Bonafide Farm

The hearth of the home

November 19th, 2009 § 0

I’ve searched for an old mantle for at least five years. When I lived in my apartment, I wanted a mantle to make a focal wall and add some architectural interest to an otherwise character-bereft space. I set up CraigsList feeds to scope out any old mantles offered for sale. I searched and hunted but never found a mantle that made me pull the trigger.

And then last May, a mantle found me. I was up at my house, before I closed on it, after the previous owner had held a yard sale to clear out her belongings. There propped up against the wellhouse was the most beautiful old mantle I had ever seen. I loved its proportions, its old black paint, everything. Turns out it was for sale by the man who had helped orchestrate the sale of the farm to me–the brother-in-law of my home’s owner. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and at the time felt too directionless to accept his offer. The mantle disappeared, but didn’t leave my mind.

All summer I thought about it. And then when I got to the point with the house where I needed to figure out what to do to the interior fireplace bricks and potential hearth, I knew I had the perfect mantle in mind. I called up the man, who’s a woodworker, and went down to his shop. We struck a deal, and on Saturday he delivered the mantle back to the farm. My parents and I horsed it into the house and against the bricks. Miraculously, it’s fit was darn near close to perfect. And  I love it.

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Turns out its previous owner had removed it from a home built in 1840 in Farmville, Virginia. It still has its original coat of black paint on it, which I’ve heard is incredibly rare for a mantle that old. The paint is crackled and gorgeous, and all I plan to do to the mantle is wash it down and wax it to bring out the beautifully faded finish and exposed wood grain. I think I will add a big bluestone hearth below it, and a cute little Jotul stove similar to the one I fell in love with in Alaska. After I paint or parge the bricks, it should be pretty neat.

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I made a change from the plans and decided to keep the kitchen and living room open to each other, instead of building stub walls with five-foot pocket doors as I originally drew. I think it’s an interesting effect, to enter into the lower ceilinged, cozy living space that the opens up into the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen. We’ll see. If I change my mind, these are easy walls to add after the fact.

On Sunday, I had my first porch picnic with my parents. The porch is now officially broken in! We’d gone up to try the mantle on for size before I cleaned it up, and ended up staying all day picking up leaves. Dad blew them into piles, Mom and I picked them up and put them in the bucket of the tractor, and then I drove them down into the woods and dumped them. I had quite a massive pile by the time I was done, and I am keeping them all piled up so that they’ll hopefully decompose into very nutritious leaf mold for next year’s garden. It was a fun, gorgeous day, and it felt good to be looking after the house. We had a gorgeous pink sunset, which I enjoyed from the new front porch.

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Catching up on the goings on

November 17th, 2009 § 0

A couple of important tasks were completed last week, including the rough framing on the front porch. It’s still not finished–the columns will be beefed up with some inset panels and of course stairs and railings are to come. The ceiling inside the porch will be tongue and groove, which I will paint haint blue to keep away all the bad spirits (and insects). The porch floor will also be tongue and groove, laid perpendicular to the house and painted as well to replicate the look of an old farmhouse or cottage porch.

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Also of note is that the cap of the old chimney was knocked off and the stack rebuilt a good five or more feet taller to clear the now taller, more steeply pitched roof. My builder and I met at a brickyard the other week to try to match the old brick to the new. It was impossible to find an exact match. Bricks aren’t made to the same size now, so my chimney has a little inset where the smaller bricks join the old bricks. I did find out fascinating tidbits from the elderly gentleman who helped me match my brick, including that my old bricks were made right up the road in Somerset, Virginia. I also learned all about how the firing process is what creates the different colors and textures in bricks. And I never knew there was such variety and such regionality in that each area’s clay makes a different kind of brick. It was actually a really fun field trip, looking at bricks!
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Now that the chimney’s completed I think it looks great. We really did a pretty good job matching the texture and color of the old brick. It’s a pleasant surprise as I was anticipating having to paint the chimney to disguise the change in materials. But as it is I rather like that one can tell that there was an old chimney that was added on to–it’s a bit of homestead archaeology.

And one more shot: The house from the road, sporting its fly new dormers. Last week the soffits and fascia went up, windows and doors were delivered…then we lost three days as tropical storm Ida ripped my safety fencing to shreds and turned the basement of the wellhouse into a Roman bath. But this week promises to be lovely and it’s a good thing–my painter is arriving in the morning to paint the trim, and then the roof shingles are going on! And an electrifying development happened early last week that I can’t wait to share.

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The beams: Upcycled from obscurity

November 16th, 2009 § 0

When the old house came down, I asked my builders to salvage as much of the old lumber as possible. Among some of the material that wasn’t completely destroyed by termites (such as my main floor beam) were a few of the floor joists, shown below intersecting that decimated beam:IMG_2788Web

My idea was to reuse the joists as decorative beams in the vaulted kitchen space. I spent a rainy weekend outside, sick with a cold and soaked to my underwear, scrubbing 80 years of crawlspace dirt off of the joists. With the dirt removed, the wood revealed beautiful graining, cool knot holes, decorative (as opposed to destructive) insect damage, and beautiful radial patterns from the huge saw blade used to mill it.

