The Press Herald published a lovely profile of the Foleys, our longtime clients and friends this week. Charley is a surgeon and has been called to duty as part of his reserve unit. Sheila is taking care of the farm, the horses, cows, sheep, and new lambs, and she is preparing in case she is…
If you don’t already know Timber Framing, the journal of the Timber Framer’s Guild, you should. It contains information about techniques like simplified scribing, and engineering for framers, as well as in-depth coverage of projects that are even cooler than ours. I wrote the following article for the issue published last March 2019. It covers…
We work on a lot of buildings with small congregations. We’ve rebuilt churches with fewer than ten active members, and nary a millionaire among them. Most building committees rely on a combination of grants and community contributions to reach their fundraising goals. How does a tiny community raise the admittedly significant capital to restore a…
If crane days were measured by weight, last Thursday’s crane day would be our biggest to date. East Derry’s belfry, bell and double lantern weighed 43,400 pounds, not including the rigging. The crane day might also be the biggest in terms of scope. Since 2013, we’ve lifted and moved the church onto a new foundation, rebuilt…
Norway UU Church is the kind of church that reminds me why we do this work. The congregation has been hosting a community lunch program for more than 25 years and the building provides a space for daily AA meetings. When I’ve been in the office for weeks, finishing up estimates I know will be…
On April 27 iFarm will be hosting a workshop for homeowners to learn about energy-saving renovations (that’s this Saturday, folks!) A working farm with lovingly restored buildings, iFarm combines 19th-century knowledge with 21st-century innovation to create a model for sustainability in agriculture. With the effects of manmade climate change now apparent, it is more important than…
On Friday, East Derry First Parish Church will be hosting a celebration in honor of the 300th anniversary of Nutfield, a Scotch-Irish settlement that was the precursor to today’s Derry, Londonderry, and Manchester, NH. The crew at East Derry has been hustling to finish the belfry in preparation for the event. For a bunch of…
Frames rot from the bottom up. Water condenses on the foundation and rots the sill from below, or enters at the eaves and runs down the wall framing, rotting the sill from above. Some sills are sunk by splash back. In the dead of night, sill rot can haunt you; it seems catastrophic. But rotten…
The Barn at Bondgarden Farm has been the talk of Eliot all summer. Nearly a hundred feet long and roofed in slate, the barn was always a stunner, but in July, Rick Geddes lifted the barn 6 feet in the air, and neighbors and news crews took note. Geddes threaded four 50 foot, 12 inch H-beams…
At East Derry, we knew the lantern was in bad shape, but we couldn’t know the full extent until we had it on the ground. Brian Cox was the job lead. He says, “The will of the church was holding that thing together, many layers of lead paint, and band-aid flashing details.” It was chilling…