Category: Rehab Ad Infinitum
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Bird’s Eye View: Backyard
Over the last year, I’ve often relied on aerial photography to help me conceptualize icehouse rehab plans, visualize topographical integration, and plan landscape / hardscape layouts. Over the years I’ve relied upon bird’s eye view photography (thank you drone technology!) for many of Susan an my projects, so this isn’t something new. And yet, it’s…
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Stone Paving Icehouse Courtyard
The title of this post conjures a hot summer’s day along the highway, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, slooowly advancing through a construction site where hot asphalt is being laid in a stinky, tarry, gravelly layer, then rolled flat and smooth with an enormous steel drum ballasted with water, pressing the roadway into submission. Paving. We’ve…
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Framing Vintage Artifacts
After a year of icehouse rehab, it’s been rewarding to add art and artifacts to showcase in this new space. Yesterday Susan and I returned from another creative collab with Nico Sardet at Furchgott Sourdiffe, mostly transforming and framing vintage artifacts that will be displayed in the icehouse. The warmly sepia-tinged photograph above captures the…
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Mighty Muscle, Mini Machine
I’m overdue for a shoutout to Aaron Valachovic for helping out with icehouse hardscape in recent weeks. During a site visit to review autumn tree work he happened to mention that he’s done stonework before and had some availability. Wait! What? I’ve been pleased with Aaron’s work as an arborist, and his work ethic is…
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Gangway Railing v3.0
Hallelujah! For all intents and purposes, Rosslyn’s gangway railing v3.0 is complete. Or…*ALMOST* complete. And, while it’s been an epic adventure of unimaginable duration from inception to completion, the final results are outstanding. As good or better than the original that we constructed a decade and a half ago. Identical to the eye, but more…
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Stone-Walling
While still too early to celebrate completion, I’d like to share a prequel of sorts. A couple of weeks ago we shuffled the team in order to better prioritize completion of the gangway railing. Peter and Supi shifted down to the waterfront, while Tony and I leaned into the stone-walling Rosslyn’s icehouse courtyard into existence.…
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2nd Warning
“Do not use,” warns the green tape sealing my toilet seat in the icehouse bathroom. Lifting the seat reveals an admonition masquerading as a question: “Did you miss the 1st warning?” The first warning is construction site protocol, an effort to forestall bathroom use during finish construction while [hopefully] maintaining the bathroom in pristine condition.…
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Glass & Garapa Niche
I finally got around to floating glass shelves in the icehouse bathroom’s garapa niche this morning. And I’m plenty pleased with the result. The phone photo in this post does no justice to the minimalist efficiency of this builtin storage space shoehorned into a tiny bathroom in a tiny building. At once dissolving into the…
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![Handrails [Almost] Complete](https://svs.ths.mybluehost.me/website_a50a90cb/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/img_6523.jpg)
Handrails [Almost] Complete
After a couple of months of ploddingly, almost imperceptibly, whittling away at the icehouse loft guardrails and stairway handrails, I’m finally in the homestretch. Aside from a few finishing touches, the handrails are 95% complete. When I abbreviated the finish carpentry subcontractor’s employ (after months of onerous babysitting and a parade of broken promises), I…
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Gangway Gang
After another marathon day stonewalling with Tony, I headed down to Rosslyn’s boathouse to check on the gangway gang’s progress. Peter and Supi were just beginning to wind down for the day, taking extra steps to protect their materials and equipment from yet another round of incoming rain. I know, it hardly seem possible! This…
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Rocking Chairs
A beautiful afternoon after a soggy morning after a rainy night after a tempestuous afternoon after a… The summer of 2023 will be remembered for the persistent rains. And the ambitious list of maintenance and repairs. And the icehouse rehabilitation now 2-3 months overdue. And yet the pair of come-and-relax rocking chairs on the new…
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Amber Morning
On Thursday Susan snapped several photographs in the front hallway and parlor. She was up early with me, and the crack-of-dawn sunlight mesmerized her. Amber morning light illuminating Rosslyn’s elegant entrance. She was surprised to hear that this front hallway — early in the morning, bathed in sunlight — had compelled me for years. Since…