Crow’s Nest: Where are they now?

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

No, this isn’t an inquiry into the whereabouts of long-lost rock stars… though their work does elevate them to rock-star status in our view.

You aren’t seeing dramatic work being done by our Building Stewardship staff because most of it is… indoors. They’re at the point in a restoration of the Hartung house at Crow’s Nest Preserve when most of the work goes on behind the scenes and few will ever realize how much work went into the project.

Below, Luke could have a more comfortable seat while pointing the basement wall under the arch that supports one of two fireplaces above.

The guys didn’t see daylight for weeks this winter but the basement will be dry and clean when finished.

Then, they moved on to the wood shop where they are replicating rotted window frames in white oak. Note that the trim is milled into the piece—it’s not tacked on after the fact and prone to get water behind it. The pieces in the first two photos are combined into the pegged joint in the third photo below, then the whole thing is primed in preparation for installation.

Finally, another recent project has been to remove the unused granary inside the barn (opened up area shown below) to make more room for the farmer to store hay.

Soon Steve, Luke, and Scott will move on to more visible parts of the project, but there is a lot more that goes into it than most people will ever know.