First Post From Uniontown

Your patience, gentle reader, in this transition to my next phase is greatly appreciated. A week ago Tuesday, I moved my residence to Uniontown, Maryland, proudly listed on the National Register of Historic Places. My new home is the Susan Brown house, circa 1861 — just (or already) two years old when General Winfield Hancock bivouacked his troops here en route to the battle of Gettysburg.

Historic, indeed. I am fast becoming the poster boy for This Old House. Before moving, it was a new septic system. Then, I made a significant contribution to my friendly painter's fall business to get the upstairs shutters, window frames, trim, and roof painted. Then the plumber. Then the carpenter to replace several rotted German lap siding boards on the new section in the back (where the former Summer kitchen was incorporated into the main house as kitchen, family room and laundry). Then the plumber to get the downstairs heat back. Now the carpenter again to replace some of the rotted elbows in the downspouts. Etc., etc.

You who have followed these sporatic posts can guess how bittersweet the move is from Sweet Surrender in Taneytown. From unusually low ceilings to generously high. From vinyl siding and sheet rock to double-thick brick and horsehair plaster. From unlimited vistas, ample gardens, and walk-0ut-your-backdoor hunting to...well, 1/3 acre. (Sigh.) Yet, I can do as much garden here as there (especially now, with tabula rasa from back door all 75 yards to the back property line, thanks to the septic contractor). You get a pretty good view of the stars here, and there's certainly plenty of green. The town itself, a hamlet really, is just one house-lined street of perhaps 40 houses, with farms on all sides. A short walk up the street to the hilltop cemetery promises exquisite views of the sunset over the Catoctin Mountains — better even than Taneytown. And this season at least, I can still hunt Sweet Surrender, if I ever get any time.

Now, if only I can get out from under this sea of boxes! It is an exercise in surrender. I want it done now. But I'm still doing the final clean-up in T-town, and paying the price in work for taking a week off to move. All in time, I suppose, all in time. More regular posts will be coming again, I promise.