Inspiration

This is the vision:

Before (and) The Plan

Sometime in July we will initiate renovation at Wise Road. Because of budget constraints we will complete the interior renovation first and (hopefully) repair/reside the exterior some time in the fall or winter.

To understand our renovation plan it's helpful to understand the house as is and the bizarre-I-mean-*interesting* current floor-plan. The original house (circa 1850s) was probably a small two-room structure (see 1 below). At some later date (1930s?) an addition was made to the back of the house (see 2). Then, in the swingin' seventies (when nothing, nothing should have been built ANYwhere), a third addition was made off the front of the house (see 3) and (probably at the same time) the floor-plan was butchered.

Here is a detail of the floor-plan as it currently stands:

Please notice that the front door opens into a bedroom. Notice also the Dark Hall and the Hallway of Doom which look like this:

Wasted Space

and this.

Goes Nowhere

Notice also the addition off the front of the house, which we have affectionately nicknamed the Cancerous Growth, or CG for short. It looks like this from the outside:

As you can see, it emerges like a diseased appendage distorting the pleasing and simple facade of the original house.

Inside the house is actually clean and (relatively) "updated." Too bad. It all goes. We are gutting to the studs in order to rearrange/restore the integrity of the floor-plan. Folly? Possibly. The first thing we will do is demolish the Cancerous Growth and restore symmetry to the facade. This will reduce the square footage to around 900sq.ft. The revised floor-plan is thus:

The original footprint will become a single room housing kitchen and living room. The back part of the house will include two small bedrooms and a simple bathroom. Simplicity and functionality are the watchwords of the project.

So here is a "before" pic of the kitchen:

The Kitchen!

This will be our bedroom:

The floor is, alas, not the original wood, which--we were told--was beyond repair. I am still skeptical about the veracity of this information, and I'm itching to peel back the current floor to see what's underneath. But once again, budget constraints, well, constrain me. The current floor is real tongue in groove, installed recently and in good condition. It was pre-finished (blech) in a color I'm not crazy about, but will serve until Phase II of the project (should we get that far).

So I hope you enjoyed my "before" post, and I sincerely hope I have some good progress and after shots in the not too distant future.

Stay tuned for my INSPIRATION POST next time!!!

Work Day

Yesterday we loaded up progeny+dog and headed out to Wise Road for the first time since we closed on the property. The day was spent mowing, weeding, and cutting back branches and weeds volunteer trees. Thank you to Clark for lending us your chainsaw. The previous owner hasn't done much land management in the past thirty years, and there is so much work to do that my mind boggles. After mowing a few acres of "lawn" around the house I am beginning to understand just how big 15 acres really is.

At the end of the day we were sweaty, covered with dirt, grass and bugs. We hardly scratched the surface of the work that needs to be done. But--the land around the house already feels more open, more hospitable. With lower branches removed from the trees around the house we can now see down the drive and catch glimpses across the valley. We mowed a path through the meadow above the wood, and this simple thing--the work of a few minutes--changed the upper meadow from an inhospitable wilderness into a parkland, a humane landscape, full of wildflowers and silence.

Welcome to Wise Road

Last week my husband and I signed innumerable documents and became the owners of the dilapidated farmhouse located on a hill above Wise Road. Today I begin a blog in honor of this humble rural domicile, hoping to record our renovation journey, as we search for the good life far from the madding crowd.  

As I set up the blog I struggled to choose an appropriate title. My first impulse was to call it “Wise Road,” for “Wise” is the road on which the farmhouse is to be found. However, as time went by I began to question the wisdom (ha) of this title. Is it…wise…I asked myself, to choose this appellation, with all the word “wise” suggests and implies? Won’t this title perhaps jinx the venture at the outset? Considering our project, could the name “Wise Road” begin to sound ironic? Sarcastic? For many reasons, I mused, it might be more accurate to call the blog “The Folly.” A folly, if you recall, is a small, charming structure that serves no practical purpose. For though our farmhouse may or may not be “charming” at this date and time, it is most certainly small (900 square feet), and its utility is up for debate.

And here we come to the second meaning of the word “folly.” For folly is, of course, foolishness. Folly is in fact *not* a wise road. And there have been many days (and will, I’m sure, be many more) when I have doubted the wisdom of our journey down Wise Road. Any time one undertakes the renovation of a neglected property coming up on its 150^th birthday there is, I think you will agree, at least an element of uncertainty. As you poke through the rooms, in the cellar, as the inspections go down, visions of dollar signs, of weepings and gnashings of teeth, begin to flit before your eyes. Maybe, you think, we should just tear the thing down and build something bright shiny and new. Maybe we should get a trailer. Or a tent. Maybe this was a horrible idea. But, there is much to say on this subject.  I will muse further on “folly” (in general and ours in particular) at a later date. For today, the deed is done, the dice is thrown.

But first, in our defense: There was most certainly an element of whimsy (if not folly) in our decision to purchase a property in the country. But at least, I will maintain, that it is a venerable and longstanding whim, held by both members of the marital partnership. Since the advent of our romance (some 14 years ago) my husband and I have been in perfect agreement regarding the necessity of, someday, possessing a home in the country. Many things have changed since those early days, namely religious persuasion, intellectual conviction, place of residence, marital status, employment status, existence of children, etc. but this one intention has remained firm, the conviction even growing as the other elements developed. The “place in the country” has been a permanent character in all our diverse plots.

So when my husband opened an office in a small town an hour outside the metropolis where we reside, the possibility of realizing our rural reverie suddenly sounded…practical? Prudent? Well, prudent is going too far perhaps. But possible, with at least an element of practicality. If we bought land within spitting distance of said small town we could spend 2-3 days per week there, thus reducing my husband’s inhumane 1 hour+ commute on those days.

So we began searching, visiting farms with old houses abandoned on the premises. We mourned as one “perfect” property was purchased out from under our feet. And when another viable option became available we leapt feet first into the project, making an offer after only one cursory viewing. So much for prudence, right?

So welcome to our blog. Whether it will lead us down a “wise road,” or merely in the way of folly I do not know. Perhaps we will find out. Perhaps we will even find that there is wisdom in folly?