Clapp-Ferguson House blog

A day-trip to Glencoe Mill Village

2011-10-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

Keith and I took advantage of the beautiful weather this past Saturday and drove down to Glencoe Mill Village , just north of Burlington. Built in 1880 by the sons of textile pioneer, E.M. Holt, Glencoe Mill Village consists of 105 acres along a one mile stretch of the Haw River.

As the textile industry moved elsewhere, the village degraded, and ultimately closed in the 1950's. The property was purchased by Preservation North Carolina in 1997.

What remained of the mill houses were purchased by buyers,restored, and the mill itself is slated to be developed as a mixed use project. We met a school teacher while there who happens to be a textile artist, living in a unit in the mill. She informed us that development of the mill is slow, and addressed one interested party at a time by a company out of Raleigh.

There is a museum on the property in what was the company store, containing textile artifacts and relics from the era. If you have an interest in economic development, North Carolina history, or just plain looking for a fun day-trip; I urge you to visit Glencoe Mill Village.

Below are some pics from our visit...

One home in the process of being restored, and in the background sits a completely restored mill house.

Haw River dam.

Inside the company store.

Pictured to the left is the company store (left outside the frame is the mill), with a restored mill house to the right.

Historic plaque application completed.

2011-09-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

I owe the Clapp-Ferguson house blog followers a massive apology. [Please forgive.] It has been several months since I last posted something. I don't have a very good excuse, except perhaps, laziness. However, I hope to make up for being remiss with the following post.

In August, we decided to apply for the Clapp-Ferguson's historic plaque as we approached the anniversary of purchasing it. Yes, we bought the house one year ago this month - September 22nd, 2010 (we did not move in until December 15th, however.)

Upon attempting to collect the information required for the application, including a history of previous owners and former occupants (and nearly pulling out my fingernails out of frustration) we engaged the expert, Sara Lachenman of Four Over One Design. Can we have an ---Amen!??

Here are a few things discovered about the Clapp-Ferguson house:

First, the name of the house will change to the "Yearby-Ferguson" house. It was discovered that Edward E. Clapp, a clerk for Southern railroad - only occupied the house briefly in 1919. From what I understand these homes are typically named after homeowners, occupants, builders or architects who played a significant role in the history of the house. Minnie Yeardby (formerly Mangum) purchased the lot the house sits on in 1906 from a cousin, Rebecca G. Mangum.
Mrs. Yearby (the wife of Will Yearby, the propietor of a major drugstore located at 123 East Main Street) built two speculative homes on the lots now numbered as 501 and 503 Oakwood Avenue, between 1906 and 1913. The report dates the actual build year as 1910.
Henry Lee (a ticket agent at Union Station) & Beulah Ferguson purchased the house in 1928, and sold it in 1943. Mr. Ferguson was a member of First Baptist church, where he served as treasurer and deacon until 1978. He passed away 2 years later.
The home was converted to a duplex in the late 50's/early 60's. This was confirmed over the summer, after meeting a former resident at the neighborhood home tour. It was converted to accomodate the daughter of then occupants, after she married she moved to the upstair's unit with her husband.
A Trinity College (later Duke University) math professor bought the house in 1919 and sold it in 1928 before moving to Trinity Park.
Lastly, the house was owned for 30 years between NC senator, Floyd McKissick, Jr. and his parents. Jr. sold the house in 1994.

Yearby's drugstore - 123 East Main Street (now a parking lot).

Yearby's drugstore - interior.

123 East Main Street...today. Ugh.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

Dry, dry, dry...well, sort of.

2011-07-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

If you've been following the blog you know that we had gutters installed on about 75-80% of the house (south, east and west sides) last month. Typically we'd have a very moist basement following a storm like we had yesterday. However, I am very happy to report that except for the area right by the entrance to the basement (no gutters on this side of the house) the basement was dry as a bone. Halelujah!

At some point we'll look at having some sort of overhang installed over the basement door - which will not only keep us dry when (and if) we have to duck in to the basement during wet weather - but I feel confident this will end our wet basement issues once and for all. Until then we are very happy with the results.

Happy 4th!

