Courtyards to Firelight

This renovation begins outdoors. An octagonal antique limestone fountain holds the center of the courtyard, ringed by reclaimed limestone paving, planter copings and low garden walls in the same stone. Coursed limestone cladding wraps the envelope, arched portals and raised sills carry the openings, and a hand dressed limestone chimney stack rises through the roofline. At the threshold, a cylindrical limestone well topped with a wrought iron arch greets arrivals, and a hexagonal wall fountain keeps the far courtyard alive after dark. Inside, the same language turns to firelight: a carved limestone mantel set into a coursed stone feature wall in the living and dining room, and a more delicately molded mantel in the bedroom beside French doors. Nothing shouts. The stone simply guides you from one good moment to the next, as though it had been collected over generations.