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- The house rises
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 will 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!
- Thoughts on how a house changes as it is being built
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.
- The house's first floor defined
First floor framing...when the house is done, the driveway will shrink to the right. There will be a little backyard lawn next to the back of the house. I traveled to Vermont today to see the house. It is fun to peek in and see the beginnings of rooms laid out. They look smaller than I remember them (in the original house) and smaller than I have been visualizing them in the floor plan. I am hoping it is one of those illusions or if they are small, they will still 'work.' The original back of the house had a little lawn next to the driveway. You could enter the kitchen from the back of the house (kitchen door in the far corner). The original house. Unfortunately the Ash tree had to go. Too close to the house. The saltbox house section on the far left won't be there but there will be a screened-in porch in the same area (not yet framed). The kitchen door is in the far corner (there will be a kitchen door in the new house as well). The other door you can see in this photo above will now go to the mudroom. So here's the back of the new 'replacement' house: Plywood now covers what will be the kitchen door to the left. There is also a mudroom window on the back to the right of the mudroom door. There will be kitchen windows above the sink as there used to be to the left of the mudroom door. If you enter the mudroom it will be straight in front of you and long(ish). It also goes to the right in an L shape (a place for the laundry). Beyond that is the bathroom. The bathroom will have two doors- one into the hallway near the mudroom, the other into the bedroom. The kitchen is around the corner to the left. So exciting to see this laid out. When I was a girl, my sisters, neighborhood friends and I used to 'make houses' in the woods. We used logs and branches to mark out where walls were and where the rooms existed. Little openings between logs were doors. They had no real walls, instead they were more like a floor plan. We had more fun creating these houses than actually playing in them. We loved describing to each other what all the spaces were. This was my first house-building experience. Here's Phil Godenschwager's floor plan for the house. Picture you are standing at the mudroom door in the back (see upper left hand drawing's door) and looking in. That is the location from which I took photos today. Here's what the back of the house will look like when the 2nd story is on, the screened-in porch (to the left/south) is framed in and the associated little landing/porch is added to the kitchen door on the left. The mud room door is the door on the right. The upstairs bathroom windows can be seen here in the small dormer in the center.
- Juggling skills needed to build a house
My materials list is 28 pages long Making decisions, trying to stay organized, maintaining clear communications, keeping everyone happy…the life of a woman who is having a house built. I feel good about my ability, at age 71 no less, to stay flexible and make decisions based on new information, often having to change course to move forward with the building process. I have been able to (for the most part) stay relaxed and enjoy it. For me, what’s not to enjoy?! It’s a privilege to have enough resources to be able to do this. For a girl who grew up, not poor, but also not living with excess, this is fun…it is like getting to shop or choose beautiful things and watch them come to life. I can remember a woman building a house, years ago, who needed to be freed up to have more time to put into her house project. I worked for her as a store clerk. At the time, straight out of college, it gave me a huge opportunity to become manager of a retail Garden Center to take over for her there. I remember times when this woman (the owner of the Garden Center) would be stressed out to the breaking point, holding back tears, breathing hard, upset. When I asked what was wrong she said she couldn’t handle all of the decisions she was being forced to make about the new house. That day it was what kind of handles she wanted on the kitchen cabinets. For me, I already have a document where I have chosen the handles for kitchen cabinets and saved a link and a photo of these for the builder (well before he needs them). Granted, she had a full-time job with General Electric at the time, with the Garden Center being a retail establishment she opened on the side as almost a hobby. She worked with her husband and his two brothers on that venture. She didn’t have the internet to search for house items, she was probably lucky if she had brochures. I am a retired person with lower demands on my time (animals with the related barn chores and two granddaughters nearby to help with). She was a 40-something woman juggling a lot. Maybe retirement is the best time to build your dream home! I have gone through the house in my mind, from top to bottom, imagining the materials, finishes, fixtures, all the details. My document is 28 pages. Our goal for building the house was to start in 2027. Most builders were fully booked as of 2024. By searching early, I was able to find builders who said yes, they could fit us in during 2027. We would be in their books with a plan. I imagined I would handle the ‘accessory items’ (like the septic system and drilling an artesian well) on my own ahead of time. As the process has evolved, I have learned that some builders like to handle everything themselves. It makes sense to me now. A builder can coordinate everything better with the building process if they are in charge of timing and decisions. Also, many builders already have related contractors in mind for services, people they have worked with before and trust the quality of the work. So instead of helping or simplifying the process I had unintentionally made it more complicated. We have had a couple of ‘go-arounds’ between outside contractors and my builder. I don’t blame them. Again, I took responsibility for complicating the process by hiring these outside contractors. We