Progress

There's so much happening up there on the Hill that I've been a bit lax at keeping the blog updated. A couple of people surprisingly pointed this out, reminding me that my readership is bigger than the 13 loyalists that have actually signed on to the blog, at least one of whom I know has dropped out. Those of you who read last month's blog and saw the picture of the foundations will be amazed to see the progress on the framing of the house. In just one month our house has been entirely framed and enclosed. Jerry, who is in charge of  framing, has a gift for not only visualizing walls, roof lines and gables, but also being able to construct it from two-by-fours or two-by-sixes or two-by eights or any combination thereof.  He must have been awesome with Lego, I mean how else do you learn this kind of skill?         

My partner and I agreed that the most exciting part of our building journey so far was when we were able to step inside the forest of timber joists and see exactly what the inside of the house will look like -- room sizes, window views, ceilings and hallways. There are a couple of very minor things that in hindsight we would have changed, but overall it's a great floor plan and a credit to our architect and builder. The loft space, which was originally quite small with restricted head room, has been opened up to create a true third bedroom which will be accessed by a spiral staircase. And what was initially designed as a screened porch on the western side of the house has been changed to a windowed room that I call a conservatory. However, I am reliably informed by my partner (and who am I to disagree with her?) that this is a British term that is not commonly used in American home architecture. But I don't care. It is, and always will be to me, a conservatory.

The barn is nearing completion and has reached the point where scheduling contractors in the right order is getting more complex. For example you can't have the plumber in before the bench tops are installed. And the bench tops can only be installed when the cabinetry is done. Therefore work is going a lot slower than we envisaged although we're still hoping for an early April completion. This hasn't stopped me from pushing ahead getting the workshop organized. Last week we installed Home Depot's least expensive cabinets -- made even less expensive with a conveniently timed 20% off sale. There are now so many drawers and cupboards that, unless I label them, I'm in imminent danger of losing stuff forever. We've also taken delivery of a new powerful dust collection system that will be installed, hopefully, in the next few weeks. I say hopefully because I'm not sure what it will take for me to hang the duct work on 10' high ceilings. The picture below is me climbing an 8' ladder with my eyes closed. I'm not keen on heights you see. My partner, who also serves as Director of Public Relations, Sales and Marketing for Bogle Woodworks, a totally unpaid position but one which has several perks such as sleeping with the Chief Furniture Designer and Craftsman, is doing a fantastic job promoting the business. Thanks to her efforts I now have several music stands to complete, including two for Dowling Music in New York, as well as a couple of butterfly tables that I'll be crafting from our stack of locally grown Pecan and Oak.   
           

So what else is going on up there? Well, we're pleased to announce that two of the bluebird boxes we set out in January have residents, with at least one containing bluebird eggs. And, after many subtle hints, I have finally been able to schedule a horse riding lesson with our next door neighbors. You probably never knew that I had a hankering for riding horses but the way gas prices are going at the moment I figure that horses are the way of the future and don't want to get left behind. This could be an entirely new phase in my life depending upon whether or not I (voluntarily) stay on the horse's back. Watch this space!                    

      

Netties in the New House

I can distinctly remember the potty I used as a child. It is perhaps an indication of my fond attachment to that essential utensil. It was a small, yellow tin pot with a handle on the side. While most folks moved on from a potty to a regular toilet by the time they were three years old, I kept my potty privileges, at least at night time, until I was about four or five. This may surprise many people until I explain that I grew up in an upstairs flat, or in American parlance an apartment, with an outside toilet.

The toilet itself was in a small, purpose-built brick building that sat across a concrete backyard. On the other side, directly opposite the stone steps that led up to the door at the the bottom of the back stairs, was the coal house. The toilet, or netty as it is affectionately called in northeast England, was only ten feet or so from the door at the bottom of our back stairs, but on a bitterly cold night that was an endless distance. Of course we had no central heating, the only form of warmth came from a coal fire in our living room that also served as our dining room as well as the bath room on Friday nights when the old zinc tub was hauled up those back stairs and filled with buckets of piping hot water from a boiler that stood in our kitchen.


My boys Andrew and Thomas standing outside my old front door (somewhat modernized since my days!)

So lying in a cosy warm bed on a winter morning, groggy with sleep and with a film of ice formed on the inside of the window, that first-thing-in-the-morning call of nature was not a welcome feeling. Trying to put off the inevitable I would wait and wait until the last moment when, desperate, I would finally leap out of bed and hare down the short hallway, across the living room - startling whoever happened to be in there - down the back stairs to the bottom door, that was usually locked with a big iron key, and out across the backyard to the netty. This routine was timed to perfection and to the best of my recollection was executed without - ahem - any mishaps. In the winter when we were besieged by cold winds and rain or when snow and ice covered the backyard, it was a test of endurance. This was man against the elements, especially as my routine did not allow me the luxury of donning a dressing gown or a pair of slippers before I took flight. Bare feet and pyjamas were no protection from the cold or wet. I don't know how many times my Mam would tell me to "wrap up warm", but I never did catch the forewarned "death of cold" that echoed in my ears as I took the back stairs two at a time. I was sixteen when we finally moved to a house with an indoor toilet, running hot water and -- joy of joys -- central heating. Heaven could not be any better than this.