2011-07-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, we've been occupied with family for weeks now, and starting tomorrow, things begin to taper off as my brother and sister-in-law (who've been staying with us) head back to their home in Las Vegas. My niece & nephew will stay two additional weeks taking advantage of some of Durham's great camp opportunities. We're looking forward to the additional time with them.

We spent yesterday by the pool at Kevin & Winston's where we finally met our new neighbor's Robin & Janet who recently purchased a grand home on Holloway Street (510). We are so very excited to have met after hearing about them from mutual friends for months. We're thrilled to welcome them to Cleveland-Holloway and look forward to a proper celebration of their new home.

On another note, Mama Ruby sent, by way of her grand-daughter (my Virginia-based brother's wife), an article on the awarding of the Pyne Award to Clapp-Ferguson, which appeared in the Herald Sun today. I can't find the electronic version, but did come across this link about the awards and recipients (many from Cleveland-Holloway). Good stuff.

Clockwise from left: Me & Keith, Ken Gasch (our contractor), John & Charles (also on Oakwood) and Maureen (who lives on Carlton Street). The dayof the ceremony.

Four Over One Repost

2011-06-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Four Over One Post

Clapp-Ferguson gets Gutters

2011-06-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

We decided to move forward with having gutters and guards installed on 75% of the house. And, it goes without saying (in light of recent torrential downpours) - it made sense to take the plunge (pardon the pun). Our primary goal is to mitigate the moisture in the basement crawl during heavy rains. Gutter Solutions began the install last week, and due to a minor installation mishap, plan to finish up next week.

I will say, this project did get off to a rocky start, when the install crew informed me they could not complete the project (without an additional expenditure of 25%-30% of the quoted installation) because they could not get the crown molding to hold the gutters. [Ugh!] After a quick and impromptu conversation with my friend Blake at Innovative Renovation - he encouraged me to insist they adhere the gutters to the rafters (which were accessible. They reluctantly complied with my request but in the end found success that meets their standards (and ours).

We are very happy with the product installed to this point, and look forward to having it completed by sometime next week. We're just waiting for another span of gutter that was reordered because they accidentally punched a hole for the downspout just shy of where it was supposed to be. Once that arrives they'll install this and the gutter guards (essential on a house with a willow oak beside the house that sheds leaves in fall and fuzzy tendrils in spring).

We also had them install a chimney cap (not visible) in order to discourage unwanted critters and debris from the kitchen flue.

A few snaps of the project...

June 3rd, 2011

Fourth Annual Home Tour Recap

2011-06-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Below are random shots from this weekend's Fourth Annual Neighborhood Home Tour. Since Keith and I had tour duty at our house - we each ducked out separately to see what we could. Given available time, we both missed houses we had hoped to tour. I was especially disappointed not to view 606 Carlton Avenue - new construction that incorporates strawbale, cob walls, and design elements that allow for passive heating and cooling. 604 Carlton Avenue is one Keith had seen previously, but I have been eager to view. From what I understand it should be completed shortly. Someone will surely snap this up! There were a few others I had hoped to see - but time was not on my side. That said, I did manage to catch some notable homes on the tour; 523 & 527 Holloway Street (sister houses) now owned by Tiffany & Chris and Holly & Colin, respectively. After touring 523 Holloway, and witnessing the amazing progress - it was easy to see the potential that exists for 527, despite its current state. Can't wait to see both the homes on the next tour!

One of the highlights of the tour for Keith and myself was when our neighbor Ken Gasch escorted Jeanette Wheeler to our doorstep. We learned quickly that Miss Jeanette lived in the neighborhood 65 years ago. She made a phone call to Gene Rudd who lived in our house in the 50's. She shouted into the phone "I'm on your porch, Gene!". We were tickled.

Gene arrived 15 minutes later and they both toured the house and provided us with valuable information about life in the neighborhood, and whatour home was like. We finally(partly) understand who the house is named after. According to Gene, Mr. Ferguson was the owner of the house and rented the Clapp-Ferguson House to Gene's family. Originally they rented the entire house, but when Gene's sister was married in the mid to late 50's they asked Mr. Ferguson if he would subdivide the house. He obliged them, and turned the upstairs in to a separate unit for Gene's sister and her new husband. A second door was created beside the original door - and oulah! The house became a duplex. So the house was single-family for almost 50 years.

