I wonder if  I could possibly drag you folks away from stone, brown or
otherwise, for a bit.

The General Store in Putney, VT, most imaginatively known as "Putney
General Store," has apparently been in continuous operation as a store
since sometime in the 1700's, and may  have been the longest running
general store in VT.

In May 2008 there was a fire in the building which took the whole roof off.
For whatever reason the owner either couldn't, or chose not to, obtain
funding to repair the damage, and it sat all last summer in either pouring
rain or sweltering heat. All the while townspeople are waiting and
wondering what is going to become of this building right on the most
prominent corner in this small town.  In mid August a member of the Putney
Historical Society board, of which I am also a member, sent an e-mail that
she had this idea that the Historical Society should buy the building and
try to save it.  She has a degree in some sort of "historic preservation"
and works as a consultant in this field and had been in conversation with
the owner and with some other people in the state historic preservation
community.

Long story short, the Historical Society did buy the building in Nov. and
work has begun on stabilization and getting a roof on.  This is not the
greatest time of year to do this sort of work and there have been a number
of set-backs.  When old Vermonters decided to change a building they didn't
hire fancy architects and contractors--they did it themselves.  Therefore a
lot of the work was unorthodox, to say the least.   If a beam, joist, wall
or whatever was in the way--just cut it off!  If the floor be sloping,
don't jack the building--build another floor over the old one to make it
level, and on and on.

HOWEVER, one of our worst problems seems to be MOLD.  Now, mold doesn't
bother me and I was amazed to find and few years back that it does bother
some people, A LOT.  So now we have all this mold that has been growing in
an old building since it was thoroughly soaked by the fire dept. last
spring.  Today we had a guy come by, I guess to tell us what kind of mold
it was and make suggestions for how to get rid of it.  He doesn't do this
sort of work himself, I think he's a mycologist, I think that's the term
for one who studies mold.

So, finally, here's my question--does anyone on this list know of a
company, person, etc.  that does mold abatement in the area of VT,NH, MA
border?  Thanks for reading this whole epistle, Ruth

PS:  If anyone would be interested in what I'm talking about I think the
website is:  putneygeneralstore.com.  Sorry I don't know how to make it
turn blue so you can click on it.  If that doesn't work just google Putney,
VT and there's a link there.
-- 
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

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