Howard Hall Farm Blog

The Cole House dinner rush

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:16:00 +0000

PROGRESS UPDATE:

Charity dinner had benefits for two historic sites:
The Thomas Cole House, and our 1780's parlor

Last weekend, we hosted a dinner to help raise money for the restoration of the Thomas Cole House National Historic Site in Catskill, NY. In addition to being a fantastic cause, it gave us incentive to speed up the restoration of our parlor. For the first time since moving in, our eyes were able to feast along with our stomaches.

This was our Parlor long ago:

By the time we got here it looked like this:

Since then, we've done a seemingly infinite number of repairs to the room, not the least of which were restoring the original chimney, and bringing the walls back to their original lime plaster.

Our Parlor now:

To view a photo gallery of the Parlor's various incarnations through time, click here.

Click here to view our house in 3-D

About the Thomas Cole House:

Today, only a few remaining acres constitute the National Historic Site, but the modest, picturesque residential grounds reflect Thomas Cole's period, and are to be restored to their period condition, when the landscape was described by fellow artist, Jasper Cropsey, as “not give off an atmosphere of luxury and wealth.” The panoramic views to the Catskill Mountains and its great “Wall of Manitou,” experienced daily by Cole, can still be enjoyed. The entry driveway coming from Spring Street can still be traced, and the adjacent flower garden blooms each summer with renewed care. Close by is the Federal-style privy, built to complement the house, and Thomas Cole's studio at the old store-house. These outbuildings have, or will soon be, fully restored. Beyond is the grove of old trees, the woodlot mentioned in Thomas Cole's writings. A stand of Cedar trees in the grove probably inspired the name Cedar Grove, and it is possible that Cole himself coined the term before 1830. With its scenic attributes and authentic rural amenities, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site is a living memorial to the artistry of its famous resident and the world of romanticism in the Hudson River Valley.
Click here to visit the Thomas Cole House website for more information.

This time last year: One year later:

Definitely a good excuse for a feast!

Restoration pages that relate to this post:

LIME PLASTER

Click here to view our house in 3-D

HOWARD HALL FARM HOME

Finishing Fantasies and Faux Finishes "in the real world."

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000

And now for a little skewed perception. It's time to play a little game called:

"Let the camera do all the work for you"

....wherein we try to take pictures that make it look like our restoration is completely finished already.

Todays contestants are Mr. and Mrs. Wall Corner, Lady Lamp and Mistress Ceiling, Roaring Hearth, and The Floor Siblings. Let's give them all a round of applause for playing.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

The guys have been plastering away..

....and okay, so the other half of this room:	....looks like this:

..but a lot of lime plastering and painting has been getting done!
(For those of you who are curious, you can learn
more about historic lime plaster HERE.)

We're also experimenting with pigments that are rumored to be lime-friendly,
trying to create the color we will use for our hall walls.

Historical Pigments

If you're going to embark on a painting project of your own soon, and want to read up on environmentally friendly paint options, here are some useful online reading materials we've found:

Painting Green

Vintage Cast-Iron Steam Radiators and New Restoration Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:25:00 +0000

SALVAGE

Vintage Cast-Iron Steam Radiators

To see photos, click here!

These radiators were taken out of a home we are restoring in Athens, New York. We have many elegant specimens with fine detail, scrolling, and unusual designs and patterns. Radiators vary in color from white to silver and gold. Some look retro, some more antique. Whatever kind of radiator you are looking for, the chances are very good that we have it. You can come see the lot and pick the ones you want in Athens, NY:
call 518-945-1253 or email: info@howardhallfarm.com

The bird that used historic lime mortar to weave its nest.

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

Who would have guessed that an avian would learn to use restoration techniques at Howard Hall Farm? Ralph was moving an abandoned nest off the wall so we could get to work on restoring the corbels, and discovered that the bird had been stealing little beak-size clumps of lime mortar from the bricks before it had time to set! It had also added strands of golden thread, and little bits of wool from the shearing of our Shetland sheep! Thus proving that even the tiniest of creatures can surprise us with their adept integration of green restoration techniques, historic materials, environmentally friendly insulation, and style!

The gorgeous corbels about to be restored:

Inside the house, John tackles the parlor ceiling:

THREE COAT LIME PLASTER ON RIVEN LATHE:
Step 1: Scratch-coat on the main parlor ceiling

+ =

And Nicky has been priming the doors and stairwells:

We've also had many great applicants for restoration internships.
Thanks everyone who applied!

