We've got Game!

Well at least we have a game plan!  Steve wrote this out the other day so that we could all be on the same page and follow along as we weave our way through the last stages of the house jacking and foundation repair.  Pretty soon there will be visible, exciting changes to the street side exterior as the new windows, siding, and trim work will be going in and up.

Steve started on the windows early in the week and made great progress.  Ten of the beautiful old leaded glass windows have been removed (anyone in need of any sashes for arts and crafts projects or historical renovations?) and the spaces framed out for the new ones.  He also boarded up one of the windows in an upstairs bedroom because we need the wall surface.

Staying on the topic of windows...there has been much discussion recently as to whether we should continue with our plan to "even up" the front of the house by installing two new windows.  Doing so would involve moving two existing windows which is not a problem, but while we were measuring for their new placement we discovered that the west side of the house is several inches smaller than the east side.  Steve said he could fix all that aesthetically by shifting the new front door a little to the east, which was food for thought.  However, our decision was emphatically made when our neighbor, a local historian named Mary Centro, stopped by with this sketch, circa 1878.  It shows the original house, beautifully proud, with only two windows on the west side.  Our two extra windows will find a new home on the side of the house!

We had a fun reunion with a schoolmate of mine this past week.  Leslie and her husband Chris are in the process of renovating her childhood home just up the hill from us.  Small world but Steve is their contractor as well!!  Actually we referred him to Leslie, and everyone is thrilled because new friendships have been formed and great restoration work is being done on the north side of the lake!

I have been trying to think of ways that I can actually get my hands dirty with this whole house project.  So, Joel and I dug out our old, faded Adirondack chairs and brought them up to the house.  While he stripped nails (square heads no less!) from the den floorboards, I hand sanded the chairs then applied a coat of mahogany stain.  We laughed because in true fashion I got the stuff all over the place, but the chairs came out looking great.  I will shellac them soon and they will be ready for us to kick back in after a hard day's work.

This week in Pictures....

I rode shotgun to the metal recycling yard with Joel so he could get rid of the old fuel tank from the basement and other sundry pieces from the house.  Total take; $16.34!

Lowe's delivered our exterior doors; all 5 of them!  Plus the large window to replace the one that came in damaged a few weeks ago.  I am sure we will see these good looking guys a few more times in the months to come!

Joel cut out the floor in the downstairs bathroom so Steve would have access to cut out the last rotten beam of the main house.  Structural re-support work continues...

Pam was in town for a quick weekend visit:)  Here she is watching as Joel tears off the sheetrock in the den to reveal a hidden doorway into the dining room.  Who knew?!  This may change how we enter that room and all my preconceived ideas on how to place our furniture.

Just love this artistic shot of the three different layers of wallpaper in the den and the lathe beneath.  It has been fun to uncover the decorating tastes and styles of the previous owners.

History Lesson and Hamilton Reunion

On Thursday of last week I learned that the Rome Historical Society was going to offer a walking tour of the downtown area on Saturday with a focus on homes that participated in the Underground Railroad efforts of the mid 1800's.  I was not going to be able to take the tour, but since our house is rumored to have been a more northern stop for fleeing slaves, I wanted to see what information was going to be imparted.  I wandered into the Historical Society and as luck would have it, the two young interns charged with the tour were there researching pertinent material and writing up their notes.  They were very kind to sit with me, and when I began describing the 1834 house and the hiding space behind the fireplace, one of the young men pulled out this article from the Rome paper back in 2003.  There it was!  Our house and our fireplace with a whole story pretty much confirming that it was a safe haven for slaves heading to Canada and freedom.  Other people from the Historical Society supplied me with pamphlets and folders on the Wardwell family and their influence on commerce in the area.  One of the educators also found an old map from 1874 which documented the names of local property owners.  He pointed out our home, and I was surprised that the name listed was not Wardwell.  Apparently, I need to research a Moses T. White as he owned our home and the house next door well before the Wardwells.   It seems that one of Moses's descendants married a Wardwell, whose family then owned and lived in the house for generations.  One last coincidental tidbit to this foray into the history of the house...my dad called me late that same day to tell me that the Westernville Town Hall was sponsoring a talk on the Underground Railroad that very night.  Joel and I rearranged some plans and attended.  I was excited to see that more than half of the presentation was based on our house and it's role in the abolitionist movement!  We met several wonderful people who are rallying to put us in touch with various Wardwell children who are willing to share stories, memories, and pictures of the 1834 house.  I will share whatever fun facts I learn in the coming weeks!

The reason I was unavailable to take the historical tour on Saturday is that many of my Hamilton besties came to town to celebrate the marriage of everyone's favorite friend, Scott Brinitzer!  The weekend could not have been more perfect...great weather, fabulous company, and a lively, fun wedding on the Hill.  We took time out of the nuptial festivities to show everyone the house.  Once again, I do so appreciate the outpouring of interest and support, sprinkled with awe and perhaps a little amusement??!

Arkansas, Maryland, and Virginia OH MY!

Have we ever lucked out this summer!  Forever friends from far and wide have come home to Rome for various reasons over the past few weeks and have made the time to visit us and the house.  Tom, Ron, and Joel attended high school together, and both guys stood up in our wedding.  Jobs have taken them out of state, Tom to Bentonville, Arkansas and Ron and Fran (trying out the Yoga room!) to Annapolis, Maryland.  They all proclaimed excitement for our project, but admitted that they were glad it was us all-in and not them.  We have known Michael and Lisa since "before kids."  It is fun to catch up with them here or at their beautiful home in Williamsburg, Virginia.  They gave me good advice and kitchen design ideas to consider just as they did 5 years ago when we renovated Turin Road.

