Welcome to Painesville, VT!
Painesville, VT is a real place, but is not found on any maps - or at least not for nearly two centuries! This web site is dedicated to document some history of Painesville, VT - and the restoration project of Samuel Paine, Jr.'s brick house built in 1826. Enjoy :)
Summary
It all started April 8, 2008.
I packed my 4Runner with a camp stove, bed, table, 3 dogs and
a cat. Seven hours later we handed over most of our remaining
cash assets for a piece of South Randolph, Vt - 14 or so acres
and a very old farmhouse.
The goal is to preserve the exterior of this central VT classic, and expose some of its more interesting bones, while updating the energy performance and interior function .
For the rest of 2008, I camped out in the brick portion of the house while gutting and rebuilding the ell. The wooden ell portion contains the kitchen and will also contain a guest suite. Eventually this will open into a common area shared between the ell and the brick side.
2008 also saw a radical update of the mechanicals. The existing oil-fired boiler, water heater, and baseboard hot water heat was removed in favor of evacuated-tube thermal solar collectors, a large (800+ gallon) thermal storage tank, and a wood-fired boiler.
Then for 2009 -- kitchen cabinets, a new deck, and the gutting and new foundation in the brick side. Here there are hidden treasures and challenges aplenty. I moved into the not-really-finished Ell in Nov of 2008, switching my water system over in the nick of time before everything froze up, and got my stove in the day before the Thanksgiving turkey.
2010 features the coupe de gras of the major reconstruction. After spending the winter installing the radiant system in the new floor, the fun really begins! On the schedule: Remove the rotted front porch, add a new one that includes a large gable dormer and balcony above, expose the original rafters throughout the brick side, extend the shed dormer on the East side to provide huge east facing windows for the bedroom, and replace the roof with a built-up system of rigid insulation and venting above the rafters. After this is all complete "all" that will remain is finishing the partition framing, installing the remainder of the plumbing & elec, sheetrock, tile (floors), trim..... And I really do hope to be moving in this fall :).