A new spin on historic revivification

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:27:00 +0000

This past weekend, I saw a breathtakingly beautiful and creative new kind of historic "restoration". Three fantastic Troy artists brought a lost history to life. To read more about their wondrous and hauntng project, go to: http://spectresofliberty.com/site/

From their site:

"Spectres of Liberty is a public memory, site-specific art project. Beginning with a sense of loss about the changing built environment of Troy, New York, we set out imagining ghosts of demolished buildings and structures. Through imagining inflatable sculptural extensions to buildings whose facades have been destroyed to thinking about recreating vanished historic sites, we decided on creating a ghost of the Liberty Street Church.

The Liberty Street Church is not only significant as a vanished part of Troy's architectural history, but also for its value as a historic site in the fight to abolish slavery. From old photos of the site provided by the Rensselaer Historical Society, we created an inflatable 1:1 scale reproduction of the church and will install it at the former site of the church, which is now a parking lot. We will be animating this ghost church through video projections that call forth the history of the site, as well as through the social context of a cultural event that will bring community members to the site to think more deeply about the space and its history.

Through our research we learned more about Henry Highland Garnet, the pastor of Liberty Street Church from 1843-1848. He was known around the world for his militant orations and publications calling on people to actively participate in the fight to end slavery. When we read Henry Highland Garnet's words from the 1840's: "Let your motto be resistance! resistance! resistance! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance," we do not think they are dead words from a forgotten time - but a call, an urging, to participate in transforming our world now.

Spectres of Liberty is a project by Olivia Robinson, Josh MacPhee, and Dara Greenwald."

Art/ Restoration Internships. Accepting applications

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:14:00 +0000

The following internships are available at the Howard Hall Farm Restoration
Project. Click one for more information:

Once Again, The Intern Hunt Is On

*Not that kind of hunt...we don't want to shoot them, just invite them over for a nice cup of tea, and a week of free restoration training.... We're offering a number of different internship opportunities. We have positions ideal for students (of restoration, historic structures, writing, history, library studies, construction, architecture, antiquarian processes, artisans, etc.) as well as places for people who have their own historic home (or someone else's to work on), and would like a chance to get a feel for our environmentally friendly restoration techniques, and apply them to their own structures! Glean some of the benefits of taking our workshops at off-peak times working as an intern, and have a chance to meet all the interesting characters lurking about this old pile of beams.

All of the internships take place on the site of a 220-year-old Federal style home in Athens NY, which serves as a classroom and laboratory. The site offers a unique environment for hands-on learning and offers specific restoration challenges that are distinctive to this region.

ALL AVAILABLE INTERNSHIPS

Sheep Shearing Pictures....some quite creepy

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:20:00 +0000

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Traditional Sheep Shearing Workshop at Howard Hall Farm

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO CLIPS OF FRED DEPAUL'S SHEEP SHEARING EVENT.
The video features: Fred DePaul milking and shearing a sheep, gender issues in sheep shearing history, where lanolin comes from, and woolly tales of danger and woe.
PICTURES FROM THIS WORKSHOP
NEXT SHEEP SHEARING WORKSHOP

Traditional Sheep Shearing at Howard Hall Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:02:00 +0000

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO CLIPS OF FRED DEPAUL'S SHEEP SHEARING EVENT.

Video features: Fred DePaul milking and shearing a sheep, gender issues in sheep shearing history, where lanolin comes from, and woolly tales of danger and woe.

TO SEE PICTURES FROM THIS WORKSHOP, CLICK HERE.

(from the morning session:Michael and Fred using an antique hand-crank shear)

PLASTER RAISING PARTY

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:46:00 +0000

THREE COAT LIME PLASTER ON RIVEN LATHE


Come and learn the materials and methods of lime plaster on wooden lath.
Howard Hall will have a plaster raising party for two successive
Saturdays, scratch coat then the intermediate coat on the main parlor
ceiling and walls.

(A time will be set up for the finishing coat in the near future.)

We will be:

mixing lime plaster
plastering
celebrating

Joining in is free as a learning workshop,
but you will have to work with a trowel. Lunch is provided.

Booking in advance is required. 
Call 518-945-1253
or email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

Open to people in the trades as well as homeowners eager to learn.

This is a unique and free opportunity to learn about historic lime plaster
in a workshop setting.  We will be practicing on the ceiling of the parlor
at Howard Hall Farm in Athens, New York.


