Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sanders and Illuzzi

Vince Illuzzi, R, VT State Sen  22.jpg
Vince Illuzzi (R), Vermont State Senator

On August 29 I attended a luncheon given by Bernie Sanders, Senator of Vermont, at the Barton Senior Center in the Barton Memorial Building. It was a very hot day, and the room was crowded. The Senior Center folks cooked the lunch and included food from their garden, which is behind the library.. Vince Illuzzi, above, introduced Sanders. Illuzzi is a Republican State Senator. Sanders votes with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate. Both are good speakers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D (S)-VT   26.jpg
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont.

I regret not posting these photos back then but I am very slow editing photographs. And in December, when John and I moved the server from the porch to the living room (so that the porch could be transformed into the kitchen), the server "died." It was only fixed last week, but that is another story — a very embarrassing story. So these photographs were locked up inside the unreachable server for months. But this August lunch was a great afternoon full of information about health care and military spending.

_/\_/\_

Catahedron

funny pictures - How to Construct a Catahedron
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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Friday, January 28, 2011

Zorro Hunting in the Bird Tree

Zorro Hunts   18.jpg
Not to worry, he never caught a thing this day!

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LOL Cat Bible: Lectionary Readings for Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

 

Micah 6:1-8

Teh lordz case against israel
1 listen 2 wut teh lord sez: "stand up, plead ur case before teh mountins; Let teh hills hur wut u has 2 say.
2 hear, o mountins, teh lordz accusashun; Listen, u evrlastin foundashuns ov teh urf. 4 da lord has case against his peeps; He iz lodgin charge against israel.
3 "mah peeps, wut has i dun 2 u? Hao has i burdend u? Anzwr me.
4 i brot u up out ov egypt An redeemd u frum teh land ov slavery. I sent mosez 2 lead u, Also aaron an miriam.
5 mah peeps, remembr Wut balak king ov moab counseld An wut balaam son ov beor anzwerd. Remembr ur jerney frum shittim 2 gilgal, Dat u cud knoe teh righteous acts ov teh lord."
6 wif wut shall i come before teh lord An bow down before teh exaltd Ceiling Cat? Shall i come before him wif burnd offerinz, Wif calvez yer old?
7 will teh lord be pleezd wif thousandz ov rams, Wif 10 thousand rivvrs ov oil? Shall i offr mah firstborn 4 mah tranzgreshun, Teh fruit ov mah body 4 da sin ov mah soul?
8 he has showded u, o kittehs, wut iz gud. An wut doez teh lord want from yuz? 2 be nais, 2 luv givin 2nd chansez An 2 walk humbly wif ur ceilin cat, srsly.

funny pictures - All he has to do is hang out the WELCOME sign
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Psalm 15

1 Oh, hai, Ceiling Cat, hu gona curl up in ur tabby-nackle?
  Hu gona pet ur fuzy bely?

2 Teh d00dz taht stan up strate,
  flip cheezburgrz 4 minimum w/out complanez,
  n no lyez.

3 Teh d00dz taht not trols,
   not pulz ur leg, not DOS atak ppl,
   n not get retardid.

4 Teh d00dz taht no a trol wehn tehy seez him;
   but greetz 2 teh d00dz taht is chiken o Ceiling cat.
   Oh, n no politishuns.
   DO NOT WANT.

5 N DO NOT WANT d00dz taht lone u mony for cheezburgr
   but wan interist on toozday.
   U r so pwnd!

funny pictures - From the depths of a snowy prison, Basement Cat plots revenge.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” 21
1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? 22 Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?
1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.
1:22 For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom,
1:23 but we preach about a crucified Christ, 23 a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
1:24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, 24 and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 25

1:26 Think about the circumstances of your call, 26 brothers and sisters. 27 Not many were wise by human standards, 28 not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. 29
1:27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong.
1:28 God chose 30 what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something,
1:29 so that no one can boast in his presence.
1:30 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, 31 who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1:31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

funny dog pictures - I can hear Basement Cat.   He's "planning a coup." What's a coup?  Is it bad?
see more dog and puppy pictures

