Naught Hill Pottery

The one part of our renovation project which is being done by a professional is the replacement of the failed foundation under the ell. This week they got started at last. The ell and porch are now lifted up on two big glue-lam beams. The crumbling concrete block foundation has been removed and a new foundation was poured and perimeter drainage installed. What a relief. Hopefully this week the ell will be lowered down onto the new foundation and we can start sitting out on the porch again to enjoy the warm, if wet, weather.

Isn’t this blog supposed to have something to do with pottery? Okay so we’ve been devoting almost all our time to renovations and kiln planning so we have been very unproductive on the pottery making front. However lately I’ve been inspired to try a new decorating method- paper resist. Here’s a few pics of my first experiments.

We haven’t posted in a while but we have been up to a lot.
The weather has been encouraging. Among our recent exploits are building a cold frame and planting greens, burning last Fall’s tree felling debris, and planting a young apple tree and blueberry shrubs.
On the house/barn renovating front much is happening. A week ago we discovered that the floor underneath the old pig sty which we’ve been tearing out was rotten and had to be removed. Which in turn revealed a few rotten and fallen floor joists. Lots of fun but not a big deal since this is a very small barn, just 14′ by 24′. At the same time we decided to rip out the 2″ hardwood strip flooring in what used to be the old dining room. This was in preparation for our new plan of relocating the bathroom from the ell to a corner of the original farmhouse. Turns out the subfloor consists of 18″ to 24″ old pine planks just like the ones that make up the nice wide pine plank floorboards of the sitting room. So the new plan for the original 20′ x 24′ farmhouse is to take up the wide pine floor and subfloor and sand and refinish. Then jack up and fix the sagging floor joists. Then insulate the crawlspace beneath before putting down new OSB subfloor and the restored wide plank floorboards.

Spring may have finally sprung.
The snow has disappeared from the fields but there is still at least a foot in the woods. On our drive home from Woodstock to Bethel this past week we spied many sugar shacks expelling steam out their roofs. This weekend we discovered a patch of snowdrops against a stone wall near the barn we have started transforming into a pottery workshop. The barn housed chickens and pigs many years before we took possession this summer. Removing antique pig manure from a century old sty is to be avoided at all costs! But anyway check out the unexpected snowdrops.

Actually we feel great. We’ve been working hard this weekend installing extruded polystyrene insulation and foam sealing the edges. After many months of demolition it’s nice to finally be doing something constructive rather than destructive.

The stimulus bill includes some tax credits that folks renovating their home will love. We’ll be installing insulation, storm windows, a heating system, a hot water heater, and maybe a new roof next year. Having the government pay for 30% of the cost of each of those items is rather nice!

We’ve been plugging away at wall gutting for a few weeks now and we’ve finally finished up. We made several trips to the dump yesterday to get rid of all the plaster and drywall debris that has built up. We’re charged by weight for what we dispose of so we know that we’ve torn out nearly half a ton of the stuff. Here’s a few more pics of the destruction along with the oldest newspaper we’ve found so far.

This weekend the temperature weirdly rose well above freezing. That was nice because almost all of the snow came off our roofs. Waking up in the middle of the night to a huge woosh! and crashing noise my first panicked thought was, “Oh no, the Old House collapsed!”
The warm temperatures certainly inspired us get in there and continue with removing the various strata of drywall, plaster and lath. Destroying the walls around the cellar stairs entrance-way was very satisfying indeed.
As we removed the drywall on the North wall we discovered what passed for insulation in what we assume was the ’40s when we revealed newspapers simply tacked to the sheathing and found some interesting headlines from both Boston and Montreal.

Well we’ve decided to tear out the exterior walls of the old house.  We had been on the fence about this, thinking it might be easiest to leave the existing interior mishmash of plaster/lath and drywall and just blow in insulation behind it.  On further consideration we’ve decided to brave the cold and start tearing it all out down to the sheathing since we didn’t really know what was underneath that might get in the way of blown-in.  Good thing, too.  For some reason it was deemed wise, a century and a half ago, to fill in the space above the doors and windows with BRICK!  Why?  We’ve noticed that the gables up in the attic are also filled with brickwork.  Weird.  Now that really would have gotten in in the way of the blown-in.  Found a pine cone and a six of hearts behind the walls too.  Now we’ll keep working at the gutting and start insulating.  After that drywall.  Our current thinking is to use blueboard plaster veneer drywalling.  This is a new type of drywall that is covered with a thin layer of plaster which gives a surface more like the original plaster on lath.

Well it’s far to cold in the old house (20 below last night) to do any work in there and it’s far too snowy to do any work outside.  So we’ve been occupying ourselves in the new house with indoor tasks.  Grace has been working on a new quilt.  The pattern is called flying geese.  Grace usually gives her quilts away as gifts but this one is going to stay with us.