We are taking a short break from renovations to bring to you Holiday Season 2011 at the Samuel Rue House!  We have completed our tub tiling progject along with a fresh coat of paint in the bathroom.  Next for that room will be redoing the tiled floor but for now some pics of our season's decorating!

Below, Dining Room decked out for Xmas.





Inspiration: Robins Nest Restaurant Mount Holly and Jacobus Vanderveer House: Fruit Laden Stairway


White Pine and Cinammon Ribbon Transom Decorations




Below, our tree from this year and our Xmas village in the Kitchen brick wall.

Hi everyone, well it's been awhile. Since we last spoke we were unfortunate enough to lose our best friend, Meat (real name, Theodore Roosevelt Bear).  In our haste and loss, we picked up a NEW chocolate lab puppy who has been positively ruining our lives uhmmm...keeping us busy. His name is Logan but he is nicknamed Little.

Ed lost his job of 24 years a few months back but was able to get a new job. In the interim, he smacked together a nice landing/deck out the back door, and he also re roofed more of the carriage house in the red conglomerate.

Now that fall has approached we are thinking of new projects.  I have been working of course on more decorating and Brown seems to be the dominant color. Maybe it is my mood, I don't know. I happen to lilke the richness of brown and I specially like it when it is mixed in with gold.


So I was finally able to snap a few pictures to show you!

I started to redo my bedroom. Above my Scrolled and carved Pier 1 Import Headboard, is a print called "The StoryBook" which depicts an 19th century child in a shift reading a book before bed.   To compliment the print, I bought a gold embroidered bedspread and sham set from Better Homes and Gardens collections.  




Then of course, the curtains had to go. To continue the theme of Eclectic Addams Family, I bought microfiber panels set off with beaded swags.  The best touch is the new gauze and tassel gold tie backs!





Here is a close up of the print "the Storybook"




Not to be overly deterred by a little muddy brown,  we decided to start our long awaited bathtub tiling project.

As you can see, it REALLY needed it.  This is the first and last picture you will ever see of the ugliest bath enclosure ever. To be sure,  this section is ripped halfway down in preparation but still




Here is some of the implements and materials we will use in the tiling project...  Includes a soap dish I bought on clearance over a year ago!




Here is a short sneak preview of back wall, all we have gotten done so far. The grout color is...CHOCOLATE. 

And I don't even generally eat the stuff!

“Broken glass, fogged up windows” was part of the original inspection problems with our house prior to our purchase.  It was one of the dozen or so things that the township inspector wanted fixed in order to get the original CO.

 

Well, three years later, we have finally gotten the money to repair to behemoth of a problem in our family room.

 

Here are both inside and outside views of the fogged up western facing windows.  Although the casement was a Marvin, the huge fixed picture window was a piece of plate glass basically sandwiched into rough-cut 1x3’s. This ugliness I was able to mask with a wall of curtains, but the result was no outside light for the past three years. Great for a “man cave” not so for the sunny bright family room we spent so much time in!

 

To our dismay but not surprise, the bad finish job resulted in disintegration of the wall, so some reconstruction was called for.

 

Here is the opening restudded with parts of the wall rebuilt!

 

The windows did not come in correctly; they were supposed to have interior grids.

 

But nevertheless, the wide expanses they bring will make up for it. If only my neighbor would move his POD’s storage bin LOL!

 

Here is the view with the new cellular shades.  Very modern for our old house, but I love the simplicity it brings to this busy room!

 

The outside, it had to have some fancy capping work done to make up for the large differences in the new vs. old windows.   I kind of like how it looks, at least for now.

Here is the new view of the outside...

 

Our inspector never asked about our windows when we got our permanent CO in 2008. I bet he will be happy with the results now!

Here is the most bizarre revelation in what we affectionately (yea right!) call an over zealous desire to recycle by the former occupants. Or maybe they just did not care. That huge pane (pain!) of glass was....

One half of a patio door turned over on its side, with channels and all! No wonder it leaked!!!

