Fifteen years ago, on November 5, 2008 we were many months deep into building/rebuilding the stone walls around Rosslyn’s deck. The original estimate had morphed from weeks to months. As I recall, five weeks had stretched into five months by this stage. I’ll dig into my notes to verify, but for the sake of this stone wall retrospective, simply know that we’d overrun yet another deadline and were beyond anxious to wrap up.
We’d been living in the house, but it was still a construction site. Dirty. Muddy. Noisy. Zero privacy. Close to zero down time. And heavily trafficked with contractors and suppliers.
Our still young puppy, Griffin, thoroughly enjoyed all the commotion, but Susan and I were waaay past our living-in-a-job-site is tolerable threshold.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Actually *behind* myself (chronologically speaking) in terms of this stone wall retrospective.
So for now I’ll get out of the way for a time capsule post, a grateful meditation on accomplishment and endurance, teamwork and stonework, hardscape integration and cohesion, the brute beauty of stone and the nuanced poetry of wabi-sabi design, reimagining and repurposing,…
This was our first foray into upcycling Essex limestone salvaged from our historic property into prominent and important design elements.
Turning repurposed Essex limestone (aka Chazy and Trenton Limestone) from former Rosslyn foundation and cistern walls into retaining walls and borders and stairways.
(Source: Hardscape Supervisor)
Today’s stone wall retrospective wouldn’t be complete without a grateful shoutout to Dan Faber, Doug Decker, and Mike Manzer. Thank you! Fifteen years later we’re still super grateful!
Griffin Too
As I mentioned above, Griffin loved construction and contractors. He never missed an opportunity to join in the fun.
Even when Susan dressed him up for Halloween! Not so sure these mugs prove he was exactly thrill with his costume though..,
What do you think?