Category: Farm house renovation
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A Concrete Surprise- How to Remove
Hidden behind the walls on the second floor, a four foot cube with walls made of four inches of concrete. It seems like this was a water chamber that provided pressure for the rest of the house. Perhaps pumped up with a windmill. Deconstruction was really, really hard. The first couple of days with a…
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Hornet Nest in the Walls
This is the third or fourth big nest I’ve found in the walls. I think they were closed in when the siding was put on in the 20’s but it must have been noisy. There was one by the front door (dangerous), this one was near the bathroom. I don’t know what you could do…
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Unexpected surprise- a cistern
It’s hard to get a good picture- the cistern is about 10 feet deep and 6 feet across- and frankly it makes me really nervous to lean over it. It is round and made of stone with a smooth mortar finish. I suspect it was built with the house in 1902 and the woodshed addition…
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Plaster and Lath Demolition-Crazy or Not? Why Did We Do This?
Our house is a 120 year old farm house, our first thought was to preserve rather than replace. Why did we choose to go down this path? Each situation is different but this is what lead us to this point. The process is a mess- we’ll try to provide guidance to anyone else going down…
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Pulling Up the Carpet and Linoleum
I thought it made sense to start with the flooring. Uncovering the original floors was the only way to see what we had to work with. Upstairs was mostly linoleum which was stapled down (not glued) over roofing felt or, for most of the rooms, over several layers of newspaper. This meant there was very…