Our Money Pit
Not long after my Spring Equinox newsletter winged off into the web-sphere, we had a come-to-Jaysus moment.
The framing crew of Allegro Confusione, a.k.a. Carl’s childhood home, had been working with the Deconstruction Works crew to get down to the bones of the Cape and the 1960s parts of the house. Trying to fit the old into a new construction, the framer noted it wasn’t a timber frame as had been thought. Rather an example of the transition from timber frame to stick frame. And it was six inches off, one side to the other. They would have to lift up and level the frame of the house.
At which point, more discovery was made: The foundation was not solid rock as had been assumed. In fact, it was a miracle the house hadn’t fallen in.
On April 4, we met with the Peterborough Historical Society. The members commended us on the care we had taken trying to save the Cape. But they concluded it was not worth saving.
In other words, the Cape was to be razed.
The job paused. The foundation plans had to be redrawn. And the mechanicals—still being reworked due to a misunderstanding of the definition of “off-grid,” the cost of which includes electrical loads, not just money—would have to be tweaked.
All of which was fine because it was going to be cheaper to build new. And the foundation would be much less expensive now that it could be simplified. After all, we weren’t having to align everything to the contours of an old 1830s Cape. Thus, we suggested revisiting the architectural plans to see what might be tweaked. But no! We were told that would cost too much. And time was of the essence.
On April 16, we roughed in the driveway to ensure easy and safe access to the work site by all the big machinery.
On April 21, Deconstruction Works returned, joining forces with the framing crew to continue the deconstruction of the Cape.
By the end of the day, April 24th, the Cape was gone and the 1960s part of the house still remained. Though not for long.
By May 1st—exactly 14 years after the raising of the barn that would become Darwin’s View—Allegro Confusione had no house.
Thinking we had finished with the deconstruction and demolition phase, Carl and I left for a family trip down to Charleston, South Carolina. Upon our return, we received a hefty bill from the architect. Apparently, all our efforts to keep the cost down had resulted in a ballooning to 2 ½ times our stated budget. We shut down the project to regroup.
But Allegro Confusione had other plans. After the Memorial Day weekend, we arrived at the site for a meeting with the contractor and noted that all the top soil had been removed from the work site, resulting in a small mountain to the southwest of the property. More shocking, a crater was being dug where the new house foundation would be, resulting in another small mountain of materials to the northwest of the property.
As we talked to the contractor, I watched a sapling ash, waving in the wind, wave its last. A monster machine lowered its jaws down and ripped the ash’s top off, then returned to pull the tree out by its roots. As the machine moved on to the ash’s sister tree, I leaned over to the contractor. “That is exactly what I don’t want.”
He shrugged, maybe puzzled. He laughed, maybe because amused by my naivete. But he didn’t understand. Because I will grant that the trees were already doomed; the emerald ash borer has arrived in New Hampshire. Dead ashes abound in our area, and those two, we had already decided, would have to go. However, not that way. There is already too much thoughtless violence against nature by humans. It added to my sense that everything was spiraling out of control. And to my own complicity in it. And yet onward we go.
I will let the photos below to tell the rest of the story. Suffice it to say, we might have to redub this property “Darwin’s Revenge.”
SLIDESHOW TO COME. I have to figure out how to upload the photos…
