In retrospect, my husband and I had no idea what we were getting into when we decided to build our own house. Neither one of us had ever taken on such a project, and both of us were clueless as to what was really involved. Ten acres? Fantastic. But where should the house go? What about water? Oh yeah, and we almost forgot about the electricity.
After traipsing around the property several times over the course of a couple of weekends, we settled on a house site about 800 feet in from the road. Our property is a very long, narrow rectangle – about 250 feet wide and about 1600 feet long. Once built, the house would be almost dead center in the middle of our land, facing north towards the long edge of our lot. A rough-and-tumble stone wall marked the eastern edge of our house site, and up the slope to the south, a tall stand of eastern white pines.
Now for the driveway. Thanks to our realtor, we had already been introduced to a young excavator from the area named Tom. For two neophytes like my husband and me, meeting Tom was a real stroke of luck. Gregarious yet thoughtful, Tom viewed land the same way a painter views a canvas. As we lumbered after him through the endless bramble of weeds and brush that led to the site, he pointed out all the features of our land that we had never really noticed. Even better was how he talked about these things in the context of our driveway.
“That stand of hemlocks will look beautiful in the winter,” he pointed out, describing how the driveway would curve past various trees worth saving. “And those boulders can be moved to help frame your view of the Taconic Mountains in the distance.” Actually, I’d never really thought about all the thought that could go into a driveway. And that was only the beginning of all the things we would have to think about.
-
- As seen from the road.
-
- Halfway in to the site.
-
- The last bit before the site.
The driveway took about four months to finish. As we had agreed, Tom had designed it to look as much like an old track as possible. The first time we walked its total length, we were in awe. No sound save that of our own footsteps on the ground and the cry of a hawk far above. And nobody else but ourselves to answer to as we forged ahead with our plans.