______________________
Related events:
______________________


REMAKING LIME CROWN MOLDING
in July with Rory Brennan, the plasterer from  "This Old House".
This is a structured as a paid class with fee limited
number of students.  Click the classes tab for more information
or contact us: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

PRIVATE MORTAR CLASSES
with Reggie Young on exterior pointing with lime mortars.
We will cover mixing of mortar, proper prep of the area, pointing and curing.
Whitewash recipes and appilcations can also be covered.
For more information, contact: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

House of Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Unless I've missed some significant advances in quantum mechanics, it is not yet possible for the average historic home-owner to travel back in time and take digital
photographs of the past, but last Saturday we did the next best thing.
We invited Mercy Ingraham, The Open Hearth Cook to visit us here at Howard Hall Farm. Completely clothed in Federal garb, Mercy Ingraham arrived on the steps
of our Federal Home looking like she had just emerged from a Vermeer
painting to teach us how to cook on our recently restored historic hearth.

*Note the similarity:

Wearing Dutch linens and bearing an armload of iron and brass cookware, she lit a roaring fire, and proceeded to charm the hell out of all of us. She is a fascinating and intelligent woman, and one of the most incredible teachers we've ever had here.
The workshop was filled with people from vastly differing fields, yet they all had some strange tie to historic buildings, so we all had plenty to talk about. We met a lot of incredible people. Clothed by references to rare films and literature, historic images, and odd chemistry facts (ex: ash+ saliva= lye, which I almost learned the hard way), Mercy gave us a treasure-trove of information....and as far as I'm concerned, it was the very best kind of knowledge: The sort you can eat afterward!

*******************************************************************

Among other things, we made and had:

Shirley Plantation Mushroom Soup (which was so delicious it was gone before I could take a picture),
String Roasted Chicken (Literally: it was roasted by hanging from a string),
Southall Cabbage Pudding, Ember-Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Yam Pudding,
Dover Cake, and more....

****************************************************************

Mercy just finished her latest book, and
signed copies for all of us after the class.

For all of you who were here, thank you
for making this weekend such a
scintillating experience. And Mercy,
you are truly a wonder. I can't think of
a better way to have brought the light
and life back to our hearth. For the first
time in probably a century, this house
had a blazing, open fire and good company
to enjoy it. I hope you'll all come back soon.

*******************************************

***********************************************************
If you participated in this workshop, and have pictures,
please send them to us!
We'd love to add them to our collection...
howardhall.farm@gmail.com

To view a complete listing of our 2008
classes and workshops: CLICK HERE

NEW RESTORATION PHOTO LIBRARY COMING SOON

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Last 20 Years

November 2005

February 2008

We're organizing photos of the entire progression of the house's life, downward spiral into devastating disrepair and hideous renovations, and our ongoing historic restoration. Check back soon to take an in depth tour of each of our restoration projects and track our progress day by day...

Early February Update

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Harry is working on the fascia boards, soffits and crown moldings for
the front of the house. We are trying to save as much as we can of the
original, but sadly much of it is rotted beyond use...

Lorena is prepping all
these boards so we can
get them up primed.
Can't wait until spring
to get this all finally
painted.

Andy has been jack hammering off the
last Portland Cement left in the place.
We will white wash these walls, even
though they must have been plastered
at one time.

This area in the front of the basement
hall never had white wash on walls or
ceilings like the rest of the hall, so
we suspect it was a closed storage room
with plaster ceiling and walls.
Very odd as it would have blocked the
light in the hallway.


  

Ralph has been steaming off the paint in the hallway.
Getting closer to final plaster throughout the house.

Let's Go Green: Green Goods Fundraiser

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:47:00 +0000

When green products are just as affordable as their market equivalents, will you buy green?

A:
Of course!

The day has come. In our continuing effort to green our lives, our research has led us to a company called Let's Go Green. They makes affordable,
environmentally friendly products that often cost less than
their unfriendly equivalents. All their products are eco-friendly and
designed to either
help save resources, money, or both.

Let's Go Green and Howard Hall Farm have decided to join forces to do a green fund-raiser, and make environmentally friendly products more easily available to eco-conscious consumers. Now you can help support a green and local business by spending less on items you regularly buy for your home. Let's Go Green has agreed to donate 25% of every purchase to the Howard Hall Farm Green Restoration, so your contribution can be substantial.

All you have to do is visit www.LetsGoGreen.biz,
choose your items, and specify our group at checkout so that we get credit. It
couldn’t be simpler.

