Conservancy Cleared #2

Several weeks late on this entry but we had a nail biting lead up to our meeting with the Heritage Conservancy in early September. In order to fully grasp what we were proposing, our builder spray painted the outline of the floorplan once the house is moved. We got to walk onto each room to get an idea of how everything is going to flow. It was a really exciting day for us all, except for Brooks who upon finding where his room would be, broke down in tears because he doesn’t want to sleep on the grass. We assured him he would have a floor, walls, and even a roof. He did not look or sound convinced.

Our engineers, architect, and builder all went above and beyond to prepare for the meeting. We had over 80 pictures of recent flooding and its effects on the house. Some compelling evidence as to our need to move the house in order to make sure that it lasts another 250 years. Our requests were fairly simple. Remove the two 1960’s additions to the original home, move the original house about 150 feet toward the driveway in order to get it completely out of the FEMA floodplain, and build a complementary addition to include a kitchen, family room, morning room (Hayden’s art studio), tricked out mudroom (the Mess Hall) and powder room. Gobs of porches are also being added on, including a long porch along the meadow side of the home which will mimic the home’s porch that once graced that side in photos from the early 1900’s. Now for the meeting, yikes!

So, the fine folks from the Conservancy arrived and they could not have been nicer or more sympathetic to our needs as well as to the needs of the home. They felt that the move that a no-brainer and were pleased that someone would appreciate the home so much as to take on the cost and task of moving such a beast in order to save it. Their main concern was that the addition not overpower the original home but rather complement it. They will be working with our architect in order to ensure that each detail of the addition be in keeping with the time period. This is sweet news to me as I also want to ensure that we don’t skimp on historic character. Their team was a wealth of knowledge. We learned about how to tell which portion of a historic home was built first. You just check the cornerstone of each wall. If there is no cornerstone, then that section was an addition. There are 4 sections of the original home dating from 1750-1860. It appears as though a summer kitchen was at one end and a living area at the other, however, also with a kitchen which was odd. Then at some point toward the end of that period, the two were joined together by a large formal room that will be our dining room. We also learned about the 2 wooden plaques on the exterior wall of the home, which are called Fire Marks. These Fire Marks would have been provided by the insurance company at the time. You paid for your policy and they provided a Fire Mark. If you had a fire, the company would show up and if you didn’t have their Fire Mark, they would simply watch the house burn. Good incentive to buy insurance!

So, at the end of our meeting, we had a much anticipated verbal approval of our plan which was followed in just 2 days with a written approval. Demo will begin as soon as possible and we very much hope that the house movers still have a November 5th opening available!