Massive Cleanup in 5 Days Gets Private School Looking Sharp for Opening Day
Enduring Elements was asked if they could help out the Operations and Maintenance crew get the grounds of this estate setting private school in eastern MA ready for opening day, 5 days hence.

We toured the grounds, detailing the scope of the project, interviewing the stakeholders as we went.

Returning to the office we reallocated resources, drew a map from Google Earth with overlays created in Photoshop and tied the Alpha coded areas to the scope list. Within 6 hours we committed to putting 5-7 men plus myself as field director to work for five twelve-hour days. Each team member got a copy of the map and the list and specific priorities and detailed instructions. It was a whirlwind of gravel, plate compactors, trucks and a bobcat, mulch, shovels, pruning shears and mortar.

We worked closely with the excellent in-house operations crew and together spit and polished a multi acre site. Our host sponsored a joint breakfast in the big hall on Day 4 where the two crews got to know a bit about each other. We nicknamed one of our workers the Bull (in Portuguese, De Boi) and I used the whiteboard to immortalize him. At least until Monday or Tuesday when it was undoubtedly erased.

It was a joy to work collaboratively on this campus where people work this way all year round. The buildings and grounds are the former Summer home of a wealthy Boston family. Enjoy some pictures:

Enduring Elements Construction Builds a Victorian Garage
John Hanson Mitchell a brilliant author, editor, conservationist (Along with his nonfiction work, John Hanson Mitchell is editor of the award winning magazine, Sanctuary, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.) and inspiration to me for the last twenty years, asked if we could build a garage to match the architectural style of his house and other outbuildings which he had designed and built. He had been inspired by Andrew Jackson Downing when he chose the style of his home. If you have not read books by John you are missing out and so are friends who deserve these as gifts.

Throughout the early Victorian period American domestic architecture was dominated by the ideas and designs of Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852). Downing, who was America's first important landscape architect, was instrumental in establishing a well-styled, efficient, yet low-priced house that offered many features which previously only mansions could provide. His designs were widely spread both by his books and by periodical republication. (The above commentary is provided by Dover Publications, Inc. and excerpted from Mitchell Publications site which has an AJD book or two for sale.)

Back to the garage. John and Jill supplied a plan which was later used by an architect friend, Rick Findlay, VP of The Littleton MA Conservation Trust, for a beautiful set of plans.

We installed a compacted process gravel floor per their wishes, but later to preserve automobiles from moisture they poured a concrete floor.

John had us use a local lumber mill (Parlee Lumber is a full service lumber yard serving the community since 1815) for the rough sawn pine sheathing and battens.

My Brazilian American partners created the foundation and built and painted the structure.

The trim work and windows came from a home on Edgartown MA.