Monday, May 10, 2010

Operation SOS - Part 3

In this chapter of "Saving Our Springhouse" our masons move from working with stone to working with wood. In this first picture we see the rebuilt threshold of the springhouse door. The first several floorboards were completely rotted, so the masons replaced them with some salvaged floorboards that my parents had laying around in their barn.



Next up is a picture of the small door in the west side of the building. The two sides of this jamb have been replaced with new pieces of walnut.




The same view, zoomed out a bit:



I believe that this little door was there to allow water to flow under the building. The south side of the springhouse (right side in the picture above) has two wide but short holes in the very bottom of the foundation wall. Dirt from the creek bank has eroded and covered these holes on the outside of the building, but they are still visible on the interior side of the foundation wall. Given the direction the creek flows, I believe when the springhouse was built there would have been a small channel dug directing water from the creek to flow under the building through the holes in the south side of the foundation. The water would then exit the building through the larger door on the west side of the building and be routed back to the creek. It would be interesting to see if we could someday restore the flow of water under the building.

Back up at the top of the creek bank, the front of the building now looks like this:


Quite an improvement over where we started just a few weeks ago:

Coming soon: figuring out how to put a door back on the springhouse.


3 comments:

  1. Hmmmm. I was wondering if the creek still flowed under it. Natural refrigeration for the butter and cream.

    What plans do you have for its use when it's done? Outdoor larder? Lawnmower shed? Playhouse?

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  2. Kate - that was the very question I was going to ask!

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  3. I'm thinking garden shed. I'm picturing shovels and rakes hung on the walls, with a little potting table in front of the north facing window.

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