Christmas and New Year's 2010/2011

Well another Christmas and New Year's come and gone. I went home to visit Mom and Dad for almost a week which is a lot for me. Mom seems to be coming down with Parkinson's so that is not a good indication for her. I may have to consider calling or going home more often. Dad seems to be doing a good job with dealing with this and keeping their affairs in order, although he does feel the stress from it all. I will pray for the both of them.

I came back Thursday evening before New Year's and was greatful to have some time to myself, something many introverts seem to appreciate for themselves. Again I was involved with the First Night events in Leesburg. There are about 20 venues one has a choice from for seeing. I of course as a volunteer only went to a few of them, counting attendance at quarter past the hour for each venue I was assigned or volunteered to cover. Magicians, animal trainers, many bluegrass/folks singers and some comedy routines were mostly what there was. One act was unusual: 12th century music from South America. Very talented artists! The lead instrumentalists in front often plate the lute and would sort of play off of each other at heated moments in their songs so it was kind of a thrill. After that there was a barbershop quartet who happened to be the entertainment for my ham radio group's Christmas dinner a few weeks ago, which I did not get to go to, so I was really interested in hearing them. They were pretty good, but some of the familiar numbers they played (a couple from the 50s and from Music Man) were not played quite the way I had remembered and I didn't like that, but it was OK. That rounded out the evening for me and I pulled down some of the event signage at that location, returned them to headquarters, watched the assemblage in the town square for a minute and then beat the crowd out of the parking area just before 12 midnight.

Today I spent my time all in the house, on the computer and watching TV. Guess I need church or a hobby to keep myself busy, but honestly this time of year is just usually uneventful so I just have to deal with it. I will work some OT tomorrow, Sunday, and don't expect anyone to be at work so that will be kind of nice. (I must have a small amygdalla can't you tell?)

Several times lately I have experienced weird though not necessarily unexplainable events here in the Tollhouse. Just this morning as I was watching TV and waking up, I swear I heard a slap somewhere in the house as though one of my mousetraps had gone off, and I swear I also heard squealing as though a mouse had been caught.... None of my traps had gone off, though a sticky trap (just a large flat rectangular black plastic with an extremely sticky upper side) was a bit out of place. Never could figure out just what happened or caused that slap noise.

Another weird happening that I believe is explainable is that I here noises right next to me while watching TV. I think its just the acoustics of the room and the "new" TV my previous roommate had left me. It must have a kind of surround sound and its a little freaky and fun even to hear these sounds where I don't expect them.

I have a bird feeder and have been observing (in order of common observation): Carolina chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-Breasted Nuthatch, American goldfinch, Eastern Bluebirds, and cowbirds. The bluebirds are new for me and I may consider putting up a bluebird birdhouse as this is something lots of people seem to be doing. They want one house for every 300 feet, so I can only put up one, maybe two, considering the size of my one-acre property. These birds are very territorial evidently.

That's all for now from Lovettsville Tollhouse. Where the women (if there were any) are strong, the men are good looking (of course! in a Patrick Stewart kind of way though), and the children above average... if there were any :)
Be Healthy, Do Good Work and, Keep in Touch.

2010 Cookout at the Tollhouse

Hello Everyone,

Well I had another cookout (sans Open House) this year at the ol' Tollhouse. The attendees were mainly coworkers and a couple of friends as well. A new feature at the Tollhouse was a firepit made this past April. I went back and forth from the creek and various other spots in the yard to gather just the right shape rocks to make the pit. Below are some pictures from the cookout:

Generally this is what the cookout looked like. My contractor let me use his canopy. As it just so happened, he had bought the canopy brand new to keep his equipment dry during the tollhouse restoration in 2008.

My friend and former landlady Sally, with my best friend at work, Glenn. She brought the tunes and he brought some of his birding knowledge.
Oh, and congrats to the new

Grandpa Glenn!

Laura and her husband. A great couple and I was very glad that they could make it. They brought the s'mores and we had a great time with that!

Me and my favorite team leader. Sabrina came with her husband, accompanied by their son and his girlfriend.

Speaking of whom, here is the happy couple :)

And there was more than one happy couple: Josh and his wife Paula.... thanks for coming! I think s'mores was her favorite part!

