Three weeks away from our soft move-in day, several crews are competing for space as they work on the Red House. They’re concentrating their efforts on the new ell, which houses a new entryway, living room and Maine bedroom suite upstairs. Finish carpenters have been busy trimming windows, installing doors and ash flooring with wood milled from our own ash trees. The ash, which has been curing in a nearby barn for two years, came back to the farm yesterday as tongue and groove boards. Harder than oak and as light in color as birch. It’s just beautiful!

The guys took a break for lunch and then went right back to work.

The living room also now sports a pair of French doors. In the old portion of the farmhouse we are re-using the four- and six-panel natural wood and painted doors, but in the new section, we have chosen new doors with different designs.

Notice the work going on in the background. We have an expert finish carpenter constructing the staircase, using ash treads.

Upstairs, there will be more ash flooring and re-purposed 200-year-old boards in the hallway and offices. Today cedar boards, also milled from trees that once graced the land here, were delivered. They will become decking for our farmer’s porch and the back deck.

It’s been a gorgeous week weather-wise, great for imagining how to convert rocks and piles of dirt into a landscape design, evening swims at the lake and frolicking dogs.