There is Still Hope

A few shots of the chimney veneer I did in Hope for the Mcteers. It took a bit longer than I had anticipated and I ultimately had to request the assistance of my business partner Damon, but the Mcteers were patient and helpful and we all made it through in one piece. In fact, the Mcteers were are pleasure to work for and with and I now consider them friends, as I hope they do too.
Most of the stones were brought in from off-property, but some were sourced right there on their land, particularly the mantle, which was chosen and dragged from the forest by Michael and Mardi themselves. I had been having a difficult time finding the perfect stone at the local quarries, as the dimensions were kind of unusual, and those two found the solution not a hundred yards from their back door. The truth is, they built pretty much the entire house themselves and could have done the veneer as well, if they hadn't been so busy. The house is really beautiful, too. I wish I had some pictures of it to post. Maybe if they read this, they will leave a pic or two in the comments, if such a thing is possible.

Eldridge

  Finished this job up a few weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to posting pics. This is down in Boothbay, on an amazing little piece of property that protrudes out into Boothbay Harbor, leaving the house surrounded on three sides by water. Seals climb on the rocks in the backyard. Scallop boats drag the deep water, sometimes all day long. Lobster boats idle in circles around the traps...
  The style of stonework was a little different for us. The owners wanted to replicate the look of some of the crumbling stone walls on the property, so we had to kind of toss everything we know out the window and try to create something really rough and erratic, yet still retain some kind of aesthetic standards.
  Also, this was another Knickerbocker job, done through Dan Ucci of Ledge Hill Creations, who is right now working on the fireplace inside...

3 Crows and 1200 Bricks

  Finished up the brickwork at 3 Crow and everyone seemed satisfied with the results, including ourselves. It was a nice project and I hate to leave. I say it again and again, but it's always a pleasure working with Endeavour, with the Masseys, and Tom Potter and Donny. Looking forward to going back this weekend to address some floor drains.

 

The Ice Palaces of Rock City

  I first noticed this a few weeks ago, when we started the 3 Crow brick job. I saw what looked like the top of an ice tower sticking up over the trees and I pointed it out to Damon. "What the hell is that?" he asked, but we just kind of forgot about it. Then, yesterday, Mr. Don Savarese and I took a walk down the street to check it out. Pretty impressive up close. It appears to be some kind of steam exhaust chimney from the water treatment plant. Steam is still shooting out the top, then condensing in the cold and freezing upon impact with the other ice. A kind of living, growing, ice sculpture. I wonder if it will take over the entire town?

3 Crow

  Started the Endeavour brick job at the new 3 Crow Restaurant, owned by Josh, the current proprieter of 40 Paper in Camden. We are using original bricks from an old wall that was removed during the renovation to build a new brick facade along the northern wall, and maybe a pillar or two. The first step basically consisted of me hand-washing and removing excess mortar from 800 bricks...

  While Damon hung the Hardi-Backer...

  Nice to be working in Rockland again with Tom Potter and Donny. Potter's jobsites really are some of the most well-organized and pleasureable sites I get to be a part of. Good guys, all of them.
  Outside, the icy wind blew 60 and took down large well-established business signage. Somewhere nearby, my electrician was backing into my Tacoma with his work van. Doh!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Nearly Natick

  Well, I haven't posted in awhile and it feels good to be sitting at the home computer again.  Damon and I have been working down in Natick, Massachusetts for the last two weeks. Natick, most famous for its unusually large Mall.

The enormous and unnavigable...

yet architecturally sound, with its art installations and modernist curves...

Natick Mall.

  Not so, the Red Roof Inn, where we have chosen to stay. The roof is not red and the traffic outside the room is relentless...

  The staff is freindly enough, but you don't really ever see them after you check in. The rooms are relatively clean, if not sparse and tend toward being on the insanely hot side. We turned the heat completely off at night and it still felt like it was 80 degrees or more. I suspect there might be a fiery chasm beneath the building that heats the place with geothermal gases and possibly punishes the souls of the wicked.

  The job itself is just a few miles from the motel and sits on a little pond/lake near the Wayland town line.

  The job is Kurt Snyder's of Stonescapes and we are all grateful for the work. I mean, no one really wants to drive to Natick and stay away from their family for a week at a time, but it's work in the winter and anything is better than being unemployed.
  The stonework is a round-rock veneer with 3/8 joints and there seems to be alot of it. Stone veneer on the house was completed by the previous masons and so we are trying to match that work, which is often difficult. Eveyone's styles vary and all masons follow different rules as to what is stylistically acceptable.

  My work around the pipes...

  Damon's work around the corner...

  Kurt and Nate working on the stairs...

  The twelve-inch short wall...

  Nate, Mike Fitz, Damon and I picking rock...

  And of course, no stay out of town is complete without a visit to the local hot-spots, which on this particular night was the Samba Steak and Sushi House in Framingham. The hibachi chef put on a marvelous culinary show and the food was excellent. Kurt was also nice enough to cover the entire bill, which is saying something when drinking masons are involved.

  Grateful for the work, but glad to be home.

Got Plankton?

  It's been a few weeks since we finished up the patio at Bigelow Laboratories in Boothbay, and I'm finally getting around to posting the pics. This was another job that came down to us from Eric at E.M. Wood Construction, via the relentless Dan Ucci of Ledge Hill Creations.
  The material is a concrete paver made to resemble bluestone and the steps and banding are cut and thermalled granite.

Broadview Farm

  Here are some quick pics of the sitting wall we did on the porch of the new horse arena built by John Libby Houses and Barns at Broadview Farm in Hope.  Libby and his guys were great, as always, and the almost supernatural magnificence of the arena clearly illuminates the incredible level of skill they operate on. It is truly breathtaking. The entire farm is breathtaking. Broadview is an amazing 400 acres or so of probably the most beautiful land in Hope and the owners have devoted most of it to the 22 or 23 rescue horses they have rehabilitated there. Their hearts are as large and grand as their vision, and it is a pleasure just to be a part of what they are doing.

Thomaston Granite

  We have been terribly busy and awfully behind, so I haven't posted in a few weeks, but here are some before and after shots of the last project we finished. The job is another for Endeavour, in the back yard of a large old house in historic downtown Thomaston. I took some photos when I originally went to look at the job, and as you can see, it was badly cracked and pitching forward dangerously.

  I was struck immediately by the beauty of the place, however, and jumped at the opportunity to be a part of such a great restoration project.  The owner came out with an old cigar box she had found in the attic when she bought the place, inside of which were some black and white photographs of the original structure.

  Amazing! I wanted the job...
  Then my good friend, Don Savarice, who was doing some interior restoration, pointed out a circular iron and concrete structure in the center of the lawn.

  Apparently, when Don had started working on the house, there was a large pile of decaying wood in the back yard and the owner asked him if he could remove it. Well, he did and lo and behold, beneath it was this incredible ornate wrought-iron fountain base. Out of curiosity, they went into the basement and searched around until they found a mystery-knob, which they turned... And there was water! Right up out of the little fountain-spout. Incredible!
  I left the site determined to come back and rebuild the wall and sure enough, we were doing just that two or three weeks later.  It was a difficult project, due to the size of the stones and the height of the wall, but we managed. Actually, a massive hats-off to both Damon and Dave Curry, who were there much more than I was and built most of what you see in the pictures.

  I can't wait to see it again in another fifty years, when the vines have grown back.