Plumbing in the bathroom is fixed and it's even better than it had been. The plumber brought the line inside (it was inside the south wall of the house) earlier so more of it will benefit from the heat inside the house. I think the materials are better, too. And he insulated more inside the wall. Be basically replaced everything from where the pipes came up next to the chimney all the way over to the tub and shower.

Since he's trying to catch up lost time yesterday when a fatal accident on Rte. 16 north of here tied him up in traffic for three hours, we'll worry about replacing the shutoffs in the cellar in a few weeks.

There are a lot of things about this house that I would have done differently if I had known Tom then and been involved in building it. It's a post and beam KIT and it was built by Tom, his friends, and students from Whittier Reg. Voc Tech (with the supervision of their teachers). It's still not actually "finished"...(I'd kill for a real floor rather than subflooring downstairs). I'd have designed all the plumbing in a central core, especially since the house was intended to be heated primarily with a woodstove. I DID finally (after going through several clothes washers) get Tom to change the arrangement of the washer and dryer so the plumbing wasn't on the coldest wall in the house. Couldn't do anything about the kitchen sink and the bathtub/shower and the pipes to it. Thank goodness we have a composting toilet so I never had to worry about THAT freezing up!

Of course, Tom built this house when he was in his prime, able to do most of the plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and everything else himself. AND carry in firewood and keep the fire going all winter. Not to mention cleaning the chimney every year. He and his first wife were chimney sweeps and Tom was the first president of the Chimney Sweep Guild of NH.

But I love this house and its location in the middle of the woods and in a wonderful little town where I know everyone at town hall and my mortgage is small. And I certainly couldn't afford even a spot under a bridge in Portsmouth.

I'm taking the rest of the weekend off... Friends are picking me up in about 15 minutes and we're going to see "Inside Llewyn Davis" which is playing in Bedford.

Linn