View from the house site of the Green Mountains May 2, 2025 How appropriate that spring has just arrived, opening buds creating a softness to the hills, and we are beginning our concrete plans for the Ridge Road house. Here’s to new beginnings! The house site as viewed from the Ridge Road My first meeting with both Phil Godenschwager (the designer and plan architect) and the builder was at Phil’s artist studio on Weston Street in Randolph. Before the meeting I had about an hour to go to the Ridge Road site in Randolph Center, up on the hill, and meander, think, assess. I took detailed photos of the barn in order to start a list for my barn builder/repair person Avery (Butch) Howe, Jack of all trades and homebuilder himself (and brother-in-law) <3 . I am so lucky he is willing to help with the barn project to ready it for my horses. The barn, well-built by Charles Cooley has sat empty of equines for at least 20 years. Old hay bales sit in the loft, along with a sleigh and horse cart. The barn is built into the hillside, hay goes in here, the horses (also at ground level) below Downstairs in the stall area- old hand tools, some horse leathers, and a few piles of storage items from a brother fill the space. Cleaning will be the number one priority here and that job falls to me. I want to open it up of all and any debris, make trips to the dump, sweep, see what the floors really look like under hay and other organic matter, and better assess it for the reality of horses (their safety and comfort). No stray sharp objects for them to stab themselves on, no exposed windows where glass can break, nothing for them to get into. After that Butch can come in and do his magic. Closing in the upper entry on the east side of the barn and adding large barn doors will be the most important job, along with a new ramp there. New windows where needed, a new side door below, and closing in openings that might let the weather in, are all part of what I’ll need help with from Butch. Meeting with Phil and the builder, we discussed a plan of action. The builder would like to do the garage in its entirety first, which makes sense. It will give us a secure place to store tools and a dry work place for Joe and his team. As we talked we realized that an overhang roof off the east side of the garage will serve to protect a whole house generator and propane tanks, hiding all of that away from view. Phil Godenschwager's studio I stopped by the Randolph Town offices and picked up the building permit which will be good to go as of May 16th, exactly the timing Joe is looking for to start the project. Here we go!

Eric Henderson working his magic to pull out and save the old stones from the foundation I want to be in Randolph Center to watch all of the work being done. The prep for the basement (which will be a poured concrete foundation) has begun! Also some tree work- there were a couple (very diseased already with the trunk half missing) Maple trees that were also hit by the heat of the fire and are too close to the house any way, that had to come down. One of those sad realities. We are trying to preserve as many trees as we can. There are also some Ash trees that are along the back where the garage will go. The builder, will save the Ash and mill them into boards for the kitchen cabinets. How cool is that?! We will definitely be planting the largest Maples we can get…two in the front as soon as the house is done. I am excited that work has begun.

I delivered a very large check $ today...it can't be ALL fun and games. Foundations are basically ready. Backfill in. Pouring of concrete flooring happens starting Wednesday in both garage and house. The well gets drilled on Friday. I met with Keith, owner of E. Benedini Well Drilling at the site.

