The core house on this 5 acre site was oriented to the south. A 19th Century addition reoriented the house westward to face the street and was set on a grass plinth using fill from the basement excavation. At the back of the house, the land was disturbed after the removal of a dilapidated carriage house that was surrounded by a seasonally wet meadow. As part of the design the front plinth was extended around the back of the house creating a garden raised above the moisture. Instead of stairs, sod ramps like those used to access a barns second story, connect the garden to a circuit of pathways through the woods and meadow. A brick bee-hive cistern uncovered during demolition was repaired and rw-connected to the house's downspouts, collecting rainwater and recirculating it though a small pool between flowering beds and down a stepped rill set into the sod ramp.