Sam and I Decide to Build an Octagon House

At 63 I have agreed to help a 22 year old build an 1850’s style Octagon house. I have read Fowler’s book, visited several period octagons, and begun preparing plans. The lot has been selected and awaits spring for clearing and digging a foundation and installing a sewer and water line. Sam (the young man who will eventually build and own the house) and I this last fall began to gather supplies. We removed the fir flooring from four rooms of a soon to be dismantled farmhouse and it is stowed away. I have begun to build the window frames for the house, utilizing some fine old Victorian sashes salvaged from a house that was being updated. The cedar sills came from cedar telephone poles rescued from a local farmer and sawed into one and a half inch slabs and later run through the planer here. Sam will have to strip and in some cases re-glaze the windows sashes themselves when the weather warms. We are currently discussing putting colored glass in the corner panels of the upper sashes and what colors they should be. I’m partial to different colors for different rooms, but we’ll have to see what Sam decides. He’ll be the one to have to live with them. There will be a total of 17 windows to construct but with the salvaged sills and sashes, the cost for each will only be about $15 each, not including the eventual storm windows.