charrette

Many folks have asked how the house rebuild is going. Well, thank you! Thomas and Rose's family were in this week for a three day design charrette, focusing on the bones of the house and house site. This is an unparelleled opportunity to put in permanent form all the things we have jury-rigged in the past 27 years, and then never changed -- because they worked.

Aspects of the design of particular importance: the path from the milk parlor to the dairy processing sink in the basement; the layout and location of the new greenhouse; the size and height of the front porch, and the exact orientation of the door from the back porch into the kitchen; the size and location of the kachelofen (our masonry heater).

This afternoon William and Raymond began laying the bricks for the south wall of the basement, and some of us began hauling stones for the retaining wall that will hold up our front walk.