I met with Phil Godenschwager in his studio on Wednesday, July 30th, for design discussion. I can’t stress enough how helpful he has been. I owe this to Sara Tucker who suggested him. I was lucky he was available. To have someone who has the knowledge of an architect to help me with this project has been priceless. I can bounce ideas off him. He’s both an artist and a builder himself, so he understands how to combine a realistic idea with a beautifully balanced implementation. He can also tell you when something won’t work. And he knows my builder and keeps in touch, so the communication there is great. As we looked over the plans and my materials list, he asked questions to make sure he understood what I wanted and sketched what the elevation of an area would look like. So much fun to see something come to life. I made a few changes based on his feedback. For example, even though I had chosen beautiful lights to put on each side of the front door, it is more important to me to keep the original house design in mind. Studying the photos of the old house, he showed me the simple light above the door. I want that. So, he catches details like that. On the other hand, since there wasn’t a porch on the south side (at least in the Cooley family’s past), then I feel free to get the lights for the porch- one of each side of the French doors (which the original house also did not have). I am taking a few liberties. My main goal- have the house strike you as the same house from the road if you were to drive by. Also, when you come in, the layout will be very familiar. All the rooms are basically where they were before. Here are the exceptions: No half wall between the dining room and kitchen, instead an island. Phil suggested a couple of stools there on the dining room side to make hanging out and chatting with whoever is working in the kitchen easier. The front hallway is still wide with the stairs going up. The big front door lets in light from the sidelights along each side of the door. But now you will be able to see the stairs from the living room. The living room wall will not be there. The wide quality of the front hallway will add more width to the living room. The light from the front door will be seen from the living room. Phil liked my idea of keeping the same style Newell post at the base of the stairs. But for spindles I am varying them from the original just a tiny bit. Instead of matching narrow spindles the whole way up, I am going to have one slightly wider spindle, followed by two narrow spindles...repeat. Here’s a photo of the basic idea of the spindles. I think it will add just a touch of interest to the stairs compared to the original. Another change is the screened-in porch (only named that by me and not known as that by others). Also known as the 4-season room by the architectural drawer and the builder. It is where the saltbox house (fireplace room/garage) used to be. You can get to it via the same door from the dining room or from out back via wide steps and an outside door. Here's another idea I ran by Phil for the 'look' of the screened-in porch. He agreed a slanted ceiling that matches the roofline above, made of white beadboard, along with wainscoting of white beadboard on the walls up to the window line would help make it feel more like a porch. This room will have a window on every available wall space. It will have a ceiling fan. It will have lights between each window like this. Here is a photo of a room I found online that I would like to mimic a bit (though our windows will not go to the floor). Even though the kitchen will have the dark-stained bases (hoping for 1920’s look) I was planning on a lot of white otherwise. White countertop, white walls, white beadboard backsplash. But Phil convinced me that instead of white shelving in the kitchen, the shelves should be the same dark wood as the cabinet bases. Something more like this. And instead of white ceramic tiles behind the stovetop, I have decided to go with terracotta tiles. The result should be a better look to seem ‘older’ instead of so much white. A warmer look. I like it! One thing we are preserving is the trim on the exterior of the house. It is a little fancier style of crown molding than some farmhouses in Vermont. Here you can see the builder is working on preserving that even in the garage! Again, this is communication between Phil the artist/architectural drawer and the builder. How lucky I am.

photo courtesy of Jane Howe August 7, 2025 I had a great talk with my builder. I got to ask about a clearer timeline of the whole build, what to expect, and ask him how flexible he is about the timing. Quick Version: Well is installed Barn is cleaned out Garage done soon (except siding) House capped soon (with basement joists and sub-flooring) Next up- Framing house fall 2025 Metal standing seam roof on after framing 2025 Put in windows 2025 Take a pause... Winter 2025-2026 Electricians & plumbers maybe spring 2026 Septic system installed 2026 or 2027 Start work on interior Putting in piers for screened-in porch on south-east side, framing that, & piers for big porch on south side, framing porch Finishing interior 2027 Barn/fencing ready for animals 2027 House ready by late 2027 Landscaping 2027 Move in early 2028 Long Version: It has been a weight for me to carry, thinking about the timeline financially and trying to balance what I want, what Danny (husband) is expecting, and the builder's schedule. I had naively thought we could space out expenses over three years and voila! the house would be ready exactly when we wanted and needed it in the spring of 2028. It has been a learning experience for me, lining up contractors, learning about septic systems, wells, foundations, and schedules. I guess I started as my own General Manager and am now evolving more into client (insert smiley face here) who has a house being built by one builder who handles the whole project. Granted, there will still be many consultations, many decisions, lots of back and forth with the builder, but it will be more in his hands where he coordinates the action. That’s a good thing. It