Fall Projects

by 4over1 | Nov 28, 2012 | design, fieldwork, home sweet home, old north durham

Fall Projects

Autumn has been crazy for one specific reason here at 4/1 – we’ve moved! More specifically, we packed up our sweet, tiny bungalow and schlepped across the neighborhood to a slightly roomier rental house. The bungalow is getting brushed up and sold to a new couple and their two kids, while we’re looking for something bigger and better ourselves. In the meantime, we have ended up in a house with an actual office, that is a major step up from the dining room table that used to be where everything happened. And of course it’s put the Fall into a tailspin, because, well, boxes.

Despite the moving chaos, work is still chugging along! A good chunk of September, October, and November were spent helping HMW Preservation with a major survey of the Hillsborough historic district. It’s always lovely to get out in the field and see different types of architecture, and the borough has some of the oldest stuff in the Piedmont. They have also cornered the market on ‘quaint,’ complete with decrepit barns, boxwoods galore, and even a brick, octagonal ice house from the 1860s nestled into the woods behind the elementary school. Who knew?

Most of 4/1’s major projects from the summer are getting finishing touches right now and are not yet ready for their close-ups, but a wrap up of the screened porch addition on Monmouth is coming soon. A major rear kitchen/master suite remodel in Trinity Park is so close the owners are cooking already. And I’m waiting with bated breath to see the finished work over in the Mrs. Laura Duke Estate over on Roxboro – a big, colonial revival glory of a house where we did our level best to update with the lightest hand possible. Finally, I’ve been watching the progress on the Bright House on Holloway as they paint the exterior and get through the mountain of projects they’ve decided to do themselves on the interior – all the while having a third child – via their blog. Lord love ’em!

Lastly, I will be linking to all the preservation award winner write-ups as they show up in the Herald-Sun via my twitter feed, but a quick list of winners where 4/1 provided either design or preservation consulting:

813 Burch, Pyne Preservation Award
508 Ottawa, Neighborhood Conservation Award
2513 West Club, Pyne Preservation Award
614 North Queen, Neighborhood Conservation Award

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hi.there@fouroverone.com (919) 339-1411
Office Address: 1235 Berkeley Ave, Durham, NC, 27701
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 355, Durham NC, 27702

Fieldwork in South Carolina

by 4over1 | Nov 22, 2010 | fieldwork, histories

Fieldwork in South Carolina

This past weekend I set off for a lovely weekend in South Carolina, brought on by an assignment: documenting a c.1905 parsonage in Georgetown, about an hour north of Charleston. Given my husband’s and my love of Charleston, we decided to make a weekend of it and stay there, and I took Saturday afternoon to run up and do the measurements of the old house. Best of all worlds!

The parsonage, sited immediately beside the Bethel church that is itself a landmark, has a failing metal roof that is allowing some significant damage to take place in the walls below. Regardless, as I told the pastor, I’ve seen worse come back to beautiful and I’m sure they can do the same. They’re under the guidance of the wonderful Mary Ruffin Hanbury, and now that I’ve been down there I am looking forward to seeing her plans.

Most of the stuff once stored in the house had been moved down to the first floor rooms… this made getting through them a bit of an adventure, involving moving stacks of children’s chairs and sliding around old refrigerators. At one point, the charming elderly lady who was there to greet me admitted that she thought measuring “was a man’s job, but you look like you know what you’re doing.” Ha! If the volunteer assisting me hadn’t been at least 6′ tall, I would not have been able to pull it off so well.

That said, the upstairs rooms were cleared out and gorgeous: good light, lovely moldings, gobs of potential. The group is considering making it a sort of visitors’ center for those who come see the church… I wouldn’t be surprised if they had people coming to see the house just for itself, too. It certainly was a treat for me; now I just have to take my mess of measurements and make it presentable!