Click image to view gallery of completed master bath.

This post is late, but the news is worth the wait: We have completed the restoration of Newborn House!

That’s right. After three years, upon completion of the master bathroom, we declared victory.

We thought the project would take about a year, but it actually took after nearly three years. We restored every room, one by one. Replaced all the plumbing, most of the electrical and lots of other infrastructure. We lost count, but we used at least 100 gallons of paint and twice that many tubes of caulk.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some things to do, but really no more than any other homeowner has on their list. And, there’s a list of projects for the yard and landscaping. Right now, we’re painting the barn; we plan to move and shore up the smoke house; and we want to restore the brick flower pit.

Since declaring victory, we did mange to fit in a 25th anniversary vacation. Andi’s been working on some sewing and re-upholstery projects. I’ve been trying to ride my bicycle more often (including a six-hour mountain bike race tomorrow!).

We have plans to collect some of our favorite pictures and put them in a Shutterfly book. As soon as I get the pictures organized, I’ll post some of the before and affter images.

It’s been a grand adventure, and throughout the project, we’ve been encouraged by the number of people who have followed our progress through this blog. We always appreciated your e-mails, comments and phone calls.

Stay tuned for more updates and information about our upcoming projects.

Happy new year!

As we begin 2008, we also begin the a new year of restoration on the Newborn House.

We bought the house January 13, 2006. Work began the next day … exactly two years ago this weekend… with a total gutting and remodeling of the kitchen. Since then, we have accomplished a lot. With the exception of the dining room and master bathroom, every room has been completely restored and refinished. We also have done a lot of work on the outside (roof, barn, porch, yard work) and infrastructure (plumbing, electrical, HVAC).
This week we started on the dining room.

As you can see from the picture above and in the photo gallery the room is a big but not overwhelming project. It needs a lot of repair on the plaster walls and the ceiling. And, there’s a built-in china cabinet that needs some work.Andi has already stripped the mantle, so it’s ready to refinish.

When we started this project two years ago we expected it to be a grand adventure … and it has been!

Stay tuned.

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with house restoration, but is an interesting story from next door to our house. (More photos.)

A little bit of Hollywood came to Newborn this week when the film crew for the movie "Good Intentions" filmed in downtown. The shooting location is next-door to our house in the parking lot of the Post Office and local grocery/hardware store.

The two main stars — Luke Perry and Elaine Hendrix — were here for the day. The film is shooting at several other small towns in the area this week and next. Today is day 18 of 25 days on location.

These folks were out in the blazing Georgia sun all day long. This afternoon, with the temperature hovering just above 100 degrees, they just worked straight through. Nary a complaint was heard. (Even now, at 8:50 p.m., it’s still 92 degrees! … and I can look across the yard and see the crew packing up for the day.)

Andi and Candice went over this morning to watch the movie-making with some of the other neighbors. The cast and crew were very busy but didn’t seem to mind the spectators. Luke didn’t seem to mind stopping to have his picture made with his new fans. He even came over and introduced himself to Andi and our neighbor
Katy.

I don’t the main storyline, but the scenes they were shooting today had something to do with a runaway car with two small children inside that Luke has to stop. As he does, the car crashes into the sign for a fictitious roadhouse restaurant that features nude dancers and all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp.

Here’s an overview of a small part of the movie set in downtown Newborn.

Hello, dear readers. First, I apologize for leaving you to wonder for so long about the progess of our work on the Newborn house. Many of you have inquired about our progress. Thank you for your interest and your patience.

At the moment, I’m on a plane somewhere over Texas. That means I can’t be running any wire, repairing any plaster or painting anything. (At least, I hope there’s nothing on this plane that needs repairing!) That also means that I have time to write to you about some of our recent progress.

The main news that you may not have heard is that we moved into the house about a month ago. Our earlier restoration work had been done while we were still living in the log cabin back up in Rockdale County. When that property finally sold, we made the move to Newborn.

After about a month, we are feeling right at home in the new, old, unfinished house. It’s great. Many of the boxes are still packed, sitting in the upstairs hall and front bedroom. One side of the unfinished dining room is packed with dining room stuff and the other side is packed with tools, supplies and other equipment.

Status of other areas:

- The kitchen is complete (except for grouting of the new antique tile on the fireplace).

- The parlor, master bedroom and hall bath are completely complete.

- Upstairs, Candice’s room and the sewing room are functional, but not yet repainted and refinished.

- Yesterday, I finished the last of the low-voltage wiring. We now have cable/satellite, telephone and wireless internet throughout the house.

