Well, today was the big day!!! I wanted to keep everything a secret (I even told my sister not to tell Mom and Dad), but I also want them in on the fun and excitement!!! And to keep me grounded! So even to my surprise, I let Mom and Dad in on my secret.
"So, I am looking at the farmhouse again."
"Seriously"?
"Yup, I am taking an architect out there tomorrow." This was yesterday's conversation!!!
Well, today was the day! It was just me and the architect, walking through this 150-year-old home to listen to her. What secrets did she have? What BAD secrets did she have? I now had a professional architect who has restored old homes and downtowns. Who is not afraid of old plaster! Or lathe! Or damp basements!
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| Here we go again! |
So we met at 1:00 and went hunting. I didn't know what to expect, but I was so impressed with the architect!!! He knew so much about old homes! And he was ornery, too! On the showing on Sunday, I had hopped up on the owner's bed to pop the ceiling tiles. I wanted (needed) to know what was above the tiles.
Well, imagine my surprise when this guy did the same! He grabbed a chair and stepped right up! And that just made me ecstatic. THIS guy gets it. He knows that the home has character and wants to talk...but that you have to go searching through the mess that has been thrown on top of it over the years.
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| The dining room where the architect used the chair (pictured) to pop the ceiling tiles to see what was up there! |
In the dining room, that meant moving the office building ACT tile. In the bedroom, that meant ripping back old wallpaper to find the condition of the original plaster. In the same room, it meant ripping apart rotten carpet (literally) to see if we could find original hardwood underneath (we did!). In every room, there was something to be unearthed. The whole question in every room was, "Is this doable"? And I watched this man climb on chairs and get on his knees to inspect. I loved it.
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| The original hardwood is there...it just needs sanded! |
And in nearly every room, I became more and more encouraged. And literally EXCITED!!! I see the good bones of the house. I see the BEAUTY of the home. I see the character, the charm, the potential. And walking through it on Sunday was not necessarily the best for me. I had two parents that were not seeing what was seeing!
Dad saw high energy bills, lots of work, an old home that will always be an old home. Mom saw lots of work, as well. I saw charm! I saw a story of families! I saw gorgeous hardwood, an awesome foundation of character, and the potential for family gatherings at a cute little farm.
And now I had a professional just throwing compliments at the house! "That plaster is in great shape." "These floors can be sanded." Of course, it wasn't all good. "That OSB on the ceiling is likely due to the plaster ceiling being completely gone."
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| Notice the plywood ceiling! |
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| A closet is also lined with plywood on the walls and ceiling. |
But as we went room to room, his lack of fear simply meshed with my desire to restore this home. I'm not afraid at all. Do I realize the work? Yes and likely no. But I just see an awesome home waiting for someone to give it the love it needs.
He wasn't deterred by the main floor. We both had the IDENTICAL desire to just rip it all out. All the wood paneling, and all the ceiling tiles would go. Find the original walls, open this house up, let it speak! I really believe there is a gem waiting to be found.
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| Take it all out! Carpet, paneling, drop-down ceiling! |
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| I would yank it all out! |
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| Remove it all! |
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| It all needs to go! |
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| I just love these high ceilings! |
Upstairs, he recommended plaster repair and an additional HVAC system. Currently the upstairs is not air-conditioned at all. No cold air, no hot heat. And so on a day like today, it is coooooooold! A dual-zone system would allow one to heat and cool the upstairs.
We also looked through a broken area of plaster and think we see the original wood siding through the lathe. Of course, that means there is ZERO insulation. But I already knew that. But we had some positives today, too. He stuck his head up in the attic (height helps!) and noticed new sheathing underneath the newer roof. That's a win! The rafters looked original.
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| Notice the plaster missing below the window. |
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| We peeked through the lathe here to the wood siding (hopefully) on the outside. That means there is NO insulation in the walls (as expected). |
Of course, the entire time we were looking through the home, in the back of my mind, all I could think about was the basement. It doesn't matter if any of this is good up here if the foundation is bad. It's ALL about the basement really. So I patiently waited...and made sure that was the last place I showed him.
And then it was time...so down we went. Down the old oak stairs. "Oh wow." Was it a good wow or a bad wow?!
"I can already tell it's better than I imagined. It has a concrete floor! I wasn't expecting that at all!" And the praises just kept on coming...
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| Notice the concrete floor! |
"This brick is in good condition." "These floorboards are some of the cleanest I have ever seen. No, I take that back. These ARE the cleanest I have ever seen." "This oak is in great shape. How wide is this?!" And then he measured the 8x8 oak log that ran through the center of the house (like today's steel beams). Both of us just stared in awe at the craftsmanship of the home.
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| The brick is in good shape, although it needs tuck-pointed. |
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| The floor boards as viewed from the basement. So clean! |
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| Likely hand-sewn oak boards. Amazing. Sure beats the OSB used today! |
I showed him the limestone foundation, and that's when we started putting our heads together. Below the front room of the house (what I call the living room), three walls have a limestone foundation with brick on top. Why? Why only here? And that's when I suggested that it's probably when the original owner/builder moved out to this location. I imagine he built a small one-room cabin as he built the rest of the house. And that made sense to us both. Could we prove it? Nope. But it was certainly plausible. It also explained why the room above this section was lower than the rest of the house (there is a noticeable dip underneath the carpet between the dining room [new portion of home] and the living room [what we guess is the original one-room portion]).
