Off to Maine

Over the last week in May and first week in June, Karen and I rewired the cottage.  We installed over 2,000 l.f. of cabling, 26 recepticals, a bunch of lights and nine new circuits.  The bathroom upstairs remains to be done, though we pulled a dedicated 20Acircuit there.  The bathroom will have to wait until Sara finalizes her plans to update it.  The kitchen may also undergo some future change, so we wired that in so any necessary future changes can be done easily.  One novel thing remaining is to install three wireless switches to operate lights in the livingroom, parlor and upstairs hallway.  They are pricey but will negate the need to install unsightly wires in the ceiling. 

Here is a photo of Karen in the crawl space.  I wouldn't do it.  Too many spiders, 100 years of squirrel poop and maybe a caveman or two in the shadows.  She called it her "purgatory" and punishment for past behavior.

Our original rewiring plan was to replace everything.  This included what we now call "Thomas Edison's" knob and tube wiring.  Several neighbors and friends think this is likely as the house was wired in the 1905 and Lufkin was an executive in Edison's New Jersey Menlo Park lab at the time.  When we arrived, we found that the prior owners had wired the entire house onto one 20A circuit.  Amazing.   They must have been continually blowing fuses.  To avoid having to pull a lot of unsightly cables across exposed rafters to lights (and because it just seemed the right thing to do), we decided to keep the original lighting wiring.  This included 12 lights with three original switches - one that even operates a light in the livingroom from two locations.  We removed all the new wiring installed by previous owners.  We now have the system back to the way it was when installed in 1905.
 
For those interested in such things, the bats, insects and ground squirrels were eradicated/relocated on our last Thursday.  The pest control company was very efficient.

The weather was spectacular for the entire 14 days.  It only rained two days and even that was welcomed because, if you can imagine it, it turned everything greener.  This is a view from where the hammock stands and where we had our our daily (I promise) whiskey sour at 5 pm.  Spring comes late in Maine.  We couldn't believe the amount of pollen in the air.  All the furniture in the house was covered with its fine dust.  At the water's edge lay a yellow slick about twelve feet wide.  

You wouldn't believe the fishing on the lake.  We saw fisherman after fisherman pull in fish right off the front porch.  I asked one about his sucess and he said that we have a "hole" right off the property that is a well kept secret.  He asked that I not tell anyone.  Had the 7.5HP motor we found in the barn checked and, unfortunately, it was ruined.   Sara decided not to fix it.  So, the runabout now becomes a rowboat.  Very stable for the kids!  And there is a canoe and two kyacks for the exercise enthusiasts among you.

Sara and Tom's new dock is perfect.  It has a ladder and reaches out to deep water.  But we will have to check carefully for boulders before anyone dives in!

Karen and I were the first to actually stay overnight in the house.  It was kind of spooky for the first several nights.  The bat that spent the first several nights on our closet door didn't help.  Didn't have the heart to evict ole Spencer.  But eventually he left and we haven't seen him since.  By the time we left, the house had started feeling like home.  A male hummingbird joined us the second week.  Probably to be followed by the girls two weeks from now?


Sara, Marie and Jane come up in a couple of weeks for 5 days of cleaning, exploring and play.  I imagine the place will look very different once they leave.

Can you see the Loon off the end of the pier?  There are at least three mated pairs that make this side of the lake their home during the Spring.  Noisy, annoying, yackity-yack birds are they.  Kept us up all night with their exaggerated yarns, bluezy burblings and plaintive calling for each other.