Speedwell forge restoration

Take a look at the restoration process of the Speedwell Forge Bed & Breakfast!

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Speedwell Forge Restoration

Kathryn Darlington passed away in 1986. Her only son, Bill Darlington, had moved to the other end of the farm and, in 1980, established the Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania.

Needing to be near the wolves, the mansion was left vacant for over 20 years. Bill’s youngest daughter, Dawn, was born on the farm and always wanted to live in the mansion. When Bill passed away in 1998, Dawn became determined to realize her dream. In March 2005, after seven years of saving, two years of planning, and one year of cleaning, she moved home and began the restoration, which was documented, with photos, here. In 2006, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The mansion was not changed except for the addition of bathrooms and the kitchen island. The windows and floor date to the 1880’s and were fully restored. The slate roof was replaced using 80-year-old Peachbottom slate salvaged by Amish roofers from a barn that was being demolished, and copper gutters were installed.

The electric and plumbing were completely replaced, and air conditioning, telephones, and Internet were added. Almost all of the furniture belonged to Dawn’s grandparents and was fully restored.

Outside, all of the stone was “repointed” (replacing the mortar) and inside all of the walls and ceiling received a new coat of plaster. It took four painters over three months to hand-paint the mansion and cottages. The privy and spring house were also restored.

Updates

SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2006

Day One, Revisited I know I wrote that a year and a half ago, but now that the restoration is (almost) over and the innkeeping [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2006

The week after I thought the grand opening meant we were done. I’m not sure how I can still be so naive after everything else [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006

The end of the beginning The building code inspector came out on Monday for the “final” visit and flagged us for a dozen issues, from [...]

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TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006

Grand Opening! The moment you’ve been waiting for — I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

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TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2006

Coming together Wow. In two days, the painting is finished, the duct work is finished, the kitchen island is finished, the locks are finished, the [...]

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FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006

Down to the wire One week remaining… Saturday Buy coffee maker Install new mailbox Order sheets and towels Find (or order) window pulls Order one [...]

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TUESDAY, JULY 04, 2006

Independence Day First, the good news: Last week’s record rainfall did NOT do any significant damage to the mansion. Had it occurred a week earlier, [...]

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FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2006

A sign Last October, Dawn and I spent a solid week working on a street sign, but we didn’t like any of our designs. We [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2006

Paymaster’s Office I think the Paymaster’s Office is the second coolest building on the property. (The coolest, of course, is the privy.) But you can’t live [...]

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MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2006

Todd Auker I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The people on this project have been fantastic. Todd is no exception. I’m not [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006

Brian Schaeffer I feel bad for Brian because, while he’s probably put in the most time on the project, his work will be the least [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2006

Leaders and followers Make no bones about it: I’m a follower. I must hold a record for belonging to the most Pennsylvania organizations without actually [...]

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SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2006

American Chestnuts The world is an amazingly small place. Several years ago, I read an article in Nature Conservancy about American chestnut trees. In the [...]

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THURSDAY, JUNE 08, 2006

National Historic Register Some interesting facts about the National Register: In Lancaster County, there are 212 sites (including us) on the National Register. By comparison, [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 06, 2006

Grand opening July 23, 2006 – You’re invited! I would like to say that Dawn and I drew up a list of everything that still [...]

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MONDAY, JUNE 05, 2006

Hydroseeding Time was, planting grass over a large area was a tedious chore of spreading fertilizer, then seed, then raking it all in, then watering [...]

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SUNDAY, JUNE 04, 2006

Serendipity It may seem odd, but when restoring an old house, the best you can hope for when stripping paint is to find more paint. [...]

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SATURDAY, JUNE 03, 2006

Dawn’s status Dawn wrote: The condensors were installed today. Mike started installing the shoe molding in Bill’s room. I primed about ten peices of shoe [...]

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FRIDAY, JUNE 02, 2006

Great news! I received an email today from Barb Raid, architectural historian at Historic York, Inc., who handled our National Register nomination. Hi, Dawn & [...]

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THURSDAY, JUNE 01, 2006

Summer Kitchen status Lest you thought we were near completion and it was smooth sailing for the next six weeks, let me show you the [...]

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TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2006

Site visit I spent Memorial Day weekend in Pennsylvania, which is no surprise since I’ve spent just about every holiday in Pennsylvania for the past [...]