GREEN OPTIONS

NOT GREEN

All-Purpose Cleaner

• Non-toxic

• Biodegradable

• Alcohol, solvent, chlorine and phosphate
free

• Contains no organic volatile compounds

• Dye and fragrance free

32 oz. spray bottle

$4.89

www.LetsGoGreen.biz

409
All-Purpose Cleaner

Eye irritant. Do not get in eyes.
Wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling.
Avoid contact with foods.

32 oz. spray bottle

$4.99

100% Recycled Paper Towels

These paper towels are free of dyes, inks and fragrances.
They are recycled without chlorine bleaching.

3 rolls per pack

$4.69

www.LetsGoGreen.biz

Brawny Paper Towels

NOT RECYCLED
3 rolls per pack

$5.59

Good Green Neighbors

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:52:00 +0000

TWO GREAT SITES I WANT TO SHARE:

RECLAIMED HOME

Those masks are no joke. Talk about a survivor! This woman has lived
through 13 years of renovations, and now shares what she's gleaned by
donating time to blogging about affordable real estate, diy, period
restorations, decorating bargains, and sustainable living. She writes
more than any other house blogger I know, and always has interesting
tidbits and links to share. I wanted to thank her for helping us out with our green fundraising efforts and always posting great content! You can visit Reclaimed Home by clicking HERE.

KEN GREEN AT THE SEED LIBRARY
Heirloom Seeds for Northeast Gardeners.

Ken Greene's efforts to revive the local seed trade and save
heirloom seeds and their stories has culminated in the creation of a unique regional Seed Library. Like us, Ken and his friends are trying to share information about environmentally conscious skills and trades with workshops like Permaculture in Action and by sharing planting instructions for all to learn and grow from...
You can read the article Ken wrote after his visit to Howard Hall Farm below.

Dennis Heaphy, the tin man behind the restoration of statue of liberty and Ellis Island, coming to Howard Hall, a center for Historic Restoration and Green Technology in Athens.

The History of Mortar may sound like a heavy subject for a workshop, but Reggie Young at Howard Hall Farm finds the topic enlightening. For years Reggie and his partner Nora Johnson had been dreaming of finding a stone house that they could afford to buy and restore. Young, previously a New York City restaurateur, had been doing restoration in the Hudson Valley for six years. “I had thought about offering training on the lime/mortar issue,” he says.”I had seen too many buildings screwed up by using the wrong mortar.” Young had gone out of state, to Chicago, for his training, but it wasn’t until he looked at a dilapidated house perched on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River that the idea of creating a training center crystallized in his mind. “It took five seconds,” he says. “The building lent itself perfectly to the idea.” Young and Johnson bought the house and have dedicated themselves not only to its restoration but to its development as a hands-on learning laboratory.

Young sees the Federal-style home’s potential to be transformed into a modern, functioning dwelling that preserves the home’s historic integrity and has a minimal impact on the natural environment. Three years after purchasing the property, Young and his team are deep into the renovation of the structure and are still tinkering with the training center’s mission statement. Currently, the center’s main purpose is to “investigate, restore, and revive every facet of the structure in a green manner, and provide a forum for other interested homeowners and craftspeople to learn to do the same.” Part of this process of educating themselves and others involves bringing in preservation and restoration experts from all over the country. “With the help of these incredible individuals,” says Young “we can all learn to bring an old home out of the cobwebs and into the green. We are in a global crisis, and conservation and restoration can be very green.”

Young sees his responsible approach to renovation as one facet of solving many environmental problems. He advocates fixing up existing structures rather than building new, reusing as much as possible, locating local materials, and incorporating alternative energy practices into historic renovations. In at least one instance, Young found that being green and historically accurate go hand in hand. He located and used a type of sand from Saugerties for his mortar mix which brought him closer to replicating the mix originally used on the home.

Mortar is not the only mixing happening on the hill. Young’s use of the Howard Hall website and blogs reflects his pride in working collaboratively. One site, howardhallfarm.wordpress.com is called the Faces of Howard Hall Farm. Its pages are an enthusiastic and affectionate introduction to the core group and their contributions to the project. The home site howardhallfarm.com is overflowing with before and after photos, short videos, archives, history, introductions to visiting experts, and an impressive list of workshops past and present.

