Thursday, March 10, 2016

more mess

Nothing super exciting visually, but at least I'm slowly reforming some semblance of muscle with all this digging and hauling.  Over a thousand of the yellow brick were dug from the back perimeter of the yard, then carried up the hill and stacked.  We have another 500 or so that were already moved from when we first started the schoolhouse project.  All told we'll end up being about 500 bricks short, and we're leaving it up to our contractor (Third Generation for the locals) to use red bricks from our demolished addition in either a border or rug pattern to make up the difference.



I wasn't initially worried about emptying the schoolhouse, but then we had a huge windstorm that destroyed our carport.  That thing has been up for 4 years with no damage, and naturally it dies a week before we don't need it anymore.  I was so looking forward to taking it down myself!




This left us with a rather large building full of tools and material, plus a carport's worth of stuff that needed to be moved, organized and stacked under tarps.  Not exactly the way I hoped to spend my week, and it's rather disconcerting to see our yard once again looking like this...


The stone and stone dust went in without incident, and the bricks would have been started today were it not for the incessant rain.  Hopefully tomorrow will see some things prettified inside the building, but addressing the stacks is a whole other problem.  Part of me wants everything to go right back in so I can clean, level and reseed the yard, but I'm not sure that's wise.  It'll be much easier to get the workshop put together and the antique cabinets restored without giant piles of wood to trip over.


And, a gratuitous beam shot, just because they're so delicious.  And to think these were headed to someone's woodburner...


I feel guilty on a daily basis for repurposing this building instead of restoring it.  But then I see the beams and the super-abundance of quartered oak and know that no one else was stepping up to save her.  Everything that could be saved was, and aside from the doors going on the front she'll look nearly identical.  But that doesn't help the fact that Wirsing School Road is now devoid of it's Wirsing School.