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FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2006

Furniture pics Here are some photos from the Restoration Clinic, in Mechanicsburg. My undying gratitude goes to Marsha for organizing everything, and everyone there for [...]

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SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2006

Grand opening party I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I have no idea what to do. For our grand opening, I want to [...]

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FRIDAY, MAY 12, 2006

Bills Three years ago, we had seven accounts: Checking, savings, two credit cards, a mortgage, my 401k, and Dawn’s 401k. Somehow, that has morphed into [...]

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MONDAY, MAY 08, 2006

Hurricane My cousin blew through Pennsylvania again this weekend, prompted by the furniture restorers saying we needed to pick fabrics today if we wanted them [...]

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SATURDAY, MAY 06, 2006

Field of Dreams My toll free number is finally set up: (877) EST-1760. (Established 1760, get it?) I’ve also set up an online reservation service, [...]

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FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2006

Island sketches While “island sketches” sounds like I’m going to wax rhapsodic about a recent trip to a tropical destination, the reality is it’s been [...]

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FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2006

Chief cook and bottle washer Dawn went on a ‘spending spree’ this week, buying a table at auction for $110, a porch light on sale [...]

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SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2006

Dawn’s third (and final) to do list Within the next ten weeks, we should have the mansion ready and (hopefully) the Summer Kitchen as well. [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2006

Telephone wire Received this email from Dawn: While digging a trench across the driveway, Bob hit the phone line. 🙁 The phone company was called [...]

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2006

Latest colors We’re using Sherwin-Williams paint simply because they gave us a good discount, but the guys at the Lebanon store have been extremely helpful. [...]

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MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2006

This week Except for Thursday, this has been a very productive week: We filed our taxes, and I was actually disappointed at how much we [...]

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TUESDAY, APRIL 04, 2006

2006 PAII conference Two years ago, when we had no idea what we were doing, we went to a PAII conference (Professional Association of Innkeepers [...]

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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2006

B&B Convention Dawn and I are meeting in Phoenix this weekend for a four-day B&B convention, with such titillating workshops as: Selling to the Affluent [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2006

Money I just loaded three months’ of receipts into Quicken, and it told me we’d spent $173,000. I was upset, I was mortified, but I [...]

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SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2006

Dawn sends status…and pictures! Two of the painters, Elmer Stoltzfus and Southern Long, started on Monday in the offices [third floor attic area] of the [...]

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FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2006

Awesome facts about the history and restoration of our B&B If anyone is interested, here are some of our stories, and I will do everything [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 08, 2006

From Barb Raid of Historic York, Inc. Hi, Dawn & Gregg — Congratulations, the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board approved the Speedwell Forge Homestead nomination yesterday [...]

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SUNDAY, MARCH 05, 2006

Update on Dawn’s tasks On October 15, I published Dawn’s new to-do list. Let’s see what she’s accomplished in the last five months: Mansion Repoint east [...]

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SUNDAY, MARCH 04, 2006

Cheating As I’ve mentioned before, plastering is a lost art. And to the people who used to do it for a living, I’m sure they [...]

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THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2006

The retaining wall I mentioned our first fight was over the bathroom fan switches. I may have mentioned our second argument was over the retaining [...]

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006

The Top 10 reasons to stay at Speedwell Forge B&B: 10) Built in 1760, and it’s not a pile of rubble like most historic sites. [...]

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2005

First advertisement The guy from Preservation magazine never responded, so my first advert is actually with the Lititz Retailers Association. They distribute 40,000 directories each [...]

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 05, 2005

110 years ago This appeared in the “Out of the Past” section of last week’s newspaper: Looking for iron at Speedwell, LancasterOnline.com Friday Morning’s Record [...]

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2005

The future I was in a pretty bleak state of mind last week, and I was pondering, “What’s next?” When the dust has settled and [...]

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2005

Your Life Be sure to check out this Friday’s edition of the Lancaster New Era, as the “Your Life” section will feature photos of the [...]

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2005

Summer Kitchen On your left will be an in-room whirlpool bath, on the right will be the bathroom (with separate shower). Historic preservation guidelines prohibit [...]

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005

Media exposure I just got back from a “site visit” (i.e. weekend trip). Last week I contacted the local papers, and the Lebanon Daily News [...]

