You only get one chance at Before, but there are usually a LOT of Afters. I don't know if that's
comforting or not, but...
When we moved up here in 1972 we bought a small trailer (an old 1957 Airstream) and lived across the driveway from the house for four years. I took this photo before we moved up, which explains the wealth of field between me and the house. It was truly a mess. The old shed on the right had a decided lilt northward and the house foundation had a decided lilt south (meaning the photo is a tad crooked), and the first thing we did was everything.
The house was literally sliding off its old cut granite foundation, and like everything else up here, it went south. I suspect the bedrock under everything has a decided southward tilt, lord knows the property does...So we took down both chimneys, dug out underneath the foundation (it pays to have neighbors with backhoes, yes indeedy), and hoisted the poor thing up on building jacks where it spent the winter and part of the next summer. We also replaced the roof, one side at a time.
The windows were replaced, bit by bit, year by year. When the siding was put on, we decided oh what a good time to add that porch.
I still miss that old shed and the attic above it. It had an air about it, a sense of ancientness, and even though it swayed gently when the wind blew, I mourned a bit when we took it down.
Whoa!
ReplyDeleteI know, right? We were in our mid twenties when we got there, and were probably too idealistic to know we couldn't do this. So we did it.
DeleteThis was my husband's family home, and I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. And as he said, a few years back, "I don't know what made me think we could do this, but we did it anyway."
It helped greatly, I think, that both of us grew up where we worked hard, and it was kind of built in. He also had a grandfather who was a carpenter, and he got those woodworking genes from him--and he was a math guy, an engineer, so he knew about tolerances and weight and how to deal with lumber and such.
I learned how to glaze a window, how to paint sashes, and even hang doors.
I just thank god every day there is no livestock involved. =)
You both did a beautiful job on that house that became a home.
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you, Arleen. It is, however, one of those needy houses that is never quite finished. Right now we have a parlor with all the furniture stuff in the middle, to make room for two new walls and a radiator.
DeleteWe got the piano out, finally, and the harp went to the metal pile at the recycling center. I got him to part with his Y2K TV, at least it's upstairs now.
We will never be done, so we do what we can afford, time/money/energy, and realize the limits.
In a way it's like one of those model railroads in the basement, there's always one more thing to add, to change, to refurbish.
I said to him not that long ago, if we hadn't moved in when we did, within five years the whole place would have been beyond saving, which would have haunted us forever.
Well I've heard of rescuing animals and plants and trees, but this is a whole house! I guess it's been an endless source of Stuff to Do for all these years. Never a dull moment. What an achievement.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of those life long hobbies, like collecting stamps, I guess.
DeleteMy husband said he never knew retirement could be so much work, lol. He's learned not to mind my moving furniture, and I've learned not to mind him voting Republican. It's a fair trade, I think.
And we've managed to rescue (one way or another) 22 cats over the years, and several trees which were in serious need of new homes. They didn't know that at the time, And weren't they surprised to wake up one spring and find themselves on a bit of lawn...
sounds like you could write volumes about all of that restoration work. the result is stunning, as are the drone images from the previous post.
ReplyDeleteWe wanted to keep it as much 'as it was' visually, without being ridiculous about it.
DeleteThe inside, of course, is nowhere as dressy as the outside, and we may not live long enough to finish it off, but it gives us something to do in the summer...
That drone video is the stunner. All those trees, lol. acres and acres of floofy green trees...
Marvelous! And this is one reason I love TV programmes such as Grand Designs. I wish I had it in me to do this sort of thing. Alas, the only thing handy about me is I am usually around when the dishes need doing!
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you for that, Ark.
DeleteI try to stay away from shows like that, since the ideas they present have so little to do with our own lives, it's scary.
Not only that, the husband/wife teams drive me nuts. All that loud cheery shouting across the rooms. No. Not this week.
And everyone has their own gifts.
Yours are nurturing all those critters (the word is out, you know, among the disenfranchised, and Im amazed you haven't taken in the stray donkey yet...) and you do those lovely photos. That in itself is a gift. Granted, it helps if you have a green whoopoe in the yard,too.