Welcome to our old house.

11 years ago

It is time I properly introduced myself. Hello. My name is Kalindi. My husband Doug and I are living in and renovating / rebuilding a very old house. We are unsure of exactly how old. His family had someone come look at the house back in the 90's and they estimated the main 2 story log cabin portion of the house at 275 years old. They also estimated the addition to the log cabin to have been done around the early 1800's.

There was also later additions done which housed the kitchen (not really sure of the date, but the foundation is stone). Then another addition when they got indoor plumbing when my mother in law was a little girl.

Right now we are living on the first floor of the house. The second floor is completely gutted still and while it is cleaner than the photographs I have linked to, it is in the same state (bare logs in the old house and bare studs in the new construction). We hope to get the kitchen done, the main room of the downstairs done (which will be the dining room, but we will use as a family room until the family room is done), and then move on to the floors upstairs and the master bedroom. We need to move upstairs in order to finish the family room as we need to demolish the floor and pull up supports and tear out a staircase so, we are nowhere near done.

We are doing all the work ourselves. We did hire my husband's brother to do the actual construction of the addition and some other work in the beginning as we did not have the know how to do that, but the rest of it so far has been us. (Although after doing the drywall myself, we have seriously considered hiring someone to do that upstairs in the addition as I just don't like it UGH!!) Oh, and we have 2 kids, one just turned 2 and the other just turned 3, so things are a bit slow going around here.

Also, I know there are many purists on here from my reading who bring houses back to their original splendor, but well, we are going for a little different. We are trying to show it's age, show what makes it special, but we have no illusions that we are going to show a "period" home. We are going to keep every beam you see on our ceilings exposed with the bark on. The exterior wall that is exposed in the family room will remain there and exposed and we are going to expose the rest of it on the other side of the door. But we will also have modern appliances in our kitchen (no upper cabinets a more unfit look). The entire house will be a mishmash of very old and new.

Anyway, there is our plan and our house.

http://s1241.beta.photobucket.com/user/kali615/library/?sort=2

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Comments (10)

kai615
Original Author
11 years ago
Try this link. Sorry, they don't give you a place for links in an original post.

Here is a link that might be useful: House link
chibimimi
11 years ago
Kali, that's a very impressive house and an exciting project. I look forward to hear all about it as you go on.
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jakabedy
11 years ago
What a great house. You guys have definitely got you're work cut out for you, but I think you'll end up with a home that is livable in the 21st century, but referential to its roots. Keep us posted!
User
11 years ago
Keep us posted! That looks like a huge undertaking but so much fun. I love that wallpaper. Wish I had it. Everything I uncovered was 1940's and I remember it too well. Not pretty if you don't like palm leaves, red and gray. Unless, under the multiple painted over layers on the downstairs rooms there is something pretty.
kai615
Original Author
11 years ago
Well, Lov_mkitchen, you saw the pink/pink main room my mother in law left me. I know "not pretty" pretty well. I am dying to get to skim coating and fixing the plaster in here so I can get to painting and getting rid of the pink, but since it is one of the only rooms we are currently inhabiting, it is going to have to wait a bit. I would much prefer palm trees in red and gray ;)
old_home_lover
11 years ago
What a beautiful place! And what a terrific project! At first I thought there were two snakes, but one was the chimney, lol. Very encouraging to see we're not the only ones tackling a monster of a job. Best of luck!
kai615
Original Author
11 years ago
Do you have pics of your house up Old_Home_Lover? I would love to see them.
paperkite
11 years ago
How exciting! I wish my husband and I were so handy.

You might be interested in a book I came across recently, "Creating a new old house". Flip through it at a bookstore before you buy, though.
kai615
Original Author
11 years ago
I will check it out Paperkite. I was planning on heading up to Barnes and Noble this week. Hubby is out of town all week and I am avoiding sanding the drywall in the laundry room. I just can't get motivated ;(

It would be nice to see something with a mishmash of old and new. I would love to "restore" but I am not willing to live with dirt floors and an outhouse. We were watching that new show Copper on BBC America the other night and someone was cooking inside over a fire pit with a cast iron pot hung over and hubby said "I think that is perfect for you new kitchen, let's return the stove we just bought". We did get some nice ideas for shelving though from that kitchen... is that sad?
antiquesilver
11 years ago
"Restore what you can & use sensitivity on the rest" has been my motto, specifically concerning kitchen & baths. It's virtually impossible to restore functioning kitchens & baths (didn't exist) from the pre-civil war era unless you're willing to do without plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, HVAC & in your case, floors. Use your best judgment & don't worry about it.