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2005

Mike and Mike Mike and Mike, normally “the HVAC guys,” became “the propane guys” for the day. Dawn had two 1,000 gallon tanks installed and [...]

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2005

AAA Guidelines I was just reviewing the AAA rating guidelines and I think we have a shot at a 4-diamond rating. That’s pretty exciting (at [...]

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 05, 2005

Videopalooza A variety of events have conspired to prevent me from getting any fresh video for the past two months. (Dawn was taking it, I [...]

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2005

In memoriam, Misty Last week, our worst-case scenario occurred: Misty, the blind horse, got out of her pen and fell into one of the septic [...]

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2005

Harrisburg Patriot-News The Harrisburg newspaper ran a story on Olde York Homes today. It made front page of the real estate section and, thanks to [...]

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2005

Before and Current Dawn just sent me 121 pictures. 🙂 It’s too soon for “Before and After,” but I can do “Before and In Process.”

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2005

Channel 11 news Picture this: It’s September 6, the last day of my “vacation”, and I’ve spent the last five hours talking to the plumber, [...]

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2005

Glossary We’ve learned a lot in the past six months, including a lot of jargon: Alarm system: Being legally robbed to protect yourself from being [...]

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2005

Shopping list Since I posted the to-do list, I might as well post the shopping list. These are the things we still need to buy [...]

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2005

Dawn’s new to-do list Just in case we were getting excited about all the progress made so far… Mansion Repoint east side, spot point as [...]

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005

Summer Kitchen After Brian had gotten a little overzealous and stripped off the wall-to-wall carpeting, six layers of linoleum, the original wood floor, and the [...]

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2005

One more week of freedom Okay, I really just said that there to irk Dawn, but I definitely understand why we decided long ago never [...]

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2005

Final word on the septic system I’ve decided to never mention the septic system again. After this, of course. The septic system is designed to [...]

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005

“This Old House” book I just finished reading “This Old House,” the companion book to their first their first project in 1980. Everything we’re doing, [...]

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005

Re-pointing The project is now moving so quickly, I can’t keep up. The septic guys are building the sand mounds, digging the trenches, and burying [...]

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005

Electric fireplaces Dawn met with Rich of Fireplace Supply Wholesalers today, and the crew gave her grief for installing electric fireplaces. She told them that [...]

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005

An apology I should apologize for this journal; it certainly isn’t what I started out to write. I imagined great tales of exploration and learning, [...]

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2005

Lighting Four months ago, it was furniture. Three months ago, exterior colors. Two months ago, bathroom fixtures. Last month, interior colors. Today, it’s lighting. The [...]

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2005

Our first fight Dawn and I had our first big fight over the restoration. We’ve gone for two years designing, researching, discussing, meeting, hiring, and [...]

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2005

Speedwell Forge Triathlon The YMCA triathlon came through yesterday, and I didn’t even know about it until it was all over. Hopefully it wasn’t marred [...]

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2005

Auger Adam Moyer came by “for a few hours” to drill the lines for the air conditioning. As I’ve mentioned, we’re putting the compressors into [...]

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2005

This Old House Apparently, This Old House is distributed geographically, because everyone in Lancaster has the new issue, but nobody in LA does. Even our [...]

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2005

PPL strikes again I don’t know if the local electric company is incompetent, negligent, or just abusive. As I’ve mentioned before, the farm has a [...]

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2005

My “vacation” Friday 11pm, red-eye flight to Pennsylvania, two-hour layover in Cincinnati. I sleep soundly, but my back is killing me the rest of the [...]

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

Solid gold septic Dawn’s gotten three quotes for the septic system, ranging from $60,000 to $90,000. As one person eloquently put it, “holy crap!” Last [...]

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

Dawn’s to-do list, updated In early April, I posted Dawn’s to-do list. Let’s review: – Gut the Summer Kitchen — done! – Clean out basement, dig [...]

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MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005

Dawn vents About three months ago, Dawn sent me an update on the project, and it was such a rare event that I posted it [...]

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2005

The True Cost of Dawn While Dawn was in LA last week, she was actually working–her old company needed her to cover for a week, [...]

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2005

Privy Sometimes web surfing takes you to some odd places, and yesterday I found myself at the “Outhouses of America Tour.” As the title suggests, [...]

