Well, here it is, 3 in the morning, and I’m staring at a computer screen once again. What is

it with this business of waking up, fully alert, at 3 in the morning? Is there really that much

weighing on my mind, that it has to waken me and drag me downstairs to this blasted com-

puter in order to be exorcized? Or have I reached “that age” when getting a decent night’s

sleep just isn’t going to happen every night? Or, were the stars beckoning me to “Get up!

Come see!!”? (They truly are spectacular tonight — or is it morning? What better way to greet

Christmas morning than to witness God’s handiwork!)

That journal entry was written quite a few years ago, and the stars have been beckoning me

ever since. And when they beckon, I don’t resist. The reward has never failed to be priceless.

Can’t sleep? Go, look up at the sky. Troubles weighing you down? Go, look up at the sky. Too much

stuff bouncing around in your head? Go, look up at the sky. Feeling pretty insignificant or, just the opposite, a

bit too full of yourself? Go, look up at the sky. It’s amazing how immediately calming it is to simply sit (or lay) quietly

beneath the canopy of stars, staring out into the vast universe. It certainly puts things in perspective. I might be over-

whelmed with awe and thus made to feel so much smaller, but at the same time I am reminded that, like the stars, we

are lovingly made for a reason. We, too, were made to shine.

So, sometime this holiday season, go outside late at night and give yourself the gift of time well spent staring up at

the stars. And reflect…..you’re here for a reason and Someone is watching over you. You’ll sleep like a baby!

Blessings!

Restore ’N More, Inc. P.O. Box 128, Manheim, PA 17545 717-664-7575251 W. Stiegel St.

P.O. Box 128

Manheim, PA 17545

return service requested

PA009613

“ Lift your eyes

and look to the

heavens: Who

created all these?

He who brings

out the starry

host one by one,

and calls them

each by name.

Because of his

great power and

mighty strength,

not one of them

is missing.”

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

Restoration/Preservation

Rehabilitation/Adaptive Re-use

Period Home Reproduction

Custom Additions,

Kitchens & Baths

Custom Millwork

& Moldings

Window & Door

Reconstruction

Barns & Accessory

Buildings

Pre-Purchase Analysis

Consulting

717-664-7575

www.restorenmore.com

Restore’N More—Building Relationships

& Providing Exceptional

Craftsmanship Since 1987

Be joyful always…

—“Stars” by Sarah Teasdale

lone in the night

On a dark hill

With pines around me

Spicy and still,

And a heaven full of stars

Over my head,

White and topaz

And misty red;

Myriads with beating

Hearts of fire

That aeons

Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven

Like a great hill,

I watch them marching

Stately and still,

And I know that I

Am honored to be

Witness

Of so much majesty.

A

Do you see what I see?

A quarterly new

sletter from a com

pany specializing in Restoration, Preservation, and C

ustom R

enovation

A Letter

Abo

ut H

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e

SPRING2013

then nailed — using Jim’s own hand-wrought nails, of course — in a pleas-ing pattern. In laying out the chevron pattern, Jim had to determine exactly where the chevrons would position so that the door knob would fall inside a chevron board, and not in a groove.The passage door between the new addition and the house was originally a side window, and the door itself is actually a sliding pocket door. (left in Photo #12) Its styling is period-appro-priate for what could have been an original exterior door. Dennis had very limited available space in the wall to make that pocket for the door since the corner of the house is very close to the opening.In furnishing the addition, Tom & Carole wanted to keep it sparse, as would have been the custom in earlier

times. They wanted a work & clean-up space near the fireplace, so Jim Tshudy was asked to build a cabinet for that purpose. (Photo #13) Tom had a top and sink fabricated out of soapstone to fit the top of Jim’s cabi-net; one single piece for the entire countertop, and one single piece from which the sink was carved. The sink bowl is curved outward and the countertop has “wear” that creates a drain-board effect.Tom also needed additional workspace in a small area adjacent to the bake-oven. Using another piece

of soapstone, we fashioned a large shelf for kneading dough. (Photo #14)

We installed vintage yellow-pine flooring throughout the addition, which Tom & Carole finished. (Photo #15) They also primed and finish-painted all the wood trims for both the interior and exterior applications, as well as the walls and ceiling. These two are very “hands-on”, as they were 25 years ago.The completed addition looks like it’s been there all along, which is exactly what we were planning on. (Photo #16) But, two things stand out: The project was completed in

time for Tom to roast his traditional Thanksgiving turkey, and Carole’s prized tree peony is alive and well and new leaves should be appearing very soon.

