A YEAR LATER

What a difference a year makes! Given the mild winter we've had this year, it's hard to imagine that last year at this time we were under two feet of snow. As for the house, it was uninhabitable last winter. The kitchen was in the process of being gutted and the exterior siding unfinished and unpainted. While we miss the snow, we're glad to be in our home. The photos below are from early February, past and present.

THE FRONT ENTRY IS FINISHED

Happy New Year! After many months of muddy slopes, moats, bobcats, and piles of stone and debris, the front entry wall and steps are finally finished. We are excited to be able to enter the house without having to don wellies or walk over a gang plank. The fieldstone wall and granite steps look beautiful; we couldn't be happier with the results. See below for a few photos. The final soil grading, driveway gravel, stepping stones, tree planting, and wildflower and grass seeding will all have to wait until the ground thaws again in Spring.

THE FRONT ENTRY - PART 3

One of the many things we've learned over the past year is that building a dry-laid stone wall is a slow process. Each stone has to fit somewhat snugly with the adjacent one, leading to a jig-saw puzzle-like installation. Needless to say, the front wall and terrace work continues. Our landscape contractor is convinced that he will finish this year, but given the drop in temperatures and the short days, we are only cautiously optimistic. To date, the 11 large granite steps have been installed and the North/South wall running from the house is completely finished. All that remains is the tall corner on the East/West wall, final grading, and the placing of the stepping stones. See below for relatively recent progress photographs. I especially love how the granite slab steps are all of different lengths, and their overages are simply buried within the wall.

 

 

THE FRONT ENTRY - PART 2

Between the rain, and now snow (!), construction progress is being made on the front entry. The 8' long, massively heavy reclaimed granite slab steps were delivered a few weeks ago and rough grading began around the front of the house. Because the granite steps are reclaimed, no two are alike; each step varies slightly in size, color, and finish (in keeping with the house's "character"). For the last few weeks, the landscape contractor has slowly been constructing the dry-laid fieldstone walls on either side of the steps and building up the piles of crushed stone beneath. Fortunately for us, a significant portion of the fieldstone was already on the property, comprising the layer of stone below grade. However, we did need to purchase a couple truck loads of additional stone for key corner pieces and flat top stone. As 12" of snow is forecast for this afternoon and tonight, work will likely stop until the ground thaws next spring, and the front yard's construction-themed obstacle course (heavy machinery, muddy ruts, rock piles) will be with us for another year. See below for a few photos - the yellow string indicates the finished height of the walls.

THE BARN

Despite our mild protests, the barn was demolished this fall. Given that it had developed a noticeable right lean and front slouch, and that only half of the structure was supported by a foundation, our insurance company deemed the removal mandatory. Demo took about 2 weeks, and we were able to save almost all of the beams and a large percentage of the wood siding. We didn't want to lose the barn but have found that in its absence a much more open and inviting space to the east of the house has emerged. Our landscape contractor recently re-graded the site and broadcasted grass seed and layer of hay mulch (the weed-free hay provides soil stabilization and keeps the seed in place until it germinates). See below for a series of before and after photographs - the last photo also shows a deer in the right corner. He likes our apples.

YARD WORK

A couple weekends ago we had our amazing friends AND their amazing electric chainsaw up to the house. Over the course of 24 hours we cut and cleared the large Forsythia and Wisteria clumps that were growing in, along, and over the long stone wall that runs parallel to the house. In the process of clearing, we discovered, and then uncovered, an old stone well near the orchard. With the shrubs and vines removed, we can now view the meadow, pond, and orchard from the porch. It's wonderful. See below for a few before and after photos - I wish I had shot the progress with a time-lapse camera.

 

THE FRONT ENTRY - PART 1

We're in desperate need of a way to get from the driveway to the house. As indicated in the photo below, the front door and the side door (leading to the mudroom and kitchen) are currently separated from the driveway by a steep 6+ foot change in grade. When we bought the house, the slope was negotiated by a short wobbly stone wall and a narrow set of steep stairs. The design problem lies in the extreme grade change over a short distance, compounded by the need to hide the unattractive foundation under the porch. After many (too many) schemes, we have finally decided to install (2) tall dry-laid fieldstone retaining walls to create a turf terrace at the door/porch elevation. The front wall would extend out toward the driveway, hiding a run of wide granite steps. This wall also delineates the separation between grass and meadow (meadow!). A tall hedge of cranberry viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) shrubs will run parallel to the front wall, creating privacy from the road.

THE FRONT DOOR

We're currently trying to decide what color to paint the front door. Hopefully the house will be completely painted soon, and a bright door will offer a welcomed contrast to all the white. Initially, we were leaning toward a bright red door but are now thinking of medium blue, inspired by the maritime colors we saw on the Croatian island of Korcula last fall.

               

EXTERIOR BEFORE + AFTER

The house needed a lot of work. Immediately. We began by renovating the exterior of the house, including the removal of trees, new clapboard siding, a new cedar single roof, new drainage and foundation work. The existing foundation consisted of dry-laid stone walls - i.e. large stones stacked on top of each other without any mortar (!).  The contractors poured a concrete dead-wall around the foundation, which sealed the joints between the stone and prevents water from flowing into the basement. Before the foundation was back-filled with soil, we had a deep moat around the house and entry inside was via a wood 'gang plank' (it was fantastic!). The final coat of white paint is currently being applied and will, fingers crossed, be finished by Labor Day. The photos below offer a chronological snapshot of this work, which took place over the past 11 months.