Meet Eddie!

I had done all the usually searching through the internet and came upon a breader close to home.   With friend in car, we went to visit the litter.  Mom is blue point; dad is seal.  We played with the six, six week old kittens.  How could I not take one home!  I had first pick and went for the little guy with the racing stripe down his back.  He was very rambunctious.  Surely Bello, our tonkinese would find this a good playmate.

Saturday was a beatiful fall day in Paris and Hubby was taking advantage putting in the new pillars. I stragitically planned to pick up new baby and bring him home when hubby was having a great day.

Baby was in a carrying case and I dropped it carefully in front of hubby while working.  He was instantly smiling and scooped "Hudson" from the cage.  Hubby didnt like the name that I though would make baby a winner in our household.  He said we would find a more suitable name.  For the rest of the weekend, hubby carried baby around or taking pictures of baby, and still carefully introducing baby to Bello.  He is not photogenic and resembled the crazy hyenna from "Lion King" cartoon.  So Ed was the name picked.  He looks like an Ed too.

Bello was behaving very well, better than we expected.  He hissed, baby hissed, he hissed again and walked away.  Bello followed Ed everywhere still staring him down and still the odd hiss.  All went very well even unsupervised.

Sunday morning was fun as I let Ed out to follow me around.  I went down stairs to the kitchen and forgot that baby had never seen stairs before.  That was horrifying at first as he walked straight out and then dropped and tumbled to the bottom, breaking his fall by hitting the wall at the end.  But Ed shook himself off and kept on running.

Today was his first visit to the vet.  This is the start of cleaning out the rest of my savings account as we need three more visits for shots, flea treatments, worm treatments, declawing, neutering, etc.

Just as I was ready to leave the office, the vet came back, looking under the tail one more time.....surprise....It's a GIRL...Eddie!

Painting with the Birds

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Summer is over and unfortately so is the warm weather needed to finish painting the house.  Hubby and I have spent the last four months working on the outside the the manor.  I have had a very close and personal relationship with a paint stripper that should have a nick name, but doesnt.  I have taken all the paint off of the windows and balcony door.

We have choosen linseed paint as it is environmentally friendly.  It's needs warm weather to apply and leaves a nice luster once three coats have been thinly applied. I am pleased to report that all eight windows and balcony door frame are painted, caulked and ready for the winter. 

While working up with the birds, I have also had interesting conversations with neighbours.  I love how people always ask the obvious questions.  "What are you doing"; to which I reply, "feeding the birds".   But it is a way of starting conversation.  Some people just stop and watch.  And I watch them too.

We have a major street under construction and all that traffic is rerouted past the Wolverton.  I have whitnessed some strange driving habits.  Lots of speeding, three point turns, and one person driving on the sidewalk to bypass slow traffic.  I watch traffic merge from three roads, past our street front and bottleneck onto the main street leading to the downtown district.

Just this past weekend, hubby and I were perched side by side on the top scaffold starting to put paint on the bull's eye window.  I was eye to eye with the bird's and listening to traffic almost 40' below my bench.  It didnt feel right and so I asked hubby to help me down.  He was willing to show me the quick way...not funny.

I have climbed up and down this 'jungle gym' for months like a monkey, but the third level... is for the birds!

Goodbye to Ms Toi

Ms. Toi, b. April 1991, d. Sept. 2010

Today is a sad day at the Wolverton House.  One of our precious family members has passed away.  Ms. Toi will be sadly missed.

It's so hard to imagine that this eight pounds of fur could bring such joy to all of us for almost twenty years.  She was only 2 lbs when we brought her home.  Jordan was the first one to pick her out of a group of twelve fat energetic fluff balls.  We spent an afternoon in a historic home that Hubby and I were actually contemplating purchasing and moving to a residential area for restoration.  It was part of the LACAC (Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committees) properties looking for people like us to restoric a bit of community history.

The kids were entertained by these little critters, while Hubby and I became sidetracked to looks at architecture.  A kitten was finally picked and off we went.  Finding the proper name was not easy.  I cant even remember now what some of the choices were, but Toy was not one of them.  But after 48 hours of this little being making sqeeky noices similar to those of a chew toy,  this baby was dubbed, Toy....later changed to Ms Toi (as it sounded more exautic).

Hubby would carry her in his shirt pocket as she fit perfectly and it was easy to keep track of her when we were walking through the house.  She would often get stuck inside the cabinetry, behine the drawers as she could squeeze into the tinyest of places.  But she grew fast.

