Cross Country Move 2015: Our Old House

I've mentioned previously that the prior owner did her own version of "This Old House" on this 1850's (or is it 1830's?) house back in 2005-2006. She was kind enough to provide us with copies of the pictures that she took while the renovation was in progress.

Her pictures weren't digital so I've scanned what she gave us and separated the pictures that were usually 2, 3 or 4 to a page.

Obviously, a before picture. I'm amazed that the trees were right up to the house, Now, there's a wide expanse of lawn between the house and the trees. The prior owner told us that a squatter was living in the house when she bought it and warned us that we might get some of his mail from time to time.

That lower structure at the rear was completely demolished and rebuilt during the renovation.

View from the rear. Three chimneys. Only one now.

That entire righthand wing was replaced.

This is our mystery room. The attic in the front part of the house is largely unchanged - wide rough chestnut floorboards and stairs and hand hewn chestnut rafters. The oddity is that one end of he attic is finished in lathe and plaster and has a doorway. Except for the mess, it still looks exactly like this.

This is what the rest of the attic still looks like (except that it's clean. Well,OK, part of the forced air system is up here and some ducting is on the floor.

This must be the old kitchen in that demolished part of the building.

I have no idea of what this room might be.

Again, no idea

The spacing doesn't look right for this to be the living room. Maybe the old kitchen?

No idea.

The front stairs have been beautifully refinished.

That's the master bedroom beyond the stairs. There are walls now.

Looking at the upstairs landing from the turn in the stairs.

The front door.

The back wing demolished, the basement has been dug and the footing for the walls poured. The entrance to the part of the basement that is under the front part of the house is just barely visible here (under the tarp). It was also redone with new concrete walls an floor, It has a 4 foot ceiling so we think of it as a stoop space rather than a crawlspace.

Tarp covering the hole after the demolition of the back wing.

Basement walls have been poured.

Tyvek n the front part of the house. No walls in the back yet.

The far hole is where the fireplace is. The nearer hole is where he basement stairs go down and then turn to the right. The back stairs to the 2nd floor start at the lower right and stay directly above the basement stairs.

A different view of the new basement.

Not sure what this is but my guess would be looking up the hole where the back stairs will be. Stairs will turn and go up to the left. Chimney should be where that black hole is but maybe it hadn't been built yet.

Kitchen floor?

Upper landing for the front stairs. The steps in the foreground lead to the attic.

?????

Looking down the front stairs from the 2nd floor landing.

Starting the fireplace. Kitchen is in the background.

Kitchen downstairs. The room upstairs was enclosed but left unfinished. We'll be finishing it in soon.

The new wing is complete. Still no garage or farmers porch.

Lots of gravel near where the farmers porch will be. I suspect that it had something to do with the septic system.

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Bathtub in the Jack and Jill bath between the 2 upstairs bedrooms.

Making progress on the fireplace (fireplace on the right, firewood storage on the left).

Getting started on the garage. Who knew that a deep hole would be involved?

More fireplace.

Making progress on the garage.

Obviously out of sequence, the footings for the garage walls.

I'm amazed at how much concrete is underneath the entrances to the garage.

In the basement, the boiler, hot water tank and heater. Stairs are on the right. You can see back into the stoop space which is the size of the entire front of the house..