is important to have one person to coordinate how everything comes together. I am lucky to have a builder who is very experienced who can juggle all of that. I had some ups and downs working with two different contractors on the site at the same time…who’s the boss? Who gets the space when two contractors are on site with big trucks and heavy equipment? Whose timeline do you use? How do you make it all come together if neither one is completely clear on what the other one is doing? I take responsibility for that situation and it was a learning experience for sure. (In my defense, I was only going to do the septic so I hired an excavator operator and septic system builder. My builder (as of May) entered the scene with a different timeline than originally planned on.) Now we will be down to one contractor. I am proud of what I have accomplished. I was able to research and organize the dismantling of an old family relic, and not just paying to have it loaded into dumpsters and carted away. I researched controlled burns and fire training and invited many area volunteer fire departments to be involved. I wrote many emails, had meetings, filed all paperwork with the state officials, stamped, addressed and sent out over 50 notices via certified mail to all neighbors within a certain radius of the house. Of course, before the controlled burn day in February of 2024, a lot had to happen with the whole house being cleaned out and anything metal removed (including the metal roof). I went up once a week from the fall of September 2023 through February of 2024. It is 2 hours and 15 minutes from Leverett, MA to Randolph Center, VT. The builder who was scheduled to start working on the barn in the late winter/early spring of 2024 unexpectedly passed away. I got an email from his wife as she searched through his work-related correspondence to determine who to contact. A huge occurrence for his family; in comparison- a small set-back for me. Luckily, I had another very qualified builder in mind. My first project (besides the barn work) was to be the septic system. Unfortunately, between the snowfall in the winter of ‘23-’24 and the intense spring rains, the test pits failed in the location to the north of the house (where the septic has always been). Water was flowing into the holes as they were dug in April. We put the septic system on hold. Instead we got the well drilled. The water is excellent and a true artesian well with a lot of pressure, a lot of clear water. The new builder was ready to start earlier than he expected and started on the foundations. So, this year has been busier with accomplishments than I anticipated. More money, more items to show for it. The garage will be done soon, the gray metal standing seam roof is on (windows and doors will be in soon, siding won’t happen until the house siding is done). The house foundation will be capped by late next week (started on it yesterday with sills, and they will move on to installing joists in basement ceiling, sub-flooring on top of that.) The next step will be to start framing the house and installing windows. This will start soon and continue this fall, 2025. The gray standing seam metal roof will go on the house using an outside contractor (sometime in Nov/Dec). I am most excited about this step of framing the house! The shape of the Ridge Road house will start to appear. What fun to watch and go inside to see the space and look out the windows. The framing will not include the additional work of the deck/long covered porch that runs all along the south side of the house and the 4-season room (screened-in porch) off the south/east side. These sections of framing won't happen until the interior finish work/exterior siding work occurs...more like 2026. Neither structure is a part of the house foundation, instead they will have concrete piers supporting them. After the framing, the house will be protected from the weather, secure, and we can take a pause in work and money outflow for the winter of 2025-2026. We discussed the need to do this project over time with our builder and have reached a compromise where he will do some parts of our project as needed and what works for his schedule, without us losing him as a builder. In order to do this, Joe will move onto will be a two house builds, so he can move back and forth from our project as needed, In the spring of 2026 we can get an electrician in to wire the whole project, then the plumber. Work could then start on the interior but could be spaced out through 2026. Ultimately the siding will go on last, along with landscaping. This will fit our original timeline of moving to the Ridge Road house in early 2028 or even 2027. (Note as time went on- the builder moved forward and has said we can move in spring 2027). And oh yeah- the septic system! The good news is that with a later test pit dig which happened this summer, the test passed for placing it to the north of the house in the original location. Dry and well-drained. It will be very close and handy. It will be a Presby Mound system using a gravity feed, no special pumps. We are using Chase & Chase out of Barre to design the system and the builder will chose a septic builder and the timing for that. It could happen in 2026. Maybe it will be 'last' instead of 'first' in my timeline! And the barn work? I am still hoping for my brother-in-law to work on that for me to ready it for the horses’ arrival, but it is a bit funky with its current state and design and he’s not sure about doing the work. If not, I’ll be looking for someone. I have gone up about four times to clean out the barn and make dump runs. One man from Randolph (who will use the English garden system of planting right in old bales of hay) took quite a few bales but I still have some more cleaning, the sleigh and a horse cart to move from the loft. The good thing- our investment will be there. If we spend 500,000 on a new house, it will immediately be worth almost twice that. That's a decent return on an investment, along with a beautiful family home which we helped rise back up onto that little knoll in Randolph Center.