The fall series of offerings ranges from the practical to the esoteric. Young’s partner, Nora Johnson, will bring New York City artist Toby Nutall and collaborator Moira Kelley to teach a workshop entitled “Historic Paints and Finishes: Faux Wood Graining: Creating Fantasy Wood Finishes”; it takes place October 13^th and 14^th. For those in historic homes, there is the quintessential lime plaster workshop with famed plaster professional Roy Brennen. On the fascinatingly obscure end of the Howard Hall workshop spectrum is Lady Liberty’s personal face lift professional (and fourth generation tinsmith) Dennis Heaphy—also known as the Tin Man. He will offer a lesson on working with Terne Tin, the material that keeps the Statue of Liberty clothed and smiling. In addition to the workshop, Heaphy will also be working on Howard Hall’s tin ceiling and conducting a presentation for children on October 20^th about the making of the Statue of Liberty.

For a complete list of workshops, presentations and available internships, visit Howard Hall Farm’s extensive website (www.howardhallfarm.com ), email howardhall.farm@gmail.com, or call 518-945-1253.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:42:00 +0000

We are hoping that 2008 finds the world a lot greener and bit better preserved.  
Here at Howard Hall, we continue to work toward this goal. I had to move out for
part of the winter with all the chaos that was happening in the house every day.
We insulated with Soy foam in December, which was very exciting. I know that
there is limited soy in this version of insulation but it has the green effect of doing
a very tight high R value job, and (that's not nothing/ that counts for something). 
I would never use fiberglass as it is a bad idea to introduce workers to it, doesn't
get very good R value, and if you research you will see that it causes endless
future problems that you would rather avoid. Our application was tricky in that
we wanted to do entire second floor ceiling without any demo of the original
plaster, and without man-handling the old attic floor. We were able to take out
some flooring and blow it in, and it did the job.


The view that day:


We also got the Co-generation unit up and running. That little boiler now 
just hums while heating this place, and it is so tiny. (Nora says it purrs). 
We have sold several of these units to our restoration clients as well.  
Everyone who comes here just wants a moment in the boiler room to see
the beautiful install job, and see and hear the thing working. 
On Top of that we also got Our Jutl stove in and working, so it's all  
about warmth here these days. I have moved back in and can actually
get warm without leaving a huge carbon footprint!  (If you would like
to see the Co-generation unit for yourself, call us:518.945.1253)
 
On other fronts, we just had a great class with Rory Brennan.
 
 

It was our best attended class so far, and filled with a lot of
knowledgable people.We are getting ready to do all lime wash finish
on walls of the first floor. For the first time we will be posting a 10
minute video of the class, so watch for that soon.
*(The video is now up in the video section of the blog)
Rory will be back for another lime wash class this spring.   
Lots of paint steaming and stripping happening now: 


Our Soffit story and fascia boards continue, as do the pointing and
whitewash stories.




We have a few cooking classes in March, which is our deadline for 
having beehive oven back up and running. The chimney for that side of  
the house is 4 feet from complete. So soon those fireplaces will also be 
up and running:  Beehive Oven (2),Parlor Fireplace:

 

NE Bedroom Fireplace:
 
 

Our Spring line-up is coming together and we have many exciting classes to
green your historic world and rock you preservation boat. Come join us and take
in the beauty of the Hudson Valley and it's fantastic Historic fabric, the local
foods on our lower loggia, and the good cheer of our crew and staff.   All of our other restoration and preservation projects are going full steam ahead.
We will post soon on some of these. Our crew and professional base continues
to grow with as we introduce other teachers in to the mix.
 

This season we owe thanks to many people. Bob Godwin for all his time and
Architecture expertise, not the mention his sharing
Annie Katz, his beautiful partner, with us. We all were so excited that after months
of cancer treatment she joined us last Saturday for a moment of cheer here.
Go Annie!!!!! We love you. Peter Mattei for housing our office when it was too cold here
to work here with no heat. Mike Veeter from Kool Temp for a fantastic co-gen boiler install job.
Tom Harkins for his plumbing our cast iron baseboards and his good humor. 
Gary Dodson for his ongoing electrical install, and his southern charm.
Eric Guyer at Climate Energy for creating this great boiler. 
Rory Brennan and Laurie Klenkel for such a great class on lime wash finishes.
Sarah Gonek for her never ending blog and class work, and being in such  
a state of grace always. Harry Klarr for his wonderful finish carpentry combined with his quiet 
seriousness. Patrick Pulver, Christoph Vilaghy, Ralph Mauro. Nicky Karas, and Andy 
Bolevic for their never ending work on the house.  Dan Laffin, for his kindness and for
being a hero to our distressed electronics. Dennis Heaphy for his tin expertise and oral stories, 
and last but not least Dan Grabinger for his excellent chimney  construction.
Love those fires Dan.

