As many stories as there are bricks

Last week we participated in a fund-raiser for the local library--we opened our house to the public as part of their annual kitchen tour. Talking with the 300 guests that meandered from the front hall, to the dining room (wast parlor), through the kitchen (keeping room), and out to the garden reminded me of all the wonderful stories this house holds. I found myself telling the story of how we ended up with the kitchen sink* several times. We talked about when lightning struck the house several decades ago when is stood in Wilmington. The story of how we even know that story is interesting too. (I'll tell those some other time.) I know there are a handful of people who are interested in these and other tales, and I would like to document them. Since there isn't much to write about regarding the house's current status, I'll start trying to post some stories of its past, starting with the kitchen sink.

When we lived in Massachusetts, we had purchased a sink from a salvage yard for $100 with the intention of using it in the house, which was in about a zillion pieces and packed in a 40-foot trailer at the time. It is a beautiful apron-front sink with a tall backsplash that would look lovely in our country kitchen. A while later I was driving home from the store in the rain with a brand-new dolly in the back of the pickup. I spotted a big old white kitchen sink on the curb with someone's trash. I drove past it, thinking that we recently bought a kitchen sink and I had no use for a second one. But it looked like too nice of a sink to pass up, so as I was turning around I decided we could use another sink for the basement. It's a good thing I had a new dolly in the truck because I don't think I could have gotten this huge, wet, slippery, cast-iron double sink into my truck without it.

Both heavy, bulky sinks were stored, waiting to be given a new life in our new house. When it came time to do the final measurements and layout of the kitchen before having the countertop made and installed, we realized we had made a pretty major oversight in the placement of the kitchen windows that made installation of the salvage-yard apron sink impossible. Luckily, we had that spare sink in the basement! The curbside cast-off worked perfectly in the kitchen and is still one of my favorite details of the space. The apron sink has worked well as a utility sink. It's really too beautiful for a utility sink, but I suppose drying paintbrushes and the washing machine drain are as entitiled to a nice sink as our dishes and pans are.

Spring is in the air

A few people have asked about this blog and if I'm ever going to update it again. I've mentioned before that ecoteat is about our home, not us, and when the home took a back burner to Phoebe, the website took a rest, too.

But now spring is upon us and Phoebe is becoming slightly more independent and there will be some activity around the house again. We did build a colonial-style raised-bed garden last fall. It started like this in late August:
Damian and Kenny are framing the fence. A few weeks later it looked like this:

In October, we made row covers so we could grow greens in the fall.

In December, there was spinach to harvest under the snow:

Now, the plants that froze during the coldest of winter are coming back to life and putting out new growth. Hopefully we'll have some baby spinach in a few weeks.

August ramblings

Still not much happening with the house. Damian has been getting some work done on the fence when he has time, but it's challenging when I'm attached at the hip to the baby and he has to pick up the slack for what I don't have as much time to do around the house as I used to.

This time last year I was posting pictures of our beautiful harvest and making lots of pasta sauce (which I couldn't eat beacuse for some strange reason it tasted metallic and yucky in the early days of pregnancy). Since we were a bit preoccupied this spring with birth and a newborn, we didn't get much of a garden planted. Luckily, though, we can count on nature to grow something good for us to gather and eat. There are lots of ripe blackberries growing along the edges of our road. There are raspberries and blueberries, too, but we were a little late in picking those. We will be harvesting the garlic we planted last fall and we should have a fair amount of potatoes if the weeds didn't just suck all the nutrients out of the soil!

I love this time of year in Maine. The light is starting to change, there is lots of fresh food to eat, and school is about to start.

What are we doing here?

Wow, so um, we have some catching up to do!

When I made this website it was for the purpose of sharing and documenting our house adventure. Moving, rebuilding, and restoring an 18th century house is fascinating work and it needed to be shared. But now that the house is finished, does that mean Ecoteat is too? We've done some work outside the house; should I share that here? Our family has grown, but this isn't a blog about us, so I don't write about our perfeect little baby girl.

I suppose I'll tell you a little of what we have going on with the house and gardens. This spring we planted an orchard of heirloom apples. Many varieties are as old as the house. Hopefully, in a few years (if the abundant deer don't foil our plans), we'll have an assortment of unusual and delicious apples. We are also working on creating raised-bed gardens. We have been using some historic garden plans for inspiration. The garden will be directly behind the house, under the kitchen windows. It will have a fence like this one in Strawbery Banke:

This week we hired a neighbor with a tractor to help move some clay around to level the area the garden will be in. The lumber is stacked and waiting to be made into beds and a fence. It has been pretty slow going with all the rain New England has had these past couple months. Maybe I'll document the garden-building here, but with my recent posting trends, I'm not making any promises!

Happy Birthday to me

Today I turned 30. The best part of my birthday festivities was our long hike through our woods on a beautiful, sunny, relatively warm day. It's been a long time since I've explored our 80ish acres, and there are some truly stunning little places. I should have brought my camera, but I guess lugging around a 7 month old fetus was enough. A few highlights:

• An enormous pine tree on the edge of a large clearing that towers over all the other trees around it. The wind was howling through the branches and the noise it made was quite impressive.
• A high spot on top of what may be a glacial outcropping that was used as part of an old stone wall where you can see up the stream in one direction and where it flows into the coastal estuary in the other direction.
• A little collection of small boulders that create something like a peninsula poking into the stream. The rocks are covered with a thick blanket of moss with a spruce canoy overhead. If there were fairies around, I'm sure they'd want to hang out here.

It was fun to imagine what it will be like with a child playing in these woods. Later this evening we had some friends and family over for pizza and birthday cake. There were two little kids here, aged 2 and 6, and it was just as interesting to imagine our child playing in this house. I think part of the reason I'm enjoying being pregnant so much is that I know this house and land are perfect for our new little family. We are creating a place for this baby that has so many of the things I loved or wished for when I was little.

Fooled you?

Raise your hand if you thought we were really painting the floor pink. Go ahead, no one will laugh. In hindsight, my last post was a little vague. Nowhere in it did I mention that we were actually painting the floor red, not pink. Nor did I mention that the color we chose is fairly close to the original. Or that the color we chose has a cool name (because I love paint color names): Mars Red. Behold. . .

Once the paint is dry and the furniture is back in place, I'll post pictures of the finished (I mean it this time. I think.) living room.

Pink floor

So here it is:



The living room floor is primed. I can't stop looking at it; after stumbling on splinters and cracks for so long, it is wonderful that it is so smooth and uniform. The width of the old boards really stands out now. Tomorrow comes the paint! Yippee!

Making the living room baby-friendly

Damian and Kenny spent yesterday and today transforming the living room floor from a splintery, wobbly mess to a smooth floor that a little person could scootch across without injury. So far, this involved many hours of sanding, gluing, screwing, puttying, more sanding, vaccuuming, and mopping, which left it looking like this:


(Notice how my belly doesn't really fit into my sweater anymore!)

Now every surface in the house if covered in nasty dust from sanding 286-year-old floorboards with (extremely worn and faded and, sadly, not salvagable) original red paint. And Damian and Kenny are priming the floor with pink-tinted oil primer as I type this. Pink floor pictures are forthcoming!