Tag: Icehouse Rehabilitation
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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…
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Hot Tub Wiring
Many new and exciting thresholds crossed today. Supi, Calvin, and Tony started the stone hardscape project. Peter and Justin installed the columns and book matched ash transition upon which they rest. We finalized the shower glass order, and we *almost* finalized the coffee bar countertop stone. Eric arrived at the halfway point in the bathroom…
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East Door Installed
Rosslyn’s icehouse looks a little different this evening. The east entrance door was installed by Peter, subtly transforming the most visible elevation of the building and finally illuminating the entrance hallway with natural light after months in a “cloistered” work environment without any natural light. Although there remains some additional shimming and trimming (plus removing…
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Backlit
Reinventing Rosslyn’s icehouse as a hybrid home office and recreation/entertaining space has taken center stage intermittently since last summer (planning board and permitting) and continuously since last autumn (deconstruction and reconstructing). In fact, it sometimes feels like the icehouse rehabilitation has eclipsed just about everything else. This evening’s snapshot, our icehouse backlit by setting sun,…
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Stairway Progress
We turn our gaze upon stairs, a rudimentary machine known as an inclined plane. Yes, I am referring to the triumph of engineering that allows us to easily and almost effortlessly transition between stories. Today we look at stairway progress in the icehouse. When ascending or descending a staircase, do you ever consider the structure…
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Nickel Gapping Nooks & Crannies
As Rosslyn’s icehouse rehab heads into the final few laps, were beginning to focus on finishes details. In the case of T&G nickel gap installation that means that the large planes (walls and ceilings) are almost complete, so the team’s focus on nickel gapping the remaining nooks and crannies. In the photograph above, Matt is…
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Loft Shelving
An endoskeleton for the soon-to-be loft shelving has begun to take shape. Shop-built carcasses fabricated by Bernie Liberty have been delivered and installation has begun. Lining the north and south knee walls, these reading repositories will soon be lined with bound words. One further step toward completion of my icehouse loft study. Loft Shelving Haiku…
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The Art of Thresholds
I’m slightly obsessed with transitions and betweenness. Liminality and interstices. Metamorphosis, reawakening, and transformation inevitably weave themselves into my words about gardening and historic rehabilitation. In fact, in a not altogether exaggerated sense, Rosslyn Redux is a kind of carefree contemplation of thresholds, the art of thresholds, and the artifacts of crossing thresholds… Transitions. Flux.…
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Field Finishing Woodwork
Today it’s commonplace in carpentry and construction to build with materials that are factory finished. In other words, raw materials (flooring, trim lumber, etc.) are delivered to a job site, pre-dimensioned, pre-surfaced, and ready for installation. While there are times (ie. custom windows and doors) that we rely upon the efficiency of offsite fabrication and…
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One Down, One to Go
Exciting update: the storage container that’s been serving as our temporary paint station is going, going, gone. One down, one to go. Remember the workflow challenge we were grappling with in the late autumn / early winter? Insufficient heated, climate controlled shop space. Priming and painting thousands of linear feet of interior and exterior finish…
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Lumber Loft: Acclimating Ash & Elm Flooring
For the last couple of weeks my future study/studio/office in the icehouse has been serving as a lumber loft. Remember my excitement when we completed installation of the beech flooring (surplus materials remaining from reflooring Rosslyn’s living room, parlor, kitchen, and entrance hallway) a couple months ago? And my anticipation when Tony was about to…
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Re-tuning Columns
Rosslyn Redux regulars will be familiar with this multimodal “singalong’s” refrain celebrating the merits of upcycling and repurposing, architectural salvage and adaptive reuse. Well today we hum a new verse about re-tuning columns… In the snapshot above, Peter is trimming the top off one of two Greek revival columns deconstructed and salvaged back in 2006…