 

What can I say.... after October of course is the Holidays, that dazzling two months of nothing but shopping, wrapping, buying and eating. On Dec. 27th we were socked with two feet of snow.  Snow continued, more or less, for a full two months.  Just recently the snow has all melted and all its damage revealed.  Broken limbs of trees, garbage that has blown and been buried in snow, it all was revealed leaving us and many others with tons of spring clean  up.

I will take pictures later, but I was able to really really loosen up and cultivate the soil along the brick front pathway this year, and am hoping to have a real showplace of geraniums lining the walkway this year.

This weekend a well needed cleaning of the chicken coop and pen, and all is well and sweet smelling there. recently the chickens stopped laying altogether but have come back online and our larder is overflowing. I did have to buy two dozen eggs to hold me over, the first eggs purchases in over two years!

Up next-- projects-- finish the roof on the carriage house and expand our patio.  And hopefully enjoy!

Here are some recent pictures!

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I did more work on the cabinets adding a mocha glaze. Notice we have done the back splash project, brown glass mosiac tiles...

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Found a great site for colonial and Victorian period housewares, ordered an EATMOR Cranberries crate sign... notice Molly Pitcher painting in middle, along with the brand name of "Monmouth"


Check the view of the SNOW around mid January this winter! Looks peaceful, hate driving in it!

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Us...around mid December, having lunch at the Battle of Iron Works Hill Reenactment Event.  We do it every year if we can, our little colonial way to Celebrate Christmas!  We are if course at the Robin's Nest Restaurant smack in the Center of Mt. Holly.

It's been hanging (literally) over our heads for quite some time. This carriage house door project. Something we knew was going to be monumental, but also make such a classy impact and elevate our backyard from 1980's W.T. Kitsch to an actual New England farmhouse style.

Carriage house doors.  We researched them, and Ed configured in his mind how he was going to do it.

When we attempted it, we were very pleased with the results.... so it was worth the wait.

Only the first door is done, but I am excited enough to show you pictures~


Here Ed and Josh are shoring up the frame, and beefing it up with cellulose... Basically, much of the front was done away with as it was rotten. I estimate the "garage portion" of the carriage house ws built around 1920's... I could be wrong, it could be earlier, or later... I opt for around this time frame.







here the beefed up frame is ready for painting.



I decided it would be best to paint all boards first, and boy was I smart on this. I can't imagine having to paint all those angles once assemble. Of course it required a few touch ups after, but well worth it. It was a breezy day so we let the paint dry for an hour...




Came back and we started assembly on the ground, the tongue and groove boards were held in place with some scrap wood banged into the ground.



Then the trim boards were place, each piece being pre drilled and even used a counter sink bit on the holes, they will be filled with wood putty later.


Here is a shot of the one side with the edges trimmed out. We also added a cross bar and diagonal pieces. They are not just decorative, they add to the door's stability. At seven feet wide, you need that!





The mitering job we quite good I think!



Here is the door assembled and leaning against its new home.



And the finished door number1.   We had to travel to the out of this planet and century Diamond M Lumber to get the strap hinges.



Isn't it so nice?  I for one love the results!

Well, one of the reasons I have not been posting of late is because my camera is broken...it works but I cannot download pics so it is a laborious process to switch cards to be able to download. That and the heat of the summer, and life 101, but today I did manage to get some shots in so here they are, they may be some repeats of images I took with a video still before...


Got this little tin lantern replica night light at the tiny hamlet of Fallsington, PA, a colonial town that had a preserved meetinghouse/green/houses




another shot of my oxblood red cupboard....




This sconce light we put in the center hallway a few months back, it matches our center hall chandelier.



Some garden shots....

A hybrid day lily and french marigolds....





A Rose of Sharon has started to bloom....





Overview of the vegetable garden. The heat lately has been making tending the gardens tough this year, but the plants love the heat and humidity!



The garden has right now cukes, cantaloupes, tomatoes and peppers all doing well.


Some advertising art in the kitchen.  Eggs and butter and baking powder!
Sounds like a cake to me!




Thinking ahead to the next project in this house and decided I want two (well three) things by fall. I want to tile the tub surround and get rid of the ugly (too ugly to show here) prefab surround there already.  Replace the foggy ktichen window.  The bigger project will be carriage house doors. Can't wait!

