In memoriam

We recently received news of the passing of Wilbur Trask, who lived with his family in the Wee House for over 40 years.  Due to our Title Troubles, we had the opportunity to speak a bit with Wilbur and his son Lee, who shared vintage images of Lord’s Square with us. Wilbur was 92.

We located Lee and Wilbur through the wonders of Facebook and in doing so, I came across pictures of the Trask Family in the Wee House. (I hope no one objects to be posting them; if so, please leave a comment and I will remove them.)

This shot is in the front room. The Christmas tree is in the corner where our recliner is.

 

Here is a shot in the backyard.

When we began demo’ing the kitchen, we found this 1959 Norman Rockwell calendar behind the wall, which inspired us to leave our own mark (note my premature use of our now shared last name!).

I’ve sent the calendar to Lee for his keeping. 

From Wilbur’s obituary, we know that he was born in Peabody, but moved to Ipswich as a child.  He lived in the Wee House with his wife Dorothy and son Lee.  He was a photographer and a clammer, and worked at Sylvania (now OSRAM SYLVANIA) in Danvers for 38 years, which explains all the Sylvania posters we’ve found in the barn. His obituary also mentions “he enjoyed creating painted decorations that he displayed on the barn door of his High Street home.” I love that.

As we do our round of renovations, it’s clear that Wilbur also put a great deal of work into the house, as did the owners after (and no doubt before). This is just another testament to a simple truth about old houses: we’re just passing through, but the house remains and it bears witness to each family and their lives.  Some people might be unnerved by that but I find comfort in it, perhaps because I’ve spent my life in old houses. And though those families are gone, I still feel their echoes.

Rest in peace, Wilbur.

A laborious Labor Day Weekend.

Hard to believe it’s Labor Day Weekend already. Our goal this summer was to do the mudroom and so it is fitting that the Friday of Labor Day Weekend, we started the mudroom. Sometimes that’s just how it goes.

Here’s a couple of Ryan’s fancy Auto-CAD drawings to give you a sneak peek of the plan:

This is how I like to plan things out:



But before we get to that… what the HECK have we been doing?

Well, we’ve enjoyed some summer weekends away (Acadia, NEK, Wareham); saw some friends get hitched; were "occupied" tent city style by some of our dearest bachelor friends for a four-day run; made it to a Phish show; had a fancy time at polo; and hosted Nick and Andrei for a sleepover one weekend.

We also worked on the yard a couple weekends... no major changes, but we did cut back the tall lilacs so hopefully we don’t have another situation like this:

We've also continued work on the sideboard/cabinet and it is very close to being done.





I’ve been enjoying my new toy, a palm sander (and kicking myself for not having bought one before now).



The remaining to-dos on this project are:

1. Finish the doors
2. Cut shelf
3. Paint cabinet, shelf and doors blue; paint columns white
4. Attach shelf
5. Attach doors and hardware (we have a fun plan for that!)
6. Attach top and edging
7. Stain and polyurethane top

We are very eager to finish up the cabinet, but the timeline on this is not impacted by the impending colder weather. Hate to be a downer and say winter’s coming, but last year we had our first snowstorm on Halloween! Once you factor in the weekends we have free… ticky tocky!

My high-priority item right now is getting the windows in shape for our Wedding Window Treatments (WWT). They need to be prepped and painted before it gets too cold since I’ll have to open the windows to paint one sash at a time. Anyone up for a painting party? :)

Regardless of the order of “my” projects, this frees Ryan up for the mudroom.



Our makeshift stair into the mudroom won’t survive another winter, so our hand is being forced a bit on this project, but then again, Deadline Driven Results are a good thing.

On Friday while I was at work, Ryan checked out the Building Supplies Outlet. WHY have we not gone to this miracle world sooner?! Live and learn.

This all-wood fir beauty came home with Ryan for a bargain basement price of $200.



Interwebs, meet our new front (side) door. Quite an upgrade from our current first impression.

Here are the before shots:

Our goal is to get the exterior envelope of the mudroom done before it gets cold and then complete the finish work inside over the winter. Ryan got a great start on things Friday and I managed to escape the majority of demo this time around (small blessings).

First thing Saturday, Ryan took a look under the house to figure out where the posts for the eventual deck would land. After locating our sewer line (don't want to mess with that!), we gave it a good 18-inch berth and determined that the deck would be 11-feet lengthwise by 4.5-feet deep.

Ryan then finished up demo and began closing in one window.  The other window will become part of our new entrance.

My project of the day was removing our lovely veggie garden, which has thrived these past few summers no thanks to me. For whatever reason, the garden (especially the tomatoes the Phantom Gardener planted, along with everything else) has loved the exposure.

I moved the basil, oregano, chives, and thyme into some pots and found a spot for them, and moved some of the creeping phlox over to the raised planter on the side of the house.  Happy to report that so far, it seems to have been a successful transplant.  

The rest of my day was spent moving earth bucket by bucket out of the planter.  Our wee yard swallowed it all up.  I moved a good portion to in front of the barn and along our fence we share with neighbors to the south. My dad had already transplanted some lilacs to that space and since I was feeling ambitious, I also transplanted a shoot in the new soil... fingers crossed!

I deposited the rest along the opposite fence, which borders our neighbors to the north, and slopes down  rather dramatically. More work on that to follow, but it was a spot that could absorb some additional soil.

We really got down to business on Sunday. Ryan started out the day by breaking down the raised bed (empty, thanks to MOI!), cutting an opening for the new door and building the frame for it. He also cut back the existing roof to accept the new gable end.

After securing the door frame, things really got fun.  Ryan framed out the gable on the ground, hoisted it up onto the existing roof and with my help (and blood, and sweat, and tears), my Dear Husband essentially rough framed our new entrance solo. The columns on either side of the gable are just temporary supports and are not a part of the final design.

A Very Eventful afternoon was capped off by the addition of a ridge to tie the new gable end back onto the roof and then a very welcome stop by from Frank and Cathleen to see our progress.

On our final laborious day of Labor Day Weekend, Ryan added box beams to either side of the gable and I got a crash course in rough framing and geometry (or trigonometry? not really sure) to determine the length of the beams. Later on, I had an education in rafter measurements and though I'd sworn I wouldn't get back on that roof, helped as best as I could (and by that I mean, held things and stayed out of the way) as Ryan added 6 rafters to the new gable entrance.

The final result will be a much smaller mudroom, but we’ll be gaining our first closet on the first floor. I’m particularly excited to have a home for our vacuum cleaner which for the past two-and-a-half years has been a bit of a nomad, roaming rather sadly from room-to-room.

Then there’s this, and my oft-threatened deadline of Christmas.

I’m pleased to report that we have selected our gas fireplace system and insert, have receive a quote and are just steeling ourselves to bite the bullet and place the order. The installation will pull Ryan away from the mudroom for a weekend (also weather deadline driven since it involves cutting a hole in the side of the house), but I will be primarily in charge of putting it all back together.

Current plan is to use some ceramic tiles that are a very convincing slate as the surround and hearth. The mantel needs to be prepped and painted – another “to do” before the cold. We will also add the final trim around the flat screen. And yes, it will be done by Christmas.