There was a wedding at the Petch House on Saturday. I understand it's the second in the house.
I was down there on Friday with my grand-daughter taking pictures. That's when I heard about the wedding. I thought it was odd . Nothing had been said about weddings. A secret perhaps.
The building has been sitting , neat and pretty in a perfect location for over a year. Time seemed to come to a halt as far as being available for any purpose .
It's down a little slope just beyond the southern arbor entrance to the Arboretum.
A small courtyard of crazy paving surrounded by flower beds sets of the front entrance.
In a grassy area an old iron wheeled farm wagon is a mass of blossoms. The wagon
was found in a barn ruin and brought to its current showcase is probably of equal vintage.
The path meanders past the house, deeper into the Arboretum.We took some pictures .It's a beautiful walk. Despite or maybe because of the cool dull day ,it was a place of peace and tranquillity.
I think it's odd that the house has not been celebrated. Almost as if it's an intent .Wouldn't that be positively weird !
All the fab labs ,satellite universities and fantasy heritage theme parks pursued in a frenzy with hours of staff time, consultant fees and potential for millions to be drained from the town treasury.
All of which came to nought, nil ,nada, zilch and zero.
While the lamentable ruin perched mouldering on the shoulder of Leslie Street was shovelled clean of mould , feces and rotting carcasses.....was taken apart board by board and transported to a yard in the Village of Vandorf.
Boards and pieces of boards were sussed out from heritage salvage in the town's possession to replace rot in the structure.
Windows were custom designed by experts elsewhere and installed.
Clapboard siding to match original cladding of the building was also custom milled to complete authenticity of design. Logs never intended to be exposed to the elements were once again clad
The whole put together again with artisan expertise.
All within budget. Half paid by financial donation.
But not before consultant engineers (2) had been paid a whack for a mass of verbiage contributing nothing. The second fee was $8,000. and recommended an expenditure of $440,000
An initial report advising extent and budget for the project was provided by Van Nostrand of Vandorf
at no cost. The same Van Nostrand who eventually undertook and completed the project
So now ,bearing no resemblance to the disgusting discard that bore no resemblance to the original structure that sat rotting and mouldering to our shame, awaiting it's fate on Leslie Street for more than a decade, it has continued to sit a further year, empty and forlorn, awaiting a staff report to complete wiring and install the vintage floor boards.
Except for two couples who have sought it's use to celebrate their weddings
Concrete floor and lacking power but no matter, romance enough to celebrate their vows of commitment.
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
What a lovely story.
That is just amazing ! So much for the nay-sayers running on the theme that Petch was a total waste of money. They were even failing to point out that the thing was from another term. A pet project of Evalina's.
Another staff report that failed to materialize.
Accessible too
That's going to be a great story for years
" You got married Where ? "
"Nothing had been said about weddings. A secret perhaps."
Are we losing an opportunity to charge some user fees? I think that if we are going to let people use it, we need to get something back for upkeep. This is unreal.
08:17, where did it say that user fees weren't collected? Jumping to conclusions is unreal.
11:39 Where does it say that user fees WERE collected? Hell if Evelyn did not know about this one or the previous, I bet Town staff don't know either.
"Hell if Evelyn did not know about this one or the previous, I bet Town staff don't know either."
Again, jumping to conclusions. There's a lot that happens that Cllr Buck knows nothing about.
8:17- Why so unreal? The Cultural Center is getting away with it. What exactly do they pay for the lease, utilities and maintenance of the building? The real clincher is that we pay them to use it and whatever they collect...they keep! How's that one for unreal?
"The real clincher is that we pay them to use it..."
No, the Town purchases cultural services which are provided for the residents of Aurora.
22:56 - We already have those services in the Town. We have facilities that can provide those same services. We have private businesses that provide those services.
Post a Comment