Windsor Cottage Chronicles

Lake Sunapee has always felt like a spiritual place—with its shimmering waters, the echoing calls of loons, eagles soaring overhead, and the granite ski slopes standing sentinel to the south. Each season brings its own magic, but autumn, with its riot of color and morning mist, feels especially sacred. We’ve broken a bit of that silence with construction, trading tranquility for the steady rumble of progress. Walkers and joggers stand still and rubberneck in disbelief because, truthfully, the excavation process is pretty amazing. If you’ve ever tried to build a sandcastle using only a teaspoon, congratulations—you now understand our excavation method at Windsor Cottage. Our builders have been working heroically this week, but with such complicated access and not a lot of room to maneuver,  the biggest piece of machinery that can really do the job is little Doug the Excavator. He’s adorable—like a Tonka truck that grew up and got a union card. Picture this: Dan the Man, laser-focus...

Wednesday called for the big guns! The challenge was two-fold: the old foundation had to go, and the space to work in was tighter than a toddler’s fist around a cookie. Enter Doug the Excavator —endearingly named by my family and now a full-fledged member of the crew. Doug is small but mighty, the bulldog of excavators, snorting and scooping his way through layers of dirt and rubble. The only catch? That little bucket means a lot of trips to the trailer-dumpster. So, out went our makeshift dumpster (in a trailer that would fit the space), and in rolled an additional piece of construction equipment with two serious attachments: one a mini concrete drill bit to chew through the old foundation, and the other a big digger bucket ready to carry the spoils. Doug had a rental friend to work with.   Out with the makeshift dumpster, In with the concrete bit By mid-afternoon, the air was buzzing with the clang of metal, the rattle of rock, and Doug’s steady growl. By day’s end...