Happy Days

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.