We are experiencing yet another wave of heat, about the fifth this season so far and it is only mid July.
We have done a few projects on the house these past few months. Mainly, Ed has torn down the bottom half of the old tin roof on the back of the carriage house, and then built a porch and added a new roof. It is a great place to hang out ...very quiet with the views of the horse farms behind us, lots of birds. We also got some of the trees back there down.  

So here are few pictures of recent happenings...

Friends enjoying the new carriage house back porch during our Memorial Day BBQ...




Another view of the BBQ








Few months back I adopted Vinnie, a Black New Zealand rabbit. Wonder if the Rue house ever had a resident bunny before? He is a little devil, too!


Below: Latest project, I painted the servants quarter's interior cabinet an oxblood red.  Never thought I would spend $48 on a gallon of paint, but here it is, in Benjamin Moore, color is Cottage Red




Procured some advertising art a recent Country Joe's Auction in New Egypt.  This was the night the power went out and we bid in the glow of flashlights. I was not exactly sure what I had bid on until I got home the next day. Alana got a great spindle back chair, I got a nice chair for the front hall, and we picked up this great advertising art as well as a Currier and Ives print of Washington at the battle of Trenton, all for a song.





Whats next? Really really want to do the deck but really don't want ANOTHER tax increase.  Really want those carriage house doors. Ya, I think it will be doors.

We are still working on this place!  This past week we had a FLOOD in the basement, eight inches of water which we had to purchase a sump pump and pump the water out... our neighbors also had water. The water table simply rose to this point.... I believe March 2010 we had record rainfall, and the water has no where to go.

Several weeks ago we started new outside projects.... Ed did a great job finally rebuilding the entry way wall to the carriage house (pictures below).  Also, we finally bit the bullet and had a water softener system installed.  Our water is much cleaner and no more rust. Yippee!

We purchased a new Electrolux vacuum and our lives seem so much cleaner. This old house collects dust and of course there is all these animals who produce piles of fur and dirt.

Our washer may be kaput.  No getting ahead here.

Next up... I am working on painting the rest of the carriage house and Ed has deconstructed the low roof out behind it. We believe it was used at one point as a shelter for livestock, goats and sheep maybe.  Ed is going to reuse much of the frame to rebuild a new overhang which is human height.  Our vision to to have the porch roof so we can set up some chairs and view the horse pastures beyond...gotta love Upper Freehold.

Here's something we have worked on in the last few weeks. I had been dissatisfied with the bathroom downstairs for a good amoutn of time. The trim was chunky, part of the "rustic" look some previous owner had come up with.

I decided that taupe was the most neutral color I would like there, and also to add some crown molding to the top to balance out of the chunky wood. I think it came out good. What do you think?

Door paint was bubbling and awful, and needed to be sanded first.  The door is Christian Cross four paneled.



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Here are more views of the door during the sanding process. There were big gouges we had to fill with wood putty. Who knows?



Not sure what that filmy thing is on the right middle side...?


Close up showing some of the reddish, bare wood. I wonder if the doors are cedar I think?




Here is the same door repainted, what do you think?





More of the new crown molding!




Ed wants to hatch more babies. Will these be our future chicks?

So, this weekend,  we are going to some historic Dutch houses per my husband's request. Yesterday we visited the Jacobus Vanderveer house in Plumekin New Jersey.  Amazing that this house was a rental in 2001. It was bought by the township to preserve but it was the friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer house who put all this work into it. In just a few short years they had restored this center hall beauty and they have more to do.  I will try to explain as I post...

Below, Outside view. I LOVE the Magnolia leaf garlands, don't you?  The right hand side of the house was built 1772, the left, I believe around 1813.  It was built in the Dutch style.

Glad to say that today, Black Saturday, we have completed our house decorations, and I wanted to share.   I will have to post night pictures of the house also, of course of our neighbors the Nevins, who win the Upper Freehold decorating contest every year, with their over the top Winter Wonderland (complete with music).

Below, a crackling wood fire with the mantle decorated.


Our Thanksgiving Table. Thanksgiving dinner was Great!!!










Our Samuel Rue House Christmas Tree I love the look in the Federal Parlor...




The Nutcracker Mantle!