We also learned that at the time, Gene's parent's paid $9/week to rent the downstairs and Mr. Ferguson collected the rent every Saturday.

Various bits of information:

+ The kitchen had a coal-burning stove where his mother burned trash on occasion.

+ Gene cut through the yards behind our house and walked to Fuller School (now the Durham Public Schools - Central Office).
+ Gene's fourth grade teacher, Miss Aiken lived next door in what is now Cliff & Jamie's house. Apparently Miss Aiken drove a Hornet.

+ There was a garage that sat where the car park is currently sighted.

+ There was no door from the sunroom to the backyard, but there was a small door from the sunroom to the front porch. The sunroom eventually became Gene's bedroom (a most sought-after room given the number of windows and lack of air-conditioning).

+ The downstairs bedrooms had wood paneling.

+ Gene had a black cocker spaniel. :)

Enjoy!

Gene Rudd & Jeanette Wheeler. Jeanette lived in what is now the Wall's home, and Gene lived here in the Clapp-Ferguson in the 1950's.

Tiffany & Chris's house at 523 Holloway Street. It is looking fab-u-lous!

Inside Chris & Tiffany's home - the Robert M. Jones Rental House. c. 1880-1910. In this picture Nellie, Jessie, and Tiffany (all of Clevelend-Holloway), stand in the main hallway with kitchen to the rear. Gorgeous transformation!

Chris and Mayor Bell upstairs at Chris & Tiffany's.

Holly & Colin recently closed on the house at 527 Holloway Street. There home is the sister house to the Robert M. Jones Rental House at 523 Holloway. They have a lot of work ahead of them, but will breath life into another neighborhood gem. Welcome neighbors!

Patty holds down the fort at the check-in table.

Tourists line up for good ol' Bull City food truck fare.

The Stone-Hackney House on Dillard Street is undergoing major renovation. Blake, the GC pictured.

United House of Prayer's band kindly agreed to bring their musical talents to the tour. On any Saturday, you can hear them rehearsing in the parking lot of their church. I can't describe how delightful it is to lazily enjoy a cup of coffee on the front porch while they play. How lucky are we here in Cleveland-Holloway.

A lone home tourist on Holloway Street.

Sheldon's house on Holloway Street. Bummed I did not get to tour the house, though I have been fortunate to see the amazing garden he's done in the back yard. A must see!

Home tourists outside 519 Holloway Street. Still available y'all!

Red Bag Realtor is a friend of Cleveland-Holloway

2011-05-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

One of Durham's many champions, Jessica Sadler from Urban Durham Realty, wrote a nice post about this weekend's 4th Annual Home Tour on her blog - Red Bag Realtor. Thanks for the plug Jessica!

More photos a la Jessie Gladin-Kramer

2011-05-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

Jessie sent over the remaining pictures from when she shot the house earlier this month. We are so incredibly grateful to have these as a way of archiving the history of the house. Thank you, Jessie - these are amazing!

Here are some of our favorites...

Shot from the dining room with the sunroom to the right. I love experiencing both floors simultaneously.

Master bathroom to master bedroom.

Foyer. The stairs are definitely one of our favorite architectural details of the house.

We just loved this shot of the guest bathroom contrasted alongside the upstairs hall. You can really see how delicious the morning light is in this space.

From the foyer looking into the parlor (right) and dining room (beyond). This shot really shows off the glass surround framing the parlor entrance. Given the original owner was in medicines, we often wonder if this room was meant to be an office or something. I guess we'll never know...

Clapp Ferguson Renovation Being Awarded

2011-05-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

We just received confirmation that the Clapp-Ferguson House renovation has been selected to receive a preservation award from Preservation Durham. The award is to be presented at the Annual Meeting on Wednesday June 15th. The event will take place at Pop's restaurant at West Village from 11:30-1:00pm, and occur over lunch.

The many talented and good people who touched this project, in one form or another, have been encouraged to join this special occasion.

Needless to say, we're pretty excited that the house we fell in love with 2 years ago, is receiving this honor.