 *And thanks to Reggie and Nora for their inspiring compassion and
productivity in this busy season. -Sarah

Every single project we're working on today

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:59:00 +0000











			l

Fireless Fireplaces and the Bee that's re-building the Beehive

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:51:00 +0000

While they're installing the new environmentally friendly heat system at the Federal manor over at Howard hall Farm, our working environment has become decidedly unfriendly: It's FREEEEEZING there in the very pretty, open-air office on the balcony atop the windy hill. Reggie and I finally caved in and have been going between a toasty (indoor!) impromptu office we set up in our friend Peter's house and HHF (where they're currently digging through a series of awful "restoration" efforts made by previous owners of the house to get to the original fireplaces). Naturally, I was overwhelmed by warm-envy, because I adore the house at HHF, but couldn't handle the temperature.....so I was scrolling through the blog entries about fireplaces that were featured in Houseblogs.net, looking at stunning finished examples, like the white-hot Black Forest fireplace in DOORSIXTEEN's house, and House In Progress's pretty fireplace wish list...........(Their motto:"We call it Home IMPROVEMENT because it can't get any worse").

Needless to say, I'm drooling....metaphorically, at least. At the moment, the boys are uncovering the basement fireplace, and have made one very heartening discovery. Buried deep in the walls of the basement, lurking for all these years, there are remnants of an original Beehive Oven!More on this soon.

Reference: (From Wikipedia)

Beehive oven

A beehive oven was used to turn coal into coke.

Coke (fuel)

Coke is a solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal.

The volatile constituents of the coal including water, coal-gas, and coal-tar are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Celsius. This fuses together the fixed carbon and residual ash. Most coke in modern facilities is produced in "by-product" coke ovens, such as in the upper photograph, and the resultant coke is used as the main fuel in iron-making blast furnaces. Today, the hydrocarbons are considered to be by-products of modern coke-making facilities (though they are usually captured and used to produce valuable products). Non by-product coke ovens, such as in the lower photograph, burn hydrocarbon off-gases on site to provide the heat needed to drive the carbonization process.

Age of Restoration: Times Union

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:18:00 +0000

This just came out in the Times Union.

(There was one tiny mistake, but it's less than a century long, so... for the record, the house was built in 1780, not 1870.)

From: timesunion.com

Age of restoration Tinsmith Dennis Heaphy is turning a 19th-century house into a workshop

By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer First published: Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dennis Heaphy doesn't require affirmation of what he does as often as most workers do. But every now and then, even for Heaphy, affirmation is nice.

"I was having a glass of wine last night, and the bartender asks, 'How was your day?' " Heaphy says. "I said, 'Well, you know, I'm really enjoying this. I'm laying on the roof, and I'm intent on what I'm doing; I'm scraping off the existing tar on the metal to prep it to be soldered. And then I realize that it's a beautiful day, and I'm looking out on the Hudson from the highest point.' "

From his rooftop perch at Howard Hall Farm, Heaphy can watch the Hudson River hug the bank as it pushes past the village of Athens, near Hudson. A fourth-generation tinsmith, he is restoring the roof of the 1870s house.

A beefy man with flowing hair and a bushy mustache, Heaphy usually divides his time between New York City, where he is resident tinsmith at the Statue of Liberty, and Syracuse, where his great-grandfather opened a metal shop 115 years ago. But for several weeks over the next several months, he will be in the Hudson River Valley helping restore the old Federal-style house and giving lessons in tinsmithing.

Platform for school

Heaphy's participation exemplifies how Howard Hall Farm is a laboratory for "sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques," as its owner Reggie Young puts it. He and his partner, Nora Johnson, bought the house in 2005 as "the platform for a school of restoration that I had fantasized about," Young says.

It was in rough shape -- perfect for what Young had in mind. He's a former restaurateur in New York City and Connecticut who grew up on a farm in eastern Pennsylvania. His parents did restoration work, and he did, too, even while owning restaurants. But he wanted to do more.

At Howard Hall Farm, he and Johnson started by ripping out the electrical system, plumbing, ceilings, floors, walls and siding as well as tearing down all additions.

"We gutted it back to everything that was original," Young says.

That took about six months. Then reconstruction began. Young and his partner are bringing in preservation and restoration experts from around the country to oversee the work and give seminars in, for example, masonry and historic paints and finishes.

The real thing

Young recruited Heaphy this summer after reading about him in an article in a New York newspaper. The article was headlined "The Tin Man."

"He told me the house was built in 1780. That was the hook," Heaphy says. "The opportunities don't come up that often to come in and try to salvage old work.