Overview of the Mantle





By the front door is our CArpenter Santa, how apropos for this house!





Meat was so exhausted from all the hub bub he just had to crash...





Happy Christmas Month from the Samuel Rue House! Enjoy this season!

Here we are, it is the second weekend in October, the leaves are changing here and there is so much to do these next few weeks! The Allentown Harvest Festival is tomorrow, and the Bordentown one was last week. The Laurita Winery is having harvest festivals, there is wine tastings, pumpkin picking and harvest festivals down the street, all sorts of fall stuff!

Here are some homestead pictures, various:

Our Dining Room is decked out for autum with leaves, lights and gourds...

 

 

We lost round one in trying to get the Sam Rue House registered under the National Register of Historic Places. But I swear I will persevere. The very “busy” people at the N.J. Preservation Office have not even returned multiple phone calls I’ve made. I am in the process of getting some facts together. I have called the coordinator of the Upper Freehold Scenic Byways Project, Dr. Meirs, who gave me some other local historians to contact regarding my house.  The letter of rejection stated I was not able to show a "significant" occupant of my house used the said house in a "productive" manner. Well, I will change all that. We need to visit George Rue and talk to David Church, who is a direct descendant of General James Cox.

 

Until that time, many things are happening here. Today the smell of wood fire is outside, we have fired up the wood stove for the first time of the season.

 

We have been hard at work on our den renovation project. I picked a Martha Stewart Color, “Drabwire” for the walls, reminiscent of her outside color for Turkey Hill.  It took two full days of very intense painting to get the clapboards all done, as they soaked up the paint.  I still have to fill and paint some of the many nail holes that we now see in the boards.

 

Ed decided we needed more than plain molding (this den project came with nothing finished!!) So we did a fancy multi-faceted crown molding treatment on the back wall. I have also did some molding treatments on the back door, and painted the plain ugly luan a dramatic dark green called “bark”.

 

We have a friend of my brother’s coming over soon to assess our windows, we do have the Navisink Country Club windows in our carriage house and hope to use them on the side.

 

Perfect fall day today, crisp, cool, the gardens are winding down to accept their fate and settle in for the long winter slumber. Ed wants to go apple picking!

A tray highlights our homegrown eggs, from our girls: Golden Comets, Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Auruacanas and Ameriucanas.  Very subtle colors from a light blue to a dark sage green to pinkish to dark Welsh brown.

The molding for the door, painted and ready to go on...

And some of the molding done as well as the door. I promise to get better pictures later!

Here is some of the clapboard painted. What do you think?

The sign says it all...locally, in  Imlaystown....

The summer is winding down, our garden has had it. The rain has done bad things to our vegetable gardens, which produced so much at the beginning of the year. Most of the tomato plants rotted away from wet!  The dampness has hardly had a chance to dry since the spring.

And the nights, now longer, are also getting sharper and colder. I am thinking of starting the den redo project this Saturday, I will see how I feel and how the money situation is.

A few weeks back Ed and I did a survey of all of the Upper Freehold and Allentown Burying grounds. You can see the results here.     I think you will like it, if cemeteries are not creepy places to you, but places of history and lives.  Besides, we took a Rue Odyssey, and found Rue's in many denominations here in town. They were Methodists and Quakers and Catholics.  We found Rue's in at least four graveyards here if not more.  And that is just in this town!

Anyway, I found this old photo in the "Cox in America" publication, and here is a burying ground that for three centuries resides just across the street from the Rue house.   You can see our lovely hills in the background.  Alas it is no more.

More this weekend!

Since about 1840 the Clarksburg Inn, about two stagecoach stops away from Cox's Corner, served meals and drink and took in travelers for the night.  About three weeks ago, a large fire decimated most of the building, because the horsehair insulation burned so well!  Now only a shell remains, this historic building is slated for demolition, though another Clarksburg Inn will be built.  A new and better one!





I know I shouldn't be too sad. The Greek/Gothic Revival structure, though pretty authentic looking on the outside, had been renovated so many times in its history that it hardly looked historic inside.

