Here’s my little story with information about our 1855 house and what we have done so far, up to 2008. I went through some of the most interesting posts of our projects, and link to them here. Peruse at your own pleasure. Or horror.
Each link takes you to an older post I wrote, complete with photos, of how things progressed as we did them. I also included tips and information I learned, so as to help any reader if they are tackling something similar.
Here’s a lengthy history of the home and property. I own the original abstract to the house (it’s not common for a homeowner to own the abstract– usually the mortgage lender keeps it until the mortgage is paid off). The abstract is full of wonderfully historic details and even includes a copy of the Last Will & Testament of the guy who built the house. You can read about the history here, History 101 and History 201. I was also blessed to get a photo of the house that was taken in 1910. You can see the photo here.
Our house is a “balloon frame” home, which was all the fad after the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1833. Balloon frame houses are very unconventional, and they come with their own special problems. You can read more about it here.
We’ve owned our house for over 11 years now. We’ve repaired lots of little things– the front door, porch replacement, a new roof, building large gardens, etc.
The first room I gutted was the Entry Hall, which was disastrously ugly. We bought the house when the kids were very young, and therefore I was too busy raising them and educating them to gut the big rooms! Now that they are older, they are my handy helpers. Last summer they dug a long, deep trench to help divert the water from the roof away from the foundation of the house. It was a great project! You can read about it here and here.
While the kids were digging, I was doing interior gutting. Our chimney has been leaking, and mildew had been growing for a while. When I removed a small wall, I found out why. Post is here. I realized I had to remove a wall from the living room to get the mildew out. When I did this, I discovered such ancient and damaged electrical wiring that I realized I had to gut the entire room. We pooled our money together and renovated the entire room. Because I had no money for an expensive electrician, I stayed up nights studying electrical circuits. I wired the living room, the bedroom above it, and a few other areas myself. And all my work was given the stamp of approval by the inspector! I saved about $3,000 by doing this work myself. The worst part was going into the attic.
Almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw this here.
SIGH. Oh, and I had to re-do the furnace ducting in the living room, too, because it was all messed up (not according to code) and filthy. I also installed Category5 ethernet wiring and telephone wiring– read about it here.
Oh yeah, and I had a vegetable garden and multitudes of perennial gardens to keep up with, too. Makes me tired to remember it all! Read about the garden here.
I insulated the living room, and it was actually WARM in this room over the winter! No drafts, either! What a real treat. After the wiring and insulation was completed, I had some handy helpers install the sheetrock walls.
We were going to restore the original pine planks, but when I ripped out the old carpeting, I saw that the wood floor had been painted long ago. With many coats. I did a lead test and the paint came up positive for lead. I was disappointed! Our second choice was carpeting, but I did not have the knowledge or strength to install it, nor could I afford it. So we went with discounted laminate flooring and installed it ourselves. Read about it here and here, and I wrote an update about it here.
The only thing I did not replace in the living room were the windows. The windows are 100-years old, very large, and thus very expensive to replace. I just didn’t have the money to do it. We have 13 windows that need replacing in the house. I’m looking into a grant that will pay for us to do them. We did install a pediment over our French door– this post here and here show the style of the home (Greek Revival) and my decorating tastes.
We’re hoping for a new kitchen soon. The one we have right now was done in 1972 and is literally falling down on our heads. See more horror photos here.
Of course, these posts are just the “mountains” of our work here. If you want to read the “valleys” also, check out the Archives page where you’ll find a breakdown of posts by the month. Thanks for reading! I’m so tired after remembering it all that I’m going to go take a nap! Sheesh!
