DeJoux House

Funny, when we first bought the house there was some debate as to whether the fireplace in the living room was in the position of an original corner fireplace.  Well, we can safely say it is not.  This week, Brian Kennedy at Historic Housewrights began work on the house and his first task was to remove the fireplace and the chimney through the house. Living room with fireplace and chimney gone Between the floors Stacking the bricks  Behind the modern fireplace you can see the outline of a small fire place and mantle but behind that it is clear that the old mud and straw wall plaster had been painted/lime washed.   Also, as you look at where the chimney goes through the first floor, there are quite rough cuts into the beams and the base board.  It seems the south room of DeJoux House never had a fireplace.  We are also keeping all of the old bricks in case we need to use them for the hearths or in the garden somewhere. First fl...

All the bids came in.  It took a while. We briefed most of the contractors around Thanksgiving... but this is Ulster County.   We have a lot of different types of work to do on the house this means a lot of different subs.  Electricians, plumbers, plasterers, mechanical engineers, painters, carpenters, mill workers...You name it, we got them all. As the prices came in, we realized a couple of our dreams had to give. The open loop  geothermal system , that took advantage of the high water table, was turning into quite a high ticket item.  The system itself was expensive but when you added the cost of drilling additional wells to supply enough water it really became prohibitive.   We will still be using air handlers on a conventional propane system, so at some point in the future we can review this and easily integrate it into the system.   Rebuilding all three chimneys was also costing a fortune.  We reduced this cost by only rebuilding the...

First snows...it got much deeper from here on. Wow, what a winter.   Thanks to Mother Nature we were pre-warned.  In the fall we went on a number of river trips in the canoe.  On one of these trips, we were exploring one of the tributaries and we thought a squirrel was throwing acorns at us because all around there were projectiles hitting the water.   As we continued on our 'paddle', we realized that all of the oak trees were dropping their acorns, not one at a time but a huge deluge.  It sounded like it was raining little stones into the water around us. Later, when we were driving along Springtown road we saw the same thing all along the road.  Millions and millions of acorns had fallen within 24 hours.  The road was covered with them (and also covered with the carcasses of dead squirrels that had been hit by cars as they feasted on this bounty...I kid you not). It was so remarkable that we mentioned this to several people and discovered that...

I know it's been a while since I updated, but frankly very little has actually happened.   Apart from the end of year summary, we've done nothing but sit by the pond and marvel at our property, which is beautiful in every season. The front of the house The back of the house The view from the porch Across the lake in the snow The view from our field, looking to the house Daniel bought the most beautiful fire pit...simple, modern, elegant.  We spent the whole weekend last weekend sat around it in the snow.  I can't wait until the pond is good for skating...It's going to be the best place to warm aching feet after a day of ice skating.   Construction update There were a number of delays getting prices and getting started.  The major problem was that Eight Point Construction became busy and told us they could not start until May/June 2011.  This put us in rather a difficult position.  We had to go back to the drawing board and b...

Almost exactly one year ago, September 27th, I wrote the first blog entry to the DeJoux House. There is a link to that first entry at the top of every page. It seems hard to believe that a whole year has gone by so fast and in just 52 weeks there has been so much pleasure and discovery for Daniel and I. (and a number of our friends too). Although we haven't begun the main construction yet, we are waiting for the Eightpoint to make time for us. (I am happy they are busy because they do such a good job, but hope my active promotion of their business hasn't contributed to them being too busy for us!!!). But, although I am impatient, have my moments of WTF, we have no real tangible reason to hurry. The summer was wonderful without the house. We had dinner parties, swam in the pond, enjoyed the landscape and grounds in a way we would not have done if the house was usable. We've become very fond of the peninsula and I think that will always be a very special place fo...

Wow, has it really been that long since I wrote a post on the blog. Sorry to all for my tardiness. But, honestly not much has happened in the last two months. We have spent the weekends floating in the pond. We love the peninsula and have had many lavish banquets there over the summer. Here are pictures of a few of them. The grill by the lake has become a permanent fixture as have the "floaties". The floats allow you to spend a lot of time in the water without risk of touching the bottom or having to swim around and around in circles. Many hours of floating, coolness has been enjoyed. The other feature of our summer have been the bonfires under the starry sky. Photos don't do it justice but we have had big bonfires and small fires and have loved staying by the lake until late into the night. Daniel's new iphone app (starwalk) that tells you the constellations using the GPS was the best $2 spent this year. Roasted marshmallows and Eaton Mess around the fire...

Daniel has nearly finished the drawings and the contractors are busy with other projects. So not much to do than enjoy the pond, which we are doing a great deal. The pond is an amazing ecosystem, cool and refreshing at the depths and warm as toast on the surface. The pool floats were the best discovery. You can float around in the warm water and every time you need a refreshing burst of cool water, just reach down. The floats are better than boats. Everyone can have one and you can paddle all round the pond. (Our latest guests, Jina and Dave, circumnavigated the island...something even Daniel and I have not dared to do). The willow trees provide wonderful shade in case the sun gets too hot. The new stepping stones are also a great addition and mean you can get into the water without putting your toes into the mud. We kept the grass at edges of the pond long which, we recently discovered, is good for the dragon flies. We have millions of dragon flies, turtles, frogs...