It sounds like stating the obvious. Of course a house changes...builders are hammering on new parts on a daily basis. But it is more than that. My brother-in-law who has built houses himself over the years said something yesterday that put it into words perfectly. Something like this- it is so interesting to be able to watch a house evolve over time. Each time you visit it, you experience the house in a different way. One visit it will look HUGE, the next visit it will seem small then the following visit it will have changed to HUGE again. A house is more than just a structure, it is the house viewed through the eyes of the person visiting. If that person has dreamed about this house, the person imagines living in this house; it takes on a life of its own. If the person has been in the original 1700-1800s house when it was on this same spot, that person sees the windows already in, the light coming in and landing in a pattern on the furniture inside. I am fortunate to be able to visit the house site weekly and see the evolution of the structure.

As I drove down the Ridge Road, I told myself, "don't expect too much...maybe one new wall or so." But I was actually hoping that I would see the upstairs coming well along. That I would see the shape of the old house rising up. Closer, closer, closer. Yes! I could see it! Beautiful fall weather in Vermont. Very cool, but sunny. The crew has been able to move forward quickly. The window delivery is next Monday. The metal roof will go on soon. I walked around inside the house. Whereas last time it was seeming a bit small, sure enough this time it is larger! This opening will be French doors out onto a porch/deck all along the south side. Nice view. I'll also be able to look straight over to the barn from here. (The dirt pile and rocks in the foreground will finally be gone next week.) This is the layout looking from the dining room area into the living room. In the old house there was a wide opening between the two rooms (sort of like an archway) but more walled in than this will be. The small wall you can see on the right in this photo, will have the wood stove/hearth on the living room (far) side. This side of that wall towards the kitchen (near side) will have a tall pantry cupboard. Here's a slightly different angle on the same view (see photo below). This would be taken from the kitchen sink looking back at the other rooms. The living room is on the far end of this photo on the other side of that small wall. You can see what will be the wide front door near the base of the stairway. That used to be a wide hallway, but will now be open to the living room. In the foreground of this photo, straight ahead and to the right is the kitchen...up to that small wall. In the foreground and to the left is the dining room. Halfway across the kitchen to the left will be an island section made of the same bases as other kitchen cabinets (kind of plunked in the middle of this space in the foreground, running from the foreground towards the background.) It will separate the kitchen from the dining room a bit. Now let's pivot...imagine you are standing at the stove and looking back around towards the kitchen (see the rectangular framed box on the left that will be the kitchen windows over the sink). From here there will be the island straight ahead, running from left to right, and then beyond that the dining room. Let's head up the stairs. A little harder to visualize up here, but next week we will have a better view of the layout. This view (photo below) is looking towards the west, the front of the house. It used to be the tiny '3rd bedroom' with the best view of the mountains. This will all be open now, a sitting nook with the view available from this whole middle section of the upstairs at the top of the stairs (via the two windows that were always there in that front dormer). Here's where those two windows will go. Upstairs south bedroom, looking towards the barn. Upstairs bedroom to the north. View from the upstairs bathroom towards the back of the house. There will be a bathroom-sized dormer up here eventually. View of the house from the barn. Next week, the house foundation backfilling is supposed to get finished and perfected, the dirt pile and rocks will get moved, along with the beginnings of a stone wall to protect the well head. There was always a stone wall there along the little road that goes up to the barn. So it will be in that area and flowers will get replanted...Lilly of the Valley, along with Irises and others. Love this little place on the hill. See you next week!

