Sorry for the sparse posting! I think I actually started this post over the weekend. I can hardly get through typing a sentence before something pulls me elsewhere. Although, to be honest, there’s not much to report over here this week. With a busy holiday weekend and Nick out of town, plus all of us fighting off pesky winter illnesses, I was not able to accomplish much besides laundry all weekend and into this week. Ok, I may have accomplished a bit of online shopping (shh!).
I was so excited to finally get our first “pretty” snow this week!
We continue chipping away at demo but are also getting lots of ducks in a row. We have been working on gathering a team for helping us tackle different aspects of The Back Of The House. It’s a bit frustrating since we were all set with a lot of these plans, then when we had to delay our closing (several times – someday I’ll recount the crazy summer/fall we had), we had to let the people we had originally lined up go work on other projects. So, I feel like we are in the pulling-back-the-arrow phase and then, when we let go, there will be a lot going on all at once.
Anyway, in addition to The Back Of The House, we are also planning out subsequent projects such as painting and resurfacing the floors.
Ah, the floors. It was basically love at first sight. There is hardwood throughout the majority of the house…but the best are in the bedrooms! The bedrooms have these unbelievably wide planks which vary slightly in width but are generally at least a foot wide.
little feet, big floor
I really love the colors and all of the lived-in scuffs in the above pictures; but in all honesty, they really need some TLC. All will likely need to be redone having sustained significant damage from school-use. Duct tape and repeated chair-scuffing seem to be the most frequent offenses and vary in severity.
Duct tape damage in the back bedroom (sorry – cell phone picture)
Master Bedroom front corner
The master bedroom is reportedly in the part of the house which was built first, in the estimated year of 1665. From there, sections were added over the years. As old houses are notoriously crooked, one would think this oldest section would be the most crooked. What is amazing is how straight and solid this original section actually is. It’s such a testament to the skill of those building these “First Period” houses . If you look at the two pictures above, you will notice how crooked the floor is in the back bedroom, which is a “newer” part of the house and yet has the most slope. Some poor soul actually had to cut a completely crooked piece of trim to fit between that closet and the floor!
I just realized this is how I can rationalize my house purchases to Nick: Investing in quality materials is simply keeping in line with the house’s original soul and personality… ha!
Panoramic Pretty Snow
I have told my husband about your house and he now calls it “our house” because he knows it is THE perfect house and my dream house – so I live out my fantasy home through your eyes and writings. I am in awe over how beautiful it is with all that wonderful snow. The floors are fabulous!
We continue to enjoy your blog, photos and great touches of history as you go along. Many thanks for doing this.
OMG, I knew it would be gorgeous with snow. How much of the land towards Locust were you able to get? They were talking about subdividing the lot pretty close to the house.
There is still a bit under an acre still for sale in the front, at the street. We are trying to also purchase this so nothing gets built there, and it can stay an open field, as it has been all these years. Definitely not easy, given the finances we have devoted to renovations of the house. “Que sera sera” is how the old saying goes, right? ?
Really informative forum. Stford