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Barn Boards and Copper Pipes
By Ursula B.G. Kilner, Salisbury
The recent Christmas snowstorm was not the deepest we have had at one time or another, but we have become accustomed to milder winters the past few years with warmer temperatures and less snow than one might expect.
Years ago, in order to get hot and cold water to the wing of the house at Bird Bottom Farm, we had to redo the system we inherited when we bought the house. By asking "old-timers," we found out that the water went from the basement of the "main part" of the house under the front lawn, and somewhere made a right-angle turn into the wing of the house. Do you think we could locate the pipes that should have appeared in the wing? They were not to be found. So we ran new pipes indoors over the front front door (there is also a side front door, just to keep everyone confused) and then under my husband's study, where there is only a crawl space because, in typical New England fashion, the wing is built on the all-pervasive rock ledge.
The new pipes, being of copper, shone brightly and in an unsightly way against the paneling of genuine weathered barn siding. The architect who did the paneling (long before such paneling was popular, and long before one could buy the fake paneling in lumber yards) was Duncan Candler. He was the Rockefeller family's architect for their private homes in New York State. I think when he added to what is now the center of the house—the original 1743 schoolhouse—he did a lot of things which he dared not do to houses he was commissioned to design for other people … like a stairway to nowhere.
Well, back to the gleaming copper pipes over the front front door. Where would I get weathered barn siding to box them in? At that time, the University of Connecticut was beginning to establish the building for its Torrington branch, to be built on the Torrington Town Farm. The main building was destroyed, on purpose, by fire, but behind the main farm building was a tool shed covered in weathered barn board siding. I got permission to take those weathered boards, and thus we had the material to box in the water pipes over the front front door. Once the "new" weathered boards were in place the pipes did not show, and the boxing looked as if it had always been there—the new and old boards looked made for each other! But (there always seems to be a but), as the pipes were on an outside wall and now covered by the "new" weathered barn board, they were subject to freezing—which they hadn't been when open to the house heat. So the pipes had to have heat tape and a thermostat. (It has been a long way around, but we are now back to the subject of colder winters of yore.)
The past few years those pipes have been no worry. Now, as the winters seem to be getting colder, the heat cables with their thermostat and its cheery "I'm on" light (when in use) are part of our life again. There may be "global warming," but not around the front front door! I fear no matter what warming message of encouragement I give those pipes, when the weather dips to below 20 degrees they may well freeze without their cozy heat cables. But with the reassurance of the thermostat light, I know that the water is going on its way, when needed, to provide water "service" to the wing of the house.
See, I did get around, the long way, to colder winters. We'll have more cold and colder winters and very cold winters in time—no matter what environmentalists tell us.
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