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2005

Dormer Series The “skylight” you see is next to one of the dormers, where the whole roof has to be stripped off to replace a [...]

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2005

Amish Roofers II Dawn has really gotten a kick out of the Amish roofers, for several reasons: 1) They all speak with a heavy Pennsylvania [...]

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2005

Dawn’s top ten I asked Dawn what she missed most about being home, figuring (of course) that it would be me. I didn’t even make [...]

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2005

This Old House II I don’t want to “out” my contractor (especially after Dawn made me remove the reference to “evil Mike”) but when This [...]

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2005

The week in pictures

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2005

James Buchanan The Lancaster County Historical Archives references another book Professor Klein wrote on James Buchanan and Ann Coleman. The short story is that James [...]

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 09, 2005

The Horse-Shoe Trail There seem to be two theories about how the “Horse-Shoe” trail was named. The boring one (and therefore probably more correct) is [...]

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MONDAY, AUGUST 08, 2005

1955 Lancaster Sunday News In 1952, as Dawn’s father told it, an escaped felon was hiding in the barn. When Dawn’s father went to shovel [...]

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 07, 2005

Edward Coleman Freeman In researching the Speedwell Stock Farm, I came across this in the Lebanon County Historical Society’s 15th annual report, from 1913: In [...]

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 03, 2005

First reservation request Got a call today from Mary of Maryland, wanting to know if the Paymaster’s Office was available for her 35th wedding anniversary [...]

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SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2005

Picture of the roofers II I had to pull the picture of Melvin the roofer because I found out he was, in fact, Amish. (The [...]

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THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2005

Sprinklers resolved 7:50pm Eastern – Augh…the suspense is killing me! The appeals board meeting started 45 minutes ago, and I still haven’t heard from Dawn. What [...]

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MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005

Robert Coleman, Millionaire Ironmaster While removing an old desk from the Paymaster’s Office, Brian and Bob found an 8-page essay entitled “Robert Coleman, Millionaire Ironmaster [...]

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SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2005

The “This Old House” article on the top 10 historic restoration contractors in the country, which includes Gary Geiselman of Olde York Homes, will be [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2005

Sprinklers Reloaded First, good news: We got approval today on refinancing our house in Los Angeles, so we now have enough funds to cover us [...]

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TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2005

Amish roofers If you recall, we had already signed with another roofer when After Eight B&B recommended an Amish roofer, Lantz Roofing. His bid was [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2005

Lancaster Farming Now, another article, this one from 1960 when Speedwell Forge turned 200. It has a good picture of Dawn’s father and grandfather. (The [...]

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TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005

Appeal scheduled We submitted our appeal almost a month ago, and they were supposed to set a hearing date within 30 days. Well, we hadn’t [...]

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MONDAY, JULY 11, 2005

Bath fixtures While I harbor no illusions that anyone is interested in our fixtures list, we’ve spent so much time on it that it would [...]

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THURSDAY, JULY 07, 2005

July visit I just got back from a brief five-day visit. In addition to seeing the 1784 transfer agreement: We gave two tours that were [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 02, 2005

1784 agreement After Dawn picked me up at the airport, we picked out an engagement ring, then went to the Lebanon County Historic Society and [...]

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MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005

The workshop Good news and bad news, as those two always seem to travel in pairs on this project. The good news is, we can [...]

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FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2005

I miss I miss your bright enthusiasm Your head nestled on my chest Your laughter, loud and infectious Your wit and charm Your attention I [...]

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THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2005

90-Second Basement Brian Schaeffer and Bob Leppiene transformed the basement from a prison to a guest room in a matter of days.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2005

This Old House This Old House is apparently considering our contractor, Gary Geiselman of Olde York Homes, for their “top 10” list of historic restoration [...]

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SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2005

Dawn’s home! For the first time in three and a half months, Dawn came back to LA. For four days. I certainly kept her busy [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 08, 2005

Dawn speaks! Out of the blue, Dawn sent me this synopsis of the day. She’s never done that before, so I’m just posting it verbatim. [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 07, 2005

Geothermal is dead The geothermal is dead — quote number 3 came in the same as quotes 1 and 2. We may look at air [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 01, 2005

No!!! The bank called today — our mortgage request fell through. This is the second one that said everything was goodness and light, and then [...]

