have returned home and the kids are back in school so there is less traffic on the roads and fewer people at the beach. I didn't take much beach chair time this summer but I plan to now. The water is still comfortably warm and the kayaking is easy because there aren't as many power boats around. I plan on swimming until it just gets too cold. Years ago my father kept track of his first and last swims at the lake by recording them on the boathouse wall. Reading his bumpy writing on the boards, it looks like the latest swim he ever took was September 24th in 1989. I'll see if I can't beat that.

Weathered the Storm

The house didn't sustain any damage from Hurricane Irene, but the people who have been building it would have told you that. All along they have been telling us that this house is built like a fortress. We experienced high winds, downed trees and power outages but curiously no rain. As a result the house is covered with salt spray and dust.  The trees and bushes were covered with the same and any foliage brushed by the wind has turned an ugly brown. We won't have a colorful autumn on the Centerville River. But the marsh will turn a lovely tawny shade as Indian summer returns.

We have had Jack O'Connor and his assistant Chris on board for about a week working on the plumbing.  Red and blue PEX water pipes are running along the ceiling from the manifold in the mechanical room in the hallway to the bathroom and the kitchen. Now a days there are only a few copper pipe joints to solder while the rest are joined with a noxious adhesive. They are also installing the rough plumbing for the kitchen appliances and the bathroom fixtures. Now we can see where the sink and the shower will be instead of just trying to envision the layout. It dawned on me in the middle of the night that I forgot to ask Jack about a  hot water distribution system that recirculates the ambient temperature water . So I rushed over to the house to discuss it with him only to discover that it was already in the plan.  Good, another energy saving design.

In the meantime, Paul has marked out  the kitchen design on the plywood floor. We are very excited about the current plan, cabinets and range along the east side, corner sink with windows looking out over the river, dishwasher and refrigerator on the south wall.  People will be able to walk in from the porch, open the refrigerator door and grab a cold one without crossing the kitchen and disturbing the cook.  And Paul is building a large pantry for food and appliances on the west wall. An island with seating for four is also planned for the center of the room.

We have been working with 3 different kitchen designers trying to stay within our budget and satisfy my desire for urea formaldehyde free cabinetry. I have done a lot of research on this and want to do everything I can to ensure a healthy indoor environment. After much deliberation we have finally decided on countertops, absolute black leather honed granite. I have heard so many arguments for and against carrera marble that I am giving up on it.  So I have chosen to go with the look that my son Mark loves.  He assures me that I will love it too; classic black and white that will reflect our windows.

We also spent about three hours with our electrician, Rick Rooney going from room to room discussing what we would like for lighting, switches and outlets. No more unplugging the vacuum cleaner after a couple of swipes and moving it because there aren't enough outlets . With Paul's help we have decided on 22 LED recessed lights for the downstairs. I have never had good light in a kitchen so I am ecstatic about being all lit up. The LED lights only use 10.8 watts as opposed to 60 or 70 in incandescent bulbs. And we won't be changing light bulbs any time soon because they will probably last  as long as the house, 36,000 hours.

Four Seas Ice Cream has put out their end of the season sale sign, " Order your pints and quarts now, closing next Sunday". There's always this feeling of panic about no "Four Seas" until next summer. So hordes of people cram into the little building and stock up. My brother, Peter has requested blueberry and coconut. I hope they still have a quart of my favorite cranberry.