Herald Sun - home, sweet home

2011-05-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

home, sweet home
05.15.11 - 10:19 pm
By Neil Offen
noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646
DURHAM -- On his wide, very Southern front porch, behind the flower boxes full of geraniums, Adrian Brown sat on his black rocking chair, observing his Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood.
"You can really see the regeneration of the neighborhood from this corner," Brown said. "Don't these houses look great?"
So does Brown's, at the corner of Oakwood Avenue and Ottowa Street. The late Queen Anne, springlike in its new avocado green paint, will be one of the centerpieces of next month's fourth annual Cleveland-Holloway Home Tour, showcasing the neighborhood residents refer to as "Durham's front porch."
Until the past few years, the near-downtown area, just to the northeast of the main public library, had struggled. Once one of Durham's wealthiest neighborhoods, many homeowners had abandoned the area in the post World War II-era and many homes were literally falling apart.
That included the Oakwood house, built in 1908.
A little over two years ago, the house was slated for demolition by the city. "It was scheduled to go," said Brown's partner, Keith Flynn. "It was on the list. But, fortunately, the city never got around to tearing it down."
Instead, Brown and Flynn fixed it up.
They are among the influx of new residents interested in urban living who have moved into Cleveland-Holloway during the past few years, buying reasonably priced properties and fixing them up.
"Two years ago, when we first saw the house, I didn't feel I could walk very far into it," Brown said. "It seemed almost treacherous."
Less than a year ago, Brown's and Flynn's house was still pretty much a mess. Walls and floors were unfinished. There were paint cans everywhere, toilets in cartons and windows not yet installed.
The house's foundation -- at one point, Brown said, the building had sunk 14 inches -- had to be completely replaced.
Chimneys and fireplaces that had completely degraded also were replaced. Major infrastructure work was done.
Among many other renovations, a new kitchen was created, along with a sun room and the second part of the house's stairway. The kitchen that was on the top floor, when the building was a duplex, was turned into a master bathroom.
Where possible, the original wooden plank floors were brought back to life; where not possible, new floors -- but from older sites -- were brought in, to blend with the old.
Little changes were made as well, like turning a sidelight window in the kitchen into a spice cabinet.
Today, the home -- known as the Clapp-Ferguson House -- is filled with lovely area rugs, tasteful antiques, a brick-and-tiled fireplace, ceiling fans everywhere and has been nominated for a George & Mary Pyne Preservation Award from Preservation Durham.
On a wall near the entrance to the house is the framed birth certificate of Evelyn Mangum Jones, who was born in the home on Oct. 19, 1927.

"Her son drove by one day, saw the house, and told us his mother had been born here," Brown recalled. "It really reminded us of the bond you feel when you walk into a house like this." © heraldsun.com 2011

Jessie Gladin-Kramer shoots the Clapp-Ferguson

2011-05-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor, and professional photographer Jessie Gladin-Kramer shot the Clapp-Ferguson this morning. She was able to capture an essence of the house that we couldn't ever have imagined. Keith and I were speechless as we viewed each of the photos. It was difficult to select a handful of favorites to include on the blog, but have every intention of utlizing these whenever possible. If you aren't familiar with her amazing work, you are in for a treat. Check out her website: Jessie Gladin-Kramer Photography Thank you, Jessie!

Preservation Durham Pyne Award Committee Visit

2011-05-05T04:04:00.000-07:00

Members of the Pyne Award Committee from Preservation Durham came to see the completed project, as the Clapp-Ferguson (aka: John Sears house) has been nominated. I'm unclear on which category, but it doesn't really matter. Any love for the house is welcomed with open arms.

Our neighbors John & Charles's home at 402 Oakwood Avenue has also been nominated (in fact you can see their home in the background in this snapshot).

A blue bird & a pear tree

2011-05-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

While sitting on the front porch this morning, I spotted a male blue bird across the street. I adore these beautiful little blue wonders.  Naturally I ran to fetch my camera -hoping to snap a few pics.

After just a few he took off to the safety of a higher vantage point. This inspired me to snap the blue bird house we installed early this year (a gift from Keith's mom, last Christmas) secured to the gumball tree in the backyard.

As I approached, she dashed away from inside the bird house. I'm hoping she was not just inspecting the house, but rather had already taken up residency along with her mate (and may even have babies on the way). Incidentally, we found a robin's eggshell under the same tree this week, so it appears we may have several bird families making their home in the gumball tree behind our house. Those who know us, know we abhor gumball trees - but this paticular one provides some much needed shade (and shelter) along our street.  In retrospect we are thankful we did not push to have it removed...

