Out with the old and in with the....... older.

Here is the latest with our little house in Kyneton. As you can see from the previous photo in a past post, the bad 50's fibro verandah with steel pipe posts is gone and a new verandah sits neatly in it's place, with some temporary struts in place. The verandah posts are in the process of being made by me, just after Xmas.

Also in the new year the roof will be replaced with some new, very traditional, Aussie galvanised iron and new gutters which will return around the gable ends, where you can see the new fascia boards have been placed.
I'd love to say that all this great work has been mine, but with the past few weeks of assisting Peter Galbert in teaching windsor chair making, I haven't had time to so much as hammer a nail in here. This great job has been done by my Uncle, Alex Hanssen and his off-siders, who have done a fine job of translating my descriptions and scribbled drawings into fine carpentry on the house. But there's much more to come yet.

And just what style is this previously non-descript place being transformed into I hear you say???
A Shaker cottage. Well, as close to one as we can get with the basic shape we have to work with.
When I first saw this little house, with all it's downsides, rusty roof, sagging floor and collapsed stumps my first thoughts were what great potential it had, not how bad it looked.

Lisa and I have always loved Shaker furniture and it forms a strong part of my furniture making influences, so what better style of house to live in than one we enjoy so much?

Here is a photo of The Dwelling House at Canterbury Shaker Village ( thanks Lonely Planet Images! ) my inspiration for the little verandah. But instead of the turned verandah posts I want to pay homage to the iconic tapered Shaker legs found on their side tables and night stands and so our verandah will have Macrocarpa posts, lightly tapered from the top to the bottom, giving a light feel to the structure. Then after the re-roofing and gutters have been installed I will finish trim the whole thing to closer resemble the detail on all the Shaker buildings we studied at Hancock Village, like what you can see below in the returned fascia and gutter on this Hancock building.

So then it will be off with the awful 80's carport and equally bad front fence and gates and a new fence in keeping with a fence detail I have seen in a lot of the period buildings in Kyneton, but also fitting in  with our Shaker aesthetic. So before long this mid 1900's house will closer resemble a crisp and clean version of an 1800's classic.

Oh and have a very Merry Xmas and a safe and happy New Year from my family to yours. Cheers!