17 March 2007

Farmhouse Renos...

I'm going to start by stating that we have spent 12.5 years doing renovations, and we're not done yet! We're getting close, but still have to do the kitchen (a BIGGIE!) and our guest bedroom. The oldest part of our house was built in 1872, by my husband's great-great grandfather. (I may be off by one great there, but I don't think so...) The house is on part of the original land grant that was granted to great-great-great grandfather in 1832. He had settled here in 1820, but didn't get the grant for 12 years - probably due to failure to meet performance covenants.


Above is the back of the house. You drive up to the back. We always make an effort at Christmas to dress the old girl up a bit...



And from the side... As you can see, we have a small garden! The shed is our "tractor shed". With 10.5 acres, we need a "yard tractor". When we bought it, it cost more than our car was worth!



This is the front of the house. It faces the river, which would have been the main means of transportation at the time.









As I do this, I realize that I don't have many inside photos, but we did redo the master bedroom last year. This is one of the before shots. How do you like my heating vent? And my cracked plaster under the old lady wallpaper....?
When we first moved here back in 1996, the house was probably within 5 years of the point of no return... We have re-roofed, re-sided, new windows, new porches, a new out building, an old out building torn down and hauled away, a new septic system (after the old one broke in the middle of the winter and we all had stomach flu), a new well, many interior renos and it just continues. It has been a lot of money, and a long time, but I do think that it is worth it. We had the honour of being part of our community's first Christmas house tour back in 2003. Living in a small community the locals are curious. I understand that there were a number of people who bought tickets simply to see the inside of our house! Who would have believed it?
I'll have to scan in some of the before and after photos that we have. The before photos can provide some good laughs!






7 comments:

Kristina said...

Wow - what a great house! I should think it would be creatively quite stimulating to live in a place like that ;-)

Miss Me said...

It is very satisfying, and yes, it does require a significant amount of creativity! However, the most creative person involved has been our very skilled and creative carpenter... Unfortunately the attitude in husband's family is "It'll see me through." They're not inclined to spend the money to do things right, so we've had to renovate some of the handyman special renovations of past owners! The best of these was the bottom of a tin can that was shoved into a mouse house in a floor and then painted over with floor paint. The carpenter found it when he was sanding the floor... The sparks were a dead giveaway.

Kristina said...

LOL! Sounds like some of my own father's theories about DIY. Some were successful, others... ahem... less so.

On this topic, there was a very funny show on the Discovery Channel here called "Canada's Worst Handyman". They took over a condemned apartment building and had five people competing as to who could be the best "worst handyman" in reonvating the units. One guy ripped out the toilet, put in really bad flooring, then couldn't get the toilet back in so brought out the ubiqitous duct tape and attached the toilet to the floor using that! ;-)

Miss Me said...

eeew! that must have been fun with the first flush... fortunately my husband is smart enough to know that he can't do it himself.

Mari said...

Wow Miss Me, your home is gorgeous! I am in the middle of my own drama (discovering the secrets of a new house, move in just prior to Xmas) and I'm inspired by your post! I think I have even more astonishing old lady wallpaper in the downstairs loo...I will redouble efforts to find that camera, then your wallpaper won't get lonely! Thanks for posting your lovely pics!

Sarah said...

Miss Me...WOW. Your place is just beautiful! I'm positively embarrassed to post pictures of my ramshackle place now :P

I love how simple and lovely the bits of colored lights look at Christmas and your garden looks fabulous!

Sarah said...

Oh also, despite my shame, I'll take some pictures of my house this weekend, weather permitting. Right now it's rainy and stormy and I'm leaving on a little trip to Seattle for a few days.