Friday, July 14, 2006

Details

I had this collection of just nice little details I had noticed at the Big House I'm working on and thought I'd share. Lots of limestone all over the house and it all has little fossils or other evidence of its sedimentary origins. It's interesting that they cut and set all of the sediment lines vertically. I wonder if that was on purpose?
A small detail out of some large carved medallions on the back of the house.
Fossils?
Beautiful old craftsmanship. All being ripped down and replaced.
Neat shadows at noon time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous slate roof! I don't think there's anything prettier than a large building with a roof like that. Can you imagine what a roof like the one in your picture weighs!? When the Kentucky Artisan at Berea was built, the contractor used slate on part of it and I glommed onto some of the scrap pieces. They're sitting in the garage waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. I've always wondered what would happen to the slate in a baseball hail storm. Love the last picture, too, the one of the shadows. You have a photographer's eye. Lovely!

MamaHen said...

Thanks Gin! I actually worked as a photographer for a couple of years right after high school and like to think I still have some talent for it. I love slate roofs too and this one is impressive. We are all waiting to see if the new roofer can do half as good a job as the original. The owners have given us permission to get the old slate if we want it and I intend to get enough maybe for a patio or something for my house. Several years ago I worked on a church addition and was able to get the drop from a new slate floor that went in the chapel. That's going to be one of my bathroom floors. One of the few perks of being a construction worker!

Rurality said...

Nice pics! I still cannot believe all the cool stuff you are able to get for free.

Why are they replacing such a beautiful roof? Does it have problems? What are they replacing it with?

MamaHen said...

Hey Karen! Yes, it has major problems. Alot of the slate is delaminating. It just comes completely apart if you move it so it leaks alot. Some of it is still good though. So, even though the stuff is free, there is alot of trouble to picking through it and hauling it and unloading etc. etc. To keep with the rules of restoration and preservation, they are replacing it with another slate roof that is being quarried in Canada I believe. The slate starts out very thick at the eaves and gets smaller as it goes up the roof. From what I understand this is the traitional way slate roofs are done in England and it must be done that way again on this house.