Tag: Icehouse Rehabilitation
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Midpoint Milestone: 6 Months Down, 6 Months to Go
Yesterday was a meaningful midpoint milestone in my quest to post a Rosslyn update every day without fail for an entire year. Six months, 26+ weeks, 184 days. One new installment every 24-hours without fail. Rhapsodizing Rosslyn, celebrating our team’s accomplishments, soapboxing historic rehab and adaptive reuse, showcasing seasonality snapshots and historic Essex memorabilia, weaving in some hyperlocal haiku and…
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On the Level
On the level, both literally and figuratively, this first full day at home has been invigorating and encouraging. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, there are several concurrent projects in the works. Inside and outside. Home and outbuildings. Plenty of potential for discombobulation… But, by in large, this impromptu return to Rosslyn has been profoundly positive. The…
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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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Collaboration & Incubation
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth Collaborate. Incubate. Collaboration. Incubation. Potent verbs. Evocative nouns. Language compromised by overuse. Overuse in terms of…
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Historic Rehabilitation
Once upon a time—starting in about 2005 or 2006 and concluding about a dozen years ago, if memory serves—I was on the board on Historic Essex (formerly Essex Community Heritage Organization, ECHO). Todd Goff, a fellow director, Essex neighbor, and friend, took it upon himself to correct me, differentiating for me “historic preservation” from ”…
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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…
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Multipurpose Man Cave
In recent years, the terms “she shed” and “man cave” have wiggled their way into our everyday vocabulary. Maybe not ubiquitous, but both can be uttered without explanation. I’m generally disinclined to adopt these here-today, gone-tomorrow buzzwords. Too trendy. Too contrived. Too something, though I’m not 100% certain. Today I’ve decided it’s time to pop…
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Slightly Off-kilter
Another milestone. Interior structural cladding of the west wall is now complete. This will please the engineer. And this, in turn, pleases me. Even when the photograph, subtly askew, causes me to question perspective, to reach out for the countertop, steadying myself. It’s as if I’ve been sailing and, stepping ashore, I need to pause…
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Are Icehouse Rehab Updates Achieving Objectives?
On October 18 I laid out some goals for my series of icehouse rehab updates. I’d already been posting for about two and a half months at that point, looking in depth at the summer’s deck rebuild. I intended to continue posting for the duration of our adaptive reuse project, transforming a late 19th century icehouse…
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Stair Framing to the Loft is Complete!
First phase of interior framing (walls for bathroom, mechanical room, coffee bar, and loft floor) was an invigorating milestone in Rosslyn’s icehouse rehabilitation project. And then, installing the loft subfloor helped complete the transformation, visually defining the new spaces. But the most notable triumph during the interior framing phase is the stairway which has dramatically…
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Upcycling Garapa Decking
You may recall that we’ve been upcycling garapa decking from Rosslyn’s 2008-9 deck that we salvaged and laid aside this past summer. Spanning half a year so far — from deconstructing and culling reusable material midsummer to multiple experiments determining optimal dimensions for adaptive reuse as bathroom paneling — we’re now scaling up production and…
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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…