Stairwell I

A Cathedral Ceiling

Bill has been working on the new stairwell space this month, and here is the cathedral ceiling above it in progress. The prominent beam here required a lot of repair work, but now you can no longer see the front lawn through the space above it! Next comes some floor trim there and more linen wall paint to the right...

The other end of the stairwell required custom fit wall trim and flooring while the new rail post was created and notched into place. The post will have a wood rail.

The wall is made of very rough and old sides of pine boards which Bill sanded with an orbital sander, enough to nearly burn the motor out. After additional hand sanding it now has two coats of primer. Preparing the wood here and in the foyer took much of Bill's time; including carving out and sanding beam cracks besides sanding and filling every surface so that you want to touch it all as you navigate through it eventually.

The paint color on the stairs will be "Glacial" by Restoration Hardware, which seems an appropriate pale color for this small space in a house so close to a glacial lake. We will also use this color on the inside of the front door to separate it from so many surrounding wooden parts.

The light fixture I've selected for the top of the stairs is a maritime polished chrome pendant from Restoration Hardware, which will provide much downward light and match finishes with the rope rail fixtures. The rope rail was custom made to length using hemp and cotton twisted together and fastened with sailor's knots, by "StairRopes.com" in the UK.   

  

Update: Top of the stairs and stairs finished; after and before.

We continued to open the adjoining eave spaces to allow for a curtained closet and sculpture, while having room downstairs to create a full closet next to the new staircase.

This picture shows the  eaves opened up although it was taken while Bill replaced major roof beams.

We were able to build a  new closet downstairs next to the stairwell, using an original old door Bill built-out wider and taller. The inside is entirely built of very wide; old King's Wood boards we found for building "new" walls in this house. Inside the closet is an early art deco light fixture and outlet found on ebay.

Iron in the Details

I have just hung the old hand-forged whaling lance I found at the "Sow's Ear" (great mid-Cape antique store), made in New Bedford during the years Cape Cod colonists fished for "Right Whales"; 1620 - 1750. Right Whales were migratory, slow moving whales who wintered over in Cape Cod Bay and were pursued in small boats from shore until depleted.

The founding of a fishing colony was one of the main ideas in the settling of Massachusetts, and the colonist's charter gave them unrestricted fishing rights. "Whale of the best kind for oil and bone came daily alongside and played about the ship", was written by Pilgrim fathers W. Bradford and E. Winslow. The Mayflower was also a whaling ship before and after coming to New England. 

Laundry on the Line

I grew up in a family of women who hung their laundry out to dry. My grandmother had lines and pulleys out her Brooklyn brownstone windows and my mother had long lines besides varied turning ones my father constructed for her in our backyards. The first time I saw Old Farm, I envisioned a long clothes line running along the property edge in full sun which would dry and brighten the many sheets, beach towels and clothes that may be used here. (I also envisioned a large compost pile behind the garden shed, most importantly, and both were installed as soon as weather permitted after we actually purchased this place.)

It was easy to make clothes line supports from sticks of left over lumber and I hammered two roofing nails with large heads into the tops to trap the clothes line since it can be quite windy on the Cape. The laundry line vision included anchoring a long line from the garage top to a utility pole, which could be tightened over time. Two loads of laundry can be dried here on a sunny day...and beach towels always.

   

Scandinavians hang their laundry out as long as possible; sometimes in the attic in winter, and in pens behind apartments where we would usually park a car. The below is part of a large picture taken by a photography student who did a series of my laundry on the line in Hopewell (while we were restoring the house), and surprised me with this print and note on my porch one day!

Hanging laundry is a great way to be greener since clothes driers use most household electrical energy and wear fabrics out faster besides. It takes little time to coordinate with the weather and hang a load before work I found. Alex brings his laundry from Boston to do at Old Farm and Christian, Leif and their roomates share my wooden clothes drying racks to use in their apartment exclusively.

Remembering Roots

As our family works together to restore Old Farm, I am remembering my own family roots and how they seem to be a part of this scheme? This has been a reflective project I think and my mother has recently given me pictures of my Norwegian grandparents who influenced me in lovely ways. My grandfather was the only one of nine children in his sheep farming family, to immigrate to the USA. He was "most smart" I was told in that he was the fastest sock knitter in the family who could also rock a cradle with his foot and read his homework all at the same time. He was a big man with big hands (which also played the fiddle) - and handsome features like my grandmother. They bought a brownstone in the Norwegian section of Brooklyn and he worked as a construction carpenter in NYC most of his life. My grandmother ran the house and made her own bread and patterns for dresses my mother and aunt wore for special occasions. Her kitchen was full of white and gray painted furniture and her small garden had large blue hydrangea bushes which bloomed under long lines of clothes and sheets drying.

