home improvement

WE MAKE A GOOD TEAM!

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Those of you who have been following along know that as Spring breaks around us in all of its glory, here in New England, the projects are beginning. One of the many projects at the Vicarage is burning up a rather large pile of brush. Actually it is more like four large piles that are connected across the yard into one immense pile.

Anyway my son-in-law, James and I have been whittling away at it for the last couple of weeks. Neither of us ever has a full day we can give to cutting or burning. We each have an hour here or an hour there, so we do what we can when we can.

Yesterday, James was able to spend about an hour cutting up the brush into smaller piles so I could get at it and unburying some of these larger logs for burning.

And this morning I was able to take about an hour and a half and burn up some of the wood that he dug out.

We make a good team!

BURNING THE RAIN

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This week’s project at the Vicarage is burning brush.

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Unfortunately the weather has been so rainy all week, getting a fire going has been very difficult and the acrid smoke from last year’s weeds makes my clothes smell soooo bad.

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Still it is the beginning of a whole host of other projects. So I will soldier on through the smoke!

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SURVEY

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I visited town hall the other day. I needed to renew Snug’s dog license and to check in with the Planning Commission to see if our building project was even viable.

Snug’s dog license was a quick matter. He just had a rabies shot in the fall, so he is good through next year. After the town clerk’s office I stopped over to see Nicole Roberts at the planning commission and I spent about twenty minutes telling her about our plans.

The Vicarage sits on two pieces of property which my father acquired at different times in the 1970’s. The property we are planning on building the cottage on has plenty of frontage and set back so the building project is a go, but on further inspection it was discovered that the main house of the Vicarage, while grandfathered in, is not actually a buildable lot any longer. It is short by three feet of being buildable.

The advice is to have the lots surveyed so we can build on the empty lot and then give some frontage to the main lot so that also become buildable so we can add a garage or something in the future.

ADDING ON

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Last September, my son-in-law and daughter and their girls moved into The Vicarage to lay plans for their next steps into home ownership.

Now there is going to be a new baby! We are all so excited for Baby boy Franklin to arrive, but it does mean we have had to start solidifying plans for the future.

The Franklins are going to be staying here and helping with the Vicarage as Brenda and I age! So Brenda and I have begun looking at floor plans. It seems to make sense to let the Franklins occupy the original Vicarage and for Brenda and I to build a smaller addition or cottage to the property.

We really like the idea of a smaller cottage home on the adjoining piece of property. Here is one of floor plans we are looking at.

PREPARING FOR SPRING

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It’s mid February. I am just getting ready to make cookies for the Library Valentine’s cookie sale. Winter is still releasing its fury over our part of the world, but we are all mindful that its power is coming to an end. Spring is around the corner.

So it’s time to start planning the Spring garden work.

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I usually make great plans, but I am not very good about intentionally carrying them out. This year it will be all about the execution. Things are going to begin to shift here at The Vicarage as we come into the Spring.

ARE YOU IN PLANNING FOR THE SPRING AND SUMMER…OR…MAYBE WHERE YOU ARE YOUR PLANNING FOR THE FALL OR WINTER?

GETTING THE VICARAGE BACK TOGETHER

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The holidays are over. We now head into the deep of winter here in New England. It is time to batten down the hatches for a few months.

I have defrocked the tree and put it into its box. The ornaments are ready to go back into storage.

I still have windows to plastic and some work to do down in the cellar to get ready for the real cold that is coming in over the next few weeks and hopefully the snow. We really need some snow to get rid of this drought.

I have a huge pile of brush to burn, but right now I think we are still in a fire ban until January 15.

I also have three rooms to put back together upstairs at the Vicarage. The holidays kind of turned them into catchall spaces. It’s time to rectify that and to get ready for the Spring.

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It will be here before we know it. So much to do before the tulips bloom!

WHAT ARE YOUR WINTER PROJECTS?