A week off from DeJoux but work goes on..

Daniel and I were not at the house this weekend. We had visitors in the city and had to stay in NYC. We both really missed it...(although Daniel didn't miss it that much as he worked on the plans for some more this weekend...he promises they will be done soon and we can begin construction proper!).

Last weekend we were there in the rain so I made Daniel work on the drawings from the porch. Even in the rain the lake looked lovely.

One of the pictures I took was almost the same view as a photo we took when we bought the house. It really shows how much clearing Daniel and I had done.

Before: After:

There were some events this weekend without us. "Bernie the Brush Hog" came this week to brush hog the field again. We are trying to get it to a meadow and get rid of the brambles that continue to sprout up. This cut will allow the grasses to grow up through the summer so it should wonderful in a month or two.

Ryan Petit the chainsaw man (Daniel and I are still very cautious of that contraption!) continues to cut down some of the trees that we tagged. He's stacking the wood in the garage so that we will have wood for the fireplaces that Daniel has been drawing...

...Which I'm hoping will look something like this:

More excitement this week, I promise.

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Paradox farm

If you wander along Springtown Road, past DeJoux House, you will see our mailbox opposite the front door. It's not especially distinguishable except it is rather large and sits on an old tree stump. It's a rusty old thing but it seems to have survived the snow plows and drunk drivers of Springtown Road. It has always bothered me that on the side of the mail box you can see the vague outline of the words "Paradox Farm" which was clearly a name that DeJoux House was more recently referred to. Occasionally when wondering the fields I would stumble across some incongruity and wonder if that was indeed the "paradox" that the farm was named after. Yesterday morning, for some unknown reason, I decided it was time to resolve the paradox. I sent a quick email to the previous owner June Finer to see if she knew anything of the Paradox Farm ghost on the side of the mailbox. This was her reply: once upon a time we, (myself and russell gilmore---my ex), met a

Inspiration for the future look

Daniel has found some wonderful reference materials for keeping the history and character yet not making it a museum. I love the big kitchen table plan for the kitchen inspired by Lutyens and some "behind the scenes" pictures of victorian kitchens. He also showed me some country houses from Axel Vervoordt that I really love. http://bit.ly/uX1eW Simple, authentic yet modern. We discussed putting a full length plate glass window in the old hay loft window on the end of the house. Wow. I can't wait.

Maria Deyo - a chilling tale

We arrived at the house this weekend to meet with the contractors who had poured concrete in the basement on Friday. When we arrived we found a family standing in front of the house taking pictures. Being the friendly types we are, we went over to chat. They told us they were on a haunted house tour and were looking at the house because their daughter had been talking about the ghost at our house for the last couple of days. She had bought a book called "Spooky Hudson Valley" and in it was the story of Maria Deyo and a tragic tale of a mother killing all three children and then killing herself. The family were wonderful and excited to be shown the house. They showed us the book and at the beginning of the story was a picture of our house. The book went on to say that Maria sent the men to the fields and then she slit her daughter's throat and the throat of her other two children...then killed herself. All this happened on September 13 th 1801. There was

DeJoux House

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