We have a sign!

You have no idea how big a thing this is for me. I've had the sign lurking in my brain for almost a year now, and it's just fallen to the bottom of the to-do list more times than I can count. Funny how that happens. That's why this sign project deserves its own blog entry. It was that long and that complicated.

Here's what we started with:

Pretty, right? I had to put the address out there somehow, so that was the temporary solution. Don't you love how the signpost is leaning back? So cute. What you can't see is that the post is bent at the bottom. also a cute bonus feature. There were several different possible solutions we devised. I had great visions in my head about my lovely roadside sign. All this was compounded by the growing sense of urgency I had regarding getting this whole thing done before we hosted a wedding out at the barn.

Yup, we know what happens when you make plans. Here's our progression.

Plan A: cut off the arm and twisted bracket, build a wooden sleeve around the post, and use an amazing bracket I found at the Bouckville Antiques Week to hold the sign. Great plan, except for the bend in the bottom of the post, which precluded doing that. I really liked Plan A. I even bought the wood and painted it in preparation. I'll use it somewhere else. Move on to Plan B.

Plan B: Pull the post and install a 6x6 wooden post, to which I can affix the aforementioned bracket. But, as it turns out, this post is very deep in the ground, and apparently filled with concrete, at least at the bottom. It was more than Nate and I could manage to pull it out. So we didn't. Move on to Plan C.

Plan C (you see where I'm going with this, right?): Cut the twisted bracket off the arm (thanks to our wonderful contractor, who had a battery-operated saws-all, which he provided so graciously--the driveway is longer than all our extension cords connected together), reset and paint the post, add hooks, and install my sign, eventually adding something as a post cap after the wedding. Plan C was enacted the week of the wedding, with us quickly finishing and hanging the sign the very morning of the wedding. Still not my favorite plan, but here's how it turned out, sign and all.

I am pretty proud of the sign itself, actually. Taking a drawing done by my talented daughter, I followed the format of our business cards and had the design printed twice on an outdoor vinyl banner. I cut it in half and mounted it on a board we put together with our new Kreg, and then we framed it with trim. Up it went, mere hours before the wedding.

It'll do for now. I still dream of the big wooden post with my lovely bracket...

I love flowing water. Oceans, rivers, streams. We hit the jackpot here.

No, we are not on the ocean. I'll save ocean visits for trips to see my sister.

The farm is bordered on the south side by the Susquehanna River, which starts in Cooperstown NY and flows southwest to Bainbridge--check out the Canoe Regatta between the two villages on Memorial Day weekend (http://www.canoeregatta.org/)--and beyond, all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. The Revolutionary war-era history behind it is troubling, but the Regatta brings crowds from all over the state. They paddle to just above our riverfront and land at General Clinton Park. The river floods terribly, including our farm (but not the house or apartment) in really wet years, but this year, no flood. Our farm encompasses two streams heading to the river, one of which we only have the last quarter mile of; the other meanders through the length of the farm, around the house. It's currently very overgrown, and tending to that is high on my list, but low on our abilities to do without a large outlay of cash. Sigh. 

We went walking down to the riverfront a couple of weeks ago, when the paint fumes in the carriage house apartment got to be too much, and the sunshine and balmy temperature were way too tempting. Here's what we saw.

It turns out, we might actually have a little area we can clean up as a "beach." We will have to see if the muddy sand there ever dries out, but that would be fun for picnics. 

I love a river...

One of my favorite things about moving into a new place is discovering what plants are already there (or not-I moved into a place once where there was literally nothing but grass. boring.). We didn't pay a lot of attention here last Spring and Summer, as we were just waiting to see if our contract would go through; then we had all the waiting for paperwork, etc. But now it's ours and we can pay attention!

We had a little Spring false start at the gate in December. See this? It's flowering quince. They don't bloom til actual Spring. These photos were taken on Christmas Day. Crazy.

Fast forward to March. The snowdrops are out, and come to find out, they're legion at the farm. Seriously, they are everywhere.

And then there's the daffodils. These are Ice Follies, I think, and they're right up against the west side of the carriage house.

We walked through the property in late March, and discovered that it's home to lots and lots of pitcher plants, too--green and red, and all sorts of combinations. I don't know the variety, but they are so unusual. They do pop when you accidentally step on them, though.

I cannot wait to see what else pops up as the weather gets warmer. Pretty sure you'll see pics...

Once the sill work had commenced, we turned our attention to the carriage house apartment, which needed some work and love prior to seeking a tenant for it, a paying tenant being necessary to continue the sill work--see how that goes? 

We think the building was built in the 1950s or 60s. The upstairs apartment has two bedrooms, one with a washer and dryer installed over what we would later discover was a heavily water-damaged floor, a kitchen with issues, and a nice-sized living room, and lots of closet space. It has lovely south and west-facing windows (with lots of wasp nests tucked between windows and storms), and oak floors, which in the kitchen was covered by vinyl over some well-worn (out) original linoleum, held down by tarpaper. It had also been occupied by a smoker for years. So, while the bones were great, there was some work to do.

