The Story of DeJoux House, 374 Springtown Road, New Paltz, NY. (A first generation American farmhouse)
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Lets not talk about the house
Another week with no progress...yes we are frustrated. The plumber can't do any more because the framing isn't finished and no-one at the house Friday, or any day this week as far as we can tell.
We met the plasterers and the plumber without the contractor..who was "shopping". Funny I tried calling him and he couldn't answer the phone and didn't call me back because he was "up on the roof"...I now realize it was someone elses roof or that's the name of a pub round here!
Nevertheless, the house is wonderful. Again we sat by the pond in the star light and with billions of fireflies lighting the trees and the grass, spotting satellites in the clear sky. I'm beginning to like this camping thing. I just wish you could capture this on the camera. It's something everyone should see once in their life. It is spectacular.
The morning sun shone on the front of the house this morning. Making me realize that the porch will be the ideal place for breakfast. Sure it's still a building sight but they have taken down the false ceiling and now it has a wonderful barn like look. Like the attic you can still see the old wood shingles on the porch.
Morning Sun
Removed the ceiling to open up the porch
Veiw from the front door - yes that's the old toilet!
I am rather pleased that the hearth guy has finally laid the two hearths. The restored hearth in the dining room is as it would have been as a jambless hearth. The soot on the wall at the back is where the modern English fireplace was built but the original hearth would have filled the hearth support that is still in the basement. With our 100 year old, glazeless, French imported tile we are replicating as close as we possibly can the look of the original hearth. This will be our dining room and will house a small wood burning stove.
Very pleased how flush they got the hearth to the floor
Our future dining room
Hearth restored
That's about all that happened this week. The plumber has been able to get all of the plumbing into the chase at the end of the dining room, which means we don't need to put a dropped ceiling into the dining room. This can remain the wood floor, as we have in all the other rooms. They have therefore removed all the furring on the ceiling which left a small section of floor/Ceiling unsupported. I think you can guess where this inevitably ended. Yes, We were walking around upstairs and Daniel fell through the floor, well one leg did. It was a terrible fall and he's all scraped up and bruised. This will be forever known as "Daniel's leg hole".
Wildlife is going crazy here. Baby everythings everywhere. Yesterday we were sat by the pond and look who came by to visit. He was so small and wobbly on his feet it could only be his first few days. He was also very curious about humans and naively came towards us to check us out.
The garden too is growing well. The Basil I grew from seed is huge and the beans have reached the top of their poles. The tomatoes need to be staked with taller stakes but they all have lovely tomatoes on them and many more flowers.
Today we plan to take down the tent so that the piles of dry wood can be burned. Ryan is coming to mow the overgrown lawn and the paths around the field. I think I will need to get out my weedwacker (or a flame thrower) to re-tame some of the wild spots in the garden.
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
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.
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
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