Matthew 5:1-12

teh catitudes
1 Wen he seez lotz kittehz, he climbz tree. His BFz climbz tree too.
2 He sez hai and he teaches teh kittehs, he sez:
3 Cheezburgrz 4 teh n00b kittehs, theys can has teh Ceiling.
4 Cheezburgrz 4 teh sad kittehs, theys can has petting.
5 Cheezburgrz 4 teh m33k kittehs, theys can has teh urfs.
6 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs who sez "I can has gud, plz?", theys can has it.
7 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs dat no pwns, Ceiling Cat no pwnz0rz thems.
8 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs wiff purr in hartz, theys can sees Ceiling Cat.
9 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs dat sez shhhhh!, Ceiling Cat is liek "u mai kittehs."
10 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs dat gets pwned by otehrs fur haz gud, theys can has teh Ceiling too.
11 Cheezburgrz if otehrs be liek "DO NOT WANT" 2 u, an liez abt u, coz of meh.
12 B teh happys n party, coz u can has cookiez n cakez in Ceiling. Iz liek wen theys been liek "DO NOT WANT" to all teh holee kittehs b4.

Weekend Cat Events
Get ready now cuz the wild weekend is coming!
Board the Friday Ark at The Modulator (submit your post here)

Weekend Cat Blogging
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The Carnival of the Cats
(submit your post here)

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_/\_/\_

Monday, January 24, 2011

Thirty Below

thirty below.jpg
The thermometer actually reads -29F.

I've heard a lot of complaints around here about closing schools today because of the cold weather. But when it is -30°F (-34.4°C) outside and you have to wait for the bus, it can be a dangerous situation. I think we can all agree that one day of school is not worth the risk. The chickadees and other birds outside are doing just fine this morning. I don't think a child would do as well.

I took this photograph sometime between 6 AM and 7:30 AM this morning. The thermometer is on our southeast window. The temperature jumped at 7:30 AM when the sun hit it. This is the coldest temperature I have registered at the house in 10 years. I don't know whether it is a record breaking temperature for Barton or not. But on January 24, 1907 a record low of -34°F (-36.7°C) was recorded in St. Johnsbury.

Of mathematical interest: -40°F and -40°C are identical thermometer readings for air temperature. It is the only time that the two temperature scales correlate.

Stay warm out there!

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Mice In the Walls

Sun Porch Renovations   01.jpg
Deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus)

I've written a lot about the renovations to the sun porch. It was my favorite spot in the house in the summer. We would move computers out there for the season. The views were fantastic. We watched moose, deer, coyote, beaver, otter, and all the birds. If we were courageous, we would stay out there during fantastic thunderstorms and try to photograph lightning.

Before Christmas, John began demolishing the porch in order to enlarge the kitchen. We knew this would be one of the most poorly built parts of the house, and it was. We had always heard mice in the walls and under the floor. We even had a mouse leave the porch and walk around the window screens outside! When John took the walls down, the mice began pouring out. Pouring. It was awful. Used to having a "highway" of wall studs to traverse the walls, the mice continued on their paths even when the walls came down. They would stop and look around at the open room, but generally the mice were not alarmed at the lack of walls.

Sun Porch Renovations   02.jpg
This little guy no longer exists — the cats dispatched it.

The night of December 13th was Cat Party Night. No cats came to bed that night. In the morning we found body parts scattered about the house, upstairs and down. There were remains of at least three mice on the porch itself. We can tell who killed which mouse by the way they were partially eaten. Buddy likes to eat half a mouse when he kills it and leaves the other half (the bottom half) for a snack later in the day. Zorro skins his mice before eating and never eats the tail.

I had quite a few nightmares after December 13th. In them, I would walk onto the porch and see rivers of mice pouring out of the wall. There was nothing I could do to stop them and even the cats were overwhelmed by the quantity of mice! Thankfully, the nightmares seem to have stopped. Mice may look cute but they carry disease, leave trails of urine and feces everywhere (which can cause illness) and are very destructive. They are in infinite supply, too. Every animal in the woods eats them, yet their population never declines.

