We Have a Stone House*

He who works with his hands is a labourer.

He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.

He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.  

{St. Francis of Assissi}

Over the past month, the stonemason has been here finishing the last side of the house.  This is definitely a turning point in this process.  He started in May 2013 and completed three sides of the house, including the mammoth chimney, and broke for the winter in mid-December when it became too cold for the mortar to set properly.  It was a good day when he started back at it this Spring!

He works alone.  These hands lifted, carried and placed 90 tons of stone and 22 tons of mortar onto our home.    

They are rough like sandpaper, scarred and sewn up, callused, thick and worn from years of working with stone.  

Ours is the last full house he will stone; his craft has weighed heavily on his body.

We are so fortunate:   his skill, care, strength and artistry gave us a stone house.  It is the defining feature of our home.

He suggested that we create a time capsule to place in one of the last stones to go on.  

Contents:
1.  Family photo

2.  Letter about our family, our time on the farm and the history of the farm

3.  Blueprints for the house

4.  Coins 

5.  Toys!

He carved out a niche in the back of a stone to fit the glass jar.

In the mortar next to the stone with our time capsule, he placed a coin and his stonemason's symbol.  He also placed his own time capsule in the last stone, as he does for every project.  (A coin was also placed in the mortar "for your kids, somewhere they can reach."  Haven't found that one yet!)

What an unique and fascinating experience it has been to have this stonemason work with us on our home. 

* Our house has a 4" thick layer of stone applied to the exterior structural timber walls.  This is called a stone veneer.  A true stone house is actually supported by 3 to 4 foot thick stone walls.

Belgian Linen Slipcovered Furniture (Restoration Hardware style)

{our living room sofa}

Buying grown-up furniture has been on the "once we're in the new house..." list for about seven years.  We moved into our new (empty) house in July 2013 and by November it was time.  We needed a sectional for the den as well as sofas, chairs and ottomans to dampen the echo.

For years, I've been carrying around tear sheets of Restoration Hardware Style / Belgian linen slipcovered sofas.  And since our den (photo above) was literally designed and built to have a sectional placed under the window, that was the piece I started with.

I visited the lovely furniture shops in our town and surrounding area.  I showed them my inspiration photos and looked at catalogue after catalogue.   Many of them offered set modules to build with but didn't offer customization of sizing and details like pillows, skirting and filling.

So I decided to stop beating around the bush and go to the source:  Restoration Hardware.  Excited to make the day trip to midtown Toronto (a rare occurrence), I was ready to see row upon row of favourites from my dogeared RH catalogue.  I was ready to find the perfect sectional.

Boy, was I disappointed.  The showroom had a minimum of pieces on display in dim lighting (for effect?).  Since there weren't any sectionals on the floor, the salesperson showed me my options on their website using an iPad...  Long story short, RH was not our answer in the sofa department:  we couldn't get the width/length we needed and their furniture prices in Canada are higher than I was willing to spend.  (I will, however, continue to buy certain items from RH such as shower curtains that I've been very happy with.)

{fabric samples from our supplier}

From there, Josh started digging around.  He has the Midas touch when it comes to working a deal so it wasn't long before he found a custom furniture manufacturer in California that was interested in selling directly, as long as we placed a wholesale size order.  Their pieces are 'bench made', meaning each piece is made by one person.  They specialize in custom orders so we were able to look at their basic pieces and design from there.  We chose 40 fabric samples (from their selection of 300+) to have couriered to us (photo above).  There were loads of Belgian linens to chose from!

The design/fabrication/shipping process took about four months, with the shipping container stuck in customs for a large portion of that time.  It was a fun day with the truck finally arrived:

{Receiving the truck load} 

We loaded it all into our living room:

And then started to move it around the house.  The living room sofa:

Living room chairs (old furniture in background - nowhere to put it until basement is finished!:

Had to get one of these leather club chairs:

For the girls' room:

We also had our photographer friend take some photos of the new furniture just in case we need some clean photos in the future.  I've shared some of them below.  Just what we need, another business.  Right? 

Handmade Furniture and Other Bits of Progress

I feel like we haven't accomplished ANYTHING on the house lately.  Not true though - we have.

During the rush leading up to the Christmas holidays, I felt like I really didn't have anything new to report.  But as I tallied up all the small projects we've finished over the past couple of months and especially during this holiday, I've realized that we do have lots of small projects to share.

We've installed two handrails; one for the big people and a lower railing for the little ones.  Stella Jane uses hers every day.

In the mudroom, we managed to build and install some hooks on boards made of reclaimed wood found in the barn attic.  The were covered with layers of pink paint that I lovingly scraped off.

I even managed to hang some artwork.  (But haven't yet managed to remove the blue painter's tape that helped me position the pieces...)

 A large chalkboard now hangs in the pantry.

I improved upon the mirror that I made several years ago for our old house.  It's made of antique trim we found in the barn.  (Yes, that attic is a gold mine.)  The mirror is now properly mitered and joined and has a piece of mirror cut to fit that is glued in place.  It's ready to hang and it's huge.

We designed and built a coffee table for the living room.  The wood is exterior wall studs from our old house (circa 1860) and has a fantastic patina.  Here it is in the shop:

And in the living room:

We designed and built a similar table for the front entrance using the same lot of wood.  (Yet to be styled...)

The shower glass and curtain rod finally went up in the kids bathroom.  

    

Outside, the stone mason worked until mid-December, when it got too darn cold to do any more.  He nearly completed the third side and so will be back at it in the Spring.  It looks beautiful and we couldn't be happier with the work he's done.

Lanterns were installed where the screened porch will eventually be.

Adventure on Walnut Farm

Two new friends visited Walnut Farm this week to explore.  We toured our farm and the one behind us, which has a fantastic abandoned farm house on it.  These two ladies are pretty savvy with their iphone cameras.  Thought I'd share some of their photos.

Belgian Style Steel Door

Although it's been quite a while since I've posted, we have been making some progress over here so I thought I'd better update you.

The stone mason (Storm Stonescaping) was away for about six weeks but is back now and more than half complete (working on back and other side).

Below is a photo from last week.  The chimney is a significant amount of work!  I wish it was more visible from the front of the house.

We've also installed the front door and I love it.  

About six months ago we came up with the idea that a steel & glass door would be the perfect combination of modern and traditional to work with the stone.  Most often this type of door is used in climates when single pane glass is used, making them very thin and elegant.  Of course in Canada, that doesn't cut it.  You need double pane, insulated glass.  We visited the only supplier in the province (and country?) and were disappointed with their product (and pricetag).  Their door systems were clunky.  Josh decided he had a better design to make it thinner, more energy efficient and easier to build.  I told him that "when you need a new watch, you don't build it yourself.  There are just some things that you let 'the experts' take care of."  Well, long story short, he built our door.  And, man, am I ever glad he did.  I absolutely love it.  

All I needed to do was provide the sketch.

Which I had also mocked up in full scale to ensure the arch would match the arch inside our front hallway.

From there, he had the metal machined.

Welded.

After that it went to be galvanized (to protect from the elements) and powder coated in black.

Install day:

In the photo above there is still plastic behind the door.  The glass panes were ordered from a local company and made in Montreal.  Here's how they look installed:

A few finishing details still needed but it's so close and gets me every time I walk by it.