My grandfather told me about special painting techniques he used occasionally, like rolling a suede cloth up a wall of thinned contrasting paint to create a unique pattern. He also helped my father build both of the houses we lived in growing up while my grandmother cleaned them thoroughly every time she visited. I still have the socks that my grandfather knit for me and the sweater his sister taught me how to knit.

These are my lovely memories of them.

Here are my older sister and I in dresses my mother made for us, continuing a tradition of making special dresses and women sewing for their families.

A Chicken Coop

The first outbuilding Bill restored here in Hopewell, was the outhouse. While the boys were growing up, we decided to convert it into a chicken coop so we could have even more productive pets besides our honey bees. This size building was just right for four hens to stay warm together most of the year and share two large wooden nesting boxes with a removable perch/tray Bill custom built. The roof is slate we saved from our dismantled barn and has air space beneath it for important ventilation.

The garden shed in back of the outhouse, was our second outbuilding. It is post and beam construction using all the old wooden parts (including pegs) we could possibly salvage from the falling down barn here.

Some Sculptures

When Bill was in college, he was fortunate to study ceramics with Toshiko Takaezu, a world recognized ceramic artist who combined techniques from the West and East while helping to move pottery from a utilitarian to an artistic form. Bill apprenticed with Toshiko for two years and helped with the construction of her large kiln in her studio not far from our house in Hopewell. He has continued to make clay pieces since then which have all been fired in this kiln and included in a studio show during the holidays every year.

Although Toshiko has recently passed, she helped organize an exhibition of Bill and several other dedicated past students, at the Hunterdon Art Gallery in Clinton, NJ - not long ago.  Here are pictures of some of Bill’s larger sculptures shown in this wonderful old grist mill alongside a river in Clinton, NJ. 

This kiln and Toshiko’s studio are now owned by a former student who continues to share and use both with past apprentices. Bill has just left with Leif and a large sculpture to be bisque fired soon. The biggest challenge has been getting these large sculptures out of the studio space Bill has in our basement!

Stepping Up the Stairs I

The stairs at Old Farm scared everyone away when all saw it for sale, and there didn’t seem to be a better solution around the new; larger chimney recently built. The present stairs were roughed in with mostly plywood, and ran along the widest side of the chimney base, changing directions at the bottom and top. The difficulty was entering the upstairs well under the eave with little head-space (or much else) and no way to install a safety rail which wouldn’t make it more of a challenge.

I believe this issue was why only builders had made offers on the property with plans to tear down the buildings. We offered a bit more and bought Old Farm with plans to somehow create a better stairs solution. Yikes.

Before

During the fall of this past year, I spent an afternoon at Old Farm measuring and drawing up designs until I had the best plan. I moved the first step into the foyer and with 9 steps of 9” risers and 7” treads heading up towards the peak, there was room for a comfortable landing at the chimney wall to turn onto a last step to the left. Next I visited the Hoxie House (built in 1636) in nearby Sandwich with a tape measure, to see how my new stairs might fit a similar house. The exit stairs at the Hoxie House were the same proportions as were my back stairs home in Hopewell – almost.

At home I built a cardboard stringer (support for the steps) as a guide to pin on the wall once the stairwell was gutted. Bill liked the design and widened the last step to extend around the chimney side. With one week of Christmas vacation to gut the space and build new stairs, we hoped for the best in reconfiguring the chimney some, to accommodate the landing. On Christmas Eve, Bill and Christian spent the entire day sawing, chiseling and re-mortaring the chimney base, in order to fit our new framing. The next day the new steps were built and then the landing was built while a downstairs coat closet was roughed in. This closet was a big perk and another reason I wanted to change the direction of the stairs, since it also creates a desk space above in the upstairs now.

The Work

The vintage painting at the top of this picture was a birthday gift to me and titled “Whale’s Tails”. It will move to a nearby wall when stair railings are installed. The boys love this painting which is great because it is in their space. I am planning on steel cable rails upstairs, so you can still see the painting from the large bedroom. A cathedral space over the stairs was made by removing two wide original floor boards which we re-used for the stair landing. I wanted this opening to allow furniture up and down more easily and to add some drama in the foyer.

Christian finishing the stairs. The treads were made from the newer floor boards we took out.

The landing - some of the photos in this blog were late night cell phone shots.

View from the top...

The closet...

I suddenly recognized the original stairs outlined by the newly exposed old wallpaper. They were much steeper with 12” risers and 7” treads! We are excited to have a comfortable/working solution now in such a historic house. The old wallpapers were quite beautiful but beyond saving.

Happy New Year Old Farm! XO