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TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2005

One tough cookie When Dawn moved to Pennsylvania in March, I mentioned the conditions she was facing, but I haven’t revisited them because, frankly, she [...]

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SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2005

Member benefits Last week, I invited everyone who had signed our guestbook for a tour. It being a three-day weekend, not many people took me [...]

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SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005

The electric is dead, long live the electric! Last month, the basement was dark, dirty, and humid. Now it is dark, dirty, and wet. In [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2005

Memorial Day Weekend Wow. Every so often, the clouds clear and I realize what an unbelievable schmuck I am. More often than that, though, somebody [...]

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TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2005 (part 2)

Top Ten In the spirit of David Letterman, here’s the top 10 Google searches for this web site in the past month: 10. restoring colonial [...]

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TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2005 (part 1)

Four fires This morning started out badly, and got worse: – First, my architect called this morning (forgetting the three hour time difference) and we [...]

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MONDAY, MAY 23, 2005

Color swatches As I’ve mentioned, all the exterior woodwork needs to be taken care of before the new roof can go on. What I haven’t [...]

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FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2005

On this date in 1760 George III becomes King of England. The French surrender to the English at Montreal to effectively end the French and [...]

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THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005

Slow news week Actually, lots of things have been going on, I’ve just been in denial all week. (It’s my ‘overload’ defense, and it does [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 04, 2005

Back porch The back porch (featured prominently on our main page) is gone. Dawn was quite upset when they told her the wood was rotted [...]

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2005

Restoration Clinic et al This morning we drove to Mechanicsburg to visit Dawn’s furniture. The Restoration Clinic had prepared an exhaustive list of all the [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2005

Insurance, molding, and fireplaces: just another day Today we met the insurance guy and found the only thing the mansion is insured for is lightning. [...]

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TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2005

Yes!! We secured funding for most of the project today. It wasn’t cheap, and this project no longer makes any kind of economic sense whatsoever, [...]

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MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2005

Decisions, decisions… We met with two contractors today to discuss conventional vs geothermal again. I hate to keep harping on this, but I’ve made my [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2005

Two more days and I’m back in Pennsylvania for a week. I thought once Dawn was out there, there wouldn’t be anything left for me [...]

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SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2005

Risk-Reward Surprisingly, given how notoriously cheap I am, I insisted on hiring a general contractor. Equally surprising, given what a perfectionist Dawn is, she was [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2005

How to make Dawn cry First, make her quit her job, move cross-country by herself with a bare minimumm of possessions, live in a greenhouse [...]

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TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2005

A brick wall We hit a brick wall today. Literally. They were gutting the summer kitchen and they peeled off the plaster (or drywall, I’m [...]

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SATURDAY, APRIL 09, 2005

Bees Dawn called me yesterday at 6:30am my time to report there were three wasps between her and the door, and she couldn’t go to [...]

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MONDAY, APRIL 04, 2005

Professional rivalry In stripping the paint back to the plaster, Dawn found the signature for the original painter, dated 1888! Unfortunately, it was crossed out [...]

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SUNDAY, APRIL 03, 2005

Dawn’s to-do list Just for grins, here’s Dawn’s current to-do list: Gut the Summer Kitchen Clean out basement, dig out mud, and pour a concrete [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2005

Home? I just got back from a weekend visit to PA. Funny how your entire world-view can be flipped in one unexpected moment–Los Angeles is [...]

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THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2005

Another crossroads You’d think I enjoy bleating helplessly about this project, considering how often I do it, but I really don’t. I really would prefer [...]

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2005

Lancaster New Era 2 Oops, forgot to mention the newspaper article came out yesterday. At first I was upset about several of the things he [...]

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MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2005

Structural engineer They want to put 75-pound weights on each stair to make sure the grand stairway can support all that weight. I have no [...]

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FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2005

Financing The fireplaces were likely closed in when they converted from wood to coal. With the plaster off, you can see the arch in the [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2005

Rose-head nails We started this project with the adage, “first do no harm.” Well, that didn’t last long–they pulled down the ceiling in the attic [...]

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MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2005

Day One It feels very strange writing “day one” when we’ve been working on this for a year and a half, but today was the [...]

