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I would love to save the bannisters from the two sets of stairs. Most people prefer the fancier one from the fireplace room stairs (it is curlier, more traditional). I prefer the one from the main house...it's simple. The doors don't seem that old, but the two that do, I'd like to save as reminders of the old house. A handle that really doesn't open anything but looks old and was added to the wood panelling near the stairwell- I will save that. I like these old 'extra' handrails on the stairs too. The wavy old glass... I'll add more to this "TO BE SAVED" list soon. Here is another banister that could be saved. This one is in the '2nd House'...the one with the fireplace.

Yesterday I got to meet with Jill and John Tucker (son of Idora Cooley Tucker- daughter of Harry Cooley, owner of the house in 1953). He and Jill are the family members who most recently lived in the house, moving to their own place down the road in 2016. He took good care of the house, especially since he is a painter by trade. I look forward to hearing more of their memories. John showed me this little cupboard door, deep in a closet. Hand-hewn, it could be as old as ~200 years, but also could have been added after that. Amazing to imagine all the hands over the years that have opened that door; it is historically relevant. The closet is located in the upstairs front bedroom of the '2nd House' (the section above the fireplace room). It will be carefully removed, saved, and hopefully reused in the rebuilt house. John says the secret passageway is located more towards the front of this closet. Thank you John!

Simply photos of this room from many angles, November 2023

Simply photos of this room from many angles, November 2023

Simply photos of this room from many angles, November 2023

(Taken from Early Photographs of RANDOLPH, VERMONT 1855-1948, by Wes Herwig, 1986 Greenhills Books, Randolph Center, Vermont) James Tarbox came to this homesite from Windsor (Vermont) in 1798, paying Dan Parker, the original grantee, "1600 Spanish-milled dollars." He prospered as a merchant, dealing heavily in grains. Three of his sons became local merchants too. Richard Damon and Sam Day were among later owners. Harry Cooley acquired the place in 1953. If this photo is in a book about early photographs from 1855-1948, what year do you think the photo is from?

Part of the cleaning up involves looking at other people's stuff and making decisions. Luckily in the past relatives have taken what they think are valuable items. And a tag sale was conducted by others. Now I need to make sure some items are shredded and some items are disposed of properly. For example, piles of tires...mosquito breeding zones and just in the way. Twenty, thirty tires @ few dollars a pop for disposal. Good to get them out from under foot. A tree growing out of the garage needs to be taken down.

Ideas that are important to me- the esthetics of a home, the memories in a home, the people & history of a house. Keeping it alive. Why do I want to tell this story? I want the reader to get to know this house. See it as it is now, imagine it as it was, watch as it is recreated becoming a new house but looking just like the old one. We spend our lives in a house. What makes some people choose one style over another? Why do I love old houses more than most new ones? Why are newer houses made with less care than many old ones seemed to be? An overall pleasing shape is important to start with. Why do some new houses look clunky or too big or boxy? Little details like the fascia board (where it meets the roof line from the siding) needs to be a certain size, angle, and leaving the right amount of overhang. A house with no overhang looks awkward, like someone didn’t know what they were doing. But then again, too many details make a house look too busy, too ornate. I like simple, with enough detail to add interest, draw the eye to a certain area on the house. Simple creates a serene place, a place you can relax in. Light is important and one thing that draws me to this house in Randolph Center is the light. How cool to already know where the afternoon golden light will fall across the floor. To already know the exact spot where you can get views of sunsets and mountains. Open space vs. cozy space... this is an interesting conundrum to me. I love open, I don’t want to feel squeezed into a room. But I also appreciate cozy…if a room is too open, with ceilings too high, with all whites, that can be an intimidating space. It can feel too modern, industrial, too imposing. I don’t want a house that shows off but a house that reveals itself as you use it, that makes you almost subconsciously sigh and think, “ahhh this is nice.” The nice thing about modeling a new house after an existing old house is people (at least in rural Vermont) hadn’t even thought of big imposing spaces. They wanted useful spaces. They wanted to see out without letting the cold in. So it’s kind of automatically cozy. This house was almost lost forever. It could have become an empty lot, it could have become a modern house, maybe a ranch house, maybe it could have been sold to someone from ‘down country’ who would build a huge vacation home there. I feel so privileged that we are the lucky family members who have ended up with this opportunity. I always wanted to do it. I talked to Charles (the last owner) about it. He wondered why we would want to leave a nice area of Massachusetts where our son and grandchildren are nearby. Here’s my idea- as the grandchildren get older and more involved in their own schedules, their own friends, etc., we invite my son's whole family up for a weekend. We get them ALL for a weekend, for a week! Meals! Activities! Go to Lake Champagne. Go for hikes in Vermont. Visit my horses in Charles’s barn. Instead of picking them up from school or an evening of babysitting so parents can go out to dinner, we get them all together as a family for a visit. Charles knew the house was in bad shape. He thought it would need a lot of work or to be torn down and started fresh. So I am not doing something he wouldn’t agree with, so that is comforting. I know many of my decisions will not be shared or appreciated by some. This house is very important to many. It's their last tie to their parents or grandparents or wonderful summers in Vermont. Or maybe they even lived there...I did not; why am I privileged enough to get to make decisions when they don't? Or maybe they just drive by every day for years. Or they are neighbors with a tie to the area. I want to share the importance of a house being a home. Family coming together there, creating new memories folded into the old memories of a house. Inviting extended family to come stay- with the upstairs being all ‘theirs’…two bedrooms and a bath up there. Saving something from the past rather than discarding it and starting completely ‘fresh.’

Taking current photos is fun. Explore the house if you dare...watch out for holes in the floors and walls that are leaning. I want to capture the house as it is right now. Many more photos to come.

Start with measuring the old house. Take as many photos as possible. Then play with the layout, but not too much...retain the old house but fix some things like- include that space that I call 'the room to nowhere.' Scale: 1"= 6' My rough sketch of the current house: VTC student Morlene Wong's downstairs floor plan (1978)

November 5, 2023, a date to remember. A contractor, Eric, is helping us with cleanup. He is starting with the outside...tires, an old tipped over shed that was pushed into the brush, cutting the tree that is growing out of the garage, adding gravel to the north side driveway for heavy equipment. Photos to come! It is exciting to really START. This is real. Next he will help with inside debris, but especially the old appliances, old upholstered furniture that was probably really nice when it was new; it has seated many a happy guest but is now musty and dusty, definitely not an antique, just old. I have to make a trip up there to label items..."to be shredded"..."junk"..."save"