John's construction and sealing of the walls has just about eliminated our mouse problem. There is no more evidence of them in the pantry or linen closet. But we know there are places in the back hall and laundry room where they still exist. The cats continue to carefully watch and listen to activity in those two walls. We will be mouse free very soon!

_/\_/\_

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Kitchen Remodeling

kitchen remodeling   02.jpg
The kitchen floor revealed.

After the new kitchen windows were installed where the new sink will go on the front of the house, and after the sheet rock was installed, it was time to restore and level the floor. John pulled up the floor and found a few things of interest. In the photo above you can see the new windows and walls, which extend through where the sun porch used to be. The old sun porch is now part of the new kitchen.

The original wooden floor from 110 years ago had been cut away and removed in past years. It was quite a loss for me. The original subfloor was constructed from old barn walls. The problem was that it extended over the foundation of the house, so we had ice forming inside the house on top of the floor. The original subfloor was covered with shims, paperboard and plywood. It was flat but it was not level. John had to do some serious jacking of the house again to get it level. But the house will never be truly level in all places —  it will be as level as humanly possible without taking down every wall and rebuilding the house from the foundation up.

kitchen remodeling   06.jpg
A clearer view of the extent of the new kitchen area.

In the photograph above, you can see a square, plastic covered hole in the right-hand wall at the end of the room. This will be a window to the porch. Half of the old sun porch is now incorporated in the new kitchen, and half will be a summer sitting porch that will look down Route 16 as it goes down into the village. Part of the door to the sitting porch is visible on the far right of the photo.The new kitchen is full of light and has clear views of the beautiful beaver bog.

kitchen remodeling   09.jpg
A mouse nest.
You can see that the original wooden floor was cut away here.

And of course, we found this mouse nest under the subfloor! It looks very cozy and warm. It was under the area where Amy and I always had a couch in the kitchen. There is a tiny tunnel to the inside of the nest that you may see on the top of the nest. There was no insulation available anywhere near the nest, so the mice had to manually haul nesting material, which is above the furnace in the basement, to build their home in a warm spot. John is now building a pantry in this area.

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LOL Cat Bible: Lectionary Readings for Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

 

Isaiah 9:1-4

1 Mai proffercy, let me show you it. Iz gonna be awright. Fr Galileliliee anyways.
2 Cats that iz in dark haz evn bettah nihgt vizhun than befoar.
3 Cookies an cheezburgrs everywhrs!
4 Midian no can haz cheezburgrs.

funny pictures - Kittehs uv teh Apokolypz
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Psalm 27

Of David.

1 Oh, hai! CEILING CAT is my cheezburgr.
   who i iz scard of?
   CEILING CAT is my kitteh bed—
   who i iz scard of ffs?

2 Wen skript kidehs DOS me
   to nok me offline
   when trols n lusers atak me w/ teh BFG,
   tehy wil trip on it.

3 If a crew raid me,
   I not chikn;
   even if tehy stole my bike,
   i stil rulz!

4 One thing I askz 4, O CEILING CAT, plz,
   this is what I luk 4. Ready?:
   cheezburgrz
   evry dai, srsly,
   yumy laik CEILING CAT's beleh fuz
   cuz cheezburgrz bring me closer 2 u kthx.

5 For wehn Brian Peppers cums 4 me
   CEILING CAT keepz me sayf;
   he hidez me in his tabby-nacle
   n putz me on top of book shelf.

6 Then i iz lookz down on nmes
   above the nmes taht suround me;
   at his tabby-nacle I will sacrifice a mouse w00t!;
   I will sing "We Are teh Champyons" 4 CEILING CAT.

