I love old farmhouses! Yours look like it sits on a nice piece of land?

I was just thinking I need to post some new updates. We are still working everyday, more than I ever bargained for, I'm tired, every bone in my body hurts, but our fault... we decided to tackle all the major parts at once (really had to in order for me to live there). All rodents have vacated, cockroaches will be on the next hit-list!

I'll be back tomorrow with some updates!

We finally get to see pics of the old farmhouse! Oooo, I see those doors alright - I want the entrance door AND the old screen door. ha. No wonder you have been dreaming for so long about this old house, it has so much charm even in its present state.

I had painting the porch columns on my "To Do" list for this summer, but never got around to it. This past week would have been a good time, but I puttered around instead. No other projects at this time, but with an old house anything can happen. Not exactly house related, but I am planning to have the Tulip Poplar taken down. It sits right off the back porch and is 90% dead, big limbs threaten to come down too close for comfort. The tree guy said it isn't an immediate threat, but an ice storm may not be good.
I'm going to miss it terribly, but all things change.

What a great porch, and charming door--right down to the doorknob!!

I haven't been posting much the last week because I've been working on the sink wall in the kitchen. I knew it would be the hardest part of the whole remodel, and it didn't disappoint. On a happier note--my brother cut the remaining countertops today, so I'll have a progress post, soon.

lavender, I just want you to know--I wasn't going to log in and post tonight, but seeing this thread and your pictures gave me a much-needed lift, after a rough week. :)

Love the house!

I'm probably new to you all here, I do post now and then but I was more active on the kitchen forum for a while, and sometimes the garden forum. My house, if any of you sort of know, is a 1915 Craftsman with some Victorian elements (I suspect the original owner had this built to their very specific specs). I had a historian take a look at photos and even they were a bit puzzled at all of the different types of Craftsman homes it draws on.

Having said that, we're always in the middle of doing "something" here. Over the summer, I had my landscaping professional done, including a paver patio put in; some continuing electrical upgrades (like, we needed outdoor receptacles on the house and garage), emergency gutter repairs, etc.

Right now I'm at kind of a standstill because I'm waiting on contractors to fit me into their schedules.

I'm having my chimney/fireplace repaired to the tune of $6000 (it needs to be brought up to Code and the firebox has some damage needing repair). But scheduling them this time of year has been difficult to say the least.

I had an attempted burglary and they compromised my sliding door in the kitchen so I'm waiting on the new one to come in which will mean taking down some masonry and the stairs to re-install. Also waiting on several new windows for the basement since one of the fell in on it's own accord (they were ancient).

I had schedule the house and garage to be painted but this can't start yet - because of the masonry at the sliding door having to be repaired (I'm already 1 month behind on that and concerned now it might get too cold to do it).

All of the gutters were about to be replaced BUT when they came, they discovered the fascia boards were rotted - so now I'm waiting on a price to add new boards also (I saw the condition of them - yikes, don't know how the gutters were even being held on!).

I have regrading to be done on one side of the house, and installation of underground piping from the gutters to the street. That contractor left for Italy right as I made the decision to do the work. Expected back I think this week.

And, I need 5 new doors. Front door, 2 sides (one is in my living room to the original car port which is now a covered patio), the garage door (not the pull-ups, we had those done already) and last is the door leading from a bedroom to the upstairs balcony. I have no idea what this is going to run me yet *terrified* I've picked what I want for the most part, but still have some questions for the contractor and am waiting on him to stop by to discuss.

I really wanted all of this done by the first week of November. I have a TCO on the house and I've renewed it twice already. I think all of this work would have cleared it out but it's clear that I'm going to have to renew for another 6 months. Oh well. I'm sure the Town will be happy to have another $25.

On a good note I finally bought a small flat screen TV for the kitchen. I got tired of running back and forth to the Living Room while cooking to see what was happening on my favorite shows :D

Just maintenance this year. The expansion mode has been shifted into neutral due to bleak economic forecast and present realities.
I painted my front door and surround another coat this year, because it was looking so dowdy. As always the prep take three times as long as the actual painting. I also refinished both oak thresholds/sills, with new varnish.
I built a screen/storm door for the kitchen entry. Maybe it will save a few dollars worth of heating oil.