Then with family assistance I temporarily hung the beams with clamps to determine their positioning and number. It was a complicated math problem, as each beam was a different length, courtesy of the inept framers who cut them out of the old house, and the length of the shortest beam determined how high up on the wall they all could hang. But all that fussing around was worth it. I have to say, I am thrilled with the result.

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A lucky seven fit the space perfectly. And I like the idea of reusing some of the old house in the new home. And though you’ll never see this view once the upstairs drywall goes up, I just liked the way the beams looked from above in this shot that really shows the saw patterns and color variations in each piece of wood. I might oil them some day to make these details stand out even more.

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I did it all for a porch

November 3rd, 2009 § 1

I lived in the desert Southwest for a few years and had the honor of calling an early 1900’s adobe bungalow my home during that time. In true bungalow fashion, the house sported a wide, deep porch. I’d sit out there, in my discount store plastic chairs that were demoted from the dining room after I upgraded to IKEA and watch the barrio go by. I’d shoot death stares at the yapping chihuahua next door, check out the slow progression of the “Surprisingly Nimble Old Italian Man” as he collected cans from neighbor’s trash, and watch the streets fill with water within minutes during monsoon downpours. In those days I had the luxury of time to watch an entire sunset as it decimated all sense of propriety as southwestern sunsets do. I lived from that porch, and fell in love with porch living.

Jump ahead almost ten years and tops on my wishlist while househunting was a great porch. And what did I do? I bought a house without a porch. Well, it sort of had one, but it met its fate at the end of a big piece of machinery this summer. That old sorry excuse for a porch is still sitting in my field, the base for a bonfire, if you want it.

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When I started working on the remodel of my house, the first thing I asked my draftsman to create was a porch. He obliged, and the drawing grew and grew, grew and just when the dream porch seemed to tip into ridiculousness I scaled back and edited and drew some more. I photocopied drawings of the front of the house with the space above the front door left open and spent days sketching my perfect porch. I agonized over roof pitch and arc curve and post placement. I very nearly came to fisticuffs with my draftsman in an effort to birth this porch. And then one day, it finally came together. I got a great drawing in my e-mail inbox, and today, when I arrived at the house early this morning, there I found, my porch.

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And that’s not all! I love porches so much, I binged and drew two! Check out the beginnings of the back screened porch!

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Never before seen at this location…

October 30th, 2009 § 1

A livable second floor!

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Just for fun, let’s remember when this was the attic of the old house. From the same vantage point:

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What a difference a few dormers make! And raising the roof pitch didn’t hurt either, both for the space gained inside and to improve the long and low look of the original house.

The week’s been a blur of activity at the house as the second floor was framed and roof sheathing laid. The space really started to take shape and we made some good catches that included reframing the large front gable to capture more usable space inside and adjusting walls here and there in the bathroom so that one wouldn’t stand up from the toilet and hit their heads on the rafters. Didn’t gain much space there–I can fit but any gentleman callers of appreciable size will be directed toward one of the two toilets on the main deck.

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Above is the view from one side of my bedroom toward the master bath near the far front window and dormer, sweeping over the hole where the stairs will come up, and over to the interior of the front gable dormer in my bedroom.

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Same direction more straight on that shows the sitting area under the shed dormer between the master bed and bath.

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From the sitting area shot back through the top floor, with bathroom to the left, stair, bedroom, entry to huge closet that will run back to the far side of the house, and big open pit where the vaulted kitchen ceiling will be.

Framing’s even further along now than these photos reflect–I was up at the house tonight and almost all the interior walls are completed upstairs. Once again the paradox of construction has set in and with more walls up, the space feels larger! Maybe it’s a weird human thing about how we perceive scale and boundaries–it’s perplexing and intriguing to me.

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In all, I am incredibly pleased with how it’s coming together. I head out to the site tomorrow morning to go over a long list of stuff, but overall, I am very happy. The next big hurdle will be getting the porches framed to my satisfaction–the front one in particular is a tricky build and I am nervous about its execution. I worked so hard to get what I wanted when drawing the plans–now the ball is in the framers’ court to get it done right.

Daily commute

October 25th, 2009 § 0

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October 25, 6:45 p.m. Leaving the farm, headed home for dinner.

Get vertical

October 25th, 2009 § 0

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On Friday, the crew framed the rafters and the ridge post as well as the faces of the front shed dormers. The house is looking like a real house now with much of its main form defined. I love how it nestles into the grove of big old trees just like it’s been there a long time. Which, of course, is the feel I was going for when I decided to rebuild using the original setting and footprint.

I went up a ladder to the new second floor and checked out the views from the front:IMG_3511Web

While I was up there, five hot air balloons rose over the mountain and caught the last of the sun’s light. It’s so nice to visit the house during the day instead of when I usually go, after work, which means it’s almost dark (and my photos are blurry!)