But I remember it when I was a kid, and it was just one of many dark, spooky, but well heeled bars that we used to frequent in our youth.  Along the lines of Moore's Inn, and the Millhurst Tavern.  They used to have great bluegrass bands there, and it was a real country watering hole, with the local horse trainers and horse farm owners hanging out with the local kids.  It defined the tiny village of Clarksburg, nestled in the scenic and rolling  "Back Bone Hills" of Millstone, NJ. The Millhurst has not served customers for at least 20 years, and Moores was moved back and "redone" to look nothing like it's former self, that with its wavy wooden floors and very low ceiling.

Our beef as locals of course is the fact that yet another old building has went away. This is very distressing.  My dream was to one day own a historic restaurant like Clarksburg, or the likes of the Happy Apple, the Chesterfield Inn.

All the more reason that I wait very anxiously to see what the NJ State Historic Preservation Office has to say about our application for the Samuel Rue House. I hope , for this dear old Lady's sake, that they realize that old houses, even if loved, sometimes go away, and do not get saved.  I want this house to stay just as it is for decades to come.

Yesterday our next door neighbors had a first anniversary party.  There was a bunch of their family there to celebrate the event.  People sang, danced, and hugged. Food was eaten, drinks were poured, children played.

 

I had the strongest feeling that, this was just one in a long line of parties that have taken place on this corner.  People at one time rejoiced to other names, other families. The faces and names have changed, the dresses are different, cars bring people now instead of horses, but the sentiment is the same.    When Ed and I came home, before I even mentioned this eerie feelings of many generations, Ed said the same thing! This corner has hosted strong families for three hundred years and continues to. I am so happy to keep this tradition going.

 

--We are currently looking at getting some carriage house lantern lights for our carriage house. Ed is home next week so maybe??   Our greenhouse is doing well and continues to prosper.  Our garden is out of control, zucchini, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cukes abound to just name a few of the things this earth has given us this year.   Alana got a few peacock eggs from her boyfriend, Joe, and they are in the incubator? Peacocks roaming our backyard soon? We shall see.  A few weeks back, Ed finished the last piece of fencing. We still have LOTS of clearing to do on the east side.

 

--Did I mention Ed thought he saw a ghost in the bathroom a few weeks back? And Kim is convinced that the house is haunted- she has spent a lot of time here recently.

--Please "Rate My Space" I have four rooms from our house up the HGTV "Rate my Space" site.  I would appreciate construction comments and good ratings for people who cannot appreciate how much it takes to renovate. 

-- We sent back more info to the state to be considered as a NJ Historic Place. Keep your fingers crossed

 

Enjoy the summer as it progresses.

 

Penny

Today we attended the semi annual service at the Old Yellow Meeting House, part of the Upper Freehold Baptist Church. The Old Yellow Meeting House is the third oldest church in New Jersey, and was the congregation that most of the Cox's from our corner belonged do.


Below, the meetinghouse was restored in 1991.  Here is a view looking out towards the front of the meetinghouse.







This is the gravestone of the famous General James Cox, who commanded the entire New Jersey Militia.  He died in 1816.









Asher Cox was the original Cox owner of our property, before him I believe was a Thomas Cooper, before him, King James of England!  Asher died in 1812.





William Cox, who built our house, he passed from this life in 1826, about the same year that the Rue's bought the house.  And here he is!





Looking from the front of the church towards the balcony section.



While we were there, Ed admitted that a few days ago, he thought he saw a person in the bathroom, and thought it was me, but no one was there of course. And this, from a non ghost believer!. A Rue House ghost?   TBC...!

Ugh, as usual lost a very long post.

Anyway, suffce to say that last week was our first annual Rue House BBQ.  We have done nothing since then in the house due to severe exhaustion. I  am posting some pictures taken by others of our hometown of Allentown NJ and then a few of the greenhouse and such.





The old mill. Due to our wonderful NJ government the mill pond bridge was supposed to be repaired about two years ago, and until that time the mill is not occupied. usually it has a nice German restuarant and tons of little crafty stores in it.   It was built in the mid 1800's to replace a mill  built by Nathan Allen in the early 1700's.




A view looking north down main street. The pharmacy on the corner has been a store for a century an a half at least.  The old church on main street is now a library.



