New stone next to old buildings
Effingham is old ground. Lord's Hill is a historic district, and the 1819 Effingham Union Academy building on Hobbs Road housed New Hampshire's first normal school, opened in 1830. When someone adds on to an older house, or builds new nearby, the bare concrete of a fresh foundation stands out.
Natural stone veneer closes that gap. Real stone, picked for color and shape and fit by hand, lets a new addition or garage sit with the buildings around it instead of fighting them.
Lord's Hill to Province Lake
Effingham had about 1,700 people at the 2020 census, spread over 40 square miles. Lord's Hill is the old village center. Effingham Falls sits on the Ossipee River in the north of town. Center Effingham is also known as Drake's Corner. And South Effingham runs down toward Province Lake and the Wakefield and Maine lines. Each of those corners brings its own kind of stone job.
Province Lake and the Ossipee River
Province Lake reaches into the south end of town and is shared with Wakefield and Parsonsfield, Maine. To the north, Ossipee Lake comes into Effingham at Broad Bay and Berry Bay, and the Ossipee River starts there and runs east into Maine.
Wind off Province Lake drives rain hard into the side of a house that faces the water. On that side the mortar joints need to be full and tight, with no hollow pockets for water to sit in and freeze.
Green Mountain and the hill lots
Green Mountain, at 1,884 feet, is the high point in town, with a fire tower on top. Houses on its slopes and the other hills in Effingham often have a foundation that is short on the uphill side and tall on the downhill side.
Ledge close to the surface is common on New Hampshire hills, and it can decide where a footing or a set of steps is able to go. That tall face is the most common spot for veneer. Kevin can also wrap the posts under a deck or porch in round fieldstone, so the whole downhill side reads as stone.
When the job grows
Stone veneer is only part of it in Effingham. There are fieldstone walls to build along old property lines, stone steps and flagstone walkways to put in, and patios. Painting, inside and out, is on the list too. On an older house that often means trim and clapboards get attention around the same time the stone goes on.
