House Restoration Roller Coaster

I would have written sooner; I have had whiplash from the careening roller coaster that is named "Old House Restoration Project".

We got the well in, hit water at 240 feet but had to rather inconveniently relocate it near the front walkway. Yes, there is a camouflage plan.

The work on the house has been a fascinating look at circa 1770 house construction. The post and beam skeleton is as strong and supple as ever. The sills needed only some relatively modest cleaning up; they are still solid. It's been heartening that a number of old house experts have looked at the basement and marveled at the perfectly straight dry stone foundation, dry timbers and enormous chimney base. That being said, though, wavy floors abound, as in any old house, and we attempted some leveling as much as practical without dismantling the entire structure. Probably the most impressive feat was bringing the rear wall of the house back about 8" to where it should be. If you know anything about old post and beam houses, you know that between the posts, there is often vertical planking, not used for structural support but as an anchor for exterior clapboards and interior lathe and plaster. Well, the vertical planking wasn't attached to the plate anymore and the wall had just sort of waved outward. Not really a serious structural issue but now it is as straight as it can be; the interior wall was studded the new-fashioned way and the exterior wall was brought in flush with that.

This house has always been lived in, and the inhabitants over the years made improvements, some of them unfortunate. The second floor is close to original, with two feet wide chestnut planks, and an original cove ceiling in the largest room. The first floor was once divided into a duplex; original fireplaces were traded for parlor stoves, and the original buttery gave way to a bigger kitchen in what was probably once a bedroom. Some old pumpkin pine floors remain but others are more newly installed wide pine boards, and there are some narrow oak board floors, too. Simply put, there wasn't anything much very original to the house. And therein the dilemma was what to do: try to return the interior to the long ago past, or embrace a more contemporary style -- the latter very foreign to me. Yet, that is what we have done and I have to give our contractor and his design consultant (the Mrs.) kudos. I never thought this old house would be clean, streamlined, and as a friend of mine said "contemporary with a vintage feel".

We took a wall down between the kitchen and old sun room and that created an open space from the hearth room through the kitchen and all the way to the new windows overlooking the back hill and fields right down to the Ponaganset River. New windows (yes, I acquiesced) were next, then a lot of carpentry work, sheet-rocking, plastering, new plumbing, electrical updates.....we are finally almost on home stretch. Most of the interior is painted. The exterior was power washed for paint -- new color scheme! -- but that was during the warm spell a few weeks ago and you all know what is on the ground now! It is not painting weather, alas.

Finally last week I breathed a big sigh of relief because it finally hit me: this old house is saved. It has a new lease on life and here's to hoping for a devoted and deserving new caretaker.