Chapter 35: House and Housing

One thing about my whirlwind life was the trail of residences. I had, and still have, the Residence in New Jersey. My time in New Haven, Boston, Hanover and Hooksett had apartments, though the leases had expired. Not so Nashua, Concord and DC. I had active leases in all three. What's more, I used them all. The penthouse in Nashua was my official New Hampshire residence. The one in Concord was very useful. The one near Washington was necessary.

All that paled beside Cloudrest. After spending my time with Lars, Elspeth and I drove to New Hampshire. While we were in Nashua, I made time for a walk-through of Cloudrest. For a change, this tour was guided. Dr. James Lu of Yale was the official architect. Quentin, Maneesen & Cox did the hands on work, as general contractor and engineer. James Maneesen showed us around in person. While I had invested a year on the campaign trail vast changes had taken place.

The first thing I noticed was the pier. It was designed to handle a river barge and wide enough for forklifts. There was even a powered hoist. Upstream, the small boat dock had been updated with driven pilings and a handrail, but it bore a strong resemblance to the original Boy Scout project. Between the docks and the house, little else was familiar. A wide path, covered with crushed granite, wound up from the pier. Above the dock was a run of stairs, leading to a gravel covered walk.

When the crown of the hill became visible, my first thought was of log cabins. Mr. Maneesen later corrected me to log buildings, which is a more permanent structure. The ones I saw were the garage and machine shop. They were built on the site of the original hay barn and stable, because the underlying rock was most level there. During colonial times, they did not have our technology, but they were not stupid.

The garage was quite large, with room for at least five cars. At that time, it was used for generator trailers and equipment storage. One bay could handle a mobile home. It housed the satellite and uplink equipment. Next to it was the machine shop. I guessed this was for the metal work the blacksmiths could not do. There was a back door, with a path worn through the grass to the smithy.

That was another thing. When I was last on the hill, the smithy was just completed. This time there was smoke rising from the chimney and the clanging of hammer on anvil was common. Behind the building was a rail, to which three horses or mules were tethered. At a guess, we had a farrier working. Cool. I was about to investigate, when I saw a man waving. Elspeth waved back.

James Maneesen was about fifty-five. He was big, maybe 190 cm (6'3") and at least 115 kg (255 lbs). However, he did not move like someone that stayed behind a desk. After greetings were exchanged, he started pointing out the new construction. It seemed that rebuilding the house required several new structures. While temporary shelters could have been used, why not make an episode of a show?

PBS, Discovery, TLC, History channel, HGTV, TBS, even ESPN had gotten in on the project. I asked about ESPN. Lumberjacking was a recognized sport. Felling a seasoned hardwood tree with an ax or handsaw is not my idea of fun, but evidently someone thought so. The big gun was HGTV. They not only had shows about design competitions and house remodeling, they also had shows about logging and log house construction.

Mr. Maneesen introduced us to David Bromstad, one of HGTV's big stars. He had hosted an entire season of room design competitions for the big house. If you want details, go to the reruns of the season titled "New Hampshire Manor." My favorite is episode five, "Country Dining." It was where our tour started.

The kitchen was rustic, with both a wood stove and an LP gas stove. LP gas suppliers were a sponsor, so this was a theme. One pantry had been converted to a walk-in refrigerator and freezer. The refrigeration ran on LP gas. The central heat was LP, as were the on-demand water heaters. Most of the fireplaces had LP space heaters. There were even working gas sconces for lighting.

In the next room, David (he was easy to call by name) had done a fresco mural on one wall. The eight remaining contestants worked, in teams of four, to furnish and decorate the room for dining. The eventual winner of the season found a pair of enormous antique doors. The ornate central panels were framed as decorations. The rest was used to frame a large piece of countertop granite, to make a tabletop. Fully assembled, the table was gorgeous, indestructible and nearly immobile, weighing over half a ton.

After the massive table, the thing that caught my attention was the woodwork. It was everywhere. The oldest part of the Residence dated from the same period, but it was nothing like this. That was all native oak. This was oak, maple and black walnut, accented with beech, black cherry and hickory. The workmanship was not as good as in New Jersey, but the wealth of wood was amazing.

David saw where my eye was drawn. He told me everyone had the same reaction, sooner or later. I was ahead of the curve. Even the flooring was over the top. Normal upscale construction of the period was joined quarter sawn floorboards, usually pine. Cloudrest's common floors were jointed oak boards. Public areas used mixed woods. The main Parlor was tiger striped in beech and black walnut. There was an eight-foot wide starburst pattern inlaid in front of the main staircase. I had never noticed either under a century of grime and dust.

Paneling was even worse. At the Residence, the oak panels were quarter sawn but nothing more exotic. At Cloudrest, most of the paneling was rift sawn tiger maple, flavored with other woods. The trims were also of several different woods, including one I had never seen. When I asked, David became quiet for a moment. It was American Chestnut. A fungal blight in the late 19th and early 20th century had wiped out the mature trees. Heartwood like this was almost non-existent.

There was stonework as well, though not nearly as much. The kitchen floor was slate, as were the floors in front of the fireplaces. All the fireplace mantels and the entrance steps were granite, possibly from the property. Most of the fireplaces were simple fired brick, but the Parlor repeated the tiger stripe theme in limestone and slate.

More important were the exceptions. The unpaneled walls were plaster, almost all of it crumbling. Many of these walls were removed to facilitate flow. The rest were stripped and redone. In keeping with the general theme, plaster had been manufactured on-site, using a traditional limestone and kiln method. The resulting wet wall was perfect for fresco painting. Enter David Bromstad.

David was an artist. He had used my whole house as his canvas. I was very grateful he was good at it, though a couple were a little crazy. Since he was there, showing me his work, I realized he craved validation like every other artist. I told him he was going to have to leave the frescoes in place. Pulling whole walls for a museum exhibit was not going to happen. He took me seriously for a moment, then started laughing.

What can I say about the rest of the house? It was not the way I would have done it. So what? Elspeth was my style guru. She had signed off on all of the work. You can see the pictures on HGTV's website. When it was done, I would have a furnished, six bedroom historical landmark, and much more.

David turned us back over to Mr. Maneesen. We pulled on coats and went outside again. Next to the Woodshop was the saw mill. The big ripping blade was installed early in the spring, because heavy timbers were the first necessity of the house. Once that was done, the permanent mill was constructed. In addition to the big ripping blade, a row of table saws cut normal sized boards for the kiln. Again, compressed air was used instead of electric power.

We took a quick look at the Woodshop and another into the kiln. Between the kiln and the smithy was row upon row of stacked firewood. Mr. Maneesen explained that Elspeth wanted normal commercial operations to begin as soon as possible. Tree removal had long been a priority, which meant large piles of trimmings. Cloudrest Firewood was a going concern, selling two boatloads a week to the citizens of Nashua.

Not all of the wood was sold. Some of it was boiling maple sap. The gathering of the sap was the subject of at least three shows. The copper rendering pans were a fourth. Cloudrest brand syrup would be available in another month. Mr. Maneesen said that inquiries for specialty hardwoods were getting serious. Demand from the shows had been substantial, but that was mostly complete. Cloudrest Mills would soon be selling to the public.