are now down to just the builder who will fold in the septic system when it works for him, using a septic builder of his choice. We do have a design and plan ready to go. The building site has left-over large piles of dirt, huge stones, and a tree root the size of a VW, all of which need to be dealt with since our excavator operator (my hire) decided he was done at our job site. We have a well head sticking up very close to the driveway which will have to be protected from snowplows, etc. It will be OK. The builder will eventually find another excavator operator of his choice, dirt will be moved and used, the well head will have a stone wall in front of it, built by “the best stone mason in Vermont” who works with our builder. As of now, the garage has doors, the first floor of the house is framed. The timetable is different from what I imagined, but I am able to go with the flow. Always smart to build a garage FIRST...then you won't decide later, "Oh maybe we should skip the garage to save money!" This garage is spacious for two cars with automatic doors that will open at the touch of a button from inside your car. But it is also basic- no finishing inside the garage, just studs. OK, maybe it isn't smart to build the garage first, but I'd say it might be a helpful way to GET a garage by building it first. It may be hard to tell from this distance, but this is the first floor of the house framed, with some plywood and protective Tyvek applied. Our builder guarantees that the house will be turn-key ready by the end of 2027. We may have started building earlier than I planned, but the end product will be the same. It will be landscaped and all the details finished. "The only thing you might have to do is mow the lawn," he says. So even though I enjoy organizing and decision-making, it is nice to have a builder who wants to take over much of that job.
- Timeline for building the house (note...edited & updated August 24, 2025)
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 Joe’s schedule as a builder. 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 2027. 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 2026-2027. 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. 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 Joe will chose a septic builder and the timing for that. It could happen in 2026 or 2027. 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.
- Details and Architectural Drawing
I met with Phil Godenschwager in his studio on Wednesday, July 30 th , 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. Also known as the 4-season room. 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 Joe the builder. How lucky I am.
- Cellars vs. Basements
We have a basement floor! Concrete trucks arrive, contractors depend on them The floor in process, who knew cement could be beautiful?! It is amazing to think of the old stone foundation and dirt floor and the contrast. I wish I had taken more photos of the old cellar but it was dark and moldy and wet (the pictures still remain pretty clear in my mind). The half-timbered joists were not that big, still covered in bark and were punky with dry rot. The dirt floor was uneven with puddles in places. The walls had places where stones had tumbled down letting in daylight from gaps near the base of the house. We went down there with a contractor back in 2018 who was able to slide a knife into the beams since they were so soft. He said it was not safe to support the floors. In fact, there were some beams that had fallen under the fireplace room of the Saltbox house. The firefighters (I worked with on the controlled burn) didn’t want to walk there or conduct any of their work from that area because of risk of floor collapse. I went down there with the town assessor in 2024 who ended up categorizing the house at the lowest level of condition, needing significant repair. I wish we were rich enough to do a proper historical repair and restoration, but I knew at the very least the house would need jacking up to repair that stone foundation and all of the joists replaced. Step by step, teasing apart the old place to see what could be saved and restored but replace the parts where the structural integrity was lost was beyond our budget. Maybe an out-of-state wealthy person would spot this gem and be able to afford it. But I wanted it to stay in the family. I have an appreciation for this house design, a reverence for the memories of the family, and a desire to bring as much of the original back to life as possible. Of course, it is sad to lose that part of history. Think of the real people in the late 1700s who lifted and lowered those stones into place- sweating, feeling the pull of muscles in their backs and arms, and scrapes on their knuckles. But I am bolstered by the fact that Harry Cooley was always one to appreciate progress. He would surprise me with his clear-headed thinking about ‘the good ole days’. They were hard. He said he would choose not to go back. Harry Cooley owner of the Ridge Road House after purchasing it from Samuel Day in 1952. The house was just down the road from the Cooley Farm. Work on the new house using the original footprint of the house is still hard and back-breaking, workers sweating through their progress. I feel lucky that there are still contractors out there willing to do this kind of work on a ‘small’ basis…house by house. Joe Bertrand in the foreground still gets dirty even as the leader of his own contracting business Joe Bertrand, owner of Central Vermont Building & Design, centralvtbuildingdesign@gmail.com believes in quality and won’t skimp or cut corners on that. This will be a house that still stands for my granddaughters and other family members to enjoy. He has a small team of experienced builders that include family members. His uncle still does concrete after 54 years. He says it is getting harder and harder to find young workers who are willing to do this kind of backbreaking work. Thank you to Phil Godenschwager for these photos. I am so fortunate to have his involvement as the architectural drawer who has provided us with plans to match the original house. He arrived this a.m. to provide the builder with details on the house trim with its unique exterior crown molding, so special to the old house.
