Friday, October 21, 2022

Fall Travels

 

We’ve been out and about these past few days.

          During the weekend we drove up to the Berkshires on a leaf/lunch mission. It’s probably a little nutty since our trees here are just as glorious. Still, we enjoyed poking around Daniel Chester French’s place again, he the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial statue. Amazing that he was still sculpting away into his eighties. 


 

          Mid-week was a grandparent trip to Rhode Island to see the four-year-old twins - and oh yes, our son and daughter-in-law, too. They own and renovated a three-family house on the West side of Providence, built in the 1890s and originally used as a funeral parlor.

 Happily, there’s no evidence of its former life, but it still retains much of its early beauty.


(Detail from the one of the floors.)
 

 

 

 (Detail from a fireplace surround)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Clever son and family now live in the back, in the original carriage house that was in such sad shape when he bought it that he had to have giant guywires affixed to keep it from falling down.


 Much of the work he’s done himself, including working umpteen feet in the air to replace the slate roof – something I didn’t learn about until later, thank heaven. 

 It’s come a long way from those days. 


 

11 comments:

  1. Your son has done an amazing job. I completely understand being thankful you didn't learn about the 'high rise' work until it was safely done.

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    1. Very much like those stories from his teenage years.

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  2. Replies
    1. Somehow over the years, he's learned how to do just about everything.

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  3. Wow, that is gorgeous and they will always love it because they helped give birth to the renovation.

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  4. What a lovely home, and a lot of work. Those floors are gorgeous! - Jenn

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  5. WOW your son is genius ! I can hardly believe what he has done to defy gravity, patch, and hammer a beautiful building into being! Amazing lad!!!

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    1. What's funny is his degree is in interior design.

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  6. It looks wonderful now! He is very talented, and I hope he retires his ladders for future renovations. Thanks for sharing this.

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  7. Lots of hard work and love in that building.

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  8. What talent he has. Also what capacity for sheer labor. Slate tiles are heavy and I'm glad you didn't know about that part at the time.

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.