Tag: Lapine House
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Home Inspection, May 22, 2006
Remembering that fortuitous day almost two decades ago when home inspector James Gibb helped demystify our future home.
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Earth Day
Without being cute or hyperbolic, *every* day at Rosslyn is Earth Day. Healthy, sustainable, holistic practice — from construction and gardening to eating and personal wellness, responsible land stewardship to ecological wildlife guardianship — was fundamental to the lifestyle changes we made two decades ago when we exited life in Manhattan and started fresh on…
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Lucky Lottery
What would you do if you won the lottery? What would I do if I won the lottery? I’ve already done it! Almost 22-1/2 years ago Susan and my paths crossed, and… Bonanza! Lady Luck smiled upon us, mercurial but merciful, luring us into one adventure after another. We courted across the Atlantic for two…
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Poetics of Essex
At least part of what I was longing for after living, working, and exploring in Western Europe from 1999 to 2003 was a “connection with place“. To be honest, I’d fallen hard for Paris and Rome, and after four years based primarily in the former, untethering was bittersweet. But something was missing. I had begun…
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Deciphering Ciphering
I first heard the term “ciphering” in 2005 when we were renovating the Lapine House. Context offered some clarity: “ciphering” was used to describe job site problematizing, brainstorming, tweaking and tuning a step-by-step action plan, and generally massaging blueprints and construction schema into completable carpentry. From a linguistic perspective, describing the process of analyzing plans,…
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Preservation by Neglect: Phoenix Mills
Today I return to the topic of preservation by neglect with a personally poignant look at Phoenix Mills, an historic stone building located down river from the bridge (and former DEC fish ladder) in Willsboro, New York. As I understand it, Phoenix Mills was a grist mill originally built and operated by W.D. Ross in…
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Ciphering on Icehouse Coving
Let’s start with ciphering (before introducing my current coving challenge). I first heard the term “ciphering” used to describe job site problematizing, brainstorming, and generally massaging construction plans into completed carpentry in 2005 when we were renovating the Lapine House. From a linguistic perspective, the idea of describing the process of analyzing plans, troubleshooting an…
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Broken & Unbroken
I’ve been reflecting a lot on vessels. Crockery, boats, homes, books, relationships, memories. And conditions. Conditions of vessels, the contents they’re asked to contain, and those of us who rely upon them, who contemplate them. The vessel above, a burly bowl, reminds me of another, gifted to us by Pam, crafted from a burl collected…
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Rifle & Eggs
“Mornin’,” Wes said as he pulled the pantry door shut behind him and greeted Griffin with a scratch behind the ears. “Good morning,” I called back from the kitchen where I was scrambling eggs. “You don’t want me to run that thing on the tennis court, do ya?” he asked, referring to the lawn aerator…