- There’s still a good bit of electrical work to be done, but much of the wiring for the interior lighting is complete. Most every room now has overhead lighting and working outlets throughout. We are still looking for just the right light fixtures for the house. Andi found a great, crystal chandelier for the entry hall at an estate sale over in Social Circle. For the rest of the rooms, we are using a bare bulb until we find just the right fixture for each room.

The current major project is to complete the downstairs hall. Andi ripped down the ugly old (but not period) wallpaper and has started repairing the plaster and cleaning. The goal is to have the hall completed by Christmas.

Also, we have found a local contractor who will be here in the next couple of weeks to get started on some clearing and excavation work. All of the underbrush, overgrowth and dead tress will be removed from the backside of the property. Around the house, he’ll remove some old rock walls, solve some draining problems and fill the old well. That should make a huge difference.

When we bought the house, we figured that it would take about a year to restore the house. So far, we are about nine months into the project. We are no longer working on an overall timeline. It’ll take as long as it takes to do it right.

I can’t promise that I’ll be more timely in my postings, but I will do my best to keep you updated as we reach the major milestones and completion points. Stay tuned.

As a quick catch-up, here are links to my most recent photo galleries:

Weeks 20 through 23.

Weeks 24-25.

More updates to come soon. Really.

Click picture to for enlarged version.

Today’s work on the Newborn House was slightly delayed by one of the major annual events on the Newborn social calendar … The Newborn Festival and Hornyhead Fishing Tournament.

In addition to the usual festival activities — parade, barbecue, bluegrass singin’, arts and crafts, and booths selling everything from flowers to Vidalia onions — the Newborn festival features a horneyhead fishing contest. Anglers of all ages flock to the streams around town in search of these wily creatures of the deep. The horneyhead is a chub (or minnow) fish that grows to 5 to 7 inches in length. A really big one weighs upwards of five ounces. Don’t ask me why the festival planners have chosen the horneyhead, but one of the welcome-to-Newborn signs does brag that the town is the Home of the Horneyhead Fishing Association.

As a kid, I caught a few horneyheads in the creeks and streams during some of our outdoor adventures. I even took Candice fishing in Big Haynes Creek when she was about 3. Her first catch was a horneyhead. However, I have never participated in a competitive fishing event, and I didn’t have time to start this year.

But we did take out time for the parade that started at the Newborn School House and passed directly in front of our house. What it lacked in size it more that made up for in charm. The parade was led by flags of all stripes. A group of kids from the local Methodist church rode in a hay wagon and threw candy. A handsome pair of matched mules pulled a fancy wagon. The mayor and local state representative each rode by in separate pickup trucks.

We did get some work done, and I’ll post a report and pictures soon. Stay tuned.

Tonight, Andi is looking through her collection of pattern books for a style of curtains to make for the kitchen windows. When you consdier that just over two months ago we were replacing the rotten parts of the floor in that room, that’s a sure sign of progress.

The best news from last week is that Candice was home from college for part of her college spring break. We had a very good visit and she even pitched in and helped with painting and other house restoration work on Saturday. You can see some of her handiwork in the week 11 photo gallery.

As part of the ongoing work, we also made progress in hall bath. Andi finished hanging the new wallpaper and painting most of the main woodwork. We are still trying to find just the right kind of tile for the flooring and shower stall. We thought had an online source, but they are out of stock and won’t have any new tile until June or later. We have found some other sources and will run those traps this week.

Week 11 photo gallery Stay tuned for more updates.

The first order of business today was to finalize the construction and installation of the countertops. All of the hard work was completed yesterday. All that remained was joining of of the pieces and attaching them to the cabinets. The “incident” (as we’ll call it from here on out) happened on the second cut of the day. When the biscuit joiner cut into the wood, I lost my grip and the blade came in contact wirh the tip of my left ring finger.

As you can see from the picture at left (click the image for a larger version), I was not amused. I also was not overly concerned. The wound didn’t seem that severe. I still counted 10 complete digits, only one of which had been nicked by the saw blade. The problem is that even slight nick by a saw blade spinning at 10,000 RPM tends to bleed a lot.

The good news is that I did learn (or, in some cases, re-learn) some important lessons.

Lesson 1 is that you should always respect your power tools. Duh!

Lesson 2 is that you should always listen to your wife when she says you need to go to the emergency room. When she saw fhe little pulses of blood pumping from my finger, Andi insisted that I needed some stitches. I insisted that I didn’t, and that I would not be going the the ER. Besides, I further argued, the bleeding would stop soon and she could go back to work.

The fact that our friend Holly (a long-time nurse with more practical medical knowledge than anyone I’ve ever met) sided with Andi did nothing to support my position.

(This very much reminds me of the “popcorn incident” that led to eight stitches in the top of my head. I said the big gash in my head didn’t need stitches; Andi said it did need stitches. She was right that time, too, but that’s a story for another time.)

