March 23
Humberto and I took up the rest of the kitchen's sub floor - mid foundation wall is in poor condition - floor joints sitting on bricks and rocks - all loose.
Built up 3 pillars for the floor joints with brick and mortar. Next time we'll level.
Nanette meanwhile continued removing mortar from mud room wall in preparation of repointing bricks.

March 16
Put vapor barrier in crawl space. Added insulation to kitchen floor and installed sub floor in 1/3 kitchen.
Next time we'll take up rest of kitchen floor and level, sister, etc.

March 9
Humberto and I replaced bottom plate and found live termites. So we sprayed all areas, sistered numerous floor joists and leveled the joists or at least as level as can be in an old house.
Nanette spend the weekend at hospital with Mimi. All is fine. Mimi went in on Thursday with extremely high calcium levels and released on Sunday.

March 8
Humberto, Craig and I moved dresser upstairs. We then tore up about half of the kitchen floor - sub floor.

March 2
Bought backer board for master bath and drywall for kitchen near sink.
Opened the door and heard a rustling sound inside.  Not another destructive ground hog?  Went upstairs - more rustling.  Not scurrying.  Not like a ground hog.  What Now?   In the guest bathroom was a Barred Owl that's 20" high with a 5' wing span sitting on the towel rack.  Got my gloves and a stick and opened the windows just in case the owl wanted to leave on his own.  Tried to get it to perch on the stick.  No go!  Would not move.  Nanette called Animal Control, and Ed S. was on call, and called back.  Nanette explained the situation .  He got the address and asked if  "The mansion was by the bridge?"  Nanette responded "yes".  Ed S. stated his wife loves that house and Nanette told him to bring her too.  Ed S and his wife Monica arrived in about 15 minutes.  Owl had not moved at all.  Ed put on long leather gloves and grabbed the owl's talons.  He carried it outside and away it flew - beautiful!   Afterwards we found a warm "fresh" dead mouse.  Maybe it was the owl's snack??  Whoooooo knows!  Absolutely no idea how the owl got into the house.
Gave Ed and Monica a tour of the house.
Started to sleet so we left for home.  Didn't get much accomplished but exciting!

February 23
Put together toilet, sink and tub in 1st floor bathroom. Room is now ready for plumbers to finish connecting/installing everything.
Put together vanity 2nd floor quest bath, sink and faucet. Remounted vanity lights to correct height.

February 15 and 16
Humberto helped this weekend. Installed remaining lights in kitchen as well as in the bathrooms. Installed wainscoting in the 1st floor bathroom along long wall and started the other side.
Before any work h - had to clear the driveway of now. Nanette and I wouldn't even pull into the main drive. Had to go on neighbors access road and pull in there just to get truck out of the way. Used tractor to clear drive...found best if used bucket to push the snow like a plow.
Nanette finished mudding the kitchen ceiling...found sanding too difficult. Also started plaster repair.

February 8 and 9
Installed light in mast bath.  Fan on 2nd floor porch, all kitchen lights except fan and one in corner.  Unloaded 5 of 6 radiators we bought from Mike R for $25 each. 
Took Zeke - at end of day he was sure ready to go home.  Didn't nap all day even though I put towel down for him to lie on.
Some limbs and trees down from the ice storm earlier this week.

Happy New Year! 2014

January 18
Installed master suite hallway light fixtures. Tried to install master bath light but electric receptable is very shallow and screws are too long. Will have to take home and cut down.
Installed base moudling in 1st floor bath. Floor and its unevenness causes mitre joints not to line up right - note to self in future take floor angle into account and cut mitres.
Nanette continued to work on taping kitchen ceiling and took down 1/2 of the corner angle on steps

January 12
Bob cut out sink in the 2nd floor guest bathroom vanity.
Brought vanity home to re-finish because of the cold temp at Trevanion.
Bob installed fan/light in game room.
Got IRIS back up and running
Nanette painted trim for 1st floor bath and worked on mudding ceiling.

January 11
Bob started to cut base moulding but found the compound mitre saw (10") was too small for the job as well as for crown moulding. So of course, he went to Lowes and bought a 12" DeWalt compound miter saw and portable table for it $400. WHAT POWER!
When he returned he cut thebase moulding (rough cuts on lengths) so Nanette can paint them before installing.
Nanette spent day mudding the ceiling Kitchen.
Tons or rain yesterday and today we found the natural path the water travels on the front 40. It isn't right. Bob marked where the stream needs to go and this spring he can dig a trench so it will run into the existing stream.

January 5
Working again!
Our plan was to work on the 1st floor bathroom but temp inside was 34 degrees - too darn cold to work! Decided another day would be better. Went home to get warm....

January 1
Celebrated New Year Day by working.
Started off by laying new flooring in the 1st floor basthroon.
Also started mudding kitchen ceiling.
Put dehumidifier in front basement. The humidity was 85% since the fans do not operate less then 40 degrees.

Finally - it's time to blog our journey of rehabilation

Stay tuned for more information.

Visit from Former Owner

A former owner of Trevanion (1992-2000) that dealt with the lead issues stopped by when we were working at the house.  She gave us alot of information on the history of Trevanion when they lived there.

-          Were stairs from front hallway to the front basement
-          Rewired the right side of the house
-          Brought plumbing to library because they were going to use it as a master bath
-          All mantels were in place when they left
-          Both parlors had white marble mantels
-          Kitchen fireplace has wood mantel with mirror above
-          Put in pocket door in 1^st floor bathroom
-          Were no cabinets in mud room
-          Bought white sink in mud room
-          Was no paneling in back family room
-          Was a bathroom in corner of back family room for pool users
-          Kitchen was designed differently
-          Put in all the radiators
-          No black or white tile or mosaic work in front hallway – was all hardwood floor
-          Beautiful cornices in parlors
-          Well in artesian well – spring fed
-          Concreted back basement and put in sump pump
-          Underground railroad in front yard – owner covered in
-          Had a propane tank on property
-          Have door hardware and the original Trevanion sign
-          Pool was put in by previous owner – never worked
-          Removed shutters and placed in barn in anticipation of removing lead along with the spindles and banister on 2^nd floor porch.  Barn burned down and destroyed all.  Rumor was it was the previous owner that burned barn for insurance money.
-          By accident, they knocked down one front pillar bringing a trailer through the front gate
-          Have pix and documents in her storage unit.

Settlement Day

We had looked at Trevanion Mansion since August 2010 and at the end of August we had a number of contractors come in to give us estimates.  Roof $48K, chimney rebuild of $45K, etc.  After the lead inspector found a fair amount of lead in the older part of the house, we decided not to bid on the house.

A couple months later, we thought about the house and decided we wanted it - old, historic, lots of character, etc.  I was slated to retire in January 2011.  If we got the house I would continuing working and if we didn't I would retire.  We called the realtor and there was another contract already accepted.

Called the realtor again at the end of November to check the status of the contract. The contract was solid and the people were getting a rehab loan and settlement was going to happen at the end of December 2011.

Since the house was all but sold to another couple, I decided to go ahead with retirement.  If we had gotten the house, I would have kept working.

On Tuesday January 4, 2011, I officially retired.  The night of January 6th, the realtor called to inform us the  contract fell through.  Saturday, January 8th, we went on a walk through with the realtor again, yep, in as bad of shape as we remembered.  And on Sunday, January 9th, we made an offer to the bank.  The bank countered, we countered, and they countered, and finally we came to an agreement and our offer was accepted.

All we can figure is that I was suppose to retire.  It was meant to be!

We settled on Trevanion Mansion on February 28, 2011.   

The adventure begins...