ONLINE JOURNAL
These journal entries track our progress as we undertake our adventure of restoring this very old home. The main reason for keeping this journal on the web is that we have found that there are very few resources (books or websites) that follow all of the trials and tribulations of restoring an old home...from start to finish.
November 5, 2000
Made it to Enon Hall for the afternoon but didn't really have time to get into a project. Instead, we picked a spot in the backyard near where a 19th century kitchen used to be and began digging a hole just to see what we might find.
Everybody got into the act and it didn't take long before we started uncovering china and glass fragments. But our most exciting find was definitely a ceramic pipe stem...a colonial archaeologist's favorite dating device. According to J.C. Harrington's chart, our stem's 6/64" diameter bore means that it most likely dates from 1710- 1750. Very cool!
Once we had filled our hole back in I started investigating the condition of the oil burner. I got my answer very quickly when I hit the reset button and was greeted by flames and smoke shooting instantly from every opening in the old thing. Yelling for Gay and William to get out of the house, I high tailed it for the breaker panel and threw the main switch. I returned to the cellar to find the flames gone, but the space filled with oily smoke. Think it might be time for a service call! -- Bill
November 16, 2000
Met a furnace contractor at the house today. He spent about an hour cleaning the boiler and then restarted it. Then "she split wide open" and water started pouring out everywhere. No way around it now, we need a new boiler. -- Bill
November 24, 2000
Made a quick trip to Enon Hall to check on things. I turned on a trickle of water in the upstairs bathroom just to keep the water moving and deter frozen pipes. It's gotten much colder much earlier this year. Last year we were enjoying warm weather all the way through Christmas. -- Bill
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