Rosslyn’s rolling rehabilitation — intermittent, to be sure, but ongoing since 2006 — is one way to account for the fact that the carriage barn floorboards have been mostly invisible for much of the last decade and a half. One project or another, and plenty of equipment and materials, have occupied virtually every usable square foot of surface area. But Pam’s industrious efforts are changing that. Despite the fact that there’s more cleaning up and cleaning out on the horizon, today, we pause to celebrate. The carriage barn floorboards once lost now have been found!
Filtered daylight once again enters the south east corner of the carriage barn. This 6-over-6 double hung window has been blocked by a stickered stack of lumber curing for at least a decade. But the last of that lumber was sorted and moved a couple of days ago. The spartan minimalism lends itself to a chiaroscuro vignette, a bit of developmental whimsy derived from the original photograph.
The floorboards in what we sometimes refer to as the “middle room” have also begun to be revealed. Partially unburdened from their load of tools, the patinaed paint of the warn boards beg contemplation. Oh, what wabi-sabi wonder!
This carriage house was built in the 1800s, but these lost and found floorboards — locally sawn and milled hemlock — were installed in 2006 in the early months of our historic rehab. The old barn floor had failed in multiple places, and we needed not only to address critical structural issues in the carriage, Lauren, but also to ensure a robust and reliable floor, upon which to work, store, materials, etc. 17 years later, these lost and found floorboards look as if they might’ve been there far longer!
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