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SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2005

Leaving LA I leave LA for the weary trek to Pennsylvania, my seventh in 12 months. I wonder when I will stop thinking of LA [...]

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THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2005

Stir Crazy Most people instinctively know that they could never live with their parents again, so this should come as no surprise. To anyone contemplating [...]

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 09, 2005

Lancaster New Era Yesterday, Dawn woke me up at 7am (apparently forgetting the 3-hour time difference) and put me on the phone with a reporter [...]

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TUESDAY, MARCH 08, 2005

Aquarius About fifteen years ago, Dawn’s parents decided to build a greenhouse. Well, somehow this got translated into a two-story home with a kitchenette, one [...]

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MONDAY, MARCH 07, 2005

History of Speedwell In 1760, ironmaster James Old and his partner, David Caldwell, purchased land along Hammer Creek and built Speedwell Forge. James Old also [...]

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SUNDAY, MARCH 06, 2005

Moving Day Dawn flew to Pennsylvania today. There were a lot of tears, and a lot of questions — is it worth being apart? Is [...]

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FRIDAY, MARCH 04, 2005

Building Inspector The architect and contractor met with the code inspector today, and the good news is he will accept all the code variance requests [...]

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2005

County Approval We got approval from the county planning commission. We have to address a few minor issues, but we should have our permit by [...]

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005

Township Approval The township planning commission and board of supervisors approved our request. We just have one more hurdle – the county planning commission – [...]

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2005

Historic Tax Credits First, some disclaimers: This isn’t tax advice. Consult your tax advisor. If you get audited, don’t blame me. If you use your [...]

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2005

National Register The National Register nomination was finally submitted today. It’s eight months later than expected, but with all of the other problems we’ve had, [...]

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2005

Subcontractors Our new contractor wanted to have a site meeting with all of his subs. Unfortunately, that meant I had to fly out, too. I [...]

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2005

Being green I mentioned that at the PAII conference in April, the Pine Hurst Inn did a presentation on green building principles. In fact, their [...]

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2005

Final Answer After talking to a dozen references, we finally chose Olde York Homes as our new contractor. In the end, it wasn’t the references, [...]

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2005

Meltdown The boiler in the mansion cracked. They are having to add water twice a day to keep the radiators going. (Of course, I’m in [...]

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MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2005

Endangered Species We had a “PNDI hit,” meaning the state was concerned our septic field would impact an endangered species. But here’s the catch: they [...]

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004

Olde York Homes This morning we met with Gary Geiselman of Olde York Homes. We’d already talked to four contractors this week, not to mention [...]

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2004

Barry Stover One of the more interesting meetings this week was with Barry Stover, an historical consultant. Several people had recommended him but I wasn’t [...]

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2004

Lawyers and Accountants and Engineers, oh my! Dawn’s mother agreed to put the property in joint tenancy with Dawn, so today we met with our [...]

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2004

2004 in Review We’ve made seven trips to Pennsylvania this year, and managed to take three giant steps backwards. Our general contractor had done nothing [...]

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2004

Merry Christmas! We just arrived in Pennsylvania, and went in search of our septic field. We knew they had moved it, saying something about the [...]

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2004

Christmas “Vacation” We’ve got appointments next week with four contractors, two architects, a septic engineer, a heating/cooling engineer, a land engineer (not sure what else [...]

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2004

National Historic certification I promised (a year ago) to discuss the process, so here it is. Note that I only have experience in Pennsylvania; your [...]

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2004

Snap Dawn called the contractor to see if this could be salvaged. He never returned her calls. So I guess our decision has been made [...]

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004

A Contract Only A Lawyer Could Love The contractor, who hasn’t done anything and missed the schedule, is now telling us he won’t put us [...]

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 01, 2004

The iceman cometh The septic module is moving slowly, and we have to do the perks and probes before the ground freezes. Being from Los [...]

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2004

Water Conservation The township sprung (no pun intended) a new ordinance on us: We have to prove that drawing down our well will not affect [...]

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2004

Septic Planning Dawn met with the septic folks and walked the property with them, pointing out where we wanted the new septic system. We wanted [...]

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2004

Second Pre-App Meeting Not taking any chances, Dawn attended the second meeting. It was scheduled for a Thursday morning, so she took a red-eye Wednesday [...]