A sign declaring that Allentown was established in 1706.  Late, by Monmouth County standards .



Our dining room, current.





Our greenhouse room.  We started buying some nice houseplants for it.  Maybe pick up yet some more today?

So I am pleased to say that, after doing a preliminary application for the Samuel Rue House to be accepted into the NJ Historic Preservation Office, I have received a reply!  Okay, nothing earth shattering yet. But they want additional information. It was so neat to see the "Samuel Rue House" menitoned in their official letter. I will have to scan it to show it to you all!

We also had our first official BBQ yesterday, a crowd of about 40-50 people, large amount of food and drink, a good time had by all, house tours given upon request.

Some pictures:

Servants quarters all gussied up for the party:






View of the dining area. Notice we have layed egg sized pebbles from the patio brick to the windows.



We have completed our greenhouse project, in fact, we went out before to buy even more plants than are pictured... what a difference from when we started this project (see below)





Ugh!!!



Here is a shot of everyone enjoying themselves.

This has to be about the fourth or fifth straight week of almost only rain. If we had a few clear days when the rain stopped and things started to dry off, then it was a lot.  The rain has caused huge ruts in my driveway.  My husband has not been happy about working in the rain, so our greenhouse work has been minimal. However, things have been happening!

Here is a picture in rare dry monment enjoying the yard.  In the background notice that Alana and I planted a garden and used more recycled garden wall blocks in front of the greenhouse. I have Burning Bush, Variegated Lirope, and Dwarf Japanese Holly bushes in the new garden.




The entry way to the carriage house and greenhouse is a mucky wet pool!  I am solving the problem and started installing rustic looking pavers in the entry way.




Today we bought a few inexpensive shelves to just get our greenhouse started. For granted, we have a little bit of patio brick work left and our roof vent window is on back order, but it is starting to look, smell and feel like a greenhouse!








And thats it for now!  As the rain starts to mold this keyboard, I will hope for the best and try to get more work done soon! 

Ps -- talk about green recycling. Our neighbor got us a trio of diamond-paned large windows to use in our family room. They are reclaimed from the Navesink Country Club, which is undergoing renovations in some of their buildings. So...we own a piece of history now for the newest room in our house!

So I have been so busy we really worked to the bone last weekend and then went straight back to our day jobs!

Suffice to say that Farmer Ed has done a bang up job putting most of the glass in the greenhouse, and about half the patio blocks. We already have some plants in there but tomorrow promises a LOT of rain and we will have to keep our plans tight til Saturday when we hope we can finish most of the rest of the work.   Anyway, the plants in there, even though only half the structure is enclosed, are doing just great! Wow! No wonder people love greenhouses. The plants are thriving in there.  Our neighbor gave us some Canna lilies and we have some seedlings coming along.

Some pictures:

The entrance side of the greenhouse.; Ed fashioned a vent in the bottom of one window.



Front view with our snap peas in the foreground




Inside view of the greenhouse...  it was much more painting than we thought as I ended up painting most of the beams since they would be exposed.





We are getting closer to a working (albeit small) farm.  I just collected six eggs, we have sold four dozen eggs already this week and we will have at least 14 hens when they all start laying!

This is the close of a long four day weekend.  I took off Friday because on Thursday night my daughter, Kimberly, graduated college!   We had a pretty leisurely weekend, very bittersweet, joy at this graduation and sadness as I found a good friend at work's son has passed away at 24.   So this put quite a damper on my weekend and I was not able to concentrate as usual.

Here is the weekend in brief:

On Friday we went to Griffin Greenhouse Supply in Ewing NJ and we ordered most of the glass for the greenhouse.     We also ordered the composter from Gardener's Supply and it will be here later this week.

Ed and Josh picked up some patio blocks this morning, and proceeded to start the process of the greenhouse floor.

I proceeded on Friday to start to paint the back logs on the greenhouse. Do not like the color, but it is a first coat!

I am pleased with how the door came out though.



Some pictures:


Ed Alana and I and the dogs hiked Clayton Park nearby Saturday morning. Alana got BAD poison ivy.






Our garden pond is looking really nice...




A pot of impatiens on our well.