Almost a year later from her birth date, Justin Albert Courtemanche arrived.  They became instant friends as Toi would crawl into the crib and sleep on his little feet.  I thing it was more the blankets that she was attracted to.  As Justin grew and became more agressive, Toi found new places to sleep.

There was one day, my 15 year old daughter came to me in hesteria...."Toi ate my favorit sweater".  Yes, Toi, typical bad behavior for siamese, was a wool eater.  She did infact chew a grape size hold in the front center of her new 'Northern Reflection Sweater'.  With such anger, I decided to get rid of this cat... and into the car she went and straight to the humane society.  It wasnt just the sweater she ate, but all the cuffs from every pair of mits and gloves that came into our house.  Toi just loved to eat wool. 

Toi did return home as the office was closed.  Joanne being very relieved and hugging her best friend swearing she could stay with us forever and would never complain again. 

We were very consciencious about this little glitch and Toi did become the best pet ever.  She would scream at Hubby when his voice would escalate...Oh yes, she always took my side.  She would stay close to the children when they were sick in bed.  She would sit at the door when we came home.  She would sit at her dish for food....until it was filled...even when we had to stop everything and go to the store to purchase her next meal.  Like a statue, she would freeze until dinner was served.

And I spoiled her with table scraps...driving Hubby bonkers.  She slept with me, 'spooning' or resting her little head on my arm, but only staying a short while and finding her own space at the foot of the bed.  She loved sleeping in the sun too.

Toi was always happy.  That did change when Bello arrived.   Our oldest son wanted a cat and so we found his the perfect sole mate.  Unfortunately we inherited 'it' when son # one moved home.  Toi did not take kindly to sharing her domain with this big brute of a cat.  Handsome as he was, he had attitude and a force to be reconed with.  Aunty Edna was a house guests when we were trying so desperately to unite Beauty and the Beast.  When Aunty left ,  I am sure Toi would have gladly gone with her.

Five years later the bond began between Toi and Bello. 

Now that we have spent three years at the Wolverton House, Toi has aged.  Her arthritis was probably very painful and it was difficult to watch were creap from room to room and up and down the stairs.  She would fall in motion and at times, tumble down the stairs.  Her thyroid was an issue too.  I though she was seeing ghosts and screaming at them, however it was a thyroid reaction to cry through the evenings.  It was difficult at times with B&B guests to keep her quiet and so I would instantly get out of bed in the middle of night and grab the cat to comfort her.

She is no longer experience aches and will no longer cry pain.  Today we made the altimate sacrifice to wrap her in a cozy fleece blanket, gift wrapped in a beautiful box covered with roses and butterflys.  She now lies quietly close to the river's bank in a sunny patch of the forest.  We have adorned her site with a plaque that reads "Best Friend" and surrounded her with cobble stones so she is easily spotted in the wild flowers.  Next year we will build our little cabin beside her and visit her often.  Toi, we thank God for letting us have you, and we give you back to Him.

RIP

Then and Now

Life hasnt changed much at the Wolverton House.  We still wake up each morning and decide whether to grab heat gun, crowbar or hammer.

Our projects take us outside in this great weather.  The pillars are coming soon and in the meanwhile, my job is to strip all...yes "all the paint off the front of the house.  But our story today is going to talk about the back yard of the Wolverton House.

When the house was originally built, the property had a severe slop but still flat enough for horses and other barn animals to graze.  This house was the second one that Asa built in a series of three and the first group of houses to establish the first "residential community" for Paris.  Asa's first house was built to the south (or left side) of Asa's home.  He and his wife, Juliet, lived in this home for three years while building the Manor.  It was modest in design with no fireplaces, unlike Asa's second home which has six.

When the John Baker and his wife Elisa purchased this home in 1867 from widow Juliet, he proceeded to terrace the back property so that he could use the land as a fruit orchard.  A section of the original retaining wall can still be seen.  The property has erroded somewhat over the past fifty years since a large portion of this wall has come done; and years to come we will have to restore the wall again.

Now we have maple and walnut trees.  There are chestnut trees too.  There are hundreds of different birds to watch.  Some of our feathered friends that visit regularly are the harry, downy and red breasted woodpeckers, nutchatch, grossbeaks, carolina wrens, cardinals, orieols, hummingbirds, bluejays and many more.  We have watched different hawks fly overhead and my favorite in the bald eagle.  Occasionally there is a blue heron perched on one foot in the river.

