Time itself

May 1

We have been laying stone for the last four days thanks to the change in the weather. The front façade is almost complete and we are inching up on the window arches on the two adjacent sides.

After lunch yesterday a new arrival presented itself. Sam noticed an antique octagon faced oak school clock from the turn of the century hanging on a plasterboard wall in the dining room. Someone evidently stopped and hung it there. It will look fantastic with the oak woodwork in the downstairs which is coming from a demolition 40 years ago of an old Victorian house. We need to figure out who the benefactor was! We have been very fortunate in this project to have so many people contribute excess materials. To date we have received a walnut parlor set, a walnut buffet, two mahogany side chairs and a center table and the clock in the furniture department. Then there were the building supplies…baseboard heat units for the whole second floor, a gas fired boiler, a water heater, and all of the roof boards and attic flooring, the hardwood flooring for several of the formal rooms, much of the rough sawn oak to be milled into woodwork for the first floor, metal railings and a spiral staircase to the cupola, and miscellaneous stuff too numerous to mention! Every day seems to be Christmas!  Jim.

There was not a single May Day basket at the front door this morning. Jim keeps warning me to carry a big stick to beat the girls off with. I thought that the stonework going up would surely attract them but apparently not; probably thankfully so. There is, however, snow falling today. I am doing my best at deciphering the meaning of the mysterious clock. Maybe it is a sign that we are taking too long on finishing this project. Or we should be more aware of our own time on this earth. Whatever the case I have dusted for fingerprints, gathered a few loose hairs for DNA analysis, and will be assessing the originality of the clock itself. No stone will remain unlaid! As with all great crime fighters I will never rest until the case is solved.  P.I. Sam

Spring has Sprung

April 26

After the longest winter in recent memory we are finally back in the 70’s. Yesterday we cemented in the first stone arch over the front doors. The stones were all hand dressed during the winter so they would be ready when the weather was. We have also begun to install the soffits in preparation for installing the fascia, corbels, and then the cut shingle work that will cover the second floor exterior walls.

The greatest change in the interior was the removal of the plastic covering the first floor windows which we had installed to conserve heat during the winter. The rooms were suddenly flooded with light and the views out of several of the windows were quite spectacular. From here on in all fair weather work will be focused on the exterior leaving any interior efforts for the occasional rainy day. Jim

Hallelujah, hallelujah, it is spring, it is spring. It is now a challenge of getting used to the warm temperature; something that will be very manageable. Sam

Inside and outside, the Octagon House progresses

Non Sequitur on 'cupola counseling'

Apropos to the Octagon House and its cupola:

Courtesy of Wiley Miller and GoComics.com

Spring Awaits

The Gothic Pantry entrance

The first ceiling plasterboard

Stairway to nowhere (the attic)

March 27

This has been the coldest March in over fifty years.  Snow, ice, and a little melting and refreeze to make things even worse. We are itching to get back to working on the exterior, but there is still so much to do inside that there is no dearth of things to do. More than half the sheetrock is on the walls in readiness for the thin coat plaster to follow. The blueboard makes the rooms seem small but that will change again when the white plaster will make them look huge. What I anticipate most is having the base concrete put down on the first floor. All winter I’ve had to deal with the loose sand and dust. Drop a nail and it simply disappears!

We managed to score a deal on the stone and tile for the bathroom floors, buying some leftovers from a previous job.  I have also located a welder to make a metal frame for the cupola floor. It will have a decorative grate in the center which will allow light to stream down to the first floor from nearly fifty feet above! As soon as we can get sand and aggregate from our supplier the exterior stone facing will start to go back up. Jim

An eclectic mix of tasks have been set upon. From plasterboard to staircases this place is coming into focus. I was looking back at some previous pictures of this project and cannot believe that only two years have elapsed, and that this place does exist. Water is cascading in torrents down the drive as the snow and ice are shrinking. A delightful sight as the ground will thaw and the jungle will reappear. Sam

THE GOLDEN ARCHES

Feb. 24

With the snowy weather we’ve been working slowly inside and also cutting next spring’s stone for the facing. All of the arch stones for doors and windows are completed. Twenty-eight wood corbels for supporting the roof soffit have also been made and are painted with a prime coat. The electrician finished with the rough-in of the wiring and we are primed to put up the rest of the plasterboard for thin coat plaster on the rainy days when outside work will be impossible. I am beginning to lay out the stringers for the staircases and we have decided on the floor design for the cupola which will be iron with a grill work to allow the light from three stories above to flood the open staircases which will run through the center of the house. Jim

 

Cherry Doors

Feb. 8

All of the inside walls are framed up and the next task is to finish leveling and setting the four sets of pocket doors. The eight foot black cherry ones on the second floor were finally installed today. These are the ones we bought at a garage last summer for $12.50 each… a remarkable find. They originally came from a Victorian house not far from here. They had all of their original hardware but the track for hanging them was missing.  We used modern barn door hardware to make the track (some modification required) and they work great.

For the last two days the electrician has been here to finish getting all of the wiring on the interior walls completed. When that is done we can get the last of the plasterboard  and we will start hanging it on the interior walls and ceiling in preparation for the two coat plaster work that will be the final surface. Sam better get his plastering arms in shape, one for holding the hod and one for the trowel. At the end of the process he’ll understand why many of the old-time plasterers were drunks, and why getting plastered is a euphemism for drinking too much! Jim

Dear Sir, I object. Although I have much to learn of plastering, and will either strengthen or lose my arm, I will remain a teetotaler. It has been immense fun to see the whole house come to this point. I have proven not only you, but to my own self, that I can plod well into this unseen task; watch, learn, assemble, and even start to acquire the beginning of skill at a few subjects. While plastering may be a mind numbing task, this is not the first time that I have partaken in such a mental/physical practice. Each day is testament to this fact. Sir, each day is testament. Sam