100 Years in the Making Part 1

I wish every mark of progression in life had a before picture. It would be nice to see that sometimes no matter how crappy you think things are, they used to be a lot crappier. 

I posted   THIS POST   a couple of years ago with the intention of posting a series of pictures of our home remodel project. For a quick summary of the history, see the link. 

BEFORE:

The home was completed in 1906. Don't let the 1970's mask fool you. We drove straight to the house and tore the faux rocks off the wall directly after signing the papers. 

  I never knew I would become so comfortable using a crowbar. We ripped EVERYTHING out using our own manpower. The rumor we heard was true, there were two additional feet of space before the original ceiling:

Then the hopelessness, despair, and agony of what we really got into settled. Things became so much worse before they ever got better. . .  

DURING:

We could see the potential through our ghastly mess while friends and family members justifiably thought we were over our heads and out of our minds. 

This was my view for the majority of the remodel while EVERYTHING was replaced and I learned first hand how a house is put together. It is a much shorter list if you ask me what JR didn't complete on his own. 

This space was opened up to return it to its original purpose as a "parlor." I found the original parlor door wheels from 100 years before in the ground under the floor. We also uncovered hundreds of bird skeletons above the ceiling.  

 This wall was torn down, brick by brick to make way for a new staircase:

The original stairs would have been more appropriately called a ladder and they were accessed through the kitchen. 

The new staircase under construction:

That rotted piece of metal was the previous air duct JR found when he tore into the floor. Needless to say he replaced the entire system.

In all fairness to the house, the before pics didn't have the greatest lighting. . .  

AFTER:

Between the two of us, JR and I could tell you how much each project cost and probably inform you, whether you wanted to know or not, how much money we saved. We were enslaved by this house but it prevented us from having to borrow any money. The furnishings have also been  designed on a dime, most either second-hand or produced-by-hand. The most expensive piece in the entire house is our brown West Elm sectional purchased from an outlet for $200.  

Once again, Before:

After:

(Chandelier was purchased broken for $10 and fixed by JR, you know, in case you were wondering)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I will continue adding posts to this remodel photo album as I'm having too much fun looking at the old photos. Stay tuned to see JR's escape from getting toppled by a ton of bricks or the "haunted" old attic converted into a nursery. 

This Old House

I decided to give my blog a facelift and a new name that gives a little more intrigue to the page. My place of residence, my proud domain, my workspace for raising my family, my life, is in an old turn-of-the-century farmhouse. It all started when two young and ambitious newlyweds decided to renovate a 100-year-old structure of history.

Ugh, I want to cry for my past self.

I admit I was quite naive about the undertaking, thinking that after a few months of pounding a few nails and buffing the floors I would be basking in the sunlight of the large livingroom window enjoying a cup of sweet satisfaction and a good book. Little did I know that I would spend the next five months holding a crowbar, tearing into walls, filling up dumpster after dumpster, and welcoming my husband home at all hours of the night to help him scrub such things as 100-year-old soot from his body after tearing down the old flue.

While school and work took up most of our time, we pulled on our thick leather work gloves and warm layers to ward off the winter cold with any spare time we had to spend working on the house. The project continued to grow, and it seemed that every day another wall needed to be torn down and problem uncovered making our project seem without end.
During the following few years, the house would see certain walls torn out, others put up, an entire new plumbing system, new air ducts, new electrical and wiring, updated with a/c, new windows, 100% new sheet rock to replace the old plaster walls, a new staircase, ceilings brought back their original height, all new flooring, fixtures, doors, and kitchen cabinets and appliances. Boy, I'm glad that is behind me because even writing that makes me exhausted. JR did 95% of the work himself and even taught his wife to use a miter saw and a nail gun.

Room completions took priority as needed, first just a bedroom for the busy newlyweds we were, then a kitchen, the rest of the main floor, then two years later the upstairs was completed when expansion was needed for a baby on the way.

I wrote about living without a shower and heat for several months HERE.

At times when the world feels unstable and that things might just come crashing down at any moment, I think about the 12"-deep brick walls surrounding me in the Old Farmhouse and what they have withstood over the last century. Unwavering through World War I, The Great Depression, World War II, and four generations, they give me hope and security that spring WILL come again!