Here’s what it looks like out the back. The electrical pole is scheduled to be removed and the service moved underground. Not having that pole in the way will be awesome!

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The whole time I was on the roof, I just walked around staring at the always-changing scenes around me. The combination of fall leaves, setting sun, and wispy clouds was an intoxicating mix. Even the safety fencing and roll-off dumpster looked pretty with all the other fall colors. I kept wishing I could just make the roof of the house out of glass and enjoy those views forever. Oh well–maybe for my next house. Once I get this country cottage out of my system, the next house I am building will be a modern glass box!

Second floor starting to take shape

October 22nd, 2009 § 0

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Yesterday afternoon I arrived at my house to find it looking more and more like a, well, house! I had gables! They made it easier to visualize the interior space in the vaulted kitchen. I think it might be neat to have the lower-ceilinged, cozy-feeling living room (where I’ll huddle around the woodstove) open up into the vaulted kitchen:

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The new road face of the house. I think I need to update my blog banner! I stuggled with the idea of having the side of my house that face the roads not be it’s entry side. But I decided to move the entry to the south side of the house so I could add a big long front porch to look out over my front pasture and the mountain right across the road. Plus, when driving up the road, there’s a long view of the side of my house from the road, so I figured it would be okay to make that the side that greeted the public. IMG_3406Web

Tonight I got to the house to find the big front dormer gable completed. Just yesterday I placed my order for what turned out to have to be a custom window for that hole in the gable. Stock window sizes didn’t come close, and I wanted it to look as close to how it was drawn on the plan as possible. Having these gables up is really giving a clue to what the house’s final proportions will be–something that’s made me nervous from the beginning as it’s so hard for me to get a sense of the space from a plan drawing. I can’t translate a 2-d piece of paper in my mind to a 3-d house. I mean, I dropped out of art school when 3-d drawing class brought me close to tears of utter frustration!

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The framers also put up the big shed dormer off the back of the house today. The two windows on the left will be in a sitting room/office/whatever? space at the top of the stairs. The other two windows will be in my bedroom, which spans the whole width of the house and will have a skylight. Even more windows! If all goes as planned, this will be my view out of the back of the house.

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Daily commute

October 20th, 2009 § 0

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October 20, 7:13 p.m. Driving from the farm to my parents’ house under a fingernail moon.

Minutes after I took this shot, I was shocked to see a huge coiled black snake in the middle of the road, reared up like a cobra looking right at me as I flashed by. He was a thick oily puddle and his upright white belly reflected my lights. The split-second shock of recognition stays with me.

The paradox of construction

October 20th, 2009 § 0

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My house is certainly not large by anyone’s description. It’s a cozy country cottage. The original home was 1,300 square feet. I’ve added a second story that, and I am guessing here instead of scaling off my plan, may add another 500-700 square feet. But what I’ve noticed in the process of taking the original house down, staring a new foundation in the face, and building back up again is that my sense of the size of the home is elastic through each of these stages. Paradoxically, when the house was a big hole in the ground, only a crawlspace really, it felt tiny. I looked at the hole and thought wow, maybe I should have broken the confines of the existing foundation and expanded. Then the floor deck went up, and the first floor framing. And the new rooms felt alarmingly small. But then tonight, when I walked in the house, something was different. The rooms were boxed in with a roof, the new deck for the second floor, and yet they felt larger. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?

Anyway, the photo above is shot from the living room looking into the kitchen, which will have a vaulted ceiling with two skylights. The big opening is for a set of French doors that will go out onto the screened porch.

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My plan originally had the living room and kitchen divided by walls with five-foot pocket doors to create two separatable rooms, just like the entry to the library. But I asked my builder to hold off on those stub walls while I see how I liked the space as it is. I guess open-concept homes are all the rage, but I am not yet convinced I want to look at my dishes and stove while sitting on the couch in the living room. Thoughts? The door framed to the right of the photo above goes into the guest bedroom.

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Here’s a part of the house I am very excited about. The new front hall! This space was really the genesis for the entire remodel, etc., as the original house didn’t have a defined entry. I love front hallways, and have an image in my head of a beautiful space with a hall table, mirrors, sconces, etc. A place of transition from the interior of the home to the outside world. So I had the idea to sacrifice one of the bedrooms of the original house to cut in a front hall, centered on the fireplace. That plan snowballed to include a powder room, coat closet, and eventually, a staircase to the new second floor. The photo above shows the powder room, which will nestle in the crook of the staircase. A crazy little cut up space, just enough room for a tiny sink and commode.

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The gigantic silver maple, as seen out a guest room window, is starting to turn gold. Just beyond is one of my two new Hinoki cypress, which had lived for years in whiskey barrels on my parents’ deck. They grew so pot bound that I decided to set them free in the earth. Which meant two days of playing on tractors and heavy equipment to move them to my house and get them planted (including my maiden voyage driving my dad’s new one-ton diesel dualie). Whee!

Stay tuned for roof framing very soon–that’s where things will get exciting because it will be so vastly different from the original home.

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