Tag: Boathouse
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Snow Falling on Homecoming
Today’s ferry ride from Charlotte to Essex — with snow falling on homecoming — tasted bittersweet if vaguely familiar. There was a wellspring of anticipation upon returning to inspect firsthand the team’s progress on the icehouse rehab, boathouse gangway, and some painting and tiling maintenance inside our home. There was also the poignant pique of…
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Yesteryear or Yesterday?
As I inch my way toward a long anticipated halfway point — six months of old house journaling — I’m finding that time, more than sixteen and a half years, has begun to blur. Excavating and analyzing more than a decade and a half of Rosslyn notes and artifacts and drawings and plans and journal…
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Creative Collisions & Happy Accidents
A few days ago I came across a provocative Facebook post that artist Nick Bantock had shared on December 30, 2022. The date’s not particularly notable, but the author is. Familiarity with Bantock’s work adds context and texture to the explanation about his creative process, specifically how he moves from found ephemera to finished artwork.…
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A Barnophile of Bygone Barns
Yesterday I meditated a minute on bygone barns. Ancient farm buildings. Tempered by time, tempted by gravity, and sowbacked beneath the burdens of generations, these rugged utility structures retain (and sometimes gain) a minimalist elegance long after design and construction and use fade into history. My meditation was meandering and inconclusive. In part this was…
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Boathouse Repairs 6: Northside Post Wraps Installed
Boathouse northside post wraps have been installed, and southside companions are in process…
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Boathouse Repairs 5: Piece-by-Piece
As temperatures drop and winter weather threatens, Peter and Supi are toiling against the onset of winter. They’re taking advantage of shop work when possible, fabricating post bases — piece-by-piece — painstaking duplicating our boathouse‘s existing post and railing details while ensuring the most hardy, weatherproof construction possible to ensure the longevity of these handsome…
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Boathouse Repairs 4: Redecking Complete
More good news on Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway repair project: redecking is complete. The necessary mechanical adjustments were made, sleeper joists were properly flashed, decking was consistently spaced, the correct number of posts were installed in a structurally sound manner, and the redecking was actually completed. Eureka! It’s a pleasure and a privilege to celebrate yet…
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Sherwood Inn’s Boathouse Billboard
Does anybody recollect seeing the Sherwood Inn‘s boathouse billboard as photographed above. It’s well before my time, but probably not too long before my earliest Essex memories in the 1970s. I recently reached out to our friend Cheri Phillips to find it what she might know about the photograph above. She generously gifted me the…
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Boathouse Repairs 3: Fabricating Post Wraps
It’s time for a progress report on Rosslyn’s boathouse post fabrication. Peter Vaiciulis and Sia Supi Havosi have been beavering away lakeside as autumn blurs into winter. Unfortunately, their decking progress has been stalled because the moisture content of the lumber is still too high. In contrast to the previous contractor whose work required extensive…
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Boathouse Repairs 2: Boathouse Gangway Posts & Pier Cladding
Photo essay showcasing progress on Rosslyn’s boathouse repairs made Peter Vaiciulis and Sia Supi Havosi last week.
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Boathouse Repairs 1: Gangway Reboot
Just a quick update for you this evening highlighting Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway reboot. The good news, no, the *great* news, is that the boathouse gangway project is back on track — safe, sturdy, functionally and historically accurate — after the 2021 debacle. What a difference an experienced team makes! If you missed the 2021 false…
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Teeter-Tottering
To borrow a turn of phrase from Shaye Elliott, “I’m teeter tottering between” being fully present in Essex and departing for Santa Fe, betwixt summer’s curtain call and autumn’s debut, between and betwixt scores of less-than-precisely delineated transitions.