- The Vermont garage
Mostly I want a space to park our two vehicles out of the snow. We have never had a 2-car garage...this will be a first. But I don't want fancy. I want utilitarian. No finishes on the inside, just rafters. Size is important though. In Massachusetts we have a garage that is a tight fit (and won't even fit our Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in length-wise). In Vermont we will have plenty of space to open vehicle doors, hatchbacks, and still have a little room for some storage. 26' x 26' Two garage doors for two vehicles isn't cheap, but for a couple of 70s-something gray-haired old folks, we need the ease of living with a garage in snow-country. We can pull right in from the driveway with the push of a button for an automatic door. Harry Cooley would be impressed. He used to say that everything from the olden days was not automatically good. It was harder. From the road you'll see two windows on the side facing west and the matching (to the house) gray metal roof and white wooden clapboards for siding. The trim molding on the garage will also match the house so the garage will look like it belongs there, hopefully (except for those who are still angry that the old house was taken down). The previous garage for the old house was fashioned out of the saltbox house section- a dirt floor, a narrow space tight up against the extra living room/fireplace room. It was mostly used for storage and an entryway into the house (after using all of your strength to open the garage door, prop it up, then through a house door that wouldn't quite close). I never saw a car parked in there. Now we will have a 4-season room (porch) where that was. See in the drawing below- the house from the back. The section with 4 windows in a row (jutting out a bit from the house) is the 4-season room. One thing I love about it is- the door that used to go from the dining room into the fireplace room/extra living room will still be there and go out onto this 4-season room. We don't need an entire extra house, it will be sufficient to have just the Cape and not the Saltbox (though I would have loved to build it exactly as it was with the two houses- Cape plus Saltbox joined together for nostalgic and aesthetic reasons, but it would be an added expense we can't afford.)
- Ready, set, GO
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 Johnson, owner of E. Benedini Well Drilling at the site.
- The needs of a house…septic, water, a solid foundation
Yesterday the 2 nd test pit digs for the septic system were successful. I was a happy house builder! The four holes showed a drier site to the north of the house (where the so-called old septic system was located). In the spring it was predictably wet from snow melt and spring rain so the 1 st test pits failed. I am pleased that the septic for the house can be located in its original spot. Granted, it will be the new-style mound system recommended for most sites these days; it gives an absolute guarantee of function. That site is dipped down anyway, so a mound will not be very noticeable. And for the candy-cane shaped green plastic vent pipe I can buy a fake granite horse hitching post to cover it. How appropriate! The Presby system (Enviro-Septic) is named after its inventor David Presby from New Hamphire. He had been working with his father installing septic systems when he came up with a way to use gravity (rather than any pumps), layers of sand, and special mats to further filter water and help reduce runoff from septic systems of the past. Rather than being anaerobic, the mound system can allow air in to help the ‘good’ bacteria that break down waste. Born in Littleton, N.H., as of 10 years ago David lived on Sugar Hill with his wife Sheila, four dogs and two cats, and two horses. https://newhampshireadventures.blogspot.com/2014/02/biography-dave-w-presby-man-on-mission.html#:~:text=Dave%20Presby%20embodies%20that%20spirit,two%20cats%20and%20two%20horses . I have no other plans for that spot to the north of the house. The garage is over there and the neighbors are about 115’ away (close for Vermont). I know you can’t plant trees or shrubs on top of mound systems. That’s OK, the grass can grow there (along with the chervil). We will use the south lawn as the Cooleys always have. I will use the land near the barn for the horses. All will be in the places it should be. Charles Cooley knew the original septic system would not suffice (he said he ‘built’ it himself and advised us that replacement would be necessary) so no amount of grandfathering would do us much good. In fact, as the test holes were dug, no evidence of a system reared its ugly head or even poked its nose out. No buried Cadillacs. So, we can feel we are doing the site and the environment a favor for our $$. The well will be located more towards the barn. As long as it is 50 feet from the septic exit pipe on the house, and 100 feet from the septic leach field, it will be acceptable. The former spring-fed water supply was located tight against the back of the house Harry Cooley had told grandson Paul when he was younger that a magic spring brought water to the house. Unfortunately, it was sidled right up against the back of the house. Too close to the house, too close to the septic. Hopefully our well drilling will tap into that magic spring again and not have to go very deep. Wells are priced by the foot of digging. The garage trusses are arriving today. It looks almost ready to accept a structure on the foundation. I’m guessing the concrete floor happens before the structure itself? But it could happen after. I only know it will have one, along with an apron to smooth the entry into the garage and avoid a ledge there. Another beautiful day in Randolph Center, Vermont. Hard-working people I appreciate, digging test holes, unloading and spreading gravel/stone and smoothing and packing that stone into foundations for flooring.
