The Stone House
In the spring of 2007, Fred Lashley and I undertook the most ambitious masonry project of our time together at the Unturned Stone. For two summers, we built a stone cabin for a private owner in a remote site in the Black Mountains of western North Carolina.
Everything had to come down this steep trail: hundreds of tons of stone, mortar, sand, water and tools. The daily commute was forty-five minutes one way, until a landslide on the Blue Ridge Parkway forced a detour that more than doubled the time spent riding to work. And though I can’t prove it, I think stone is heavier a mile above sea level.
The completed cabin is something to behold, stout and sturdy, a timeless building, humble and majestic all at once. I have visited the site a handful of times since we finished. When I first walk into the clearing and see the cabin again, it always gives my heart a jolt. The cabin has a physical presence unlike anything else I have built. It stands there, a silent monument to perseverance and passion, hard work and a certain type of beautiful madness. I am crazy proud of it.
My strongest memory of the place is arriving to work in the mornings. The long winding drive would lull us all almost to sleep. The cold snap of the air was bracing. We’d trundle down the trail, shaking cobwebs out of our heads. In the cabin clearing, clouds would blanket the mountainside. The misty air always reminded me of being at the ocean on a foggy day.
The cabin was a labor of love for an accomplished group of craftspeople: Fred Lashley, Jody Maney, Jesse Friedrichs, Scott Fargo, Jill Bowen, Ian Kelley, Jessica Beckwith, Pete Mallett, Bill Baddorf, Grace McDowell, Kevin Ballew, Marc Archambault, and Walt.