7 Hear me meow, O CEILING CAT,
   DO NOT WANT u 2 pwn me. Hit me up on mesenger plz.

8 I getz feelin i sposed 2 fynd ur fuz face r sumptin,
   Ur fuz face, CEILING CAT, I luks 4.

funny pictures-kitteh Zen meditashun
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1 Corinthians 1:10-18

KITTEHS FIGHTED IN TEH BOX
10 I saiz, and happy cat sai hai, taht u muzt be cuddly an not fight an stufz.
11 For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters, 14 that there are quarrels 15 among you.
12 Now I mean this, that 16 each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? 17 Or were you in fact baptized in the name of Paul? 18
14 I thank God 19 that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name!
16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Otherwise, I do not remember whether I baptized anyone else.)
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. 20 The Message of the Cross
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God

Funny Pictures - Tangled Web Cat
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Matthew 4:12-23

Happy Cat begunz 2 preech, amirite?
12 Wen Happy Cat founded out dat John Baftis wuz in cat jail he made tracks fr Galaly
13 An staid in Caper-Num by the waters bt he dint tak his bukkit an spayd.
14 Cuz teh wize Ass-Eyess sayd
15 “In all teh base, laik Zabalon n Nefarim n teh c n Jortan (yeh even KT Prys) n Galaly.
16 Happy Cat will turn on teh liteswitch fr teh kittenz dat iz sittin in teh dark."
17 Dat iz wen Happy Cat strted 2 tell teh kittenz, “say yur sory fer bean bad kittehs cuz teh Cat Heaven am at hand btw. srsly.”

Teh callin of teh frist helper cats
18 Den Happy Cat bumpded into 2 kitlins uv same mudder hoo wuz cathcin fish n wuz called Siming AKA Peeter n Antroo AKA L'il Kitlin
19 N Happy Cat sayd, “Comes wit me n u can catch pplz.”
20 N cuz Happy Cat am teh 1337, dey wuz laik, “kthx.”
21 N den Happy Cat met Janes n udder John, hoo wuz vaedy reraxin on a bote wit dair tomcats, hoo wuz Zebedee frm teh Magic Roundabout.
22 N dey also went wit Happy Cat.

Happy Cat heels teh sit
23 Happy Cat tuk hs crew roun Galaly, teechin in teh Ceiling Cat prace n sayn teh Good Mews n heelin teh sit.

Weekend Cat Events

Weekend Cat Blogging
#294 Jan 22-23 Billy Sweetfeets Gingersnap
(see the week’s host to enter your WCB post in the comments for the weekend roundup)

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#358 – Nikita Cat
(submit your post here)

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_/\_/\_

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

My E-Cards at Yankee Magazine


The Angry Hairy Woodpecker
Click the photo to go to the e-card.

The Yankee Magazine web site has free e-cards that you can send to anybody you know as a birthday card, get well card, or simply a post card. You can type your own message on it. All you need is your recipient's e-mail address.

I have begun submitting photographs to this e-card gallery. I have two up now and will be regularly submitting more. There are hundreds to choose from in all sorts of categories. I urge you to use this free and beautiful resource for your e-cards (and e-mails!). Please choose my photos for your cards. I get no money at all if you use mine, but I get recognition. Sort of. And it will make me proud!

With so many e-cards to choose from on the site, I have linked the woodpecker photo above directly to the e-card. Simply click the photo and the e-card will open in a new window.

The male hairy woodpecker in the photo is angry. He is trying to keep another male hairy woodpecker off of all of the suet feeders on our bird tree. The two males were aggressively strutting up and down the tree with their necks extended and their heads pointed to the sky. You can see more photos of these two at my post Quarreling Hairy Woodpeckers.

I will have my e-card links on the sidebar as soon as I have enough to justify coding a widget for that purpose.

And thank you for using my e-cards!

_/\_/\_

Monday, January 17, 2011

The New Kitchen Windows (or How We Spent New Year’s Day)

New Kitchen Windows   04.jpg
The front kitchen window as it was when I bought the house.
Note how the doorway to the living room and stairs is going to be walled off on the left.

The debris from the demolition of the ancient plaster kitchen ceiling had been cleared. The dust was settling. I was recovering and was able to breath easier again, but still was not well. By New Year's Day, John had progressed to the point of being able to install the new kitchen windows on the front of the house. The kitchen area is being moved from the back of the west side of the house to the front. I love the beaver bog across the road and need to be able to see it all the time, so John designed the kitchen so that will be possible. You see in the photo above that the old (but not original) drywall was still in place on New Year's morning. John had to remove this wall to properly install the window and rebuild the wall. We were fortunate that the day was one of the warmest winter days I have experienced in Vermont.