Lesson 3 is that the uses for duct tape are, in fact, unlimited. After washing out the cut finger we wrapped it with paper towels and duct tape. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked until we could track down more suitable bandages. Lesson 3B is that you should probably have a first aid kit handy on a construction site. I’ll see if I can take care that need this week. (By the way, a first aid kit also would be a handy item to have in your truck when you go mountain biking. In particular, this refers to the “granite drop-off incident,” which, again, is another story for another time.)

Lesson 4 is that when you start to feel faint, you really should lie down. Witnessing medical treatments always makes me feel woosy, and I’ve nearly passed out several times when family members were in the hospital for treatment. Today, I carefully watched Dr. Mullis as he inserted the long needle into four spots around the knuckle of my hand and pumped in the lidocaine. Early signs of imminent woosiness convinced me to lie down for the remainder of his handiwork.

(My Mom used to have this same condition. Every time she would take one of us boys to the emergency room for stitches [are you starting to notice a trend here?], she would do great until it was all over, and then she would pass out. Thanks, Mom!)

Lesson 5 is that the good folks at Rockdale Medical Center are very much appreciated. Susie and Katherine in the triage area were pleasant and professional. Bernard is the best nurse ever; his tetanus shot didn’t hurt at all; he anticipated the doctor’s needs; and he was full of good cheer and optimism. And Dr. Mullis did a great job of closing up my finger with eight tiny stitches.

Overall, I am very grateful that I ended up with no permanent damage, and that my finger will be as good as new in a week or so. Before “the incident” we had made a lot of progress inside and outside of the house last week. Stay tuned for your regular construction updates.

Ellen is a friend of Martha’s, and they are both active in the Garden Club. She was very excited to tour the house and yard, and even told us about the flower pit that her mother had at their house when she was a little girl.

She also told us that the large finial on the newel post of our stairwell had a special meaning. Back in the day, a house like ours would have been built with a very simple finial. When the owners finished paying for the house, they would replace the simple finial with a fancy version so that everyone would know that the house was paid for.

(If that’s true, we should probably remove our finial!)

Ellen’s friend and bridge partner introduced himself to me as Bill Futch. After a short conversation, it dawned on me that Bill Futch was actually Dr. Futch.

Before my brain could object, my mouth blurted out a wisecrack: “Oh! So, you used to be that mean old man who gave me shots when I was sick!”

Dr. Futch let out a hearty laugh and allowed that he was indeed.

For those who don’t know him, Dr. Futch was one of the two doctors in town when we were growing up. He was a general practitioner in town for more than 30 years. The other GP was Dr. Brown, who delivered me. Dr. Brown gave medicine; Dr. Futch gave shots. (At least, that’s the way I remember it.)

He and I had a nice conversation while Ellen and Andi toured the house and grounds and talked about decorating and gardening plans.

Dr. Futch retired in 1996 to care for his wife, who died a short time later. Since then Dr. Futch has traveled the world – several times, in fact. He’s been the Russia, China, Hawaii (five times), Europe, and many other countries. This summer he has plans for a riverboat trip up the Mississippi and a cruise through the fjords of Norway.

He said he had never imagined that he would enjoy being retired because he was addicted – “completely addicted” – to his work. It was only after his unplanned retirement that he realized how much he enjoyed traveling.

Dr. Futch, thanks for stopping by … and thanks for the shots.

In the effort to get our old house liveable, this weekend would have been a good time to go to the beach.

The weekend started with Friday’s fiasco. Saturday was cold and rainy, with progress limited to some plumbing improvements (more on this tomorrow) and getting the stove moved indoors. On Sunday, the weather was better and we finished the plumbing rough-in for the hall bath.

That’s the good news. The disappointing news from Sunday is that we had a bit of a prolblem with a piece of antique furniture that we had bought for the hall bath. A few days ago, we found an antique Queen Anne-style buffet with a large, oval mirror that we planned to turn into the sink stand in the hall bath. The buffet was made of mahogoney and was the perfect size, style and shape.

We drove over to the nearby town of Covington Sunday to pick up the buffet. We loaded it on the truck, tied it down and headed for home. About a mile later, we heard a loud crash and experienced a serious sinking feeling. The mirror and its frame had blown off of the buffet and landed in the middle of the road. The mirror was shattered into a million pieces and the frame unit was destroyed. The parts that weren’t splintered suffered a serious case of road rash.

Fortunately, no one was directly behind us, so no one was hurt. And, the bottom portion is still in tact and can be used as planned. We just have to find a new mirror unit that will compelement the buffet.

The pictures (complete buffet and closeup of damage) don’t fully show the amount of damage.