Author name: pete

Dining Room / 2nd Floor Bath

Leaking (lead) pipes for the 2nd floor bathroom necessitated removing the horse hair plaster ceiling in the dining room to replace the old lead (1920’s) drain pipes with PVC.

Barn Stairs

The stairs going up to the loft were made using 3/4″ boards as treads with cleats supporting them below. One of the cleats had let go and many of the others appeared to be close behind. I knew that I was going to have to do something about them at some point and had been …

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Water Line to Barn and Electric Upgrade to Barn

The vegetable garden is over 200′ from the house and running hoses, moving them when mowing, motivated me to put in a underground water line. I will be using the barn for projects that will need machinery that will overload the wiring that is currently installed.

Barn Loft

I am planning on using the loft for a woodworking shop. Getting machinery up there, bringing projects up and getting them down the stairs is next to impossible. The stairs can be categorized as “ships stairs” due to how steep they are. One step, pun intended, above a ladder. The solution is to either  hoist …

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Now That’s a Nail

Here is something that you don’t often see, a never used really old square cut nail. It appears that it would have been used in a decorative manor based on the type of head. Pretty cool stuff.

Porch and Hatchway

The porch stairs were outside of the roof line and were exposed to the rain and snow. I find it to be better to have exterior stairs protected from the elements if at all possible. There was adequate room both on the porch and the landing to relocate the steps. One of the future projects …

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Washer Dryer

Alison had used a Maytag wringer for as long as she was in the house. I had used it for awhile but was unable to convince Janice of the virtue of using a retro machine. Hey, I tried. Here is the updated version:  

Installing Dryer Vent

The dryer vent had originally been installed in one of the cellar windows replacing the glass which made it unable to be open. With the cellar having a stone foundation I thought it best to provide the most amount of ventilation as possible. The house is timber framed, much like a barn, and has 7″ …

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Roof and Chimney Pictures

This house has gutters that are built into the roof system. Under the kitchen there is a cistern that holds approximately 1000 gallons of rain water. The built in gutters would collect the rain water and channel it into the cistern for use with washing, cleaning, etc. There was a well out by the barn …

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