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2004

No Go The contractor, who assured us he could start in October, just told us that he couldn’t get a roofer until spring. %^*&.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2004

Building Permit Well, the bad news is, there’s no way we’re going to have a building permit in October. The good news is, we don’t [...]

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2004

Moving Day Gary Kopperman and his entire crew from The Restoration Clinic arrived with a trailer truck, and spent the entire day clearing out all [...]

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2004

Resurrection Dawn is amazing. She talked to the county engineer and somehow got him to agree to a one-lane driveway with a pull-off instead of [...]

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2004

Warped Yesterday, in addition to the mold on the walls, we also found much of the furniture was in trouble. We immediately called Gary Kopperman [...]

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2004

Charming Forge When we first met Bill Coleman, I asked what made him want to restore the Coleman-Stiegel mansion, and he said “Charming Forge.” Another [...]

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2004

Small Town Our friend Sally suggested we talk to the township supervisor, Jeff Burkholder, to which Dawn replied, “Hey, I went to school with Jeff.” [...]

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2004

Cancellation The project is cancelled. It’s hard to believe, but I don’t know what else to do. The township and county held a “pre-app” meeting [...]

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2004

Diehm & Sons Since our contractor wasn’t doing anything, Dawn called Deihm & Sons about the septic planning module. The “planning module” consists of locating [...]

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 06, 2004

Roof The mansion roof is shot. A good slate roof can last forever, but apparently this was not a good slate roof. The slate was [...]

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 05, 2004

Water, Water Everywhere I spoke with Jeff Bailey, the township water engineer. As the result of a drought a few years ago, they passed an [...]

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MONDAY, AUGUST 02, 2004

The Forges of Lancaster County Before there were Amish, there was iron. Peter Grubb found iron ore in the Cornwall Mountains, the richest vein ever [...]

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 01, 2004

Summer Kitchen In a nice case of serendipity, the tenants in the summer kitchen moved out today. Since we were just about to evict them, [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2004

Web Design A few months ago, I hired Sandrine Lacorie to design the web site, and I’m sure you’ll agree, she has done an amazing [...]

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MONDAY, JULY 19, 2004

Architect 2 I met with Bruce Evans, the architect, today. He had taken all the plans that Dawn and I spent countless hours on, threw [...]

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SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2004

Land Development Plan We hired David Christian & Associates to handle the county requirements. I do not like hiring people without meeting them, but unless [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004

Zoning 3 You probably won’t believe this, but the township did not have a building code. In fact, a lot of townships in Pennsylvania didn’t [...]

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TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2004

Furniture Gary Kopperman visited and looked at the furniture. Because of the roof leak, the humidity in the house was very high, and he recommended [...]

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SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2004

Zoning 2 First, the good news: I met with the Elizabeth Township zoning commission and they approved my petition for an exemption to operate a [...]

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THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2004

Cleaning 2 On our last day in PA, our friends at Forgotten Seasons B&B invited us over for breakfast so we could see what that [...]

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 09, 2004

Frustration We met with our contractor again, who assures us everything is on track but so far he hasn’t talked to any subcontractors except the [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 08, 2004 (part 2)

Zoning We decided to take care of the zoning permit next month, rather than wait until September. I sent in the application and bought a [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 08, 2004 (part 1)

Ownership We have a new wrinkle in our plans: We need to own the property. The historic tax credits can only go to the owner, [...]

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MONDAY, JUNE 07, 2004

Fran Hand We met Fran Hand, owner of Mount Joy Inn, who gave us a tour of her B&B and told us we needed to [...]

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SATURDAY, JUNE 05, 2004

Bill Coleman Bill Coleman, a direct descendent of Robert Coleman, invited us over to see the Coleman-Stiegel mansion. It is older, larger, and grander than [...]

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TUESDAY, JUNE 01, 2004

Gratitude We were planning to go to Georgia next week to visit my family, but they cancelled at the last minute, so we re-routed our [...]

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MONDAY, MAY 24, 2004

Architect We also hired Cox-Evans Architects, and sent them drafts that Dawn and I worked up in a home architect program. The only thing we’re [...]

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FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2004

Artwork Years ago, Dawn’s mother sent us a company calendar which featured a drawing of the “Darlington Mansion.” I had tried to contact the company [...]