Upon seeing the East Wing of the White House get demolished, I understood how family members felt who had a hard time seeing Grampa Cooley’s house go up in flames and dissolve before their eyes. White House East Wing Demolition One family member told me how angry he was, others couldn’t watch or be there on the day of the controlled burn, others were there and sad. I understood. Ridge Road House Demolition It’s actually not fun to have that much power. The memories, the old beams, even the old flaking wallpaper which had seen better days… it is sad. It is a loss. I’m sorry. It was an important family site, just as the White House East Wing was an important site for the American people. But I’m also proud of myself, my research, my stick-to-itiveness. This has been a long, involved project yet I have been happy to do it. The reality is, if I hadn’t made the decision to do something, it would have continued to deteriorate until there was nothing left anyway. I sped up the process. I made it a reality. I didn’t consult family every step of the way. I didn’t save absolutely every piece of the house worth saving. I did as much as I could with my abilities. But unlike Trump, I wrote to family members to let them know ahead of time. Unlike Trump, I contacted the proper State and town authorities, went by the rules, filled out permits, and researched the safest way to demolish the house, offering it to the local fire department for training. I invited family members in to salvage what they wanted. I am thankful to those who did. Many old windows were saved. All of the pine siding in the upstairs hallway was carefully pulled out, loaded onto the roof of a Jeep and carried away. These materials may live again in another house. Myself, I saved four doors from the upstairs that will go back in the new house, along with some windows that I want to use as transom windows over interior doors to let light through from above. I lugged them down the stairs and hoisted them into the truck, drove them home and unloaded them where they sat in our garage for over a year. Loaded them back into the truck recently to bring back to the house site. I am 71 so I pride myself for doing all this by myself, alone in the house for hours. Driving to Vermont once a week for months. Downstairs the hollow-core doors that were admired as modern and installed by Harry Cooley in the 50s or 60s were deemed (by me) as not worth saving. It is interesting how the value of an object can change over time. What happened to those old doors from the downstairs when the new hollow core doors were installed? Did Harry ask if anyone wanted them? I also saved a few odd items: Part of the stair railing (that looked hand-carved), added on for Anna Cooley (Harry’s mother) when she stayed with him. An acorn-shaped bubble glass fixture that was at the bottom of the stairs in the front hallway. An old cast iron handle that was added to the pine siding in the upstairs hallway to make it look like a door. An oil lantern. Many books. A handwritten love letter written by Harry to his recently deceased wife Bernice (that as far as I know, no one else has ever read, it was not meant to be shared). It was stuffed and wrinkled, sticking out of the back crack in a filing cabinet. An enlarged photo of Charles’s barn with his beloved Suzy and her foal Haley in front of it. Harry Cooley’s artifacts from his stint as Vermont Secretary of State. There were other things I wanted to save: I saw a hand-hewn beam up in the eaves of the Saltbox house. There was evidence of huge upright beams in the corners of the living room. A cool old door to a small alcove closet. I tried hard on that one…bringing tools, old screws and nails that wouldn’t budge, resorting to trying to pry off the whole framing, alas to no avail. Unfortunately, unless I found someone with the expertise, time, tools, and strength to help me take the house apart, patiently, piece by piece, saving old beams wasn’t going to happen. This was my project, I am the person with the expertise that will get utilized for this project (and that expertise is very limited). And now the new house, reminiscent of the old one, is rising. The builder finished the plywood on the roof, along with the felting. The new standing-seam gray metal roof will go on December 1st. He is taking a break to go hunting. He’s a Vermonter, after all.

