DeJoux House

Daniel and I were not at the house this weekend. We had visitors in the city and had to stay in NYC. We both really missed it...(although Daniel didn't miss it that much as he worked on the plans for some more this weekend...he promises they will be done soon and we can begin construction proper!). Last weekend we were there in the rain so I made Daniel work on the drawings from the porch. Even in the rain the lake looked lovely. One of the pictures I took was almost the same view as a photo we took when we bought the house. It really shows how much clearing Daniel and I had done. Before: After: There were some events this weekend without us. "Bernie the Brush Hog" came this week to brush hog the field again. We are trying to get it to a meadow and get rid of the brambles that continue to sprout up. This cut will allow the grasses to grow up through the summer so it should wonderful in a month or two. Ryan Petit th...

Now that the paths have been mowed into the field, behind the house , we can walk the grounds comfortably. You can sort of see where the old road used to run across the property as shown in the 1790 map . There is still a approximation of a road between the trees and although difficult to take a photo of this, you can get a sense of it in this photo.

Well, it was memorial day. We had no bathroom, no kitchen, nowhere to entertain...so what do we do? Invite all our friends in Ulster County to a Garden Party. It was a beautiful day, if a little hot for working and preparing for guests. Before we had even started we braved the pond for a swim. It was amazing. All morning we kept jumping back into the pond. Daniel made me a work bench on the porch to make Pimms and English style sandwiches (Cucumber, Cheese and Branston Pickle, Ham and Tomato, Beef and Horseradish, Egg salad and watercress). I wandered round to all the neighbors and those who were in, I invited. As guests started to arrive, Cindy was still in her bikini. (she had put the bikini top back on by then). It was great to meet our neighbors Bob and Carol from across the road, Neil and family from the other side of the trailer and Colette and Tom from further down Springtown Road and happen to be Dawn's (from R/GA) in laws. In fact it turned out that people stay...

Memorial day weekend was a frenzy. Daniel and I drove over to Pine Plains, NY to see if we could find a place that could supply wide plank, old growth floors to patch our original floors. The big challenge is that our floors are not your ordinary floors as they are very wide plank, up to 22 inches in places and both structural (they are the floor) as well as aesthetic. Our first stop turned out to be our best stop. Antique and Vintage Woods specialize in exactly what we were looking for...(well, not exactly. They'd just sold exactly what we were looking for)...We walked in with a small sample and met a youngish guy called Andrew (which turned out to be our second piece of luck that day). Andrew shaved off the end of the wood and immediately identified the wood as Antique Heart Pine by the smell and the closeness of the grain. Apparently this is a type of wood that grows an inch in diameter every 30 years and has not been available for over 100 years because we used it all up...