"This is not theoretical. This is the real thing. You watch some television show, and you can muse about it. But actually to get your hands in it ... "

And Heaphy's hands are full with this project. Standing on the roof, he says: "You're looking at a map of people's mistakes over 200 years."

He has the expertise to correct them. He learned to work with metal from the old men in his family's shop in Syracuse that supported the family's hardware store and heating and roofing companies. What turned out to be a fortunate happenstance started as a nuisance.

"I inadvertently learned a trade that very few people have anymore," says Heaphy, 48. "I really only do work that I find interesting, like this. Having this talent has given me the freedom to do that. But when I was 11 years old I didn't want to be a tinsmith."

He wanted to be with friends. Instead, he worked after school, Saturdays and summers learning to solder, bend metal, corrugate pipe, lay out a job and envision how it would look when finished. By the time he was 15 or 16, he says, he was master of the shop.

"I learned to appreciate the craft," he says, "to love working with metal."

To the statue

He also loves performing, and that led him to the Statue of Liberty. His mother was a singer, and Heaphy, while running the shop, did summer stock and regional theater. Through people he'd met acting, he got a job transforming a room of the Ellis Island museum in New York City into a theater. Then he befriended workers in the Ellis Island maintenance department, the same workers who oversee the Statue of Liberty. He told them about his family business.

"I said, 'So what do I have to do to become the resident tinsmith for the statue?' " Heaphy says. "I'm positive the guy's going to laugh in my face. And instead he goes, 'I don't know. We can probably find you something.' And inside, as a tinsmith, I'm thinking, 'What did he say? Did he really say that?' "

They found him a job repairing the brass windows in the statue's crown. Then he repaired the brass grating in the lobby.

"They kept on giving me different projects," Heaphy says, "and I became the go-to guy."

He also got a job performing, five times a day at the base of the statue, a dramatic re-enactment of how the statue was built. He puts the show aside when there's work to do on the statue.

Bringing it back

He's been the statue tinsmith for eight years, working from April to October and then going home to Syracuse for the winter. Until it snows, he says, he'll continue working on and off on the Howard Hall Farm roof. He's planning on finishing in the spring.

"The tin roof is still intact," Heaphy says. "But over the years people have dropped things on it and punctured it, and they put nails in it to hold it down, or they put tar on it, or they put caulk on it, and when they ripped out fireplaces and chimneys they put aluminum over it."

He is removing as much tar with a chisel as he can, and then he'll have helpers remove the rest with paint thinner. They'll wash it with soap and water, and he'll use a brush to get it as smooth as possible. It will eventually be painted red.

Heaphy will solder the holes and remove any exposed nails. A tin roof like this, he says, should be bent and folded to create waterproof seams. He'll peel the roof back so the soffits can be replaced, and he'll create drains. He'll replace the tin around the new chimneys.

In the process, he'll teach contractors and others about the art of tinsmithing.

"What Reggie's trying to do here is give people a window to the past and the opportunity to get their hands into these processes, to appreciate the original process," Heaphy says. "Happily, these old roofs do exist, and there are people out there trying to keep them."

Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at tkeyser@timesunion.com.

Classes for restorers

For more information about lessons with Dennis Heaphy or Howard Hall Farm renovation and seminars, call Reggie Young at 945-1945. (or 945-1253)

Upcoming seminars:

Dec. 1-2: Rory Brennan (plasterer from "This Old House"): Lime washes and finishes.

Dec. 2: Brigit Binns, spokesperson for Williams-Sonoma and author of cookbooks: Green-friendly cooking.

Dec. 8 (tentative): Shannon Hayes, author of "The Grassfed Gourmet," "The Farmer and the Grill" and "The Carnivore Chronicles": Cooking class.

Dec. 15: Mercy Ingraham, author of "Open Hearth Cook": Hearth cooking from the Federal era.

Next year's seminars begin in April. Topics include kiln building, Dutch-barn building, historic sash restoration and historic doors.

A green-technology conference, exploring options and costs for restoration, is scheduled May 17-19. Heaphy will give seminars in tinsmithing June 21-22.

Breathing Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

As we embark on this chimney building project I found myself compelled to think of the births, deaths, and everything in between that was once shared in front of these fires.

At this point, just having a fire will seem like a dream 2 years in the making. We had so many other things that had to happen before we could do the chimney. But now that we are here it is very exciting.

The photos of the chimneys core with the flue channel gives one a wonderful feeling for how they were built originally. Due to years of water coming both down the chimneys as well as around them,the lime mortar, and many of the bricks finally gave out. In the process of taking the chimney down, we found the remains of the fireplace on the second floor, which we are restoring as art of this process.

