[MistyBlue]

Whoa, that's a major reno Tom!
Any completed photos?

[Tom King]

Somewhere on our computer. I'll let you know when I find them and put them on that page. It was a plantation owner's house on the Roanoke River, which now has our lake on it . The inside was in remarkable shape enough that we wanted to preserve it, so everything was done from the outside, including wiring, vapor barrier, and insulation.

Cleaning and sterilizing amounted to half the time spent on it. No one had lived in it since Hurricane Hazel and it had never had a wire or pipe in it. Fortunately, it always had a roof kept on it. There is a book being written about it.

The soffit on the front is 27' off the ground. The chimneys are 43' tall. There is a full basement that is half out of the ground with a brick floor and three floors above.

[Tom King]

I finally thought to dig out some more photos.

These include some of the chimney jacking we had to do. The one remaining complete chimney, 43'tall, had sunk down several inches, moved out away from the house 1" at the bottom, and 3" at the shoulder. We were able to jack it back into place and poured some massive footings in two stages. We had to also do the same to the chimney on the opposite side of the house as well as rebuild almost half of the west one as you can see in the pictures.

There is a little series of pictures in the lower right of this webpage. They are thumbnails, so if you like you can click on any one and it will come up in a larger view.

MistyBlue had asked to let her know when I found some finished views and I thought maybe someone else might like to see them too.

http://www.starbornhavanese.com/pictures.html

[vineyridge]

I just replaced the bathroom ceiling after a tornado made the roof leak. Went with sheets of beaded board which is appropriate for a house of this age, and it was so much faster and cheaper and more correct than drywall. AND if the roof ever starts leaking again, it will not collapse as easily.

[MistyBlue]

Oh cool, thanks Tom!

[MistyBlue]

Looked through the photos...sheesh you guys did a ton of work! Great job though and thanks again for digging those photos up!

[Tom King]

Thanks. We haven't started on the inside. We're going to CO2 blast the inside, which was the reason all the work was done from the outside-to preserve the interior finish. CO2 blasting, a lot like sandblasting, uses crushed dry ice and can even be done to clean old paper. It removes all the dirt and doesn't change any texture- like plane marks from hand planes. The plaster is in remarkable shape and the woodwork is pretty incredible. We're taking a break from it now for a while.

[MistyBlue]

I've never heard of CO2 blasting...very neat!
It's great that you're keeping the integrity of the house intact.
PLease take lots of before and after photos of the interior work when you get to it. I'd LOVE to see the woodwork.

[Tom King]

There are lots of videos on Youtube of dry ice blasting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Gy4I8jSHE

It's pretty cool

There's a book being written about our work on this particular house, but who knows when it will be done. There have been hundreds of photos taken at every step of the process.

[MistyBlue]

Okay that was WAY cool!
Stripping metal to cleaning engines to cleaning books??? And nothing to clean up afterwards like with sand blasting.
Now you need to get both photos *and* video of having it done!

[spacytracy]

We are 5 years into our farmhouse renovation. Its definitely a labor of love.

If you're not handy and can do everything, or have unlimited cash flow, I don't recommend it. The end result can be beautiful, but the work involved is NOTHING like I imagined.

A simple project (our current one is drywalling a little hallway) is taking a looonng time because 1. hubby has a full time day job and 2. NOTHING in a farmhouse is square. So its not like "oh, take some measurements and cut it" - oh, no. You have to take the measurements, cut the stuff, then bring it up there (and farmhouse hallways and staircases are frikin narrow) then re-measure, then re-cut...ugh. Its a pita sometimes.

Heating for us is a nightmare. Ours is stone - so no insulation on the walls. There was no insulation in the attic when we got here either. The windows were original and we could literally see the wind come through them. They didn't open, either.
Just had those replaced this year. $$$$ but its saving us money in the long run.

I love our house, but I wish it came all done.

Thankfully hubby does all his own work so that saves us money, but it also takes longer.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...Picture019.jpg

This is the garage we had built - its like 3x the size of the house but the house is crazy small. We hope to add on someday to join the house and garage
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...Picture014.jpg

living room
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...5/P1200434.jpg

kitchen - hope to remodel that soon
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...5/P1200431.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...5/P1200429.jpg

and then we have 2 bedrooms upstairs. One is our DDs and that's been remodeled because the original hardwood is not in good shape so we put hardwood over it. her room is so sloped its like a 3" difference over an 8" span.

We're slowwwly expanding the hardwood into that little hallway I mentioned and then we'll do our bedroom too.

[barnbum81]

For the record there are great loans out there called rehab loans, they are even available for first time home buyers. We used a rehab loan to buy our farm and completely renovate the dilapidated house on it. We have four children and couldn't afford to take the chance with mold, lead paint, and old insulation and such. We put as much into the house as we bought the house and land for, which was only possible because that money was all part of our mortgage. We used Wells Fargo and all things considered it was a fairly easy process, and in the end we ended up with a great little farmette, that we otherwise probably couldn't have taken a chance on.

[vineyridge]

I hate drywall. You know it only has a lifespan of 35 years or so before it has to be redone.

I have a tiny hall, and I'm planning on used the beaded board panels in there. Style is correct for the age and type of farmhouse. Painted, it will look lovely.

[MistyBlue]

SpacyTracy...adorable house! When I opened the first photo and could see the edge of the garage I was hoping you had a fulll photo of it. Glad to see that second photo, what a nice garage! What do you use the upstairs space for in there?

Viney..my sister bead boarded her bedroom walls and her kitchen walls. There were many multiple layers of hideous wallpaper on them and just not worth the effort to remove it. They look fantastic now!

[spacytracy]

What do you mean by beaded board? Like wanescoating (sp?)?

Thanks Misty. The garage is HUUUGE upstairs - about 1800 sq feet. Its just for redneck parties for now but we'd like to make it part of the house when we add on - we've thrown so many ideas around but I think it would be great for entertainment space/media room.

It also has a basement/bank barn, and you can see it a tiny bit in the picture - the bank barn is half horse barn, half car shop for hubby. So my horse area is 30x30 - plenty for the max 3 horses I plan to have (currently have 2).

[MistyBlue]

SpacyTracy this is beadboard:
http://www.treehousewoodworking.com/...lt_in_seat.jpg
Usually seen below a chair rail but also often seen as a backsplash over counters, for entire walls and on ceilings. It comes in a bunch of different widths and you can get it in plain panels that just abut against each other or in pieces that snap together.

1800 sf? Awesome amount of space! And it's a bank barn too? *swoon* being from New England...I adore bank barns. That was our original plan to put in here as I have the perfect lot for one with all the slopes and ledge. But the sppot it would have gone required blasting the ledge. *sigh* It would have had a spot for a garage, a spot for hay storage and a huge barn area below.
They're so much cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Love bank barns.
Heck, that's an all in one building...garage, storage, living space and barn.
It's a lovely building.

[spacytracy]

Here's the loft -
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...s/P1110514.jpg