Tag: Ash

  • Stump-to-Table: Ron’s Bistro Table

    Stump-to-Table: Ron’s Bistro Table

    At long last — albeit ten months to the day after it was completed and delivered — I share with you the looong promised “concept-through-construction of a mixed species (ash and elm) ‘bistro table’ built by Ron Bauer…” mentioned in “Tung Oiling Ash & Elm Table” and elsewhere. I started to compose this reflection on…

  • Stumping

    Stumping

    As political pundits’ newscycle turns to election stumping, our workcycle turns to ash stumping. The inevitable next step in our current homegrown lumber undertaking is to transform the stumps (leftover from five removed ash trees) into mulch and then prepare the ground for grass seeding in the spring. After felling five ash trees in the…

  • Logs Off to Sawmill

    Logs Off to Sawmill

    After felling five ash trees in the vicinity of Rosslyn’s icehouse and carriage barn with precision and arboreal poetry Aaron and Tony passed the baton to Phil and Calvin. There are still stumps to be ground down and logs to be split into firewood, but our ash logs have migrated one step closer to their…

  • Fallen Giant

    Fallen Giant

    Timber felling continues. Bittersweet benchmark after bittersweet benchmark; five ash trees succumbing to the chainsaw. This afternoon we honor a fallen giant, the imposing 3-stem behemoth that stood just northeast of Rosslyn’s icehouse. It’s a poignant passing and sentimental benchmark when towering trees that helped define Rosslyn’s environs over the years must be culled. (Source:…

  • Aerial Arborist Haiku

    Aerial Arborist Haiku

    As often, Aaron spent his Saturday at Rosslyn, whittling down the bottomless punch list. His demeanor, perseverance, and smarts are a perennial hat trick, but his arboreal aptitude has proven again and again to be one of his superpowers. Yesterday and today his whittling was not metaphorical. High up — some 100’ to 120’ above…

  • 1st Floor Flooring Finished

    1st Floor Flooring Finished

    Spellbinding sunset this evening, witnessed firsthand from Rosslyn’s icehouse where only an hour or so before Tony had added the final coat of sealer. At last I can celebrate: the 1st floor flooring is finished. Eureka! For the mixed species, ash and elm, variable witdth flooring we’re applying six coats with light, fine grit sanding…

  • Icehouse Stairway Update

    Icehouse Stairway Update

    Spoiler Alert: the icehouse stairway is not 100% complete. Yet. But it will be. Soon. I hope! There’s still an itty-bitty electrical wrapup (finishing up the riser lighting installation), but the main hurdle — one that’s been delayed again and again since winter — is the banister. Handrails and balusters. Everything’s been fabricated for a…

  • Flooring Installation Complete

    Flooring Installation Complete

    A couple of weeks ago I shared a “Flooring Sneak Peek” and four days ago I shared an update on the icehouse flooring focused on “Variable Width Floorboards”. Today I’m pleased to announce that the mixed species ash and elm flooring installation is complete. Eureka! Many, many months into our homegrown, stump-to-floor journey, the first…

  • Variable Width Flooring

    Variable Width Flooring

    I shared a “Flooring Sneak Peek” a couple weeks ago when the first two rows of ash and elm flooring had been installed. Now that our homegrown hardwood installation is advancing I’d like to share a few progress photos and explain the choice of variable width floorboards. Why Variable Width Flooring? You may recall that…

  • Flooring Sneak Peek

    Flooring Sneak Peek

    It’s a little premature to start celebrating the soon-to-be-completed hardwood flooring in the icehouse. With only the first two rows installed (and a third in the works), a superstitious soul might delay an update in the interest of humility (or outwitting fate). But it’s been so many months in the planning and preparation that I’ve…

  • Column Flanked Vestibule

    Column Flanked Vestibule

    Tucked into the folds of the icehouse rehab scope of work some accomplishments stand out more than others. The garapa paneling in the bathroom, for example, has been a long, slooow labor of love many months in the making. Many stages and many hands have shaped this initiative, so anticipation has been building for many…

  • Finding Freudenfreude

    Finding Freudenfreude

    Last week Tony, Hroth, and Pam all shared overlapping updates on garapa, elm, and ash upcycling progress. Virtually concurrent texts and photos sent by all three. Two of them spoke with me by telephone. All of them sounded 100% in sync. No griping. No grumbling. No blaming. And no complaints, frustrations, or regrets. They were…