Our new house has three toilets (needless to say that these are of the indoor variety) and two bathrooms/showers. Another two toilet/bathrooms are located in the barn. All are centrally-heated of course offering easy access and comfort even in the coldest of weathers. I cannot imagine what my mother would have thought of it all. I can still hear her words ringing in my ears, "Eee our Andy, I wish you'd stuck in at school and made somethin' of yourself!" If only she was here, if only...........

Back on Sandy Hill things are progressing, albeit a little slower due to the extremely cold weather that brought snow and ice to the Brenham area. The barn exterior is now painted, white with green trim and is looking just as we imagined it would. The workshop floor has been painted and last week we bought some ready-made cabinets that I'll be installing in my woodshop. We're hoping that the barn will be pretty much complete by the end of March so I'm starting to pack up my woodshop to get ready to move the ton of equipment and stuff that currently finds a home in our garage. Purchasing a pick-up truck was a brilliant decision and although I occasionally pine for that 3.4 liter Audi Quattro on these winding two-lane highways, the truck has been indispensible. We added a small trailer a couple of weeks ago and that too has been a superb investment. We'll no doubt save money on moving the woodshop ourselves provided I can figure out how to back the trailer into out narrow driveway! 

The foundations for the house have been poured. Instead of a concrete slab, we have chosen a pier and beam system that will minimize damage to any live oak tree roots. This also follows the traditional house construction although instead of laying the beams across pieces of field stone that were just placed on the ground, the new beams will be laid across concrete pillars, 12" in diameter and buried 8 to 9 feet deep into the ground.  We had our arborist use an air spade to check each pier location for tree roots and were really pleased to find that none of the 70-odd piers affected any of the primary root systems.

This week we have to decide on our final window sizes so that the framer can start work. And so it begins again, although this time we'll know what to expect having been through the process with the barn. It was good practice.

  

      

          

      

 
                                         

An Overdue Update

The social life in Brenham, at least in our little corner of Washington County, is pretty good. At least it has been over the holiday period. So I'm thinking to myself, why build a house when we can get all the benefits of living up there without any of the expense? Why can't we just plug in to the parties, dinners and other social events that seem to be happening up there every other week and just stay where we can for the night. This bears thinking about...........

    

The Independence Store

So the holidays came and went and were as enjoyable as ever with our two youngest boys home for the duration. I took them up to the property the week before Christmas to help me with a couple of chores. It was a bit chilly up there on Sandy Hill but we warmed up clearing the homestead site of concrete blocks and a stack of salvaged floor boards that might be reused in some future project. The boys 'played' on the tractor like they did as kids with their Tonka toys, picking up loads of mulch and driving around before dumping it and repeating the exercise all over again. We had an executive lunch of sandwiches and potato chips at the Independence Store, always a treat, listening to Mike tell us stories about how the place used to be a illicit drinking hole during Prohibition. It was evidently the place to hang out, complete with slot machines, poker games and some memorable fights. Must have have been a hell of a place on a Saturday night!


The Barn Nearing Completion

We've realized that there has been a huge change in our role up there in Sandy Hill. Instead of spending three or four days a week working on the property we are now more or less into a project management role which entails a weekly meeting with our builder to check on progress and answer any questions. The barn is nearing completion. The metal roof was put on in the first week of the New Year.  Electrical, IT, plumbing and HVAC have all been installed and the interior walls are almost finished. A lot of time is being spent selecting lighting and plumbing fixtures and we now move on to choosing paint colors, bench top material, tiles, bath tubs and so on and so on. The list seems to be inexhaustible but we are so grateful to have our project manager to help navigate the seemingly endless list of suppliers and requirements. 



We've spent a couple of days pottering around. Nothing like the clean-up days of summer but it's so nice to be outside and doing things around the place. My partner is really getting into the local nature and is fast becoming an expert on the subject of local flora and fauna. When she first announced that she wanted to be a naturalist I totally got it wrong. OK, so we're not going to be prancing naked through the grass, that would be a naturist. Instead we're implementing a nature conservancy plan that we'll gradually put into effect over the next couple of years. (And when I say we I mean it as the Royal "we". My partner is fully in charge of this bit of property management.) Part of the plan is to encourage the return of bluebirds which are largely missing in this part of Texas despite being originally indigenous to the area.

Erecting a Bluebird House

So we have erected several bluebird houses that will hopefully to attract nesting birds this spring and anticipate adding many more over the coming years. We've also started making a trail through the woods, picking up discarded junk (will it ever end?) and creating brush piles that will serve as hang-outs for small furry animals. We know we have deer on the land - we see hoof prints all over the place - so we will encourage them to keep on visiting our bit of paradise, perhaps putting out some deer feeders.  

On a sad note, Jack Meeker, the Director of Miracle Farms and our dear neighbor, has decided to hang up his spurs. Jack is one of the world's gentlemen. A tall imposing figure, always wearing a cowboy hat and generally not without his spurs, he is every man's idea of a Texan. His gentle manners, his kindness and his friendship to us will always be fondly remembered. We wish him, his lovely wife and family the very best of luck in their new endeavours and we look forward to continuing our friendship. Meanwhile, Miracle Farms will move on to new horizons and we will hopefully find ways of increasing our involvment with this wonderful program for at-risk boys.