Does this millstone look familiar? Yes it's the very same one that is still at the housebuilding site in Vermont. But see that extensive stone wall system in the background? Taken down by someone other than me, gone. Now the circular driveway exits there. Interesting to see the evolution of a property. These two adorable munchkins are both Cooleys, my husband's younger brothers. Photo courtesy of P.A. Cooley collection. Estimated 1968 Just as winter might create a slowdown in some activities, my house project seems to be on hold as well. My builder, being a good Vermonter, took a lot of November off to go hunting. I got to see deer heads in my garage as he was preparing to take them to the taxidermist. His co-workers were in and out of the site, getting small jobs done. The roof, though I announced the impending application of more than once, is yet to go on completely, which is understandable with snow storms, along with extreme wind and cold. It is all paid for. Today was a good day between big jobs and big bills to sit down and analyze the current status of costs paid and those yet to be incurred. I can remember almost 2 years ago sitting down in a Zoom meeting with our financial advisor and asking him about the realities of building a new house. He would enter a low-end estimate into what looked like a Wheel of Fortune investment app and it would spin and give us results…we were doing GREAT! Then he would ‘up’ the estimate by $100,000 at a time and we were still doing GREAT! (though he never got up to the amount that a 2026 build might realistically stack up to be). We have our current house paid for, but when you take out a Home Equity Line of Credit on that house, it feels like you are undoing all of your hard work and the debt appears again. It does make me feel that we are teetering on the edge sometimes. Some of it is just playing with money on paper- that kind of figuring doesn’t leave one in a calm state of mind, no matter who you are. Ultimately, if we sell our “updated 4-bedroom home with 3-stall barn and tack room, along with the fenced in paddocks and 3 acres, a hobby farm only 8 minutes to Umass,” we should be at least GOOD! If not GREAT! It’s all in the wash. But a bit hard in the interim to think that way (with a less than comfortable stretched out time-line). I am pretty good at it; I can look at the big picture and realize we will be OK in the long-run. Danny? Not at all, so he stays away from the numbers as much as possible or he won’t be sleeping at night. A convenient tool for house building analysis right now is AI. I was accustomed to doing my own research and using multiple sites to come up with the final analysis. Now you can type in a long-winded, very detailed scenario and it will spit back (within a few seconds) ranges of costs, breakdowns, and options, specifically for your area of the country. Of course, you have to hope ‘it’ used reliable sources, which is not at all guaranteed. But it is a start and it is fast. I could see if what I have already been charged is on the high or low end. Luckily we have a reputable builder. I could also see a layout of what portion of an entire budget each item in a house requires: the framing vs. the foundation vs. the major systems (electrical, plumbing, heating) vs. the interior finishes. When I hear the estimates, I won’t be flying in the dark with the numbers. I will have an idea of what they should cost. I feel a little more prepared for what is coming next in January 2026. First electrical, then plumbing, then insulation. We do have windows already paid for which could go in (but there will be the labor costs). A new year, new bills, new headway on the house rising. Gotta stay excited for all of the positives. I know I will…it is a fun project that I am privileged to oversee.

