Icehouse site work is underway! Bob Kaleita, Phil Valachovic, and Scott Blanchard made great progress this perfect October Thursday, carving out new grade for deck and landscaping.
Per an anonymous member of our team this morning, “Scott Blanchard is in the excavator… He’s one hell of an operator!”
After days of perfect dry conditions, Mother Nature threw a curve ball. Rainy conditions overnight saturated the ground and contributed to muddy, less-than-ideal excavation circumstances but the team persevered.
Because much of this site is an old clay tennis court, dating back to at least Sherwood Inn days if not earlier (perhaps Hyde Gate?) The surface of the court long ago was scraped and allowed to grow thick with grass, but the resulting ground consists of a lot of class which becomes sticky and exceedingly messy after a rainstorm.
It was somewhat slow going, ensuring that appropriate cuts were made for transition from upper lawn (a future volleyball, badminton, and croquet court) to lower lawn where the deck deck will be built. But the plan is in focus, major progress was made, and tomorrow we’ll finish up the week with significant accomplishments behind us.
In the photo above, the perspective of the icehouse’s western facade is for the first time in a looong time (about a century?) rising yo it’s appropriate stature above grade. The fill that was added / altered many decades ago to accommodate a tennis court is now partially removed, and the well proportioned icehouse has begun to emerge from the semi-entered conditions it endured for far too long.
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