My friend Patrick (getting s'mores with Sally). My cookout just happened to coincide with his DC vacation week, so he stayed with me all week, since my tenant, Gino, was moving out.

Thus ended another good cookout and hopefully I can have next years' cookout in May to avoid some of the chronic hot June weather we've had. Thanks to all who came, and SPECIAL thanks to the ladies who helped with getting the sides and fixin's prepared for all to enjoy!

2009/2010 activity at the Tollhouse

Hello Everyone,
I apologize I have not blogged in about 13+ months, but I simply didn't think there was anything necessarily blogworthy (thanks Fern!). That may or may not be actually true but that's my story and I'm sticking to it :)
Let's see, activity since the last post in May 2009... I have loved and lost in that time. Her name was Debbie. I shall not go into detail as it would be unfair to her. However, we were together about 5 months and she left the relationship last Fall. Around that time, I acquired a new tenant whose rent would help me to cover mortgage and expenses until now. He just moved out after losing his job, so if you hear of anyone in the DC area who would like to rent a room for 450 including utilities please let me know.
Had a couple of huge snowstorms last winter, one of which dumped almost 2 feet of snow and that happened hear back in 2003, so I knew what to expect: LOTS OF SHOVELING. Also, a large tree limb cracked under the weight of the snow and the end fell onto the propane tank. Just the smaller branches actually touched, plus with so much surrounding, it wasn't much of an impact thank goodness.

What a May Day!

Hello Everyone,

In regards to my "Lovettsville Tollhouse" Open House on Saturday May 16th:

It was a GREAT DAY! OH MY GOSH! Many of the people came during the first 3 hours. If my contractor had not stopped by, it would have been ridiculous the number of people that I would have had to keep up with. Even with him there, though, it was what I would call "almost hectic". After that initial swarm, it was a variable trickle until about 4pm, and "a few drops" afterwards until about 6 or 6:30 pm. How about that? :)

Someone said they purposely postponed by some hours a trip they had planned just so they could make it, and someone else who came after 4pm said they had just arrived back in town and couldn't have made it any earlier. I even had a visit from a professional photographer who gave me a very nice shot of the house on a bright sunny day (WhistlerStopPhotography). What a gift!

Tollhouse Cookies!

If you were not able to make it to the Open House, you also missed the Nestle Tollhouse cookies that my girlfriend (Debbie) had made, in the Tollhouse, for the occasion. She said some visitors were consuming them as she was baking new batches, which is what I was hoping for. I did not mean for it to be that much work for her, but it was and I will make sure she knows I am eternally grateful! The Open House gave my new oven its first real workout; Dishwasher too.

People can email me at kurt_20120@yahoo.com (or post on the http://www.lovettsvilletollhouse.blogspot.com/ website) if they'd like to arrange to see the place at a more convenient time.

I am very impressed by the people who did come by and who were very polite and eager to see a place that they (and I) had waited so long to get finished. Many were recounting how they were eager to observe the progress of the project as the weeks and months rolled by during the restoration. In addition, there were a number of people who themselves were working on older homes and doing much of the work themselves. These are truly some of the heroes of the community as they will use the same "do-it-yourself" ethic similar to the forefathers who started it all. I am very greatful people appreciate the efforts and costs incurred to get this house as it is today.

I will have another "Open House" in which all the relics that were discovered will be on display on the front porch (maybe in July?). My contractor was just on the phone and said we could also have a presentation by the Lovettsville Historical Society on the relics found. I would add we could also have a presentation on something else relevant to the area, like perhaps history of the bridges and ferries that used to cross the river. I will announce the date the same way as before: a homemade sign out front.... and on here too of course :)

Debbie did a great job planning the furniture arrangement and provided some of hers that really accented the place, so I am hoping to keep it all the same for some time. I'd like to show some pictures of what I'm referring to, but let me put you on a virtual tour of the whole place and I'll show that to you on the way. :)

One lady who came by was a family member of the family I bought the house from. She remembers the house while visiting her aunt who lived here back in the 50's I believe. She indicated what rooms were where originally and was amazed at the difference. As I show you the house, I will point out what room you are in and what it used to be "back then" according to her.

