Friday, August 30, 2013

Friday 08.30.2013

This week rates as one the most productive weeks of the summer
here at Ramsay with five major projects underway and a host of
other maintenance and operational activities ongoing.

On site today:

Sherry & SY
Richard King - handyman
Kevin Kennedy - carpenter at the Studio
Don, Nate and McCoy - masons finishing up their mammoth summer project of brick sidewalks restoration
Arty & Kyle Lundgren - father & son duo who own Traditional Masonry of Virginia, Inc.- final walk through
Bobby & crew - framers at the new "Little Barn"
J&A Painters - at the Farm House
Weatherseal Insulation installers - at the Carriage House
Chris & Todd, electricians - at the Carriage House
Grelen Nursery crew - installing sod, grading new top soil and mulch along Cottage Lane
David Pastors - long-time friend and neighbor of SY stopped by for the "nickel tour"



New studio deck lattice


Insulation 90% complete at Carriage House

After - Friday





Before - Thursday
           


       <--- Grelen Nursery Magic! --->
Great day for painting the Farm House
Tedious work





Bobby starts the new cupola - 8am

SY inspects at 11am



All but the louvers at 1pm

Bobby custom-making the cupola louvers







1 down, 3 to go !

Tack Room almost complete










Thursday, August 29, 2013

Thursday 08.29.2013

Busy, busy day....
Wonderful progress with numerous crews working wonders.

On site today:

Sherry & SY
Richard White - handy man
County Inspector - at the Carriage House; Framing and all 3 utility rough-ins passed inspection!
Delivery of new mowing/roller machine for the Parterre Garden lawn
Clay & Josh Frazier - installing storm drain at the Guest Cottage
TruGreen - lawn service, 2nd treatment of manicured lawns
Jessica - cleaning the fish pond
Bobby & crew - at the new run-in shed
Henry Smith & carpenters - examining the South Portico 
Painting crew - at the Farm House
Grelen Nursery crew - on the east lawn and ellipse
Masons- at the Guest Cottage steps
Electricians - at the Carriage House
Weatherseal Insulation crew - at the Carriage House


Tack Room taking shape




Freshly painted lattice for Studio deck

Jessica cleans the fish pond

New storm drain at Guest Cottage lane

First cut of new bent grass sod in Parterre Garden

Grelen Nursery placing new box woods at the ellipse

New cupola being framed













Insulation begins at the Carriage House

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Wednesday 08.28.2013

A rainy start to the day drove away the painters and
masons, but Bobby's crew held forth at the Carriage House,
and the great guys from Grelen Nursery out of Orange, VA
worked their landscaping magic around the estate today.

Custom milled true 2x8's for rafters




         On Tuesday, Bobby's crew got the roof up on the new 
                    Run-in Shed conversion of the old Machine Shed











And J.C. Arnold's excavation crew spread grass seed and straw on the upper barn paddock.






This morning, Bobby's crew made and  installed the exposed ceiling beams for the Carriage House



Covering the old walkway

 



And the crew from Grelen Nursery did a phenomenal job 
 spreading topsoil, grading, and planting all across the eastern lawns of the Main House and Studio.

East Lawn Revival!


New ellipse graded and ready for plants & sod
















Re-planted box woods from Main House gardens

Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday 08.26.2013

The day I lost the tractor!

It was a wonderful, extremely busy day at Ramsay...so busy, 
that I (SY) lost our John Deere 5300 tractor...for a while!
The only excuse I can come up with is that I had:
-- 35 people here today involved on 5 different projects covering the full 
    East-West axis of the estate
-- 80 telephone conversations (At one point while on the phone with TJ, 
    I had 4 people waiting in line to speak with me)
-- 5 on-site meetings with sub contractors
-- 4 deliveries, and
-- a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting

A little after four o'clock this afternoon, I went up to get the tractor from the west pasture...
and it wasn't there! The field was filled with harvesting equipment belonging to the crew 
here taking up hay, and I thought maybe they had put it to use-- per an earlier agreement--
but I quickly spotted  each individual worker on a piece of equipment, so ruled out that
scenario. I racked my feeble brain trying to remember where I last left the tractor, but 
knew I had seen it [where it belonged] just a few hours earlier. And no one on site (other
than Don's hay crew) would have taken the tractor without letting me know. So, beginning
to doubt my sanity (among other things) I headed back down Farm House Lane. As I 
began to pass the southwest paddock on my right, I casually returned the wave of Billy 
Frazier...one of our part-time farm hands...riding along on our tractor...mowing the pasture... 
as he said he would be... in a telephone call at 3pm!! FYI--Billy was caller # 67 - - - 
I'm afraid to think what  transpired during the conversations with callers 68-80!!!

