Front Door

I have been thinking a lot about a different front door. This is the current state of affairs.

Close-up on the 3-over-3 door. Notice the extra molding around the entry. Between that and the placement of the non-working door bell, I feel confident the front door was once much larger.



I think I want an elegant double tombstone door, like these pretties from my neighborhood.

I like this front porch too and the bright red color:

These people have a breeze-way entrance that caught our eye, for the kitchen entrance:

Another contrasting color on the door:



I'm not a huge fan of this colonial-style door on this house. This green house is right next door to the yellow house above.The colonial door on this house seems to work with the front porch:
I'm going to use this as an excuse to visit Brimfield and the salvage yards, this gives a little bit of focus to feeling like a kid in a candy shop at the flea markets this summer!

In the ditches

While we waited for spring to be sprung, Jeff picked up the axe, long-arm lever, and shovel and dug out the side garden with the hopes of improving drainage and keeping our basement dry.

The previous owners built a flower/herb bed along the driveway. I've used this as a place to grow tomatoes since its the only part of our tiny lot that gets full sun. This year we joined a CSA, so its being turned back to a flower bed.

There are 2 problems with this garden:
1) It has no drainage so water runs right back through the fieldstones into the basement.
2) The dirt and mulch was piled up above the sill effectively creating a termite super-highway. If I put on bug-o-vision glasses, I'm certain I'd see signs proclaiming our basement to be a termites' vactionland.

So, Jeff dug a ditch 18 inches deep

and added a lot of drainage rock

and a PVC pipe wrapped in landscape netting.

He added some rocks back on top of the pipe

Pulled off the lower rows of siding.


Added some Boracare to the termite areas. There were several of these spots. Not surprising to find these spots since we already replaced the wood on the interior of this wall.


We added a rain/snow barrier that would divert the water directly into the drainage pipe.

Then went some more gravel, and a piece of trim. The trim still needs to be painted, but I'm ready to add flowers, so this is the "final" photo.

Now, its off to plan a flower garden!

Eviction notice

The Bat Guys came and installed bat doors. It looks like a piece of window screen folded into a tube, and it may well be just that, but I will do anything to avoid being awakened by a bat flying around my head again. These are the opposite of a roach motel. Bats can check out but they can't come back in. The guys also sealed up the holes through which the bats were entering the house. They'll come back in 30 days to remove these doors and seal up these last few holes.

Spring has sprung

Above the house on the right is the Beech tree for which the blog was named.

These are my favorite few days of the year, when everything is in bloom and has yet to become irritatingly overgrown. Have a great weekend!