As you enter the front door, you turn to the right and this is what you see:

This is the kitchen and the area used to be a 'bedroom' for the last 50 or so years prior to my owning it, with the front wall about where the line you see in the floor going from left to right.

To the left of the kitchen: The kitchen window (or what likely used to be a bedroom window). Look how thick the sill is, reflective of the 18 inches of thick stone wall. You could put a mean apple pie out to cool on a shelf like that ;)

My mother Anna provided the potholders and Debbie provided the ceramic container and candle.

To the right of the refrigerator is a half-bath:

Now, if we had made a LEFT turn inside the front door, we can see what used to be (and still is) the living room:

Debbie provided the two tables on either side of the couch and the wooden chair. She and I went out and bought a pretty decent lamp for the decor look she wanted. And it worked! I take credit for the small woodstove. Just a tad small but it does the job, as I've used it last year to heat the place. Oh and the clock my sister Fern (currently in S. Korea) gave me a couple of Christmases ago somehow seems to work, hanging on the beadboard wall hiding part of the staircase going upstairs.

If we turn around and look where we came from...

... we see the front door. Just inside the front door, on the right, is a mini-closet for hammer, broom, mop, etc. This is built into the wall behind the mirror in the half-bath, and also shares space with the laundry chute going down from the closet upstairs to the basement below.

Looking straight ahead from the front door:

We notice the 'back door' which, if I had not run out of money, would have lead out to the deck behind the house. Right now, it leads to a nice 4 foot drop to the back yard.

Next to the door, is the gas heater, useful for keeping the house from freezing while away.

So now we're ready to go upstairs, which are seen going up on the left.

The first thing we notice after arriving upstairs is the table display straight ahead. This is where one of the upstairs bedrooms used to be:

This is my holy shrine showing all of the phase permits I had to go through to get the house finished. I am extremely reverent here because progress was painfully slow, and waiting for the progress to begin (the orange building permit) even MORE so.

Also on the table is a pamphlet from the Lovettsville Historical Society. I really hope people tried to read through it a bit and will consider visiting the Lovettsville museum in front of Town Hall in Lovettsville. It's open from 1 pm to 4 pm on Saturdays during May through October. I personally will be running the museum on some of those Saturdays.

Turning left and going into the rest of the room, we notice on the right is my humble entertainment center, along the same wall as the above table. The center got caught in the rain while it was waiting outside for me to bring it in last August:

It's not in too bad shape, though you can see that the top shelf bends right where the vertical divider meets it. It still does the job and that is good enough for me. Incidentally, the old book laying on the top shelf is entitled "Health and Longevity". Several people remarked about it. I think it belonged to Debbie's grandfather or great-grandfather. It was sold by a doctor in Baltimore (or maybe some society of doctors) back in the 19-teens who provided health services for those who bought the book for up to two years. Either that was one expensive book or they had GREAT deals back then! The white wall to the left is the right side of the closet, and right behind that wall is the laundry chute to the basement floor. The chute is accessible from within the closet.

Opposite the entertainment center is where I took its photograph from: my bed. Next to my computer and desk....

I bought the bed from a previous landlord as I was moving out (well, traded the bed in exchange for him not giving me my deposit money back). The pink/brown covering is a quilt my mother Anna made from extra material she had. It looks really nice! and it was the perfect blanket for the 'in-between' months when the house was no longer cold, but not quite warm enough to sleep with a thin blanket. The desk was sold to me by my contractor and is unique to me because it has a desk-wide bookshelf in the front (not seen from this angle). Never seen a desk like that!

Continuing through the room past the bed/desk on the left and the entertainment center on the right, we come to the end of the room, in what used to be a single bedroom, but now the left side is a full bath and the right side is the closet with laundry chute.

The toilet is the Sterling dualflush 1.6/0.8 gallons. There are two buttons on top, the larger for 1.6 and the smaller for the 0.8. I will leave it up to the viewer as to which option is appropriate. This is a water-saver toilet and is appropriate for the Tollhouse since the surrounding soil will not support a septic field, so a Pump and Haul tank is in use here. Since it costs money to pump the tank out, the less water used the better!