Still waiting for the new porch we started last fall to get finished. We've had some major set backs this year with the things we had planned. The weather was the biggest problem.
I wanted to do some painting and the weather just didn't want to co operate. It was either so hot you couldn't breathe or so wet you couldn't paint.
Beginning of Sept. our area got hit hard by a flood. The old house we live in made it thru fine but our rental....not so good. Basement totally filled. Lost all the mechanicals........furnace, water heater, electrical panel, washer,dryer,dehumidifier. Flood waters reached the main floor only covering less than a inch however the insulation behind the walls soaked up at least 5 inches of water so we had to remove siding to remove the soaked insulation and let things dry out.
We've spent most of our waking hours this month just trying to get the house back into some kind of livable shape.I think we are about half way there.
Till it gets done not much is going to happen at home.

We have a 1920s home that was partially built from an old barn. It has porches up and down on both the east and the west sides. The last few years we shored up the back porches and replaced the foottings, and did a few footings out front while we were at it. The front porch rails were replaced (replicated to match the original which still exist upstairs) and the skirting replicated from the one original panel. Screened in the downstairs back porch in a way that matched the upstairs one. Now dh is working his way around the house repairing the old trim and fascia (some of which is beautiful clear oak) using abatron a wood epoxy and then he is painting both the trim and the aluminum siding. Next summer he will finally do the repairs and repaint the front of the house - a huge job because of stripping all the lead paint off the old porch railings upstairs. Our neighbots will be happy - we've gotten some complaints that we didn't start with the front! I got him a scraper that attaches to the vacuum cleaner this year which he loves and uses after softening the paint with the infra red tool. Very little chipping or dust so far, but the porches will be a bear.
TEar down of garage and rebuilding larger with an apartment above is planned for next year also. I don't know if we will be able to accomplish it all.
We also need a new roof. arrgh!
Kathy

Thanks for all the kind commments on the pictures!

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it's fun finding the 'treasures' in an old house...especially a farmhouse! LOL So many things, some I'm not even sure what they're for...but always interesting.

Mama Goose- Thank you for the kind words and I am looking forward to your update! Your kitchen is so wonderful and I'm always amazed at what you can do...I hope I come up with even a few details that are as creative. I hope you have a better week and just remember we all look forward to your next progress pictures :)

So many great projects that everyone is working on (or have done over the summer). Anyone else have anything to share? More pictures? I will try to take some more this week, especially of the view.

Tinker, it is a pretty area, we're very lucky to have a place with trees and a creek, as well as pasture.

well, I haven't got around to take pictures, but our lives seem a lot like sivyaleah!

We are doing so much right now, my head is spinning. We have gutted all 4 bathrooms and fixed all rotten sub-floors. DH is roughing in new plumbing, and we have ordered tile, and we expect that to start in 4 weeks.

Our new bathroom cabinets are being painted, and should arrive in a week or so.. that's exciting!

The drywall people have installed new drywall over almost all our existing plaster ceilings which were falling down due to water damage. I just finished painting almost all the ceilings - that was a job!

The drywall people skim coated every single wall in the house to restore them, they came out almost perfect! I see a few spots while painting that should be touched up, but can't find them easily after the paint dries, so I'm not going to worry about it! I have primed and painted 2 coats on almost all the walls.. I see progress! I still need to finish stripping a few more moldings, and need to start on doors - ugh!

I have striped a good deal of old hardware (hinges & door knobs)

I have finished 8 windows ( fully restored!) and today, I have 4 I might be able to install.. we'll see.

DH repaired a termite damaged exterior wall, and new siding was just installed. We poured a concrete curb around the house, and enclosed with a wire mesh and lattice to keep animals and coackroaches out.

DH is repairing a side porch and garage entry.. so much to do, everything we do we find 10 more things!

We hired a painter to do our fascia & eaves, and found more areas that need to be replaced, DH thought he had that done :(

We are going on a MUCH needed cruise in 3 weeks, I can't wait! When we come back, we should be ready to have all our bathrooms tiled and hardwood floors refinished. We'll still have a long, long list to do.. but this old house is starting to show it's former beautiful!

Old house owner = hard worker! I'm impressed with what people are doing.
Kathy
(ps. or has lots of money to pay others)

Kathy, our old house has turned into a much bigger project, and we are fortunate that we actually have funds to pay people to help... but the trouble is, NO ONE wants to work for us! We have had painters tell us "it's too much work" other contractors that come and don't even bother to bid, it's been ongoing like this for months, so we have done (are doing) 75% of it ourselves. Once we are able to move in.. there will still be a ton of things to address (termite damage in garage, garage doors, exterior doors, shutters, etc... It really is never ending, but we should have a good chuck done so that I can tackle more fun stuff in the house.