Next Spring, we will plaster the chimneys to bring back their 18th century appearance.

The mantles have made it through all these many years, and in almost perfect condition. We do have to replace one hearth, flash into the old terne tin roof, and then line and protect the flues. After the chimneys are up we can plaster the rooms and finally move into them as living space after 2 years of work.

Whew! That was a big one!

-Reggie
-----

The 2nd floor fireplace we uncovered and brick coming down on the first floor (showing guts):

The exposed flue.

pre-chimney showing cracks

Howard Hall Farm is about to be free watt ready!

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:10:00 +0000

Here's the scoop on our new heating system:
Mind you, we are not engineers, but have a practical approach to these issues.
After much researching of what is available out there(and there are other cogeneration systems that we did not choose),we chose to go with a product from [**Climate Energy**], which
will eventually both produce our heat, as well as provide the bulk of our electricity, all in a highly efficient system that has been developed by Honda.

On Saturday we (the heat system installers and myself)went to Climate Energy's training session. We saw units running and working. The only down side is that we have to wait to get the electric side of the system until it gets through UL approval, unless we get a test unit, which we are
working on...

For now we have the boiler that will be ready for the final
install next year. If we were doing hot air, and not propane, we could be up on line with the whole system right now. But the wait will be worth it. Once we have it, even if the power goes out we will still have electricity, and not from the grid.

It will be **much more efficient** making wattage from our unit than from the fossil fuel plant that feeds the grid as they aren't very efficient at all. We feel that this is the greenest option out there at this time for all kinds of reasons, and one that makes a big difference in terms of pay back in less time than geothermal, which we can hardly afford right now anyway.

We will be discussing the system on the blog as we get it installed and going. We're looking forward to installing the whole deal with the hot air natural gas option (that does make electricity now) for a client soon,
so we will have practical experience on that end soon. (We couldn't do that in our own house, since we can't do duct work here without destroying the historic fabric of the
building).

Our installer will become the dealer for the Upstate New York area soon and we will posts links as soon as all that is arranged. Very exciting technology that is just out, and we are getting the first Climate Energy system in New York State. **I believe we're number 57 in the chain of
installs in this country.**

Keep posted for more info on this topic if you are an energy enthusiast!

The following photo's are our ancient old oil tank coming out (which was once a water tank). We are setting this room up so that it can be a viewing room for the system.

-Reggie

THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER:

THIS NEW SYSTEM IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR.....

Today is Blossom's First Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:03:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:55:00 +0000

This is Wesley

He's up on the wall re-pointing with lime mortar.

_____________________________________________________________________
THE EXPERIMENT:

This is the front of the Federal Mansion in progress....for those who are not color-blind, I'm sure the oddity of the top level will jump out at you immediately. You might ask, "What the hell were they thinking using two different kinds of wood on the siding up there?" That's understandable. Here's what we were thinking: Rumor has it that cedar doesn't hold paint as well as pine. We wanted to test that. What if people have been cruelly slandering cedar all these years for no reason without even realizing it? Making it go to different drinking fountains and sit at the back of the truck for no reason but prejudice....wouldn't that be atrocious? We can't let the 'alleged' injustice go on! Reggie is doing an experiment on his house to compare the difference between cedar and pine...so, stay tuned and we'll let you know what the outcome is.

________________________________________________________________

REGGIE TAUNTS BLOSSOM BY PRETENDING SHE CAN HAVE ONE OF OUR NEW BROCHURES:

Blossom thanks Reggie for being allowed to be near the brochures:

Meanwhile, in delusional jack-russel land: Blossom thinks she's a mink coat.....different kind of priceless. Much more wiggly, and much less valuable.

New Old Pictures of the Federal Mansion at Howard Hall Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:53:00 +0000

Reggie's friend Kathy just let us scan these historic photos of the house we're restoring!:

Greg Howell's Article about Howard Hall Farm made front page!

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:49:00 +0000

Our Sheep got haircuts

noreply@blogger.com (Nora Hutchinson Johnson) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:43:00 +0000

After months of searching,WE FINALLY FOUND A SHEEP SHEARER!

They got the **latest** possible hairdos in every sense of the word.

This new sheep shearer we found was truly incredible...

And since it took us MONTHS to even find an available shearer in the area, we decided to bring him in next spring to train people in sheep shearing...more on that to follow. We're just glad our Shetland sheep are finally pampered as they deserve to be.