The House

In October of 2007, I had mentioned to Frank that I would like very much to build a post-and-beam farmhouse with a wraparound porch.

Frank, being the generous soul that he is, began researching the post-and-beam house. He scoured, read, asked, and probed and found a set of plans that suited me just fine.

I like to look at ONE set of plans and give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I have neither the patience nor the desire to scour, read, ask, or probe on these matters.

Having settled on a set of plans, and really believing that someday we would build such a house in southeastern Connecticut, Frank began to google his way through the Internet and came upon ONE set of plans that turned his head.

He forwarded me a copy and my head was also turned.

Clearly, we were bagging the post-and-beam for the contemporary.

We sat with these plans for months and months, studied them, lived with them, walked through them.

It was our house.

We found an architect in the area, Michael Sullo, who specializes in contemporary homes and he made a few minor adjustments to better suit our needs and to make the house "livable" in our climate. (The original house was basically a glass house.)

It took us two full months to get the final drawings and endless meetings, phone calls, and e-mails.

We're very happy with the end result.

Thank you, Dr. Mike!

Zoning

I dropped the plans off at Town of Stonington this morning for zoning approval.

Word has it that Joe Larkin, the man with the pen, will be going on vacation soon.

With any luck, he'll get to our plans before he boards his plane.

No one at Town Hall would comment either way.

So now we wait.

And wait.

And wait.

T-I-M-B-E-RRR

Frank took great pains to be sure that as few trees were taken down as possible to allow for the machinery and for the house. Our excavators, T & C Excavation, were incredibly meticulous and did only what was absolutely necessary.

The workers neatly chopped and stacked all the timber so that we can use them in our chimeneas.

They had two unseasonably warm days (for New England) to work in while Frank and I were in Miami for the half marathon.

Lot 5

The truck is facing our backyard.


This will be the view from our living room and master bedroom windows.


The larger tree at the left of the photo is smack in the middle of our living room. Protected wetlands are just below the crest.

Lot 5 is a 2.63 parcel nestled between Connecticut state forest land and the Davis Farm and no other homes in sight.

We stumbled upon this lot quite accidentally. We had met with Art Hayward to look at another lot he was selling in Stonington, and it didn't quite grab us. We explained the sort of house we were hoping to build, and Art told us he had just the lot for the project.

He was right.

On December 30, 2008, we became the owners of Lot 5.

And with it came wildlife, privacy, solitude, and birds.

It doesn't get better than this.

How Did We Get Here???

In 1975, Frank decided he wanted to build a house. That was 34 years ago.

To give you an idea of how long ago this really was, consider the following. In 1975:

• Francisco Franco died.


• Microsoft was born.


• Patty Hearst was arrested.


• The disposable razor was introduced.


• Jimmy Hoffa had disappeared.

In 1975, the Number One song was Love Will Keep Us Together by the Captain and Tennille.

It was a strange time.

Over the past 34 years, children have been born and raised, homes have been bought and sold, and careers have been started and shelved. Even for the Captain and Tennille.

Thirty-four years ago Frank decided he wanted to build a house.

The time is finally here.