Summer houses, village homes and new builds
Wolfeboro's town motto is The Oldest Summer Resort in America, and the houses show it. There are old summer places that were closed in for year round living, village homes on the streets off Main Street, and newer houses built to face the lake. Plenty of them share one weak spot: a band of bare concrete foundation that never got finished.
That band is where natural stone veneer earns its keep. Kevin sets real stone over the concrete so the house looks like it sits on a stone base. On cedar or clapboard siding, a fieldstone face along the bottom ties the building to the ground the way old New Hampshire stone foundations do.
Bay side and Lake Wentworth side
The main village wraps around the head of Wolfeboro Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee. Lake Wentworth is just east, where Governor John Wentworth built his summer estate in 1771, and the Smith River carries its water down to the big lake. A house on either water has a lake side that takes the weather head on and gets looked at from boats all summer.
On those walls the details count for more than the pattern. Flashing over the top course, a clear way for water to get out at the bottom, and a first course that stays up out of the soil and the snow. Water that gets behind veneer and freezes is what pops stone loose in a New Hampshire winter, so Kevin builds against it from the first stone.
Picking stone that fits the lot
Drive Route 109 or Route 28 out of the village and you pass fieldstone walls at the road edge. That rounded gray and brown stone is what a lot of Wolfeboro houses call for. A newer house with crisp trim may suit a squarer cut granite better. Both are natural stone, and the choice comes down to the house and what is already standing on the property.
- Rounded New Hampshire fieldstone for older homes and cottages
- Squared granite pieces for a cleaner line on newer builds
- Mixed tones when the veneer has to sit near an old stone wall
Other jobs Jones Legacy takes on in Wolfeboro
Veneer is the main event, but a Wolfeboro lot might also need a retaining wall where the lawn drops toward the bay, a flagstone path to the dock, a set of stone steps or a patio. Kevin takes those on too, along with interior and exterior painting, and painting comes up a lot in a town with this many clapboard houses that need scraping and a fresh coat.
How to get started
Text Kevin a photo of the foundation, column or wall you have in mind. Say which part of town the house is in, since the village, Wolfeboro Falls, South Wolfeboro and North Wolfeboro are each a different drive. If you are only up for the summer, send the photo from wherever you are. Kevin can see it in person when the timing works.
