It’s been a busy week at the Red House. Teams of carpenters, masons and excavators have been working inside and out. The most noticeable progress is on the decorative brickwork Aron Libby is laying on the new basement walls. Bricklaying is a skillful art, one he learned from his father. “He’d be proud of me doing this kind of work,” Aron said. It requires precise measurement and string to keep the wonky old handmade bricks in line. The wonkier the better, as far as Aron is concerned. He enjoys the bricks’ variations in texture and color, interspersing a few that were whitewashed to brighten up what once was the “dairy room” in the Red House’s old cellar.

To make one wall more interesting and add the illusion of depth, Aron is creating a faux doorway and double arch.

Outside, carpenters rose up on a Genie lift to begin removing the old siding, changing the color of our iconic red farmhouse to grey, the color of Typar. It, too, will soon be replaced with rock wool insulation and new siding. New Marvin windows are coming later this month!

Joe, our excavator operator extraordinaire, was pushing aside snow banks, spreading sand and gravel and moving massive chunks of granite with his grapple as easily as if it were summertime.

After adding material to raise the elevation of the front yard and smoothing it out, Joe dug a trench for the electricians to run conduit and wires to the house, then buried them again, leaving no trace of the work he had done. As soon as CMP comes to connect the power, our contractor can stop using the noisy stinky diesel generator that has provided heat and power to the work site thus far.

In addition, Joe, and his co-worker, Clint, came up with a brilliant solution for our hillside landscaping on the west side of the house. Using granite slabs salvaged from the old house site foundation, they proposed building a stepped down retaining wall that includes a raised flower garden. Once we agreed to the new design, they got stuck right in!

Nils and I were also busy this week making decisions about kitchen cabinets, appliances and plumbing fixtures. Happily, we also found the time to cross country ski, following an animal trail across our lower field.