Adding space

I sometimes joke 'now that the kids are gone we need more space'.
Our business has crowded us out of the house! We have our offices, studio, harp workshop, CD and book warehouse, and costume storage for our own duds and also the Grand Design costumes.

I mentioned in the last post that I had been shoveling a lot of sand. Here are some photos of the work in progress.



Our land used to be a granite quarry in the 19th century, so the soil is quite shallow. Hence we have no real basement. The blocked in square is to be a mechanical space where we will install water tanks as our solar heat battery. We wanted to build a house here years ago and got as far as making the foundation. After a hiatus of fifteen years or so we decided that we weren't going to use the whole 42 feet. I have been reinforcing the corners to take a post & beam frame and making a wall at the 32 foot mark.



The panels are to keep the ditch from caving in. I don't want to shovel this sand more than necessary.



Oh boy! Another ton of concrete! At least this truck has a crane. The last delivery we had to unload by hand. Horsing those 80 pound (36 kg) bags into the mixer isn't as much fun as it used to be.

This is the view of our back yard. We'll have some big windows in the new room. Our plan is for one big room with a loft in one end. We our going to install solar heat collectors on the roof and a rumford fireplace, both of which will be used to power a radiant floor. Our goal is to have this room operate "off the grid".

I'll update progress as it happens.


Foliage Report

The Great State of Maine published a foliage report. This is our informal contribution. We performed for a wedding last Sunday in Stockton Springs. On the way home we drove up Mt. Battie, in Camden. Here is an eagle-eye view of outer Penobscot Bay and Camden.





As we were coming down Rt 90 we saw this scene and had to take a photo. It's grand just now. October can be the prettiest month of the year in Maine.