Category: Rehab Ad Infinitum
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Flashing Flashback
Weather reminds us that autumn will inevitably yield to winter. Frost. Flurries. Cooold nights… Probably soon-ish, at least for short intervals. And yet the threat of colder, wetter, even snowier and icier days ahead is 100% less concerning than it was a year ago. We’d only just begun our foray into Rosslyn’s icehouse rehabilitation. And…
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Paint Maintenance
Rosslyn’s four historic buildings exude a quiet confidence as they preside over Merchants Row, Blood’s Bay, Lake Champlain, and the Green Mountains. Understated. Elegant. Sage. It’s her architecture, proportions, and siting. It’s the harmony of symmetry and asymmetry, buildings and grounds, landscape and hardscape. And it is the constant TLC that she invites, for which…
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Teak Table Renewal
As a teenager, I spent my summers working at the Westport Marina, first as a dock boy, and later, managing a fleet of rental boats. My coming of age memories are intricately interwoven with my boating and boatyard memories. They overlap. They converge. A recurring narrative during the boating preseason was cleaning, brightening, and oiling…
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Preservation by Neglect: Phoenix Mills
Today I return to the topic of preservation by neglect with a personally poignant look at Phoenix Mills, an historic stone building located down river from the bridge (and former DEC fish ladder) in Willsboro, New York. As I understand it, Phoenix Mills was a grist mill originally built and operated by W.D. Ross in…
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Tom Duca’s Sunburst Gates
If Robert Frost was correct that “Good fences make good neighbors”, then experience has taught us that sunburst gates make neighbors into friends. And so today I doff my proverbial hat to neighbor, friend, and carpenter, Tom Duca. Tom was one of the first people we met when we moved to Essex in 2005, and…
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Boathouse Gangway Redux
What a difference a year makes! Actually, Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway redux spans a 2-year timeline, but as a sort of Pollyanna prayer, let’s celebrate the progress since one year ago. The following excerpt and photograph appeared in my blog post one year ago today. Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway reboot… is back on track — safe, sturdy,…
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The Nature of Time
We believe that remnants coalesce, that excavation, observation, collaborative accumulation, and artistic practice allow one to wonder-dream into ancient / modern mysteries about the nature of time.
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Sidewalk Upgrade Begins
Hurrah! I’m super pleased to showcase the swift progress that the Town of Essex has made so far with the sidewalk upgrade. A couple of weeks ago I met with Town of Essex Supervisor, Ken Hughes, and Town of Essex Highway Superintendent, Bradley French, to review plans for replacing the derelict (and potentially dangerous) section…
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Solving the Paver Puzzle
Some days at Rosslyn are more kaleidoscopic than others, textures tumbling, patterns resolving then dissolving again, protean punch-lists pushing the limits of planning and patience, and ever evolving priorities and timelines. Nothing is constant except for change… Some days, many days lately, we’ve been solving and re-solving the paver puzzle. No one ever steps in…
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Riley Redux?
Returning to the topic of a beautiful vintage British motorcar that has spent the last decade or so in Rosslyn’s carriage barn. The photo of this evening’s post was taken on August 3, 2019 during a rare out-of-barn outing. My beautiful bride ready to roll in the Riley! Is it time for a Riley redux?…
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Icehouse, April 11, 2020
Poking around in peripandemic photos, those early days when Susan and I had evacuated to Essex from a family vacation in Antigua, when we reignited long dormant fantasies about the icehouse, about transforming this historic utility building into a modern day work+life flex space, this golden hour gem jumped out. Three and a half years…
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Patinated Penetrations
After many months in the works — installing through-wall mechanicals, commissioning custom copper vent covers, and patinating covers — Supi installed blocking and the patinated penetrations bringing to a close yet another task from the icehouse rehab finish schedule. Clustered on the north facade within the vicinity of the mechanicals closet, these penetrations are a…