We have been away on holiday, taking a much-needed break from construction decision-making and returned home to see things looking up on several fronts: The attic. The Keeping Room hearth. Exterior trim. Front porch. Back…

It’s been almost a year since we cleared out the old farmhouse in preparation for this renovation project. Time to pause and take a look at the big picture, see how far we have come,…

As anyone who has built a house knows, the window install is a great milestone in the construction process. This milestone at the Red House was made more dramatic for having to be completed in…

It’s mud season in Maine, time for ducks to start building their nests, and for Gagnon Geothermal to get their ducts in a row. Nick Gagnon started on Monday at the Red House, setting up…

With the Equinox falling on Tuesday, it was a schizophrenic week weather wise in Sweden. Winter turned to Spring (aka mud season) and back to Winter. Thawing temperatures turned the dooryard into a quagmire. Spring…

As we approach the mid-point on this renovation project, progress appears to be speeding up. Despite cold windy days and wet muddy ones that mired the Genie, Crowell’s crew has continued to wrap and strap…

When we tell people we are renovating an old farmhouse, we are often asked if we have run into any surprises. There have been a few big surprises – the discovery of structural problems with…

The Red House isn’t red anymore. It’s green! After removing the clapboard siding, Josh and Al are wrapping the old house and the new ell in rockwool, a type of stone wool insulation also known…

We missed two days on the worksite this week and came back to find all the flooring and interior walls missing from the back half of the farmhouse’s second floor. On Wednesday we saw the…

This week Walker Electric and Central Maine Power (CMP) connected the Red House to the grid so power can flow from the transformer on the new utility pole through a buried conduit along the driveway,…

The Indian goddess, Kali, is sometimes considered a demon because of her destructive power but she is also a symbol of divine creation. Destruction and creation go hand in hand. We saw Kali’s spirit at…

It’s been a busy week at the Red House. Teams of carpenters, masons and excavators have been working inside and out. The most noticeable progress is on the decorative brickwork Aron Libby is laying on…

“Sistering” sounds like something I have done all my life – spend time talking to or hanging out with one of my sisters. The term has a different meaning in construction, but with the same…

On Thursday, one of the coldest days of the winter so far, Henry’s Concrete poured the slab for the new basement floor. Carpenters closed up all the openings and preheated the space so that the…

Work on the house continued at pace after the holidays. Jeff Blake returned with his house lifting crew on January 2 to pull out the iron I-beams, and letting the full weight of the 100-ton…