This weekend we hit up the bi-annual Sarah Duke Gardens sale - looking for a few of the more unusual items for the yard. We found a couple of great bargains, including the gardenias and a hydrangea. Additionally, we found some unusal plants which now live in the backyard.

We also managed to get some of the many seeds we had, into the ground - including two varieties of sunflowers, and the moon flower seeds we reserved from our old house. We gave extra seeds to neighbors, because they are so beautiful everyone should have some of these night time beauties to enjoy on warm summer nights.

Sunday morning, we finally picked up the last of our fruit trees for the yard - a pear cocktail tree. These are such unusual trees in that the tree farm grafts one or more each of keiffer and moonglow pear stems to the bartlett pear stalk; making the need for a second tree (pollinator) unnecessary. We'll see how it does...

And for tonight's gustatory pleasures - curried zucchini soup.  I found the recipe this morning and it sounded like the perfect Sunday night (Spring) dinner.

Blue bird on a wire....high above Oakwood.

The male blue bird perched (and quite frankly, relieving himself) from the stop sign at Ottawa & Oakwood.

Keith's mom gave me this blue bird house (made by a longtime neighbor of hers) last Christmas. When I approached to snap this photo, the female blue bird (apparently spooked by me) emerged from inside. Great news, of course!

The weekend before leaving for the mountains for Easter, we tilled the front bed.

Here we've planted a variety of sun-loving succulents, perennials, and two gardenia bushes. The gardenias in bloom are going to make enjoying the front porch that much more fun, as we both LOVE the scent.

Chopped onions and Muchi Curry Powder sweating it out.

My sous chef (a reversal of roles here) chopping zucchini while potatoes and stock patiently wait to join the fun.

4th Annual Home Tour - June 4.

2011-04-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

Please come. Bring friends. We'll have food trucks, and plenty of Cleveland-Holloway homes on tour...

Check out the neighborhood everyone's talking about.

Cleveland-Holloway gets a logo

2011-04-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

As you may recall from a previous post, the C-H neighborhood began the process of logo development last year. The logo was recently finalized at a neighborhood meeting.

I think the tagline is particularly apropos given the neighborhood's close proximity to downtown. We are fortunate to be able to claim being the closest neighborhood to downtown. Our new logo and tagline gives a nod to another era when people used their porches to interact with family and neighbors. And here in C-H many of our homes have such great porches for that very activity. Community is created naturally, when neighbors live so close to one another. Personally, I find it to be such a treat to come home at the end of the day and be able to engage my neighbors. This is what I envision C-H was like in years gone by and this happens to be just one of many reasons we chose to move here.

Take a look...

Jessie Gladin-Kramer to photograph our home.

2011-04-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

We're working with our neighbor, and
kick- a%#) photographer, Jessie Gladin-Kramer to shoot our home in the coming weeks. If you know her work, she's pretty freakin' amazing, so of course she's super busy. If you're not familiar - check out her website. Naturally, we'll post shots here on the blog, so stay tuned...

Found this image on the web of Jessie and her partner Matt in front of the house they have been restoring in the 'hood. Their trusty canine, Cleveland is missing from this photo, but he is never far away.  He's truly the best dog evah!  Of course that should not get back to our pups. :)

We're nominated for a Pyne Award!

2011-04-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

So, we received news recently that the Clapp-Ferguson house has been nominated for a 2010 George & Mary Pyne Preservation Award. These awards are given each year to recipients preserving Durham's architectural and cultural heritage. This honor has been given since 1976, and is awarded at Preservation Durham's Annual Meeting, which occurs in early summer. Dare I say we're excited!?

Next week several people from Preservation Durham will be touring the house as part of the process. I hope to post pics of our visitors.

And of course, I will certainly update the blog if we are officially awarded.

Digging in...

2011-04-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

We borrowed my folks' Mantis over the weekend, and proceeded to till the front, left-facing garden bed. After loosening the earth; we removed as much of the grass, crab grass, and various weeds possible. Upon doing so we unearthed finds that hinted at the homes' history. Perhaps "hinting" is too subtle - as in some cases it was a downright scream. See below...