This is part of the carriage door hardware. I am sorry for the dark picture. I think I date it to about 1860 or 1870 or so.  It is part of the hangers that attach to the door rail.Butterfly shaped  I will see after this if I can find out anything about the company ?






One of our new baby chickens, a golden comet hen.  She is about three weeks old



Our front fence was decked with memorial day flags. God Bless America!

Good morning everyone, it is a beautiful spring day and I wish I could spend the day at home in my beautiful house! But work calls..

I wanted to share just a few pictures. Ed has completely finished the main framework for the greenhouse and it is painted except for the lighter color on the walls and the door.  He has estimated what we need to start the actual roofing and walls and we are soon to order.  Here is a picture of the structure...



And inside, to show some of the new framing he had to fashion... you can see on far left that the holes left by the removed barrels have but all been replenished and filled...




Another closer shot. On the left over the new roof is the new gutter and downspout Ed installed. It is just so much better than it was, it is really all brand new!





WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OLD HOUSES START TO GO AWAY.....


Wanted to share a picture of a simply regal and gorgeous brick Federal Center Hall Colonial just  several miles from my house in nearby Assunpink WMA, Roosevelt NJ.  This gorgeous house always has the old sway back doggie on the front porch. Shame the owners have not the money or the inclination to fix it as it could be simply beautiful. Right now, the chimney stacks are crumbling and the house is in need of having it's windows repainted, or reglazed, and a good powerwash among other things. Also, the roof needs to be redone.

I wonder what inside looks like?  Right now, this house has all the earmarks for a great Halloween party especially with the overgrown trees and all...

When Ed and Josh started the demo on the greenhouse " bench" they discovered about ten 50 gallon drums filled with water buried into the soil on the greenhouse floor. We are not sure what the previous owners were doing with that.... solar power, a watering system?  Who knows? But how to get them out?

Our neighbor, who does demolition by trade, offered to barter with Ed.  He wants to build a garage and Ed offered to write up the site plan for him to use.  In return, he would remove the drums and take them away (he gets money for scrap metal).

But, to do this job, the frame almost entirely had to be removed. So... here is the photo diary of the event!

Below: you can see the drums half buried in the soil.





Our neighbor, Vic, and the backhoe he used.  Total professional.





Removing the drums left large gaping holes that were now filled with mud and water.



We destroyed the brick fireplace which was about to cave in anyway, and that along with assorted other bricks and rubble filled the holes pretty well.





Ed spent this morning re-framing the structure.




We are going to buy a few large bags of topsoil to finish up the holes.  Then really we will be ready to start thinking about paving stones for the floor!

By the way, we went to Gasko's on Friday and this is about the largest, well known and cheapest nursery in this area.  We fought the crowds but got some good deals. Here is a shot of the nursery as we walked it. They literally have acres upon acres of greenhouses.  We got a bunch of really unusual and nice plants and spend some time putting them all in.

I took off today and am up with the birds so I can get the fullest out of this weekend!  I plan to start the day by having us go to Gasko's garden center, a very big one in this area, to buy the rest of our spring plantings.

Then perhaps a little shopping and maybe winery later... some painting of the greenhouse tomorrow if the rain holds up, we shall see.

I still need to get more pictures of the new roof.  When Ed started to demo the bench in the greenhouse he found that the metal drums are buried in the ground there. I am starting to wonder, did the p.o.'s use the drums as a kind of solar watering/heating system?   In any case, my next door neighbor is going to help him pull them out. Then we need to backfill and to pave the ground.

We were discussing a deck yesterday and thankfully I think we may be able to do it sometime this year.  After the greenhouse. Then we will be better set for outside entertaining, although we had a nice outdoor party with my dad here last weekend.

Just a few pictures.  I promise to add more to this post later today.

A little vignette of my reclaimed goodies from the yard-- a stepladder I am using as a plant ladder, and an old birdhouse -- ladder is filled with some pots of petunias and other flowers.





A scene through my front door window shot through the wreath.  I guess they are still not building the professional complex yet as the farmer across the street was turning over the soil today when I got home from work.  The tree in our front yard is probably close to a hundred years old. It has a horse hitch twisted into it from decades ago.



It is Five a.m.... time to start the day almost!