Some pics of our diamond in the rough:

We began work in December, starting with taking out the kitchen cabinets, adding insulation to that wall, and removing the linoleum floor. Gotta say, old lino stinks. Here's Nate and Jake doing some of that work. Every Saturday, every Sunday afternoon. Cooking lino and scraping. Did I mention every Saturday and Sunday in December and January and into Feburary?

The last bit of old floor comes off on February 6--and we've struck oak! That's a grimace, not a smile...it was HARD work

We'll have to show you "after" pics later--we're still not finished with the kitchen. Sigh

Since then, we've had new windows installed (bye-bye wasps), done quite a few minor repair-y things, and a LOT of cleaning, sealing, priming and painting. Nicotene, need I say more. Can't imagine putting that stuff in my lungs. Just sayin'. Every.surface.in.the.apartment. We also made a mid-course correction in the kitchen and had our contractor gut two walls and the ceiling, where condensation had ruined the insulation and drywall. Might as well do it right. 

(Object lesson of the day: Top of door-nicotene removed. Bottom of the door-not.Thus endeth the lesson)

Then we had the floors refinished. Holy amazing oak! See? Don't you want to stare at them forever? I do.​

We have more painting, including the kitchen cabinets, plus a healthy-sized punch list of little things to do, but we're almost ready for a tenant. 

Our lovely house has a sill problem. It’s only one of a host of projects to complete in our restoration, but it was huge, and so it desperately needed to be done. Basically, the sill was built of pine back 185 years ago or so. Time and moisture and the nature of pine beams led to what you see here. The corners sagged, and the sill beam shows its rot and age. 

We called a local contractor who does beautiful work to come rescue it. He grew up with one of the kids of the family, and knows the house. He also appreciates old houses, so we liked him right away.
   
Inside the basement, there were frame walls, a corner barbeque, and a room that still had a dirt floor, all from a much previous start as a finished rec room. Ground seepage from the 2011 flood soaked the wood and insulation and sagged the ceilings and walls, so it all had to go.
 
Getting the new sill in place straightened up the front of the house (breaking a painted-in window, some plaster, and some floorboards in the process). I really can imagine the house as a person taking a sigh of relief at being able to stand up straight again after being hunched over for a long time. Kind of like me, after sitting at my computer all day long…
  
It was an expensive project, which took more of our saved funds than we would like, but it was worth it. Here's some photos of the basement work and the sill-jacking, which was a HUGE job; those were 55,000 lb jacks on top of all that massive cribbing. It looks scarier than it is. At least, that's what they tell me.  
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We did it! Almost 8 months to the day after putting the contract in, we closed on the farm. It's been a long road, and we know more than we ever did (or wanted to) about surveys (now done) and gas leases (thankfully released) and flood plains (we're not really in one, due to the elevation of the house. This beauty was built in the 1830s in Bainbridge, NY. We have 37 acres bordering on the Susquehanna River, and the house is within the village of Bainbridge, at Exit 8 of I-88. Someday, we will retire, and this is where we will go. Oh, the plans we have...

The house needs extensive work, with a sill replacement first on the list. That list of things we want to do is 4 single-spaced pages long, by the way. We've met a wonderful contractor, who is beginning work on Monday. I look forward to working with him. It turns out he was friends with some of the eight children who were raised in this home by the previous owners, so he knows the house. Actually, it seems like everyone in the area knows the house--the previous owners were veterinarians, and everyone seems to have been a client! If you're reading this and you know the area, yes, it's the Benson house.

The property includes a separate garage/apartment, which we will be fixing up pretty soon, because that income will come in handy. I also have plans for the downstairs garage/clinic space, including education and retreat offerings. There is a barn as well, which needs some new doors, siding and paint, but it seems pretty sturdy. It will serve to dry lavender very well.

The lavender part of the equation will begin Spring 2016. I hope to put in at least half an acre this year. We are planning to manage at least 3 acres eventually. One of the fun plans is to build a lavender labyrinth, but we will wait until after the spring flooding to figure out the exact location.

I have no doubt that this is going to be quite an adventure. I plan to post all our work here, and share the adventure with you. Come back soon...



 

it seems we have found a property. Negotiations are underway... 

We are cautiously optimistic that this property is the one. We are in the "wait and see" mode right now, and, frankly, we are experiencing a range of emotions I've only ever experienced before in pregnancy. Dread, heartburn, excitement, daydreams about the future...

You see, this wasn't supposed to happen yet. Looking for properties online was a research exercise: What kinds of places are available? What kinds of selling prices are we looking at? What places would work best for what we want to do? What does our wish list really look like, once we see various properties? We were supposed to be saving more money, and getting another property completely sold. We were supposed to have the business plan in place, and be closer to having more time to implement it. We were supposed to be utterly convinced that this was the right time. We were supposed to be a lot of things, and be in a better place, timewise, for this. 

What this unexpected turn of events has done, is that it's helped us refine the dream. It's helped us take a good look at our finances. It's helped us identify what we truly want. It's helped us figure out what we don't want. 

And it may turn out after all that this is not the right place. The sale may fall through. The sellers might not agree to our terms. The inspection may turn up hidden horrors that we can't address. Who knows?

Right now, all I can do is trust the dream and see what happens.