New York Renovator

Up, Up, and Away

Posted on23. May, 2007 by Mrs. Mecomber.

My house is a balloon-frame house. Balloon-frame houses became all the rage after the World’s Fair in Chicago, when visitors saw Augustine Taylor’s new building design in 1833.
Balloon-framing was the alternative method of post-and-beam framing. PandB framing requires massive timbers with strong, skilled workers. The labor for this is extensive and demanding. The invention of [...]

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Floods

Posted on18. May, 2007 by Mrs. Mecomber.

I’d said in an earlier post that we’d suffered a few floods here last summer. We have had flooding occur regularly on my property since 1999, but last year’s torrential rains really wiped out a lot of my gardening work.
The July 2006 Flood was especially destructive. We had 2 feet of back-up water (from our [...]

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Close to Home

Posted on18. May, 2007 by Mrs. Mecomber.

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External Remodeling

Posted on10. May, 2007 by Mrs. Mecomber.

After we bought the house, we replaced only a few things: the roof, a front door, some windows, a new oven, and remodeled the Entry Hall. I have also been through the entire house and re-painted all walls and trim. But that is really all we have done. I am in the process of parging [...]

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Quic Pics

Posted on07. May, 2007 by Mrs. Mecomber.

To aid my sometimes obtuse descriptions, I’m posting a few pictures of the house. These pictures were all taken years ago.
This is that 70s Kitchen. Wowee, talk about ugly. That greenish yellowish range hood (shown in the picture) was only a recirculating fan with a filter full of grease. Below the range hood was a [...]

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