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12

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Boarded floors are those covered with boards. The operation of boarding floors should commence as soon as the windows are in, and the plaster dry. The prepa-ration of the boards for this purpose is as follows:They should first be planed on their best face, and set out to season till the natural sap is quite exhausted; they may then be planed smooth, shot and squared upon one edge: the opposite edges are brought to a breadth, by drawing a line on the face parallel to the other edge, with a flooring gauge; they are then gauged to a thickness with a common gauge, and rebated down on the back to the lines drawn by the gauge.

The next thing to be done is to try the joists, whether they be level or not: if they are found to be depressed in the middle, they must be furred up, and if found to protuberant must be reduced by the adze. The former is more generally the case.

The boards employed in flooring are either battens or deals of greater breadth. The quality of battens are divided into three kinds; the best is that free of knots, shakes, sap-wood, or cross-grained stuff, and well matched, that is, selected with the greatest care; the second best is that in which only small, but sound knots are permitted, and free of shakes and sap-wood; the most common kind is that which is left, after taking away the best and second best.

With regards to the joints of flooring boards, they are either quite square, plowed and toungued, rebated, or doweled; in fixing them they are nailed either upon one

or both edges; they are always necessarily nailed on both edges, when the joints are plain or square without dowels. When they are doweled, they may be nailed on one or both edges; but in the best, doweled work, the outer edge only is nailed, by driving the brad obliquely through that edge without piercing the surface of the board; so that the surface of the floor, when cleaned off, appears without blemish.In laying boarded floors, the boards are sometimes laid one after another; or otherwise, one is first laid, then the fourth, leaving an interval of somewhat less than the breadth of the second and third together: the two intermediate boards are next laid in their places, with one edge upon the edge of the first board, and the other upon that of the fourth board; the two middle edges resting upon each other, and forming a ridge at the joint; to force down

these joints, two or more workmen

jump upon the ridge till they

have brought the under sides of the boards close to the joints, then they are fixed in their places with brads. In this last method, the boards are said to be folded. Though two boards are here mentioned, the most common way is to fold four at a time; this mode is only taken when the boards are not sufficiently seasoned, or suspected not to be so. In order to make close work, it is obvious that the two edges forming the joint of the second and third board, must form angles with the faces, each less than a right angle. The seventh board is fixed as the fourth, and the fifth and sixth inserted as the second and third, and so on till the completion.

Gary’s Exceptional ExcerptsBoarding Floors

The Mechanic’s Companion, by Peter Nicholson, Pub. By James Locken, Philadelphia, 1832, pp. 144-145.

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Restore ’N More website and newsletters

There are certain things that signal the

slipping of one season into the next.

Lingering warm days, yet pleasantly cooler nights.

School buses, everywhere. The quickening pace of trac-

tors and wagons bringing crops into the barns. A corn-

roast picnic at the tail end of sweet-corn season. The soft

thud of black walnuts falling on the lawn (however, getting

hit on the head with one is definitely not a “soft thud”) and

the attendant rain of yellowing leaves. Silky spider webs draped

from tree to tree, fence post to fence post, bush to bush, sparkling

with the morning dews and looking like so much fairy laundry hung

out to dry. I am fascinated by these lacy creations; I am not entirely fond

of their itinerant weavers. As colder weather approaches some of them will try

moving indoors; a relocation project I do not approve of.

There’s also one other sure sign that fall is approaching. It’s “the push.” The guys are pushing

to get certain projects under roof and closed in, and Gary is pushing to get certain projects on the schedule to have

foundations dug before cold weather sets in. Come to think of it, there isn’t any season when these men aren’t getting

something started or something done. I guess that in itself is a sure sign that there is only one season at Restore ’N

More. A time for everything, and a season for every activity, and it’s called “today.”

Restore ’N More, Inc. P.O. Box 128, Manheim, PA 17545 717-664-7575251 W. Stiegel St.

P.O. Box 128

Manheim, PA 17545

return service requested

PA009613

“ there is a time

for everything,

and a season

for every activity

under heaven...”

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

Restoration/Preservation

Rehabilitation/Adaptive Re-use

Period Home Reproduction

Custom Additions,

Kitchens & Baths

Custom Millwork

& Moldings

Window & Door

Reconstruction

Barns & Accessory

Buildings

Pre-Purchase Analysis

Consulting

717-664-7575

www.restorenmore.com

Restore’N More—Building Relationships

& Providing Exceptional

Craftsmanship Since 1987

Be joyful always…

—“#657” by Emily Dickinson

dwell in Possibility—

A fairer House than Prose—

More numerous of Windows—

Superior—for Doors—

Of Chambers as the Cedars—

Impregnable of Eye—

And for an Everlasting Roof

The Gambrels of the Sky—

Of Visitors—the fairest—

For Occupation—This—

The spreading wide of narrow Hands

To gather Paradise—

I

Sure Signs