The Process Continued Page 35
November 9, 2010 Day 1,890 continued
Finally some steps that look finished and not dirty! Cooper wanted his toy duck to be in the photo as well.
November 16, 2010 Day 1,897
I started to work on replacing the windows in the barns. Now normally it takes about 20 minutes to pull out
a old window and install the replacement window. However as per usual nothing ever goes as planned. I
found the window frame in the small barn to be completely rotten when I went to replace the window. So
having already bought a replacement window I decided to just go and rebuild the frame from scratch. Now
it would have been easier to return the window and buy a complete window but I figure the time allotment
would be the same as building it from scratch and I hate to shop anyways. So I built a new frame out of
scrap wood.  The scrap wood was easy to find because in earlier weeks I had finally organized my scrap
wood in to sizes and wood types. Up until now I have thrown all the wood in to a pile on the third floor of the
barn, but now it all lies neatly stacked and what an improvement. This should save me a lot of money as
well as time as I will not be as likely to go buy more wood if I can find what I am looking for in my own barn.
Anyways back to the windows. I built the new window frame along with the sill and the outside trim boards
and then installed the window. I was very pleased with the outcome of my frame. It looks just like the
original, only without the rotten wood. I then replaced a second window on the North side of the big barn
which did not require any extra work and I was able to install it in my expected time frame.
I bought another three windows la few days later so I can finish up the North side of the barn which I plan to
install sometime within the next week.
Sunday found me getting the outside of the house ready for the winter, raking leaves, storing furniture etc.
However by the end of the day boredom and mischief got the best of me and I started to dig out my future
farm pond. What a mess!! The water keep rising and filling in the areas as I scrapped up the lawn and dirt.
I got tot the point where it was so muddy I was afraid I was going to get my tractor stuck so I stopped. So
now we have a little bit of a swallow pond and a lot of mud for Cooper to get in to. Tomorrow I will be
meeting with Eric Wood to see what the cost would be for him to finish my pond with a tractor big enough
for this job. This I hope will be Pattie's Christmas present but that depends on the estimate. I hope to get
some photos of the pond as well as the windows on the website tomorrow.
Above are photos of the progress i made the other day below is a link to more recent photos
January 14, 2011 Day 1,956
Hard to believe that five years ago I was just starting to tear down the plaster in this old house. We have come a
long way and still have a ways to go but even though the pace has slowed a bit we have not lost our love nor
drive to see this place become fitting of my dreams.
As mentioned the pace has slowed a bit but we still accomplished a fair amount of work here on the restoration of
Cross Point Farm in 2010. So let us recap.
We started in January with me working on the second bookcase for the music room. Despite a mishap I was able
to finish it and the room was complete. Then I moved on to Erinn's room and finished the trim work in there as well
as painted it all. We installed a swing door between the kitchen and the dinning room and of course had that trip
to Connecticut to get the pink living room set.

In March we finally installed the floor in the breezeway and started to plan the landscaping as well.
Spring came early and that brought me outside to start clearing trees along the back stone wall and landscaping
a bit of the back of the yard as well.

By April we were having our gutters installed on the Breezeway and Carriage House and meeting with Charlie
about stone work and two landscapers about landscape designs.

In May we had our Stone work installed by Charlie. He installed the front steps and small patio as well as the back
patio behind the breezeway.

June arrived and we were in a rush to get the landscaping done before the party.  We hired Chris to design and
install some landscaping around our patios in the back and I built and installed stone steps and walkways leading
up to the patio. I was also able to finish painting all of the breezeway and Carriage house to finally have the
outside completely done just in time to start changing things in 2011
.
July arrived and we had our biggest Lobster Bake ever with over 120 guest and some very hot weather. No real
work was done in August nor September as we amped up the training for the marathon although we did redo
Sam's old bedroom in to a guest room and office for Pattie. This comprised of repainting the walls and trim work.

In October I ran and finished my marathon and Pattie run and finished her half marathon and we celebrated!!!!

Then it was back to work on the house as I finished installing the trim work and new steps in the breezeway which
finally brought the finish to the inside of the house.
This brought us to November and I started to dig out the area of the pond. I was not able to get much done with
my little tractor so we decided to give ourselves a pond for Christmas. The pond did not get installed in 2010 but it
was installed shortly after which will be on a later post.
All in all it was an easy year for us but we still got a lot of items accomplished and we continued our steps towards
finishing Cross Point Farm.
2011 promises us a new pond and perhaps the start of our Christmas tree farm? We also are in discussion about
other projects this year. Of course we hope to do more landscaping and the barns are calling my name so we will
just have to wait and see what we can find time and money for this year. Thanks for following along in our journey.