The House Renovation Project in Maine

For the record, this is exactly how it happened:

Sister, Ruth (and hubby Don), bought a house from 1860 in Maine a year ago.  THEY LOVE IT.  However, their son Peter always had allergic reactions when he visited them.  Long story short, they decided the culprit was the remaining carpet in the two guest bedrooms, up and down hallways and stairs.  They removed the carpet from the smaller guest room and, BINGO, they were right.

Don and Ruth knew they'd have to remove the remaining carpet.  It was a no-brainer.  But it was also a huge project for Don, since Ruth's carpal tunnel meant she'd be of little help for the grunt work.

One day here in the Netherlands, while preparing dinner in the kitchen, I had a brain fart:  Astrid would be the perfect person to help Don, if she were willing and able.  You should have seen the look on her face when I suggested it:  it was like CHRISTMAS!

When we suggested the idea to Don and Ruth, for the last two weeks of February...well, the rest is history!  In those two weeks, there were 8 work days, accomplishing the following (Ruth/Astrid sent me the pics each evening so that I could make the collages each day, making me feel part of the project):

Day 1: Carpet removal, up and down, including all the nails, staples and tacking strips.

Day 2:  Astrid worked on removing several layers of paint on the stairs...

...while Don filled the cracks and nail holes with putty in the guest room,

prepping the floor for painting.

Day 3:  That paint was so stubborn they had to order a heat gun to remove it.

Even so, the last vestiges of paint (remember, the house is from 1860) refused to budge.

Instead of Plan A, to stain the steps, they moved to Plan B, to paint them.

All this while Don painted the big guest room black!

This is a very New England look.  How stunning.

Day 4:  Astrid spent the entire day prepping the stairs for painting...

...while Don painted the first coat of white paint on the upstairs landing.

Day 5:  Both Astrid and Ruth primed the stairs for painting.

(Ruth, bless her, wanted to help so badly but realized her carpal tunnel protested, so she stopped.)

Meanwhile, Don filled cracks in the landing floors with twine before putty (a nice trick).

He realized this needed to be done (after the fact) before the second coat of paint.

Day 6:  Both Don and Astrid painted the first coat of white on the kick-boards and side panels,

plus other odd tasks for Don.

Day 7:  Don and Astrid measured, cut and painted the quarter-round molding

for the guest room as well as the landings.  And Astrid cleaned out the floor registers!

Day 8:  The Grand Finale!  Astrid painted the first coat of black paint on the stairs.

(Don painted the second coat yesterday, a week later, giving the first coat curing time.)

While Astrid did the stairs, Don used a nail gun to attach the baseboard molding 

and then painted the second coat of white paint to the downstairs entryway.

And just like that, the transformation was done!

Eight days of hard work during two weeks of collaborated blood, sweat and tears LOVE.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Lest you think it was all work and no play, look at the collages Astrid put up on Facebook

whenever she had a chance:

Feb. 16, Sun:  a walk in the neighborhood before work started the next day.

Feb. 17, Mon:  a walk in Belfast after a hard day's work.

Feb. 18, Tue:  the only day of snow falling.

Feb. 19, Wed:  on an early morning walk, captured with her 1365 mm lens.

Feb. 19, Wed:  making sourdough bread in between work.

Feb. 20, Thu:  a walk in the Searsport neighborhood.

Feb. 21, Fri:  turkeys out in the yard, through the kitchen window.

Feb. 21, Fri:  a trip with Ruth to Bangor for shopping,

while Don helped my bother, Nelson, at his own house project!

Stephen King's house (top-left) and Paul Bunyan (bottom-right).

Feb. 22, Sat:  a day out, including Nelson, to Stonington.

Feb. 23, Sun:  sourdough muffins.

Feb. 24, Mon:  another walk in the Searsport neighborhood.

Feb. 28, Fri:  the lighthouse in Portland, last day before flying back home the next day.

As you see, it was not all work and no play!
And even though I was not there, it feels as though I were part of the entire endeavor,
keeping in touch with Astrid and Ruth via Facetime, as well as the Facebook posts.

A memory to have and to hold forever.