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 the heat exchanger and compressor in the basement and mapping out where the supply and return registers will be placed. Then his crew got to work installing the duct work that will carry heat in winter and cool air in summer throughout the house. The shiny silvery conduits snake their way along rafters, through floors, up a chase and into the attic. You can see them now, before walls and ceilings hide them from view.

The carpentry crew prepared the way in the attic by removing (most of) the old fiberglass insulation and the very wide boards that were laid down there (not nailed) over 200 years ago. We are salvaging these boards to reuse as floorboards in our offices.

On Thursday, during a meeting of our builder, kitchen cabinet supplier and mason, we learned that more antique bricks will be needed on Monday for the kitchen fireplace hearth. So on Friday, Nils and I showed up on site to clean the remaining stash of handmade bricks, about 150. Now experienced, we knocked it out in a couple of hours.

In between the attic and the basement, the crew continued to frame new walls and windows.

Outside, we are inundated with water from rain and melting snow. It slides down the hillside and gathers in a stream that crosses the muddy driveway. This is a problem that may be solved by creating a small pond down the hill. Nils may get his plunge pool yet.

Saturday’s two feet of snow on top of the soft ground created a hazard for the snow plow. The sun on Sunday made the house sparkle, and the warming temperature created a misty landscape.