Andrew and I were in Willsboro over the Memorial Day weekend to volunteer for and cheer on the participants of Camp Poko’s Patch Sprint adventure race. It was a wild and wet weekend with temperatures peaking in the low 40’s amid steady rains and drizzles. There was even a report of 3 feet of snow up on Whiteface Mountain! Full details of the race are found on the link above.
Our cousin Peter graciously provided us with accommodations at Red Farm, one of houses on the property, but being curious we wandered down to Green Bay to see how the renovations were progressing. The short answer is they are progressing a lot—there’s far more being done to the house than even my January explorations were suggesting. In fact, it’s barely recognizable as the same house.
As you can see from the first two pictures, there’s been some significant changes to the front of the house. Originally, there were brick and concrete walkways at the front of each wing—these have been completely removed (the stone-capped pillars and iron railings that decorated the front edge of the walkways having been removed not long after my father died). The bedroom wing’s window arrangement is the same with new efficient windows installed.
The kitchen wing’s windows are completely changed, along with the addition of a bay window, matching the interior redesign (discussed below). On both wings, the chimneys have been removed (along with the interior chimney stacks), while the chimneys on either end of the center section of the house have been widened. The chimney on the left, previously a faux chimney, is now a working one (see below).
The biggest change is to the second floor, where the three peaked-roof window dormers have been replaced with one long rectangular dormer covered in windows. I’m told that my cousins-in-law did not like how the entry structure around the front door looked, so what you see here is apparently going to be replaced with something else.
At the rear of the house, the patio has been removed—I’m assuming that some kind of replacement will be installed, but I don’t know what that will look like at this point. You can also see from the picture at the right that the doors that opened from the dining room onto the patio have been restored as windows matching the living room windows on the left (but, see below for interior changes!).
As with the front of the house, the second floor dormers have been replaced with one long dormer, which with the one on the road side have greatly increased the amount of usable space on the second floor.
In the next picture, you can see the stairway leading down to the basement. While located in the same place as the old exterior basement entrance, this has been rebuilt and the covering shed structure removed. From what I’m told, the space above the stairway, where the gun room and maid’s room used to be, is going to be the new dining room, although with the open plan of the new kitchen it may or may not be a separately enclosed space.
The new “rear” entrance to the house, which will most likely be daily main entrance, is located to the right of the new dining area, occupying the corner where the old back storage room was (for continuity, the ladder at the right of the picture above continues into the picture at right). The doorway opens into a hallway (and mudroom, probably) extending to the porch door (where the old back door was). Part of the new back porch is visible to the right. While not readily apparent from this photo, the steps and landing leading up to the new back door are build over what used to be the “L” at the back of the basement workshop, where the generator and the well/water tank were located. This area has been walled off and back-filled.
At left you can see the big changes made in the kitchen wing. This picture was taken from approximately where the old back sitting room was located. The pantry has been removed, and the ceiling now extends up into what was the attic to create a vaulted ceiling look. The entire area comprising the old kitchen, the sitting room, the bathroom, the pantry and the stairway to the basement is now one open space (the basement stairway has been re-located to the old front-hall closet space). A new large fireplace has been added into what was the wall between the pantry and the dining room, and the old doorway to the dining room (the white patch to the right of the fireplace) has been replaced by a doorway to the left of the fireplace. To the left of this picture, the space between the old back door (now the door onto the new porch) and the patio door continues to be a hallway of sorts, although with just the studs and various temporary supports in place it’s difficult to envision it all.
For the most part, the changes in the kitchen wing did not come as any big surprise (although the new fireplace did!). The changes in the center section, however, did surprise me. The new doorway from the kitchen into the center section doesn’t lead into a dining room, but into a newly created hallway that runs across the entire rear of the center section, from the new doorway to the bedroom wing doorway. This new hallway takes up part of the former dining room, the front hall and the former living room. The picture at right is taken from the front hall, standing in front of the patio door and looking towards the bedroom wing. Through the studs, you can see the living room fireplace, which has been rebuilt in roughly the same location.
At left is the former dining room, taken from just in front of the doorway to the front hall. Just out of frame to the left is the now blocked-up doorway to the former pantry, and the new corner-oriented fireplace is sitting roughly where the sideboard used to be. I can only guess at what this room’s purpose will be, but it should make for a very nice library, a more formal living room (I assume the “family room” will be in the kitchen with the great fireplace), or some other such use. There appears to be an entrance leading into the new rear hallway as well as the prior and still extant entrance into the front hall.
Where the living room used be is now also a smaller space with the aforementioned hallway and some intervening rooms (closet and powder room?) reducing the over all size to a little over half the dimensions. In the picture at right, the fireplace is still in the original location and the window at its right is located where the bookcase used to be. As with the former dining room space, it’s not clear what this room will be used for—the only entrance is from the front hall.
Upstairs, as mentioned above, the front and rear long dormers have created a much larger space. I’ve heard rumors that the upstairs will be the new master suite, but of course with only the studding in place I can’t be sure what the configuration will be. The picture at left gives you an idea of how much room has been created (the stairwell helps with scale).
Of all the changes to Green Bay, the modifications to the upstairs are the only ones I really don’t like. I fully understand the desire to create more usable space up there—the former configuration of the dormers and walls was inefficient. I can also understand the desire for lots of windows on the front side of the house to look out on the great views of the lake and the Vermont mountains. The long rectangular dormer filled with windows, however, simply looks ugly from the road side of the house. It doesn’t fit the style of an old brick farmhouse and makes the entire thing too rectilinear. The long dormer on the rear of the house works—the one on the front doesn’t. But, I’m not living there anymore and I’m not paying the bills, so I don’t get a vote.
The bedroom wing is still recognizable as it was; the construction going on there is solely to provide each bedroom with “en suite” bathroom access. The guest bathroom now has a door leading directly into the guest bedroom, and it appears that the bathroom is being extended in length to encompass what used to be the linen closet and the small section of hallway where the patio door was (that door has been blocked up). Between Molly’s room and the dressing room, the old fireplaces, chimney and closets have been removed and replaced by 
back-to-back closets and a shared bathroom. A doorway has also been cut from the master bedroom into the master bathroom—it’s not clear if the original bathroom door into the hallway will be retained or not.
There’s obviously a lot more work to be done. Jan and his family hope to be able to use the house this August, but personally I think that’s optimistic. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to seeing more progress when I go up to Willsboro at the end of June.