New Kitchen Windows   06.jpg
A ladybug infestation was found inside the old, warm wall.

Besides the "normal" mouse and squirrel damage, bones and feces, John uncovered beetle infestations and this ladybug infestation in the old wall. These Asian ladybugs infest thousands of homes in the north country. I have written about them here if you would like to learn more. All of the pests and filth were cleaned before the work proceeded.

New Kitchen Windows   07.jpg

New Kitchen Windows   09.jpg
Finally, the entire wall was ready for the new window.

The old window had to be removed. John found that there originally had been two windows on this wall, two feet apart. They were taller and narrower windows than the one you see here. See the door on the right in the photograph above? This window was going to replace that door. John found that the Anderson window here was installed wrong and was beginning to rot because of the poor installation. But John's renovations found the damage in time to make repairs.

New Kitchen Windows   11.jpg
The old window is removed and we have fresh, warm air pouring into the house.

New Kitchen Windows   17.jpg
It is now dark and the first new window is in place.
I was able, in small ways, to help install it.

New Kitchen Windows   20.jpg
The 2nd window is now in place.
You can see the old window standing on the floor on the right.

Sunlight now pours into the kitchen every day. The sheet rock is on the walls now (you will see those photos soon), the walls are clean and draft-free, and the kitchen is going to be magnificent!

_/\_/\_

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Bizarre Home Improvements

Bedroom floor restoration   03.jpg
The original bedroom floor is revealed.
The skylight was removed last winter.

In order to properly restore the house, John had to level the entire house with jacks. This would also insure that the kitchen floor was level. He was able to jack the house up quite a bit (a couple of inches) but it still was not level because something was holding it down. John found that our bedroom floor, above the kitchen, was the reason. People had installed a new bedroom floor in a bizarre attempt to keep the kitchen ceiling in place. Instead of repairing the kitchen ceiling, they covered it with multiple layers of stuff and it was still falling down. To prevent the floor above from shaking the ceiling down, they put in new joists on top of the original  bedroom floor. They used hundreds of dollars of joists, covered those with a subfloor and then with carpeting. Because of this new floor and the layers of ceiling underneath, there was at least eight inches difference in height in these two rooms.

Bedroom floor restoration   02.jpg
There used to be a step going into our bedroom at the top of the stairs.

John uncovered a blue linoleum floor from the 1950s underneath the new floor. The linoleum was in perfect condition. The step into the bedroom and the step down into the closet under the eaves are now gone and the room is larger and level.

Bedroom floor restoration   05.jpg
Two old cast iron registers that allowed heat to rise from the kitchen
were uncovered under the floor.

Our bedroom, over the kitchen, was always the coldest room in the house. I remember keeping thermometers in the room and once registered a low temperature of 43°F (6°C) for several nights. It was difficult sleeping there. You had to wear socks, sweats, bathrobes and use at least two quilts for those windy, winter nights. There were no heating ducts in any of the upstairs rooms.

We quickly found that the new floor covered heat registers that had been in the original floor (and the original kitchen ceiling), allowing heat to rise from the first floor. But wait! There's more!

Bedroom floor restoration   08.jpg
John moved all the furniture out and back in and finished restoring the floor in only one day.
You can see the space beneath the floor and the snow on the window.
Snow outside
and in!

The west side of the bedroom has windows where we can see the summit of Barton Mountain. But the northwest arctic winds come from there, also. And John found that the room was never sealed when the new floor was built. You can see in the photos above and below the huge space between the wall and floor that was simply left open. This means that winter winds blew directly from outside into the bedroom. No wonder we froze in the winter! What a bizarre way to "improve" a house!

Bedroom floor restoration   07.jpg
You can look into the kitchen from the southwest corner of the bedroom. The northwest corner of the bedroom led directly to the attic and the outside.

