My New Home Reno Project.

[Brundle_Fly]

new as in 1886.

[NMDemDist2]

1. oh wow! she's a beauty but looks like she needs a bit of TLC

i'll look forward to more pics as work progresses

:hi:

[Brundle_Fly]

2. she needs a ton of tlc.

but so much is intact.

the roof is the real killer, vermont slate, gonna be about 55,000 to redo it to original.

[NMDemDist2]

3. yikes! n/t

[Warpy]

18. You can actually substitute cement tiles

and have exactly the same look for far less money. Plus, it's more fireproof and resistant to cracking in freeze/thaw cycles. The lifespan is about the same.

Check it out. It's worth investigating before you commit to a new slate roof.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. I'm still so jealous!

I could happily spend the rest of my life restoring a house like that.

[wildeyed]

5. Beautiful!

I am so jealous!

[Brundle_Fly]

6. MORE PHOTOS.... I didn't think anyone here

would be into something like this.

here is some more photos, we just moved in last month, and the house is 6300 sq foot, so we are still trying to figure where to start....

front doors, wow hey!



widows peak



oddball



steep incline



dinng room fireplace



living room



stair spindles, horrible paint!



plaster work



front porch



widows walk view south

[NMDemDist2]

7. wow, just wow!

:wow:

what an amazing place!

[yy4me]

8. Absolutely beautiful, you have an architectural gem. Do you

have any of salvage yards near you that sell old boards, windows, fixtures etc. of the age you require to do the restoration properly? Perhaps they have slate that you could use to repair that beautiful roof. Does your quote mean you have to replace the roof? Restore? That is the type of project that would make me get several quotes and use used material if I could find them. We restored a 200(plus) year old house and used recycled floorboards, windows, brick and about as much of anything we could find that was appropriate to the period. Your home is elegant. Good luck with your project. Have you tackled something like this before? We had to do 100% of this house and learned from others to do one room at a time wherever possible. That way we were not always living in a torn up room.

[Brundle_Fly]

11. here goes...

we have several salvage yards around here, we are right by the thousand islands, on the st. lawrence river, north of Morristown NY, in Brockville, Ontario. The slate is tough to buy as salvage, as the green grey slate is only a 75 year tile and the red tile is a 200 year tile, you would have to replace some and buy other stuff new... its very confusing. The worst part is the guy who lived here before us ( 3 owners in 126 years ) poured tar on the roof in several places, you can't get it off the slate, however it is sealed and it isn't dire to be repaired for a few more years, its just butt ugly.

We are thinking about tearing all the slate down (we have 1800 sq foot of it, if you include all the roof and not just the front) redoing the front with all the tiles we have that are still in good shape, and doing the aluminum slate looking stuff on all the back portions of the roof. its supposed to be another 100 year roof too! That is the plan.

As for doing something like this before, ... No, I did however reno a 1970's 4 level split before we bought this house, so I have learnt lots, but this is an entirely different project.

FYI: the third floor was sealed up in 1946, and it took me 2 weeks to get the dust, spiders, spider-webs, raccoons, bat and assorted junk out. I swept out 3 full contractor bags of crap from the widows peak alone.

[Warpy]

14. The main thing you want to do right off the bat is check the wiring

because a lot of those old places have ancient ceiling fixtures in bedrooms that have never had the old wiring upgraded. The old wiring is BX wiring, a tar covered nightmare that crumbles into dust if you tap it with a finger, a real fire hazard. I used to run into it in Boston apartments a lot and I learned to hate fishing wires through walls and ceilings just because I wanted to update a fixture to something that didn't have a bare bulb with an outlet in the base.

Other than that, the old girl is a beauty and it looks like most of the good stuff is still there: woodwork, plaster medallions, windows.

[Brundle_Fly]

15. first thing we did...

was install a 220 amp board in the basement, and wired it up to 2 individual 100 amp boards on the second and third floors.

The entire house was the old "knob and tube" which made getting insurance on this place very expensive. We should have it all gone by next summer, as we are slowly going thru room by room.

[Warpy]

16. Whew!

It sounds like you're on top of things. I just know some folks who bought a painted lady back in Mass. and found out the hard way and ended up replacing part of the top floor.

It's really frustrating to have to deal with structural, wiring and plumbing issues for the first few years instead of cosmetics, but it looks like the old gal is quite livable as she is, at least on the lower floors.

That servants' staircase is scary, though. Can you imagine that in corsets, long skirts and buttoned boots?

[Brundle_Fly]

17. heh.

structural is incredible.

we have a 36 inch stone foundation and triple brick construction all the way to the top. some of the beams in the basement are 16 inch oak.

and the ceiling beams are 12 inch oak.

despite a slight sag in the center of the home, which we are correcting, most things are quite level.

It was designed by James P. Johnston an architect from Ogdensburg NY, who mainly designed churches.

[eleny]

9. You're a treasure

For taking this on and for sharing these pictures with us. It looks like your home has some oldies around it, too.

I hope that as you work on it you also can find some time to share your story and photos with us.

Btw, what are the rooms that jut out on the south side of the house? And is that a big church there beyond the house with the widow's walk?

I look forward to hearing more about everything!

[Brundle_Fly]

12. thank you.

that isn't a church, its city hall, used to be the opera house, but was converted in 1912.

the rooms on the south side are actually the neighbors house, if I understand you correctly.

[TygrBright]

10. Wow... What a gorgeous old grande dame!

She is just lovely. Good on you for undertaking to restore her former glory! Keep us updated with lots of pics, please. I miss wonderful old Victorians like that, we used to have tons of them in St. Paul.

nostalgically,
Bright

[Longhorn]

13. Please keep us updated!

I think we're all going to live vicariously through your experience -- and fortunately, your checkbook, too! :D :hi:

[Lisa0825]

19. Absolutely STUNNING!

WOW! We just don't see any gorgeous old architecture like that down this way (Texas Gulf Coast). Really gorgeous!

[Brundle_Fly]

20. MORE PHOTOS, if you are interested. I have tons. (hi speed warning)

the hood, Brockville est. 1784



up the street.



standing out front



dining room and built ins



21 stair to go upto the second of three floors (19 stairs more to third floor) FYI. the plater is flat its 5 levels of wallpaper, all painted under
there, luckily it comes off like butter.



The home office, where I am now.... hello.



a tub older than your great grandfather...



Boogie the cat stops me, on my phototrek...



me, and a gas inserted fireplace.



our 1.75 foot crown moldings



ohh how'd that get in there.

[MelissaB]

21. Just beautiful! You're living in my dream house in hubby's dream country.

Our last house turned 100 when we were in it. We ended up building a new house, but I love that historic house dearly. There's nothing like them. Yours is a beauty. Enjoy, and please keep us posted.

BTW, a jacuzzi tub can't come close to competing with those old bath tubs if they're long enough.

[NMDemDist2]

22. thanks Fly for more pics, that gas fireplace mantle is amazing

the whole place is amazing

keep em coming as you do it!

[lildreamer316]

23. I am SO JEALOUS!!!!

BEAUTIFUL!!
I lOVE old houses!

ETA: I am coming to visit sometime, just so I can see it.
Just WOW.

[Brundle_Fly]

24. cmon by!

we have 9 bedrooms :)

[Nite Owl]

25. Thanks for the tour

it is an amazing house, just beauty everywhere. I don't know what I like best, the stained glass windows, the slate roof, the twin fireplaces, the builtins in the dr....

Good luck with all your work, a labor of love.