Animals are plentiful here too.  Although the squirrels and racoons are the most unwelcomed, they are cute to watch jumping from tree to tree.  Mama racoon had three babies in our barn this spring; but she has moved across the road to holy territory...the church.  The babies scream in the afternoon and on occasion escape the hole to crawl up the tree.  I loved watching moma chase after one of them and drag it back to the nest.  We have a beaver that is chewing down our small trees by the bank, a badger hiding in a huge hole, family of four groundhogs that visit occasionally at the base of the bird feeder.  My neighbours across the river have watched the deer that I hoped to see too.  I had an amazing experience just the other day when I was pulling a few taller weeds from the walkway to the stairs leading to the river.  As I bent down to yank, I stopped and stared at....an animal?  In less than 10 seconds, I had many critters running through my mind.  A cat...hair to short; the groundhog....too big; a dog would never come to this property; ...and then the little head rolled around and looked at me!  Big ears...very, very big ears...oh my gosh, it was a baby deer.  My first reaction was to be friendly and say, "hello".  It was off like a flash....flash of white tail and I saw spots, lots of them. This was a very young fawn and hopefully mom nearby.  I was so excited I went running for the camera.  I think I saw mom, or it could have been the baby again waking on the first plateau.  And when I have time, I take a moment to search for them again.

We also have toads, frogs, turtles and the occasions snake named Fred. 

Winter is silent at the Wolverton House.  It is very cold but we see the river without the distraction of the trees.  Still....lots of squirrels and racoons.

This is the best place of all to be when visiting our back yard...especially on a hot summer's afternoon!

Nuts to to the Floor

We have been busy working on many projects these days.  One project turns into two and so one.  I went on strike one day with the laundry duties as I was tired of walking from the carriage house, outside, to the main house with washer in one building and dryer in the other.  So hubby decided to make the laundry/sewing room the priority.

We got hung up on the floor choices for this room.  The subfloor was put in ontop of the cement.  As this was to be a work room for me, it had to have more of a cushion floor as I would be standing a lot.  I suggested recycling the hardwood flooring from the original kitchen and so the job started.  Here are a few pictures of the progression.  I will be highlighting the stories more as I post on the before/after of each of these rooms.  In the meanwhile, here is what was discovered yesterday while removing the old floor.  We are restoring the cobblestone smoke house roof with the usable boards.

Pillars of the Grand Manor

The Wolverton House if classified as a Greek Revival Plantation House.  This is an architectual style that was prominant in the United States in the mid 1800's and the Plantation House style was popular in the Maritimes, New England States and very popular through Kentucky.  The Pillars are the most important detail of Greek Revival as well as the roof style.  Simply in design but always very very big and dramatic statement of design.  Hubby and I always shop for our house parts by asking the first question, "is it big and gawdy enough".

Spring is hovering around the corner now and it is time that we are getting ready to continue with the seconde stage of replacing our pillars.  At first we considered taking them out completely, however, the way the balcony is key locked into the columns it made it a difficult and expensive project that we decided to stay away from.

Although we are still shopping around for the right pillar, this is something that will be well under construction in the next month or so.  The outer pillars are actually bigger than the inner two but all four are solid trees which makes them very heavy and awkward to duplicate.  I have been eying up the old telephone poles in our neighbourhood and thinking how to relocate at least two of them to our front entrance.

Nevertheless, we are now looking at hollow fiberglass pillars, not by choice but because of availability.

The most difficult part of our assignment was removing the huge blocks of cement that encased the original column bases.  My guess is that someone with Italian blood made this decision....and not a very good one either.  However, back in the thirties or forties, it would have been the easiest solution.  Hubby had to bring home the jack hammer to remove them and as in every step of our journey, interesting history to be uncovered.

We have found two of the bases.  It is not easy to pinpoint an exact age however with the knowledge that we personally have, we believe that one might be original to the house in 1850 and the other probably from the turn of the century to as late as 1930.  Both bases have the exact profile however constructed differently.  The older one is made of 2" blocks glued together to form the hollow base and then turned to the correct shape;  while the second is made in a dish pattern with trim molding added onto different layers.  We were able to take the exact template from these profiles and will use them to reproduce the base.