- Dump runs, barn clean out, ready to backfill foundations
Backfilling will begin Friday, after applying tar to the outside of the foundation The concrete foundations are in. Tomorrow the builder will work on details like filing off any metal spikes protruding from the concrete and adding concrete into those areas. Then they will tar the outside of the house foundation just up to area that will be covered by soil. After backfilling both foundations with soil starting Friday, you will only see the top couple of feet of the foundation. The garage will rise up with wood very soon. The house foundation will get its floor and get capped. Backfilling the house first involves a layer of gravel surrounding a pipe that will drain any possible water that collects at the base of the foundation. The pipe will exit from under ground down near the road. The large piles of soil that came from the digging the cellar holes (minus any large rocks and fireplace bricks) will go back into the space surrounding the outside of the foundation walls. Clean up will also happen of any debris on the site. Stumps, boulders, unused logs, excess soil and rocks, etc. The net result should be foundations ready to build on and a tidy yard. My focus today was the barn on Ridge Road. After doing the chores at my barn in Massachusetts I made the 2 hour drive to Vermont. I worked on the piles of metal and junk that my sister and I had sorted last week. I filled the pickup truck with metal in just 15 minutes and tossed it into the metal dumpster at the landfill for free. The load of junk took more than an hour to fill the truck and also took a while to toss into the compactor. Checks or credit cards only. $30.00 I got two lemonades in Bethel and made the 2 hour drive home. Vermont was in the 80s, low 90s, but really didn't feel bad. Maybe the breeze in the Center. Got home just in time to do more horse chores, it was in the 90s here and felt like it. But the ground floor of the barn in Randolph is looking pretty good.
- Progress
Garage from the 'front'...looking straight north Garage: The footings and foundation wall for the garage is all up, the floor will be poured on Friday. Garage from the side, looking straight west. (The house will be to the left and skewed a bit to the west, the same site the house was always in, across the driveway.) House: The house footings are all in and the forms for the foundation were almost all up when I left today. The foundation walls (basement) will also be poured on Friday. The house from the north/east corner looking west. Charles would be pleased that the house will have a bulkhead (way to enter the basement from the outside) for the first time (the rectangle of concrete jutting out in the photo). Wood shed: The wood shed is up and the Ash from the property is being split and piled in the wood shed. Wood shed along the top (eastern side) of the circular drivewayThe Ash logs have been made into boards at the sawmill and will be kiln dried for the kitchen cupboards. They came out beautifully Joe (the builder) says. The Ash logs have been made into boards at the sawmill and will be kiln dried for the kitchen cupboards. They came out beautifully Joe (the builder) says. Grounds: My sister Sharon went up to the site and with her full equipment (chaps, helmet, face visor, gloves, full body coverage) and a major weed whacker. She trimmed a huge area around the barn (of chervil and other tall weeds and grass), along the side of the driveway, around the lilacs and spruce tree, and the little road going up to the back of the barn. A huge job and it looks so much better (and easier to get around and into the barn). Thank you, Sharon! My sister's work <3 Barn: Today my sister Sharon met me at the barn and we spent a few hours sorting items: trash, junk, metal, recycling, items to save, and chemicals to be disposed of properly. I feel very encouraged that after I take a few trips to the dump the barn will be almost empty and ready for work to begin there. Sorted piles of junk ready to carry away A stall that was full of junk, now chemicals and a few tires
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