This was a project in New Marlborough Massachusetts that grew and grew. The original scope of work was an Indiana Limestone fireplace in the primary bedroom of a new addition. Its unostentatious design was comprised of 5 pieces of stone that formed the lintel, coving walls, surround sides, and flush hearth. The back wall receives most of the heat and was laid with firebrick, which after only a few fires will turn black. Instead of the sides returning into the firebox at a right angle we matched the coving wall angle to bring the plane all the way to the face of opening. The tapering exterior chimney was clad in a fieldstone that best matched the local stone.

From there we moved on to striping the cladding off the living room chimney, pouring a proper foundation under it, and veneering it with stone. We then designed a landscaping plan for the new space the addition created. The primary goal was a small patio/ fire pit area in a shady setting to retreat to on summer days. We took advantage of the grade changes and incorporated a dry laid granite retaining wall bench seat to border the patio. The fire pit was created from a reclaimed granite column. We incorporated a few extra large pieces of bluestone into the patio for scale. The whole area was then planted to nestle in the patio and incorporate a weathered piece of ledge that was otherwise in an inopportune spot.

Lastly the new addition had worsened an already steep grading problem at the head of the driveway. Here we built an 80’ long fieldstone retaining wall which would be the focal point on the driveways approach. It began at 7’ tall by the house and tapered down to 4’ where it terminated into a large weathered boulder found on site.