Gee, thanks everyone for all the kind words. Designing the room and the farmers porch was a lot of fun with the software. My contractor even had me print out copies to use for the permits. cady, you are right; I am sure I will actually save money on heating with the addition, because it is better insulated than the old house (even though there is blown-in insulation in all the old walls) and because those two, drafty plank doors are gone. They looked cool, but they were terribly inefficient and were not even used as entrances. As for a house tour, Id love to host anyone willing to drive all the way up here. With my travel schedule and location Im never able to attend all the great functions everyone coordinates on this forum (sniff). There are five bedrooms (and two barns), so plenty of crash space. August is the best garden show time up here, because all the big players e.g. phlox, rudbeckia, echinacea, heliopsis, etc, are in bloom. Unless everyone likes snowshoeing in the winter. claire, pokeberries I have in abundance. I should take some pics of them before they die back. Now, regarding cadys ideabeing a bachelor, I am intrigued by the idea of having a tarted-up hussy at the house, at least for a while. Is it possible to rent a variegated Artemisia? White wood asters sound nice. I have something that looks kind of like a faerie garden. There is a path off of the lawn through a copse of evergreen trees down to the pond. It is not very large, but it is kind of cool, with almost an enchanted feel. There is not much under the trees except for ferns and a few struggling brambles. Id love to add some woodland plants that could provide some interest and color. Any ideas? diggerdee, we dont have termites up here, but do have carpenter ants. The wood pile is now up on pressure-treated posts, so it is probably safer than it was when it sat right on the ground. But, I do spray around the house perimeter as a precaution. When we tore into the old walls, we found some evidence of carpenter ant activity, but it was not recent and didnt affect the integrity of the walls, fortunately. As for repair of an old house vs. a 1950s cape, Id have to say that they dont make them like this anymore. The house is pretty much built like a tank. Except for the fact that it is irregular in its measurements and has the original horsehair plaster on most walls, it is great to work on it. martinetct, your husband is totally spot on. One of the exterior walls (on the el that houses the kitchen and garage) was/is 2 ½ inches wider at the base than at the top. Try lining up trim against that. And, the floor in the kitchen slopes such that the new room is level through the French doors into the kitchen, but there is a 3 ½ in step up into the dining room (yet you dont notice it in the kitchen). The wall behind the farmers porch weaves like a drunken sailor, which made it fun to line up. And, of course, nothing is level and nothing is square. But, thats part of the fun and certainly part of the charm of an old house. As for the windows, they are Harvey replacements with the grill between the panes. Not practical to try to match the existing windows. When I bought the place all the storm windows were shot and all the main windows needed to be reglazed. I had the option of having the work done or just replacing the windows for the same price. I wanted to keep the look, so opted to have the old windows redone. But, even with the new storms, they are not very efficient. And, they are a royal pain to clean, they stick in the summer, some are missing hardware so dont stay open, and in general they are not fun. Now that weve put in these matching vinyl replacement windows that have a snug seal and that tilt in for cleaning with no grills to get in the way, I see how much easier they are to use and to maintain. Despite the cost, I think that, once I redo the kitchen (this winters project) I will bite the bullet and have all the windows replaced. True, they are real 12 over 12, but they are not original to the house (they are the kind that have the two metal buttons on the sides you push in to open and that lock into slots in the frame at two locations). There is only one place where there is original glass over the front door. The door is original and even has the bar across it to fend off attackers (as in "Katie bar the door") as well as the original skeleton key still in the lock. Over it are six small panes of glass. They are wavy and bubbly, and I believe have been there from the beginning. As for the original family being upstanding, yeah I think they had some money. The rooms are really big for a true colonial with the all the front rooms on both original levels being approx.15.5 x 14 feet and wainscoting pretty much everywhere. There are closets in almost every room, and if you remember that the British taxed houses based on the number of rooms and considered closets to be rooms, the owners either had a lot of money to spend, or, being in northern New England, just thumbed their noses at the British and figured no one would ever collect the tax from them. I prefer to believe the latter. I'll pass on your congrats to my contractor. I may come up with the ideas, but he does all the work. He was my house inspector, a carpenter, and it turned out he liked to work on old houses. We hit it off, and he has done all the improvements (or GC'd them) over the past few years. Another project I did not mention was one we did the first year I bought the place. It is a tradition that my entire family comes up for Thanksgiving two parents, sister, brother-in-law, six kidlings and a dog. It is an invasion on the scale of the Allied landing in Normandy with similar, if not greater, logistical requirements. Anyway, I needed places to put everyone and the house only had three bedrooms on the second floor (one space was converted years ago into a master bathroom, a guest bathroom and a laundry room). So, I talked it over with my contractor and we took that attic and converted it into a finished third floor. There are two bedrooms and a full bath with tub up there. It hardly ever gets used, except when my sister visits and we throw all the kidlings up there. We kept the massive roof beams exposed and used V pine for the ceiling. It looks pretty neat. We did get rid of the trap door to the roof, since it was covered anyway by the metal roof, and we also eliminated the musket holder in one of the windows that was there to steady the gun for plunking Indians or British, I assume. People have asked me if the house is haunted, especially since I live alone (not counting Cord, The Wonder Chow). I figure I am at least the 12th generation to live in it, so there is some history in the place. But, I have never been bothered by anyone or anything. Before I bought the place, it was in a state of semi-disrepair and no one had lived in it for a number of years. I figure that, when my whole family, from three to eighty two, is gathered around the dining room table for Thanksgiving laughing and talking, the house is happy. Anthropomorphic and stupid, I know. But, I feel like a steward and hope to eventually pass on the house in better condition than when I bought it and ready for another 200+ years. Of course, if one day I suddenly stop posting to the forum, youll know that the house got me. narcnh

Whether you need permits depends on your city/county codes. How difficult it is to return to the original depends on how much framing was added. Start by removing the windows. The only way to find out how much framing was added is to remove the sheet rock. That should give you an idea of any framing added for sheet rock installation and/or how big the old screens were. To replace windows with screens means all the sheet rock has to be removed. Looks some was added to the old exterior. Most of the trim has to go. Not a really good DIY project unless you have some experience in demolition. To have it done may run a couple thousand dollars, and maybe that much more to refurbuish it.

What a gorgeous house! Amazing landscaping. Don't paint the brick. It looks great as is and adds so much character that would be lost, especially because IMO from the photos the trim and siding on the front look like box store jobs. Not horrible but kind of flat with fake trim on the "columns?" The brick adds depth and character you lose here. I actually have to wonder if the 1 story part is the "original " part of the house, but maybe it was just the trim and siding chosen. Anyway, I am with you in that the minty sage isn't quite working. i love sage and brick, so why doesn't this work for me? I think it is 1) the mintyness of the shade 2) the fact that there are 2 shades of green and 3) the fact that the trim and doors are the same color. I like the back much more for that reason-the doors are red and stand out. My neighbors have this color scheme and it works so much better because of he shade of green and the placement of the colors ^^trim and siding the same darker sage, window muntins and door red

@Elaine Doremus Resumes Written Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately we were not able to find any images of the home from the past. I was hoping some folks on Houzz might be able to tell what style it originally was or at least give some good direction on how to we can restore it. For example I think the roof line may have originally gone straight back, instead of the second pitched section of the roof you can see on the left side. I apologize - I know I am not using the correct terminology! The home also has cheap vinyl replacement windows, so I would like to one day replace them. Maybe the anderson craftsman or farmhouse line? I wonder if we would change the scale of the windows at all...