[Previous entry: "Little Liberators"] [Next entry: "Saving the Barn, Part Two"]

03/17/2009: "Reclaiming the Cottage"

Lou and his family have been working hard to reclaim the cottage from the brambles and neglect. Bill T. left it in pretty rough shape, and they cleaned out to make it ready for Grandma and Grandpa to live there. First, though, it needed a water supply; I told Lou I would come down and use the backhoe to make a trench so that the PVC supply line would be well below the frost line. I took the picture above towards the end of the process of digging the trench; I was surprised at how quickly the job went once I got started. It took only about an hour to dig 60 feet of trench.

Of course, extending the water supply beyond the end of the orchard again meant discovering all kinds of water system weirdness all over again:



The photo above is a classic: a single PVC pipe at the end of the orchard mysteriously morphs into two PVC pipes of different diameters, seemingly going to the same place, with a frost-vulnerable turn-off valve above ground (which incidentally Lou told me was not even glued!). Lou ultimately fixed all the various leaks, which were many, and now the cottage, the cowshed, and even the corner of the barn have water pressure!

Meanwhile, Grandma was busy painting inside the cottage.



Ultimately, there is still more work to be done. Lou would like to get some cable TV and internet signals routed to the cottage, and the foundation needs some shoring up in places. It needs a new roof, and the windows could use some replacing. But for now it is in a vastly improved, and nearly habitable, state.