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THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2004

Ironmasters [There are many people who know a lot more than I do, but here are some interesting bits that I’ve picked up so far.] [...]

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2004

PHMC Carol Lee and June Evans of the PHMC did a site visit. The PHMC is the SHPO for the NPS. (Okay, in english: The [...]

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SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2004

Appraisal We met Anne Kearney, an appraiser, who told us most of the furniture was from the 1920s, except for a couple of pieces that [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2004

Elizabeth Township We met Rita Snavely, the township zoning officer, and Amos Miller, the township sewage enforcement office (what a title). Rita told us we [...]

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2004

Conference The PAII conference was pretty good, although its a long drive to Rhode Island. T. Scott Gross (author of “Positively Outrageous Service”) gave the [...]

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THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2004

Business Plan I’ve been working on our business plan, and realized I don’t know the first thing about business plans. The first draft is over [...]

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SUNDAY, APRIL 04, 2004

Straw Poll I took an email poll of all my friends on how they book lodging. (Talk about a large margin of error!) What I [...]

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THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2004

Competition I made a grid of all the B&Bs in Lancaster county – names, amenities, memberships, prices, etc. I have no idea what to do [...]

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TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2004

Marketing Research Dawn did some “marketing research” – calling local B&Bs and pretending to be a potential guest – and it turns out October is [...]

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TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2004

HGTV I exchanged emails with a producer of Restore America on HGTV. Unfortunately they’re no longer looking for homes to be restored, but now looking [...]

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FRIDAY, MARCH 05, 2004

Incorporation Today we formed Speedwell Forge B&B, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, with Dawn as President and me as Treasurer and Secretary. I immediately regretted that, [...]

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THURSDAY, MARCH 04, 2004

Workshop We just completed a four-day B&B workshop in Santa Barbara. Wow, what an eye-opener: This is not the semi-retirement I had imagined; this was [...]

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 01, 2004

Dawn’s Grandparents Gerald Darlington was an executive at the Hamilton Watch Company; Kathryn was a secretary. How they got together, we can only speculate. We [...]

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2004

Paymaster’s Office The willow tree dropped a limb through the Paymaster’s Office. Fortunately, there is some extra slate in the barn, so they can patch [...]

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 01, 2004

Watt & Shand We felt we’d cleaned enough where we were comfortable giving tours, so we invited Dale and Suzanne (of Forgotten Seasons B&B) over. [...]

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2003

Cleaning Most of our Christmas “vacation” was spent cleaning twenty years of collected detritus from the mansion. When Dawn’s grandmother passed away, Dawn’s mother just [...]

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2003

Historic York We hired Barb Raid of Historic York to handle the National Register nomination and the Historic Tax Credit application. It’s a lot of [...]

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2003 (part 2)

Chandeliers The mansion has three beautiful chandeliers, and we knew that eventually they had to be moved. I called Carol Wilson, the county historian, who [...]

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2003 (part 1)

Speedwell Forge Park I mentioned in September that Doug Dinsmore was doing an historic inventory for Speedwell Forge Park. It was several months later before [...]

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2003

So You Want To Be An Innkeeper Years ago, I made the stipulation that if we were going to invest our life’s savings in restoring [...]

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2003

Ancient History In 1991, when things were getting serious between Dawn and me, she announced that someday we’d be moving to Pennsylvania. My retirement plans [...]

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2003

Separation We decided that when the restoration starts, Dawn will move out there by herself to supervise the work. That’s a big move – in [...]

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Monday, October 6, 2003

Last Vacation We went to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta this weekend, which we figure is our last real vacation for the next five years. [...]

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September 19, 2003

Well test I know this may sound silly, but one of my concerns about moving to the farm was the water. In L.A., we import [...]

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September 4, 2003

Forgotten Seasons We met Dale and Suzanne of Forgotten Seasons B&B. They had referred one of the contractors, so we just wanted to thank them [...]

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September 3, 2003

Doug Dinsmore About fifteen years ago, Dawn’s parents sold several hundred acres to the county, which created Speedwell Forge Park. They left it “natural” (ie. [...]

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Beginning

September 2, 2003: Beginning We met with two contractors, and I feel like a complete ingrate. In my defense, I am a Southern California native, [...]

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