We are still researching different companies to produce our pillars.  Interestingly enough we did locate a local company here in Canada.  At first I emailed and send pictures with request.  They emailed back and asked for more details.  I then received an email requesting payment for a quote from the engineering department.  "What, is this for real".  What company askes for payment just for a quote...and at what price.  I asked again for them to respond to one of our phone numbers so we could further discuss.  No response.  This company must not need our business.  But I waited two months and emailed again hoping for a return phone call.  This time I sent the template with all the dimensions of our pillar requirements.  The sketch showes clearly a left and right profile with a suggested dimension of 14".  I didnt think it would matter if it were 14", 18" or even 20".  They emailed back and asked that I send the second profile for the 16" pillar (2 are 14", and 2 are 16"). 

This is clearly a red flag to leave well enough alone and forget working with this company.  As hubby said the other day, if this is how they conduct business, what is their service like after the fact...and if an error occures, we are screwed.

We have now located another company in PA who responded immediately to our email send out on Sunday.  I feel good with this one.  The sales rep. left a phone number and invited us to call at our convenience.

After taking out the pillars and preparing for the new cement base pad, we discovered that the original Limestone patio stones still exist.  How sad that previous owns poured a cement layer over it to burry it forever.  It is estimated that it would have been a $20,000 patio in today's pricing.  How sad...as it would have been amazing to restore this....alas chipping cement off would just destroy it.

We hopefully will have our exterior completed by year end....and will continue this post.

Portrait of Asa Wolverton

For anyone who is as obsessed with the home as we are, will appreciate the journey we have been on to locate a picture of the original builder/owner of our home.  I have spent many hours in the museum archives and ancestory sites, library, etc, researching the family responsible for building this manor. 

It was at the library, almost two years after starting our restoration that I decided to check out the file for "Wolverton".  Dont know why it took me so long, but it did.  And low and behole, there was a photo copy, black and white, of this very portrait.  It was at that time that I knew it existed.  I was also lucky to find the book that was published by a decendant with 150 years of geneology records.  Unfortunately, Asa and Juliet (his wife) did not have children, so that it made it very difficult to find information.  But I did contact the author of the ancestory book, Harold Wolverton.  We started to correspond via the internet and I was able to meet other Wolverton's.

While reading this book, I also discovered that my family ancestors were inter-married to the Wolvertons back in the 1800's.  My direct roots go back to Kentucky where the Bryan, Boones (yes the Daniel Boone clan) and the Wolverton's settled.  Joseph Bryan married Nancy Wolverton around 1805.

It was in September of '08 that we had our home on tour for the County of Brant.  In less six hours we welcomed over four hundred people through our Parlour Poladium Window (like a french door only exterior).  Two of our guests were Wolverton decendants.  That was an exciting day for us!  I invited them to come back so we could talk.  Judy Palmer and her husband have a maple sugar farm somewhere in Ontario, I think.  Cristine lives in NWT and was living briefly in Toronto while going  to school.  (BTW, both ladies are our age).  Both Ladies are great, great grand neices of Asa and Juliet. Cristine and I connected immediately.  She is an amazing and interesting lady.  She had come to visit the Wolverton House many times and we still keep in touch.

Cristine was able to point me into the direction that lead me to the portrait.  Many years back, she and her mother saw it while vacationing in Europe.

So I went back to Harold who gave me the addresses of Mary Sheppard and her husband Stephen.  Mary resides in Edmonton as she is researching and writing a book about her famous father and her husband is living in Sheffield, England in the family home....where the portrait hangs.  Mary is the great grand daughter of Asa's brother Enos.

I sent letters to both addresses and got a response via phone and letter from Mary.  She too is a delightful lady, now in her mid eighties.  Within three months, and three letters, and....a bit of money...I now have a 600dpi of the Wolverton Portrait.

We are not sure how old it is, perhaps from the 1840's, however it is an actual camera photo that was oil painted. We are now in the process of having this "picture" duplicated and have it oil painted. 

With much discussion, hubby and I are sure that this is the very wall that the portrait original hung in the dining room.  The holes in the wall are from the blown in insulation, however the black line above those holes is where a picture rail was installed.  Hook and small chains were used to hang pictures back in the day. (not like today where we ram a fat nail in the wall, cracking plaster).  This is an alcove, 19" deep.  The black part of the lower wall is probably where the wainscott was glued to the wall (probably tar based) and the darker grey section just above the tar is where the chair rail was attached to the lath.  Now it is plaster over; looks like cement.  We believe there might have been a large side board or serving buffet sitting in this alcove with Asa's portrait handing over it.  It is our goal to do this again.