The house is still up on jacks as Steve and Joel continue to place the support beams and floor joists in the basement.  They should be finished by tomorrow and then can let the house down to rest on it's new foundation.  Perhaps by next week the house can begin to be wrapped and the old windows, at least in the front part, can be removed and the frames rebuilt for the replacements.

Joel's mom found this flag in her attic and gave it to us to adorn the new house.  I think Joel found the perfect place to hang it!

Holy Smokes!

So if it isn't one setback it will surely be another.  Steve and Joel discovered this charred wood today behind the walls of the den right around where the fireplace sits.  We were aware that there must have been a fire (outside of the fireplace!!) some time back because we could see singed areas on the outside of the house once we got the clapboards off.  It is a little scary, though, to discover this "cover up" as it were because I have been hounding Joel and Lenny, our mason, to please get this fireplace back into working order as I would  love to have real blazes in this room.  Lenny has been saying that the chimney is not safe in its current condition.  He recommends tearing it down and building a new, usable replacement.  Joel would like Lenny to repoint the bricks, secure it safely, and insert a gas fireplace for our enjoyment.  Well, this new development may change all of our lines of thought because the chimney in question is covering up a façade.  As the next picture shows, the interior fireplace and the exterior chimney are separated by a space.  That answers the question of why the chimney seems to be pulling away from the house.   After the fire, the previous owners must have built the interior faux, rendering the fireplace essentially useless.  Long story short, BOTH chimneys may have be torn down and a new, safe one erected and I may get my wish!!  There may be something to that notion of a "silver lining."

The whole reason that the guys even launched into this chimney escapade was that when Steve was trying to jack up the west side of the house, he discovered that the main support had been severed to install a window which was now holding up the second story.  That just can't be!  Upon further inspection, it seems that not even the window was the support.  Rather, it was this very small (charred on the backside) block of wood which was sitting atop the window that was holding the house up.  Mind boggling.  All the more reason to keep peeling back the layers of this old house to make things right again.

A bright spot in this roller coaster ride is the continued interest of friends who each have some tidbit of wisdom or interesting idea to share as I tour them through and lay out my design plans.  Our friend Mitch's sister, Stacia, and her husband Jeffrey were in town for the weekend from Toronto.  The guys were tied up at a golf tournament, and Karen was at a curling match, so Stacia and I got to spend Saturday together.  Her furry niece Paisley tagged along. Although she claims to have no eye for room layout, Stacia certainly gave me solid advice which I plan to investigate further:)

Vroom

Somehow I knew that our friends Susan and Michael would make a splashy entrance last evening when they came to check out the house because that's the type of folks they are...FUN!  After we showed them around, we enjoyed a light picnic dinner in the backyard overlooking the lake.

It is kind of hard to tell the color from this picture, but our hardiplank siding has been delivered!  It is called Heathered Moss, a lovely, light sage green.  It will have to remain covered by a tarp on the lawn until Steve gets the house foundation in place.  We are still on target, though, to have the house wrapped, sided, and all the windows and doors installed by the Fall.

My dad pointed this space between the hallway and living room floors out to me a few days ago.  It is a good 2 inch gap from the east side of the house where Steve has been working to the middle of the house.  I find it amazing that a whole section of the structure can be lifted without compromising the rest of the building.  Steve had great news for Joel yesterday when he described how straight and true the house remained as he jacked part of it up.  It did not buckle or twist, which is a sign of a well-built home!

Isn't this pretty?  Larry spent the better part of yesterday tearing off the hall and stairway sheet rock, exposing this beautiful lathe.  Joel asked if I wanted to keep it this way since I like it so much, but I said "no...." 

Stay tuned.  We have a busy few days ahead of us:)

Lost?? Just Follow the Signs!

That's what the Kehoe family did!  Chris and Susan and the kids came upstate for the holiday weekend to see our folks and check out the new house project.  After completing a full tour of the upper property, we all trekked down to the lakefront where they "threw up some deuces" in appreciation of my colorful sign.  They are in the final stages of their own remodel...a new kitchen and half bath.  We compared notes on dumpsters (they used 2, we are on our 4th!) and the trials and tribulations of home renovations.  One thing we all agreed on is that it is much more pleasant to not live in the  house during the messy phase. We've certainly got that  covered!

As I indicated in the last post, the pace has picked up significantly in the past couple of days.  Our windows got delivered on Friday; all 47 of them, plus 2 that did not belong to us.  Joel had quite the back and forth exchange with Lowes to arrange for them to be picked up and taken to their rightful owner.  He must have spoken to 5 different store managers and delivery supervisors before someone came out late Saturday morning to fix the situation.

Joel played hooky on Friday morning and started working at the house at 5:30 am.  He accomplished so much!  By the time Paige and I brought him coffee at 9 am on our way to the airport, he had our bedroom completely stripped bare.  The gross blue rug was gone.  The insulation was all bagged up and thrown in the dumpster.  The wall between the bedroom and the purple room had been dismantled, opening up a beautiful, big space.  Now I can finally see how the floor plan will flow, and I am getting excited about colors and designs.

Steve was busy too.  He was able to install one of the LVL support beams in the basement and all of the floor joists on the east side of the house.  Even though this extra support work was not anticipated, I feel happy that we are shoring up the house properly so it can stand tall and proud for another 180 years!

The flurry of activity on Stokes Westernville Road finally subsided Saturday afternoon around 2 pm so everyone could go off and enjoy some 4th of July fun.  In our hurry to get on with our social schedule, I forgot to take all my daily pictures.  Joel and I decided to ride our bikes up there this morning to enjoy the solitude of the lake, snap my photos, and continue our discussions on placement of walls, windows, and doors.  Donning our helmets and pumping up our bike tires brought back fond memories of our epic ride back in 2010...remember that blog??

Happy Independence Day everyone:)