This is house number 6 and my wife says it's the last one so it better be good this time. Picked up this old place for 18k on 4.5 acres 60/40, cleared/timber. The place has been vacant for 35.5 years and it shows. It needs everything it could possibly need from foundation, structure, windows, etc,,,,,,,,,. I started working on the house full time a week ago Monday. I started by stripping everything out of the basement. The basement had a coal stoker, 2 steam boilers, 2 tons of heavy steel pipe, 250 gallon fuel oil tank. a ton of coal, 3 pickup trucks of everything and anything. Basement is now virtually empty. Scrap yard gave me almost $500 for the steel. There were 6 posts that support 2 beams which carry floor joist loads and above bearing loads. 2 of the 6 were rotted up 6 inches and hanging from the beam supporting nothing. Sagging of the structure was significant and was 1 5/8 low in the center. I fired up the laser and brought the old place up to with 1/4" all in a day. Some plaster popping and creaking but all in all a easy raise. The place is heavy with 3 finished floors. (2) 20 ton jacks were needed. Yesterday I had the excavator over there doing grade work. Water has been infiltrating 2 stone wall for over 35 years and now we have the correct pitch of grading away from the structure.
The front porch is a disaster and the left side footing is 2 1/8" low so a bit of work is in order. Water has been a real destructive element on this old house. It is not beyond hope but I have my hands full with this one. one thing that has saved the wood structure is the original cedar shake roof. Believe it or not there are no major roof leaks over the interior of the structure. As I get to the inside of this place in about a month I'll get some pics but for now the push is for the exterior. Tomorrow I start to restructure the front porch starting at the footing.
pick one here is the same location as pic 2 in my first post and shows the proper grade, minus a little hand work. In the first it's kinda hard to see but water run towards the house and that is bad. We took out over 2.5 feet of earth on that left side up the hill and cleared a few cord of oak and maple
thanks for the update lenny I"ve been wondering how things where going with this project when you first posted about it earlier in the year. Seems like you have your hands full.
Lenny, the structure is beautiful, but it looks like you have a lot of work. How the heck do you have time for Rally Racing?
I'm always amazed when I see grading sloped toward a structure. It is a pretty basic concept to run water away from a foundation.
It looks like the house had very little time left without your intervention. Nice to see you tackling this project. Too many people use a very destructive tool called a match.
just got back from da old place, was working on the front door, big old 42" door. The front entrance had a temp built by previous owner to keep people out. The door had been kicked in so one of the panels was split and damaged. The style' were separating from the rails about 1/4". I set the door on a bench and took a good look at it. I borrowed some huge clamps from my buddy and before clamping I glued the joints up real good and tightened er up. All the joints came right back to place. There was a big split in one of the panels where it had been kicked in. When the door was kicked the panel split and hung up on itself and warped in that condition for the last 20 years probably. What I did was tap the rail apart further and allow some room to separate the broken split panel. AS had to smack it hard and she snapped close but being warped it wasn't flush. I was able to get the pcs flush and clamped the door tight and she stayed. Very much amazed now that the door looks really good. Pre drilled and counter sunk some 3" screws to keep it tight. Tomorrow I'll replace the damaged jam and trim, if this comes out nice I'll be so pleased.
WOW!!!! Awesome thread and work!!!! I need to find a place like that around here for my ever growing family, I thought the 4 bedroom i built 7 years ago was going to be enough......
Nice work.....
We have been looking for an old farm house with a little property but there is not much of that left?
Thanks Duane! Today I got the front door into shape and this old gale of a house has gotten her dignity back. Had enough time to take the back door off and re-work it. She needed some serious planning and replacing broken glass. Both doors swing nice now, latch perfectly. I just need a few skeleton keys so I can look them
remodeling again
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Originally Posted by lenny
