Coming in the front door, which while we’re not sure of its originality, is certainly old, you step over the granite threshold, and enter into the front foyer. Unfortunately, this door doesn’t open due to someone taking out the stone sill beneath it, and replacing it with a single stack of bricks.
From there you can go left into the formal parlor, which will be our living room/TV room, where there are reproduction, as well as original (original panel is behind the white door below), c1840 Moses Eaton Jr. stencils on the original horsehair plaster walls, a mid-to-late 19th century iron fireplace insert, on which we can heat a pot of tea, original floors, and paneled doors/cubbies in the walls. Sadly, the plaster on the lower portion has failed.
If you were to go right from the front door, you’ll enter the other parlor, which will become our master bedroom. It too has original floors, and reproduction Moses Eaton Jr stenciling on the (failing) horsehair plaster walls.
Behind the two parlors is the keeping room, which is our favorite space, and where we will spend most of our time. This room features the original cooking hearth, very bouncy, patched, and worn floors (which turned out to be rotten with broken joists below), a c2005 reproduction Rufus Porter-style mural (Rufus Porter was a famous muralist of the early 19th century, and a friend of Moses Eaton Jr.), and original hand-planed paneled walls.
To the right facing the hearth is the “Birthing Room” or “Borning Room”, which is a small bedroom where mothers would have given birth, and would have been used as a nursery, as it is right off the warmth of the hearth room. This room we will decorate as close to late 18th century as we can, and we will feature the late 17th century rope bed that Jenny slept on as a child, along with period furnishings and decor.
To the left of the hearth is a hallway that passes a full bathroom, and leads to an outside door. This bathroom we will quickly remodel to add a walk-in shower in which we can wash the pup, who will be getting very dirty living on the farm. The area where the bathroom and hallway currently stands used to be a bedroom, mirroring the borning room.
Just to the left of the side hall/bathroom above is the staircase to the attic, which will be Allie’s room. The stairs are narrow, steep, and most likely too small to get a queen-sized bed up, and the sides are decoupaged with cutouts from late-19th century magazines and news articles, including one story regarding the scandalous tale of President Lincoln’s niece, who ran off to marry a meter-man, but after a week, came home to “no forgiveness”.
At the top of the stairs, you can go left into the full bath, which we will be remodeling, and adding a clawfoot tub and walk-in shower.
If you go straight, you’ll enter a small sitting room within one of the front dormers.
To the right are closets on both sides of the chimney, then beyond will be Allie’s room with a fireplace, into which we’ll likely install the gas stove that’s currently in the kitchen. She has dormers on both sides, original unfinished floors, and exposed beamwork. (Furniture in the pics below was from the former owners).
Back downstairs, as you leave the hearth room, you exit the house and enter the kitchen, which is in the ell. We will be installing a wood cook stove in this room where the former summer kitchen hearth was (just out of view to the left in the photo below); we saved some of the old metal roofing from the barn (story to come) to put up on the wall behind the stove, because patina… We’ll also be moving the sink to the wall adjoining the house, opening up the windows behind the current sink location, and eliminating the dishwasher, electric oven/range, and possibly the microwave as well.
If you go left from the refrigerator above, you enter into the back mudroom/laundry room. You can see part of the old summer hearth chimney to the left…
Through the mudroom/laundry you walk out into the screened sleeping porch that overlooks the backyard. The sleeping porch then steps out onto the back deck.
Back through the kitchen, you can step into the front mudroom, where you can step out the main door by the drive, or go through into the ell. We don’t have any pictures of the ell, as our neighbor is currently operating a small business there (spice and essential oils). The ell is roughly 15 feet wide, and 25-30 feet long, and is two stories. Just inside behind the staircase is an area that we will open up to the back mudroom/laundry and install a half bath powder room. Then the upstairs of the ell we’ll finish into a guest suite with a bedroom, full bath, and a small sitting area. There are windows on both sides, so there is plenty of natural light. The downstairs will be our heated, clean shop space, where we can have Jenny’s sewing area, a large sink and hot plate for canning, plus pantry and storage space.
Through the ell is the barn. The barn was an active livestock barn up until about a decade ago, and needs the most work of the entire property.
The old tack room, where I want to make my shop, has a broken joist above, and broken floorboards below.
Behind the tack room is the workbench area, then behind that are two horse stalls.
On the left across from the stalls are the stairs to go to the lower level. Behind the stairs is an outhouse (that just dumped waste under the barn). At the back of the barn is a two-story shed addition. The lower level of the shed is currently split into several goat pens and a large chicken coop. We’ll clean these out, but leave them in case we decide to get some animals once things settle down with the house.
In the rafter area of the barn is an early hay crane, which still works.
Most of the work needed on the house will be:
-reglazing the original windows, and possibly replacing the storm windows with something more appropriate.
-stripping the paint from the floorboards, and as much trim as possible, especially the hand-planed paneling in the hearth room.
-remodeling the two current bathrooms, and adding a new guest powder room.
-remodeling the kitchen; possibly sealing the dirt floor in the basement, which is only under half the house (boulders).
-pulling down the ceiling in the hearth room to expose the beams we desperately hope are hidden under the modern sheet rock.
-and overall painting and freshening.
The barn needs the most work, structurally. But we are madly in love with it, so we’ll gladly give it what it needs.
This concludes our tour of the house and barn as it was. Next up we’ll start getting dirty!
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