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| The original limestone foundation. Look at the great shape! |
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| The limestone wall. Only one room (both stories, though) is supported by this. The rest is brick. |
But it also creates what I think I love the most about this home: a story. And not a story like a fake story. But I mean a story of character. If this home's walls could speak type of story. And the best part? The limestone foundation is really in great condition!!! It's not perfect (one side shows leaks underneath a very leaky window), but the architect was still not afraid!
"Listen, Andy, you need to understand something. Brick foundations WILL seep water. That's what they do. Limestone is going to let water through. You have to understand that if you buy this house. You are going to have water in the basement." And I understood. This isn't concrete, and this certainly wasn't going to be a livable portion of the home. It was only for tornadoes and water pipes.
We studied the old oil heater and the old wood furnace. Both were no longer attached to anything. But both provided stories of how the previous owners tried to heat the home. Now it's heated by a Carrier furnace and natural gas wall-mounted heaters in two rooms. Not exactly energy-saving but functional.
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| The old oil furnace. |
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| The old wood furnace. |
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| The new Carrier gas furnace. |
I imagine this house can be very cold.
But I still love it!
We then checked out the kitchen, the back bathroom area, and then headed outside. I felt nearly awful for the auctioneer waiting on us. I didn't know how long we had been there, but it felt like forever! But I loved that the architect SEARCHED.
Once outside, we tried to find a piece of the masonite siding to pull off (no such luck). This is the FIRST thing I did when I looked at the house on Sunday. I wanted to know what was underneath the masonite siding (likely added in the 1940's-1970's). We were both trying to see if the original wood siding was still intact. We did find a small piece that we could see, and it looks like a 4-inch wooden siding. The architect tried to poke a knife through, and it went through a bit, so we think it's the original wood. Albeit kinda soft wood...not good. But likely original wood siding.
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This is me taking a picture UP from the ground outside of the layers of exterior sheathing. So on the very bottom is the cement masonite siding. Then likely that next piece up in the photo is the 4-inch wood clapboard siding.
Above that is the flat board that the wood siding nailed to. And above that is the bottom plate for the house. Above that is the massive sill beam. Then above that you see the brick foundation. |
The auctioneer said he would wait for us in his truck (he was getting tired of waiting!). It didn't help that it was super cold out, but still! I think he was kind of annoyed with us (was probably expecting a quick walk-through), but if I'm going to spend $150,000, I don't want to take that lightly!!!
And then we did something so ridiculously simple that it still kind of humors me. The auction listing states that this home is 1200-square-feet. But as you walk through the home, the house feels much bigger than that. I mean MUCH bigger. Actually, the house has FIVE bedrooms! And each is a great size! So what gives?
So the architect told me to hold the easy end of a tape measure as he walked the width of the front of the house. We did the left half first (where the old porch was). 18 feet. We then did the right half of the front of the house. 18 feet. We then did the north side of the house which represents the longest portion. 32 feet!!! "Ok, Andy, what is 32 x 18"? And I sat there dumb-founded as my brain couldn't figure it out! ha! Ummm, it would be 600 minus...wait...
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| The left half is 18 feet wide. The right half is 18 feet wide. |
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| The actual side of the house is 32 feet long. |
Well, after getting out the calculators (I blame the cold for my mental fail), we figured that the right side of the house would be 576 feet...times two!!! So JUST the right half of the home is 1152-square-feet. The left side would be similar minus the width of the front porch. So let's just say the front porch 8 feet wide. So that side is 32 x 10. That means another 320 square feet...times two! That doesn't include the little upstairs side closet, nor the kitchen, nor the laundry/bathroom, nor the two-seasons porch. "Andy, I'd say this house is at least 2100 square feet."
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| I drew the first-floor blueprint back at home and added up numbers on the side counting the second floor. Why, this home is not 1200-square-feet at all!!! It is...and then double that! |
Wow. Just wow. This changes EVERYTHING. What is advertised as a tiny country house is really a family home! Could it be? I would run the numbers over in my head again, and it really is. I think it actually might be closer to over 2200 square feet!
Hopefully this stopped lots of people from even looking! Less competition is great!!!
Wow.
All in all, we spent 75 minutes checking out the house. Or should I say home! And I came away with wanting it even more! I see such potential. I'm not ignorant of the work involved, but it can be done in sections. One room at a time. This one, then that. Little by little. Over the course of a few years.
And, oh, my, what a house you would have! And the land is just icing on the cake. After searching the house, the architect asked if the barn was old, too. I said yup! And just like a giddy little child he rushed out to check it out. He loved it. He mentioned some sort of architecture in the beams that I didn't recognize, but he just loved it. It was so enjoyable to find a person that loved the beauty of the old homes just as much as me.
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| This building is just icing on the cake. |
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| We took a peek inside the old barn. Gorgeous! |
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| I think chickens would love to roost up there! |
We also took in the thousands upon thousands of snow geese migrating in the fields next to the house. Yes, THIS is why you move to the country.
A cute country farmhouse with stunning views of sunrises AND sunsets, wildlife, and freedom. No, no. A cute country farmHOME. That's more like it.
I do believe I am going to bid.
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| I think it has potential! |
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