I have been working on two different projects. One here a the lodge - and the other at the farm.

Recently I have been spending quite a bit of time working on the restoration of Carley Brook Farm, an 1820s farmhouse and farm.

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Back a while ago I had discovered old knob and tube wiring in the farm house.

When I had opened up the kitchen ceiling to access the source of a leak I revealed the ancient wiring. It looked like it was in pretty good shape - soft and supple after all those years. I rhetorically asked “do I really have to replace it? - Cant I just repair the ceiling and cover it up as if I never had seen it? After all it looked like it was in pretty good condition.”

Comments soon followed that post….. (replace replace replace) each comment echoing the next.

What a job. Replacing the knob and tube is not a pleasurable task by any means but it is a necessary one.

Read more on knob and tube replacement

I have been busy busy busy - Have been in the process of ripping out old knob and tube wiring and rewiring - a tedious job. The old knob and tube throughout the house was divided simply by two circuits. One for lights and one for sockets. YIKES.

The kitchen rewiring is complete as well as all the sockets in that room. The second floor rewiring has been completed and by the weekend I will have finished rewiring the rest of the house.

more about removal of the wiring

I’ve been out at the farm again working on fixing plaster. I did get quite a bit accomplished. All the fiber ceiling tiles that were put up sometime in the 70s and the furring strips were completely removed and taken out to the burn pile. I lit them up and stood back and enjoyed the flames - it was a nice way to end their horrific existence.

The exterior of the farm house currently has vinyl siding which I plan to remove this spring. Before doing so I decided I should open up a section of the wall - through the plaster to find out whether I should try to insulate from the inside or do some sort of blow fill from the outside. If insulating from the inside I had to decide whether or not to keep the plaster on the exterior walls or completely remove it, insulate and then replace with drywall.

read more about the plaster progress

At some point in the past the plaster ceilings had been covered over by fiber tiles. I believe that the previous owner, instead of fixing imperfections (cracks and of the like) decided to just tile over them.

The ceiling in the main parlor and stairwell had furring strips nailed up and then the tiles. I have carefully removed the furring strips and the tiles and exposed the ceiling.

Exposing the original ceiling revealed a few things - most good. The ceiling apart from a few cracks here and there is in very good shape - very solid- fixing the cracks using plaster washers and a skim coat will fix that. There were only two spots where the plaster was loose and was removed and lucky for me its right where I have to go to replace the old nob and tube electrical. Patching that area will be an easy task after the electrical has been run with new wire.

Read more about the plaster ceilings

I had a major discovery in the attic at the farmhouse. I had been in the attic before but didn’t pay much attention to the pile of additional insulation in the corner. There under the pile was a window, the gable window. It measure 4 1/4 feet tall by almost three feet wide. The round window is about 18 inches in diameter.

For a long time, when looking at the house, I had suspected that there had, at one time, been a window in the gable and perhaps hidden beneath the vinyl siding that the previous owner installed. In time the vinyl siding will be removed to expose the original clapboard.

Upon my discovery I shot down to the local plumbing supply that bears the same name of the original owner of the farm. I explained what I found to the gentleman and he became quite excited about it.

Read more about the farmhouse

I have decided to place a few acres of land that I have in the Pocono Mountains on the market.

The 11 +/- acre parcel has incredible views of the Carley Brook Valley. The East facing property has spectacular views up the valley to the North, Down the valley to the South and across the valley to the East. Standing at the top of the property there are also views looking West across the ridge tops. Pennsylvania stone walls surround the property on three sides and there is approximately 1900 feet of road frontage on Carley Brook Road - a very quiet and beautiful drive.

Learn more about the property

Trying to incorporate some video into the site here - and first up is a walk through of the house at Carley Brook Farm

Besides multiple other projects I had to take some time to work on fixing up the lakeside cottage that we, some friends and I purchased. We have been working hard to fix them up. We have been painting, cleaning, fixing and getting them generally ready.

Freshly painted they are pretty cute little cottages — perfect for the lake get away.

The knotty pine interior gives it further lakeside charm but the exterior needed a bit of work.

Read more about the cottages

I’ve been away for a short time - Family.

Returning to addressing the old knob and tube electrical situation in the ceiling of the Carley Brook farmhouse I found that my post on whether or not to replace the knob and tube stirred a number of comments.

My sincere thanks to Sean, Greg, Ron and Kris, and Saple - I agree with your assessment - yes of course I have to replace the knob and tube. As all comments stated — I have access to the electrical now - just get in there and do it as the cost of not could be extremely high.

The situation is this - upon taking down the mess that was the ceiling I discovered that the new wiring installed in the house only went to a certain point. New wiring goes to the various appliances and junction boxes within the kitchen — coming up through the walls however, thats where time stopped. Old knob and tube wiring ran from those new plastic blue boxes through the ceiling to various lights in the ceiling and then through the outside wall to serve the lights on the porch and an adjoining room.

Read more about the electrical update