Farm House scrape-down

Studio lattice ready for painting
Finishing touches on the rock wall

On site today:

Sherry & SY
Kevin & Richard-Ramsay handymen
Kevin Kennedy-carpenter at the Studio
Mike Deane-freelance [bad back recovering] carpenter on special assignment
Don, Nate, McCoy - masons
Arty Lundgren- mason's boss
Rachel Lilly- our landscape architect
Chris & Todd-electricians at the Carriage House
Kevin Wagget-tiler at the Carriage House
Zeke Galvin- Owner, Grelen Nursery + 3 workers
Don Wright + 3 workers
Henry Smith-Central Virginia Builders  re: Main House exterior rehab
John Flevarakis + 5 painters Farm House, Studio deck
Matt - Arnold Excavators, Main Barn Paddock ground work
Zak Williams - farrier, trimming horses feet
Billy Frazier - farm hand
4 delivery guys

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Fri. - Sun. 08.23-25.2013

We had more weekend activity than usual from
 sub contractors, due in part to availability of
 man-power but also taking advantage of the 
great weather to stain the new Studio deck.

On Friday, TJ and SY spent the whole day going over a multitude of details and also met with some of our sub-contractors in preparation for a major social event scheduled here at Ramsay for the last weekend of September. In addition to all the regular maintenance and operational activities that proceed on a daily
basis,  24/7, we have four major projects currently underway: 

1. Constructing a second floor guest apartment over the old garage
2. Adding a hay loft and run-in shed to the old machine shed on Farm Lane
3. Re-construction of all major brick walkways at the Main House
4. Adding a substantial deck to the Studio

On Saturday, J.C. Arnold excavators started work on the large paddock beyond the barn, removing stockpiles of debris, and removing the several large concrete pads from a bygone era of farming.

Concrete slabs removed




Handy little Bob Cat











On Sunday (a rare occurrence & the neighbors were notified!) Kevin Kennedy our carpenter, and Richard King our erstwhile handyman, came on site to get a fresh coat of stain on the new Studio deck while we have [forecast-ed] at least 48 hours without precipitation.

It doesn't get much prettier than this!
Great teamwork


Thursday, August 22, 2013

Thursday 08.22.2013

For those of you who view this blog with some regularity,
I (SY) want to thank you for your interest and support!
I appreciate the comments and the small world link we have here.
And.... I want to apologize for continuing to have difficulty
downloading and posting photos from my iPhone 4s.
Today, I followed the directions of the iPhone tech support guy
I spoke with last evening, and tonight, the pictures turned out
upside down --instead of just sideways! ^#&*&%!!^

So in the mean time, I will post pics directly from my email,
(which prohibits viewers from being able to enlarge them, sorry)
until I get this thing straightened out. Thank you for your patience.

On site today:

Sherry
SY
Richard & Kevin
Kevin Kennedy - carpenter at the Studio
Don, Nate and mason crew continuing the sidewalk and steps at the Guest Cottage
Bobby and the framing crew continuing machine shed conversion
Patsy and Lewis - beautifying the front walk box woods and other shrubbery work

Looking more like a small barn every day!

Lewis & Patsy - intrepid gardeners

Beautiful classic stone work at the Guest Cottage

Studio deck hand rails in final stage

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wednesday 08.21.2013

Not enough hours in this day!
So this post will have to be photos only...happy viewing.

West end siding up
North side underway



Pickets almost finished
Masons working with stone!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Mon & Tue 8.19 & 20.2013

Monday started off with light rain that held off the masons
and the Studio carpenters, but Bobby & his framing crew
made great progress on the machine shed conversion.
And this afternoon (Tuesday) the new hay loft was under roof!


 Two days of demo last week and two days on new work this week!
These guys are good!!!


Kenny, one of the mason's laborers took a turn with rolling the new bent grass sod
 in the Parterre garden this afternoon. 

 

Almost two weeks since installation, the sod is taking
root nicely, and periodic treatments with additional
sand (pictured left) will hasten the overall process.






New blinds have been installed in the refurbished Studio.
We'll soon be ready for guests in this great space.
(Sadly, the pictures--and no furniture--don't really do
this nice addition justice.)

On site today: Tuesday

Sherry
SY
John with J&A Painting
J.C. Arnold - excavation consultation
Richard & Kevin
Masons, brief update with Arty & Kyle Lundgren
Bobby's framing crew
                                                           Rachel Lilly and Zeke (Grelen Nursery) here on Monday

Friday, August 16, 2013

Friday 08.16.2013

A little less hectic at Ramsay today 
with only two major projects in action.
 
The machine shed is receiving quite a make-over.
Rough-sawed 8x8's lend new stability to the old shed!


The old facade was over 2 inches out of plumb







Rough-sawed true 2x8's, custom milled for this project
 


New hay loft deck

At the new Studio deck, Kevin & Mike have custom-milled 
 the hand and bottom rails, and each individual picket--all on site!!


On site today:

SY
Guest family from Washington D.C. at the Guest Cottage for the weekend
Richard and Kevin - back to mowing, weeding and debris clean-up
Kevin and Mike - custom carpentry at the Studio deck
Bobby Curtis and crew - remodeling the machine shed