A day of intense feelings…all good ones. My first visit to Vermont in a while what with winter weather and holidays. My sister who lives in Vermont had driven by recently and told me all of the windows are in and that it looks so good- like the old house is rising back up. I was excited to see it. The windows are beautiful, real wooden grills that divide the glass. They are energy-efficient and are the type you can flip inwards to clean. Seeing the inside of the house with windows brings me back more and more to the original house. I remember standing in those rooms, looking out windows, and it does feel similar. The new view is the same If anything, we do have an extra window here and there which will add to the light in the house. It is gorgeous and I am feeling very lucky. Living room There was a flurry of activity at the house when I got there. The electrician Tim Schoolcraft from Harmony Electric in Randolph, along with his assistant Ken were there, already putting in the junction boxes for plugs and switches (the plastic electrical box that sits in the wall, nailed to a wooden stud). We went over the plans and he asked me where I would like switches and if they should be three-way switches (turn a light on and off from two different locations). We went through every light location in the house. It’s a whole different experience thinking about the lights in a room from a floor plan vs. living in a house and noticing when a switch isn’t conveniently placed. I had to think about- where will I enter this room, what light will I need to turn on if it is dark out, where will I exit the room, where does the switch need to be to turn it off again? Tim Schoolcraft from Harmony Electric I really liked Tim. He is knowledgeable and patient. He didn’t try to influence me to go in any direction with my decisions. He just asked questions and jotted down the answer on the plans. Sometimes where you put a switch is arbitrary and sometimes it is important. He could tell me what the usual place was for a particular switch though, which helped. He worked with me and Joe to mark out where the dining room table will go and then figured out where the center would be for the chandelier I have chosen over the table. Dining area on right, kitchen to the left. The half-wall in the original house will instead be a sizable island We walked through the whole house together, 1st floor, upstairs, the basement. I am very particular about the fixtures I want for the house, except for the basement. The basement does not have to match any period style, just be functional. The only place I am allowing recessed pot lights or can lights is in closets and the basement. (I forgot to take a photo of the basement!)...really the first time I have been down there since I was in the old house. The cellar stairs are in so I could go down. Huge. I can't wait to put in the ping-pong table I promised my granddaughters and maybe even a model train project up on tables? We have one small separate room that will be either an exercise room or an extra bedroom if we need it. There will also be a separated area/closed up, lockable room which will have the boiler, the water heater, etc. It will be out of site but also accessible by the hatchway up and out to the north side of the house. If we needed work done, a repair person could come into that section of the house without any access to the rest of the house if we weren't home. I will be buying all of my own fixtures and I have already picked them out. I just have to make sure they are quality fixtures. I will go to a lighting store in Vermont to see what they have and buy locally if they have the same ones I want (and hopefully higher quality). Last night when I got home from Vermont, I sat down and went through every fixture and sent images and specifications on each up to Tim so he would know what the box size and shape should be. The chandelier I picked out...I love how it isn't too frilly (no jingling, dangling glass) but still looks a little fancy, yet rustic at the same time I like this sort of thing. It is fun to imagine them all up in the house, adding to the style. I am pretty straight forward in my approach. Simple is best. On the side of vintage or 1920s-looking if possible, but not too ornate. Consistency from room to room except when the room use demands a different style or a different fixture adds interest to the room. I’m going with all black fixtures/bases except for the bedrooms which will get a bronze or browns. Sconces in bedrooms Sconces in other rooms Sconces in screened-in porch Light over kitchen sink While I was there, I also met with the heating specialist/plumber that the builder uses- Barry. Last name unknown. He will give me quotes on a boiler to run the radiant heat in the basement along with radiant heat panels in the rest of the house. We will use mini-splits just for AC. Also working, were three others besides Joe with the construction crew. Still hammering on a few framing details like closets. So all together there were eight people there including me. All of sudden it hit me…”I am paying for all of these people.” Kind of daunting when you look at it like that. The builder is done there for a few days while the electrician works on the wiring. Upstairs north bedroom. My older granddaughter has already "called" the nook area to the right of the windows for her bed! The other bed in this room is bigger but she wants that cozy nook! This house will also have tons of great hide-and-go-seek areas with little doors into under the eave storage, hidden closets, a tiny door in the hallway that used to go to the secret passageway will be part of a large set up cupboards.