The wooden box next to it is another nice touch by Debbie!

Mirror Mirror, on the wall.

My sister Faye had this mirror resting behind her couch and I thought it was the perfect size for the bathroom wall here, so there it went. You can see the bathroom skylight reflecting in the mirror. There is also another one above the computer desk, but it was not in the photo.

The sink/pedestal was from Lowe's for (I think) $106.00

Had to save money where I could, and didn't have much room to put anything else there anyway.

Below is the shower. Note the "hookless" shower curtain. You can put the curtain on the bar after the bar is installed. Debbie was impressed! :)

Another view of this side of the bathroom. Just wanted to throw this picture in for good measure.

I am very greatful people appreciate the efforts and costs incurred to get this house as it is today.

Stay tuned folks!

April showers and May flowers

It just occurred to me that I have not posted any pictures yet! I just figured out how and the first is the Tollhouse itself. Thought to be built ca. 1850, it is NOT the tollhouse for the bridge. I have it on good authority (a previous owner) that the bridge tollhouse was washed away in the 1936 flood. We (my contractor and I) believe the house to possibly be the Ferry tollhouse, for the Ferry that pre-existed the covered bridge that was built in the late 1850's. The Ferry was called "Waltman's Ferry" and that ferry service likely started around 1820. In a later post, I will show a picture of a portion of the house prior to restoration that possibly dates the house.

April has been very very wet in my opinion for 2009 at the Tollhouse. I am reminded of the saying "April showers bring may flowers." Well May is not quite here yet, but as you can see the flowers, they are a bloomin'! VDOT planted the bulbs (along the road in front of the house) last Fall and ever since I've been wondering what they were. It now appears they are Daffodils, yellow flowers with orange trumpets. Sometimes they seem absolutely flourescent. What a thrill!

View from the Tollhouse

This is the beginning of what I hope to be a very insightful blog about my experience with restoring the Lovettsville Tollhouse. I bought it in July 2007, thinking I could live in the house as it was, with some improvement. But over time I came to realize it needed a full restoration. M&T Bank was my first option for financing, suggested by a friend of a friend. However, the appraisers they hired indicated the highest and best use of the property was to tear down the building and build another! The whole idea was to restore what had been here for so long, so that was definitely NOT an option. I had heard Middleburg Bank financed restorations before, so I tried them next. Though I wasn't too impressed with the first financial officer I was assigned (and because of him I almost lost the deal on the house!), Middleburg Bank actually worked out pretty well. I am greatful they were patient with me, as it took 8 months to get started.

Eight months because it took that long to get Loudoun County to hear me, make a decision, then issue the building permit. Remember, I bought the place in July 2007. Well there was this thing called August recess. So, no Board of Supervisors to hear my case. I was extremely busy in a new position at work in September, so I couldn't really get anything going until October, when I got a hearing before a public safety committee. They opted to recommend a Pump and Haul operation on the tollhouse property. That would be putting a tank in the ground (2000 gallons!) and having it pumped out every time the full alarm goes off. (I was able to stretch it to about 5 months, and its about 150 dollars to pump out, so I didn't think it was too bad.)

Anyway, in November 2007 the Board of Supervisors heard my case and allowed me to progress with a Pump and Haul. I believe it wasn't until February of 2008 before I got the building permit (perhaps even March). My contractor (Tom Bullock of Bull's Eye Restoration, Inc.) began in April, and work continued until early December, so just about another 8 months passed before all was said and done. None too soon, as winter had set in early and the gas heat was such a blessing by then. I had been using the woodstove since moving in in early November, but with January temperatures in December, and with the woodstove's need for attention every few hours, it was hard not to use that gas heater. But eventually I managed a system of heating up the house to 67 °F with the gas heater, then shut it off, and ride out the rest of the night with the woodstove. With an electric heater in the basement, I was assured of pipes not freezing when the woodstove ran out during the night. If the power ever went out, I'd probably have to open up the basement door and run the gas heat on high to keep all from freezing until the power came back on. Thankfully, that never happened this year (winter 2008/2009).

This was my first blog post and I hope it did not ramble on too much! It is getting late and I will have to continue another time. Good night, and good luck.

Kurt