Dingging in the dirt.

Although we did not find this beer bottle during our recent yard project - we did find it in the crawl space during the renovation. You may be able to see that the cap is still sealed - although the bottle no longer contains beer. We did some research and found that Southern Breweries of Norfolk, VA produced this beer in the 40's and 50's.

A better image of the bottle, pulled from the web.

And again...

Oulah! This is just a smattering of what we dug up. Missing from this photo are the shards of glass that continue to emerge as we till, and plant throughout the yard. After taking this shot, we discovered five more lighters, more glass, bottle caps, a button, and a brick or two... One of the more wholesome finds is this Frito chips bag which cost 10 cents! After a little research, this is apparently vintage 1970's packaging.

Backyard is coming together

2011-04-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

We reached out to a few companies, and finally settled on neighbor, Sheldon Galloway's company - Garden Environments. We created the original design, and worked with Sheldon to create the structure. We new upfront that we wanted to do the fun stuff - identifying and adding plants. Our goal has been to install a good mix of fruiting trees & bushes, flowering plants, evergreens, vegetables and perennials. Although we did plant some tomato plants, we'd like to add more at some point. We're trying to identify the best solutions to keeping neighborhood felines from using the earth we plan to eat from. I think we may be looking at a small fenced in area in which to use strictly for vegetables, but I'm still secretly hoping to one day add a coop. Ugh, there is just not enough space for everything we want to do back there. Is it time for a farm of our very own??

Late March. Creating the planting beds.

More planting beds. The stacked stone wall would eventually run the length of the house from the snroom, creating a raised bed. This was suggested as a way to reduce erosion, since the house has no gutters.

View from the deck. In the center of the picture will be what people in the business term a lawnette. This will provide us just enough green space to roll around in.

In the upper right of this photo, we recently planted plum trees.

You get an idea of the wood chip pathways that will give us walking areas with which to reach planting beds.

Completed, with some of our recent plant additions.

The stone walkway from the curb which extends to the sunroom door. No more muddy walks to the car/street.

This photo does little justice for this little plant we dicovered, called Lithadora. The bluish/purple flowers are so intense we knew it had to be part of the garden plan.

Hydrangea bush.

You can see the raised bed, and stacked stone wall which wraps around from the side of the house. Keith planted a bunch of day lilies which his friend Sarah so nicely donated. These are truly the best additions to the garden, the ones that come from friends and family. We also love rescuing the half dead plants from nurseries that are had for pennies, and bringing them back to life.

View from the Adirondack chairs. The only thing missing here is me sitting in one of these, with cold beer in hand.

View from the street.

View from the driveway.

Most of our efforts have been focused on the backyard, but have made a few additions to the front. We'll eventually turn our attention here.

Sunday Driver

2011-04-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, on our way to enjoy a bike ride, we were stopped by a man and woman in an late model white Suburban. The man, who appeared to be in his mid 70's, disclosed that he spent many nights in our house in the 1950's. Apparently the sunroom, was at the time, the bedroom of a high-school buddy, where he crashed often.

Given the chance to learn more about the neighborhood that stole our hearts, we asked what Cleveland-Holloway was like during the 1950's. He shared that the neighborhood was primarily working class, with many employed in the tobacco industry. It was also where he spent many evenings hanging out with his buddies on the corner of Oakwood & Ottawa. He described the streets as filled with neighbors milling about, and children playing. He expressed delight in seeing the recent progress in the neighborhood.

I love meeting people whose lives touched this neighborhood at some point. Their stories are filled with such fond memories of their time spent here, which serves as a reminder to me that I am mistaken when I think our little 'hood has been forgotten - because it appears to have pockets of fans out there. And to know that Clapp-Ferguson had a date with a wrecking-ball on more than one occasion, only makes meeting this man that much sweeter.

Circa 1950's Durham nostalgia.

Spring has sprung at the Clapp-Ferguson

2011-03-20T04:40:00.000-07:00

This was the weekend I was hoping to start building the coop, with the help of my visiting brother. However, with the nice weather, I couldn't get myself motivated to begin the project. That said, we're going to hold off on the coop, for the time being. On that note, we think we are nearing closer to a decision about next steps for the back yard.

