It’s time to do an update on our One Twenty Main project but for that to happen I have to tell you about this past week. Early Tuesday morning Brett and Jaime were processing material in Jaime’s basement like they always do at the crack of dawn. Jaime’s hand was pulled into a piece of machinery in a freak accident. This was devastating because Jaime is the most skilled carpenter and musician, both of which require dexterity. 

Jaime is one of my most favorite people in the whole world. He and his wife Jaime (yes they have the same name, I know it’s confusing) are our partners in our projects One Twenty Main and the Sixty One Park Farmhouse. Everything magical about those two places came from Jaime’s amazing handiwork. He is so talented and positive and one of the hardest working people I know. You can help but laugh and smile whenever you are around him. 

It’s been a rough week here knowing how much pain he has been in and knowing how worried his wife, family and friends have been. He is going to have to adjust everything he knows adapt to this new future but one thing I DO know is that Jaime is one person who will come out stronger and more determined than ever before. 

Jaime was in the hospital for four days and no one was allowed to visit him due to Covid-19 which made it especially hard. We are grateful for skilled doctors and surgeons who were able to save as much of his hand as they could. They were able to save up to the first knuckle of three fingers and a little more of the index finger. His thumb is okay which is great news. Jaime’s brother Erik put together a fundraiser and the outpouring has been really amazing and it is such a relief that Jaime and Jaime won’t have to worry about financial hardship for the foreseeable future. Here is a link to a video his brother Erik made earlier this week and a link to the Go Fund Me is here. 

 

Here is a video the guys made last week at our 120 Main Project before the accident. If you don’t know Jaime that well you can see how just how joyful and fun his personality is in this video. He really is one of the best people I have ever met and I am so thankful that he and my husband are such kindred spirits. 

 

Jaime was able to finally come home from the hospital this past weekend and has a long physical and emotional road to recovery ahead of him. Please pray for fast healing for Jaime and also for Brett. I can’t imagine the trauma of having witnessed such an event. I am so grateful that Brett was there to help though and get Jaime to the emergency room as fast as possible. I never want to wake up to a phone call like that again. 

This weekend there was an outpouring of help at our project site to keep things moving forward…but it wasn’t the same:

I know I’ve already posted about this on social media and thank you to everyone who has donated and/or shared the GoFundMe. If you are not into donating online you can contact me to see how to donate offline…we’ve had some donations mailed and dropped off as well.

I will work on another post about what we’ve been working on soon. We are definitely making progress and will keep making progress. Brett is working with Jaime’s brother Erik on another project right now to pitch in so if you watch any new Perkins Brothers Builders videos on Youtube in the next week or so you are bound to see him in those! Hard to believe that only two weekends ago the guys were working out at the site as normal…some photos are hard to look at right now. This was from 2 weekends ago as the guys worked on the roof….and shows a little glimpse into our homeschooling technique too as Sienna learns some construction math on site:

As I start this post the first thing that comes to mind is how many people will think we are crazy for what we are trying to accomplish. I can’t even tell you how many people ask about the house project only to tell me how much cheaper it would have been to just build from scratch! Um…I know that…but that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun! Right now the guys are working on the foundation at our latest renovation project. These photos are crazy to me…the old house is sitting on rocks…and it has been for 118 years. Look how precarious this looks..but also that it hasn’t budged in 100 years is amazing:

There was only about 10″ of crawl space under most of the house when we started and in order to build a foundation most of the dirt had to be dug out underneath the house to even get a start:

This means that the entire foundation had to be dug out by hand, and I’m talking like at least 3 to 4 feet down in some places…and the dirt carried out in 5-gallon buckets. Here you can see where the house was just sitting on the dirt, no rocks or foundation at all:

Digging it out was a long process….and the challenge was also keeping the house stable so it didn’t fall down around us in pieces:

The main walls of the house were eventually set onto jacks and footer holes were dug for concrete to be poured: 

Once the concrete set the concrete block was put into place and the house lowered down onto the new columns: 

Once the main house was stable it was time to address some small additions that had been built onto the house:

 There were so many problems with these additions that the decision was made to just remove them all together and start from scratch on the back of the house:

 Here is Jaime cutting some of the beams to get ready for demolition:

It didn’t take long to pull the additions off….just like that they were gone:

Our friend Shannon of Taylor Excavating dug out the section for the new construction:

Here’s an action video of the guys digging out the footers by hand and trying not to get scooped away by Shannon:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And then just like that the foundation was in place:

I love this angle looking straight out the open front door:

Once all of the blocks were in place there was the problem on how to fill the gap between the footers and the foundation wall:

Jaime and his brother Erik have the best Youtube channel and they did a short episode on the house and foundation: 

And there you go! We are starting to frame in the house now so progress is being made. Also I’m going to start referring to the house as “the cottage” from now on because it’s so much smaller than “the farmhouse” at Sixty One Park. Sounds cute right?

I finally opened up my store around Thanksgiving and I’m so proud of this cute little place! Here’s the front around the time when I first opened:

My first little sign is handmade using an old window:

Looking out the front door to Main Street:

Looking back toward the counter:

It changes almost every day because I’m always creating new things and moving things around:

I have a work area in the corner with a large all easel where I can paint during the day:

My friend Sarah of Cottonwood Artistry came over one day and wrote the “Art in Progress” across the top:

There’s always new art being painted and I love that I can work at the store:

The back wall has now become a place for my paints and a “drying rack” as well for paintings in progress:

I’m sure the displays will change as I go…and I just add things here and there. Brett made me these little tables recently to fill in some empty space where the Christmas decor was:

I painted them the same gray as the shelves I made and they work just fine for now:

See that little sideboard table? That’s the first piece of furniture Brett and I bought when we first got married 18 years ago. My brother got it when he married and then my sister had it for a while. It’s come back to me again:

I’ve been adding all kinds of little things to the store like patches, books and journals:

And making new things here and there that are mountain themed:

I love rearranging the shelves and creating new displays:

All my landscapes in one place:

I love this new little children’s book call The Hike by Alison Farrell. The little girl in the book keeps her own sketch field guide:

Little watercolors and prints:

I’m slowly running out of room but I’ll just have to figure out more creative ways to display things upward:

I love how the gray shelving turned out and the old bedspring is great for attaching paper art to:

A few other goodies:

That huge wood table in the middle was made by Jaime using an old industrial sawhorse. The little rolling cart was found in an old wood factory:

Right now I’m even using one of our outdoor benches from our house to display books:

I’m slowly adding a collection of art supplies to the store for locals since we don’t really have any other place to shop around here. I love the huge display of DecoArt acrylic paints:

When I was first opening I was trying to figure out what to put on my chalkboard signs and I asked my friends for help. This is what my friend Dave said jokingly…but I ran with it for a while!

My new sign has my name on it…which makes it a little surreal that I actually have a store and gallery now:

I’m still working on hours…I’m usually there working most days but I’m sure to be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 12 and 4. And sometimes I have to leave for a bit for good reasons:

I hope you can come visit one day! I’m a little behind on listing artwork on Etsy but should be catching up this week finally!

Work continues on the house next door but we are making progress! You can see the most recent pics at @onetwentymain!