As I move through my house daily here in Massachusetts, I am also already living in the Vermont house. I have studied the plans so thoroughly that I know where everything will be. I am pleasantly surprised at how many similarities there are between the house we have now and the house we will be living in during 2027. The house design in Vermont was mostly determined by what was there in the past, in the old house. I can’t claim that the design was created simply by copying the house in Massachusetts. But I did use comparisons from the start. I did things like- “size of kitchen in MA vs VT” and went on to compare the dining room, living room, etc. I know what I like here (and don’t like) and wanted to make sure the space was not too cramped in Vermont. But surprisingly, the layout of the original house in Vermont and this house where we live now in Massachusetts is similar. The main living areas have a lot of southern exposure. You can sit at the dining room table and look straight out to the south. The same will be true in Vermont (except I will be able to see the barn and horses from here). Dining room in Massachusetts The kitchen window looks east in both places, the stove and the island will be in almost exactly the same spot. East window in Massachusetts, island placement, and stove along 'north' wall The living room here has windows to the south and west. This will be the same in Vermont (see floor plan below). But I can also walk around this house in western Mass and say- “the stairs will be here in Vermont, the front door will be over here, the wood stove will be moved from that south wall to this spot here. Instead of a garage on the other side of the living room, there will be a bedroom. Where the guest room is here, will be the mud room/laundry room in Vermont. The bathroom is in basically the same place but it will be larger and moved more to the outside wall (the front of our house here).” It’s fun. It helps you visualize living there. The upstairs (here) however bears no resemblance to the Vermont house. In Vermont there is the beauty of the Cape Cod style simplicity- two matching bedrooms (one of either side- south/north) with a bathroom in the middle on the east side. The most glorious difference (from our Massachusetts house) will be the two windows in the front where Danny can have his desk and look out over the Green Mountains to the west. This house (in Mass) has no views at all to the west as it is attic space. This sitting nook in Vermont (as named by Sara Tucker) used to be a tiny ‘3rd bedroom’ upstairs. Now it will be open to the stairwell and hallway to let light in. It will have two built-in bookshelves tucked into the dramatic slopes of the roof lines. There will be a bookshelf banister along the top of the stair well. There will be some shallow closet space in this hallway (built around the chimney area on the left in this photo above) and the little door preserved from the secret passageway of the old house will go here. I am visualizing the kids playing hide and seek. I am guessing other people who build houses have had this experience- you live in the house before you even move in. The view from the original house (off the front dormer)

The insulation is almost completely installed. This house will be very easy to heat and cool. The builder uses Rockwool insulation which is better than fiberglass at insulating from temperatures as well as noise. The house already has a cozy feel. They don't even have to heat it continuously to keep it warm as they are working. Our downstairs bedroom in the northwest corner of the house with rockwool insulation Rockwool looks like cloth. It's gray, looks soft, and comes in batts. Over the top of the rockwool, they put rigid foil board which adds a vapor barrier and more insulation. Upstairs bedroom on the south side Even the cellar is insulated. The radiant heat in the floor will heat the concrete. The cellar walls have rigid panels of insulation The old bathroom in the upstairs of the original house was tiny. If the term "powder room" had been around in the 1950s, it would definitely fit into that category (in terms of size, but maybe not in elegance). The old bathroom fit into the hallway. No windows, just a sink & toilet. The new bathroom has its own dormer (not a full dormer for the house, but a dormer the full width of the bathroom itself, with two windows looking out to the woods in the back of the property). It will have a tub/shower, a double sink vanity (and of course a toilet). It sits in the same place as the old bathroom, just a bit wider and deeper, a little more centered in the hallway between the two bedrooms. The builder's brother who works with him, says his favorite place in the house is the front dormer upstairs. Mine too. He said he goes there first thing every morning to look out at the view. P.S. the plumber has started his work and I could see pipes going to the kitchen sink, the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bathroom. We made a change today in the location of the washer/dryer. The builder suggested putting it in the mudroom closet instead of in full view at the end of the mudroom/laundry area. I agree. Why not hide them when not in use. In a way it gives us more room in the mudroom to use it for that purpose. We'll just switch the two areas a bit and instead of a bench in the corner, we'll have a bench that looks out the mudroom window. Nice!