We met with Garden Environments last weekend, and presented our ideas. That meeting gave us confidence we had a doable plan, and Sheldon clearly understands the challenges, and there are a few. We hope to get one more estimate in order to make a decision, so we can get started in April.

The beautiful weather yesterday had us out digging in the yard. Here's just a few snaps of what we did.

The first of the tulip bulbs Keith planted are on the verge of opening. These are in the left bed flanking the front steps on the south east corner of the house (an area that will receive plenty of sunlight).

Just one of the plants we found yesterday at Stone Bros. & Byrd. We had a Viburnum (Chinese Snowball) at our old house, and loved it. This is the focal point for this bed, sharing space with the new arrivals (the tulips), and giving us something to build from.

Patting down the earth.

We placed the Carolina Jasmine by the sun porch door, for two reasons. One, the color really pops against the gold door, but also to wind its way through the fence and (one day) up the arbor we hope to install over the sun porch windows. This will help create some much needed shade, helping to cool the room in due time.

The Jasmine, here with the Daffodil bulbs we got from the Keep Durham Beautiful campaign.

We knew we wanted to have some fruit trees and bushes, so we planted these two varieties of plum trees. I picked the Santa Rosa Plum, and Keith, the Methley Plum. Hopefully getting them in early will give them plenty of time to get established. Stone Bros. said they will fruit this summer.

The Methley Plum tree.

We placed the plums along an arc in the yard, where the grade begins to drop pretty dramatically. They'll get plenty of sunlight here, and create a nice back drop. We were hoping to add one more fruiting tree here, but due to space may just add something like a Rabbit-eye blueberry bush or two instead.

The Camellia bush we planted last weekend on the northside front corner. It may get more sunlight here than we had anticipated, so it may have to move. We'll see. To the left is some sort of flowering plant (Keith thinks they are Snow Drops) which we did not plant. There are five of these clumps, which appear to have been planted in a semi-circle pattern, obviously with some intention. We'll keep them, but may relocate to another part of the yard.

Duke University Student Project

2011-03-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

This slide show does a nice job of conveying the essence of the Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood.

Spring Slide Show, 2011

We're a certified rehabilitation.

2011-03-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

That's right! We received final certification on our Historic Preservation Certification Application - Part B. The Clapp-Ferguson House (aka: John Sears House) contributes to the significance of the historic district and is a "certified historic structure" for the purpose of the State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program for Nonincome-Producing Structures. In a word, "woop-woop"! That said, I can't say enough good things about Sara Lachenman of Four Over One Design who was a tremendous help guiding us through the entire application process.

If it helps, here's the Department of Revenue's website. http://www.dor.state.nc.uc/

My biological "cluck" is ticking...

2011-03-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

What people may not know about Keith and me, is that we were part of the grassroots effort (Durham Hens) that changed the previous ordinance which prevented hen-keeping in Durham city limits. Following the victory, our plan was to have hens at our former home, but opted not to after realizing the ordinance restrictions prevented us from situating the coop where we had hoped. Big sigh. Fast forward a few years, combined with the ideal yard, not to mention the deafening sound of my biological "cluck", and I think I'll be on my way to coop nirvana quite soon.

Keith recently spotted a coop in a yard similar to ours, on a street corner in Lakewood. We did a drive-by this morning to scope it out, only to meet the owners who provided some great suggestions, giving me further motivation to carry on with this dream. Here's a coop design that I think will work well for us. http://www.carolinacoops.com/chicken-coops/townhouse.html I'm however, continuing to reserch alternatives. Now to coax my self-trained, handy big brother down from the mountains, to help his little brother build a chicken coop. Alas he is in the midst of his Brazilian sojourn - so I await a response...Stay tuned.

Originally we had planned on stocking our coop with Buff Orpingtons (below), as they are quite docile, thus handle easily. However, today's excursion introduced me to a heritage breed called "Buckeye". They are quite lovely, and apparently available through a man in Cedar Grove. Regardless, I'm quite confident we will revisit the breed selection several times before the coop is complete.

Buff Orpington

Buckeye

I'm thinking we may need to launch our very own version of Raleigh's "Tour d' coop". Afterall, it's about time, Durham.