Once the strange openings in the wall were uncovered, Zorro the Cat would let himself outside simply by slipping under the wall, running through the attic, down the attic stairs and to the outside. The wind would come into the room the same way.

Once the newer floor in the bedroom was removed, the house was no longer pinned in place and bounced up a couple of more inches level. The holes in the wall are plugged with insulation for the time being. The southwest holes that opened into the kitchen below are nearly repaired now. And warmth? We are now as warm upstairs as we are downstairs! In fact, since we both like a cool bedroom, we may have to open windows in the winter soon!

_/\_/\_

A Christmas Eve View

Christmas Eve 2010  02.jpg
The view of Barton Mountain
from our bedroom window on Christmas Eve morning.

_/\_/\_

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Demolition (or How We Spent Our Christmas)

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 001.jpg
Gold flock wallpaper — the third layer under the ceiling.

With a house leaking wind and snow (yes, we even got snow inside!), it was vital that, holidays or not, John continued the renovations of the house. The week before Christmas he began the kitchen. There were several layers of ceiling to be removed, and this was the absolute worst thing to live through.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 007.jpg
Partially demolished kitchen showing the 2nd yellow ceiling layer
and the original replacement window.

Under the suspended ceiling that we have lived with for years, there was a yellow sheetrock-type ceiling. Under that was gold flocked wallpaper. And under the wall paper was sheetrock and insulation. Under the insulation was the original plaster ceiling from 110 years ago. It was disgusting. It held a century of filth and dust. There were squirrel and mouse skeletons and scat. When the plaster came down, it created an awful rolling cloud throughout the house. I failed to wear a mask, despite John's warnings, and the next day (the Wednesday before Christmas) I was barely able to breathe and was at the clinic getting asthma treatments.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 008.jpg
180° from the previous photo showing the kitchen with partially demolished ceiling.

John cleaned and vacuumed and cleaned and shoveled debris as I used a nebulizer and masks at home. I have slowly gotten better, but the doctor thinks that until we can open the house in the spring, I will be using extra asthma meds for months. At least now, in the middle of January, I am able to help John a teeny tiny bit, go to work and continue my housework and cooking.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 010.jpg
This used to be the sun porch. Now it is part of the kitchen area.
Windows and doors are being moved about. Outside the door on the right
will be a porch for sitting in the summer.

The photographs in this post go up to right after Christmas. The entire area is now studded and sheet rocked. Windows have been moved, new windows have been installed and now the house is clean and tidy. I have half of a kitchen for cooking.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 011.jpg
Looking from the old kitchen into the new living room with the saw.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 012.jpg
This is what happens when you demolish a 110 year old plaster ceiling.

The new living room, dining room, kitchen and another dining area will be open. But every wall had to be rebuilt. The foundation had to be repaired. The sill that the house sits on had to be fortified. And the house had to be jacked and leveled. The construction spilled upstairs to the bedroom above the kitchen and into the basement and original living room.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 013.jpg
Another view of the demolition of the ceiling.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 015.jpg
And another view.

We had no choice but to continue with the ceiling demolition while the house was closed. But if we have to do more ceilings in the future, I will need to leave or we will do it in the summer.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 017.jpg
Besides a century of filth, the plaster was hiding mouse and squirrel scat.

I am so grateful to my husband for cleaning up the filth that was in the house. I always wondered why I was sick more often here in Vermont but never ever sick in New Hampshire. Now we know why.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 021.jpg
The original wiring under the 2nd floor joists with the original porcelain hardware to guide the wires.

We found wonderful artifacts inside the walls, including newspapers and porcelain devices for wiring the walls early in the last century. We found how the original house was originally laid out in four rooms downstairs with different window configurations.

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 023.jpg
>If only the succeeding "electricians" had been as neat as the original electricians.

More photos in the future will show you how the kitchen has evolved!

Kitchen Renovations  (ceiling) 024.jpg
If you ever have a choice of living in a house while this is going on or of temporarily moving somewhere else . . . MOVE!

_/\_/\_