We have been getting lots of questions about the property! On one hand, if you are getting the property for $150, should it really matter if one of the 11 toilets isn't working properly? On the other hand, having arrived here blindly optimistic ourselves, I understand the hesitation of taking on a nearly 200 year old house! So, having been here for nearly 9 years now, we have a pretty good feel for what the strengths are, and what the house needs. Read on for our opinions!
The Good.
For starters, the walls are thick. Something like 22 inches thick. The houses in the 19th century weren't built like the ones today - obviously, because they are still standing. The bricks are double and triple stacked, and then faced with the exterior stucco, or interior plaster and lathe. This house isn't going ANYWHERE anytime soon. The roof on the 1882 house is slate, and we spent a small fortune when we came having it repaired. It's good for a lifetime and it's beautiful too!
The floors of the house are gorgeous, most of them old heart pine. Some of the exposed wooden beams, like the thresholds, are enormous slabs of beautiful wood, and you can see in some places the peg construction used to build the house. It's beautiful.
Most of the house has original plaster walls and ceilings - for me, that's a very good thing, because I like the bumps and wavyness as part of the history of the house! The window glass is also about 70% original wavy glass.
Little things abound...the washers and dryers are awesome heavy duty front loaders, the 2 garbage disposals in the kitchen are new and also heavy duty, and downright quiet compared to the old ones we replaced. We have replaced several old standard toilets with dual-flush, low flow models. The shower in the attic room is stone tile and glass, and beautiful. The instant hot-water faucet at the guest kitchen counter is new and terrific. We replaced one of the 80 gallon water heaters just a couple of years ago, the house NEVER runs out of hot water. We buried the propane tank for the kitchen, so you don't have that unsightly thing out back. We have added tons of new perennials to the gardens, and cleared the overgrowth along the southwest meadow edge, so it's ready for fence, or grading, or planting. The grounds are beautiful in every season.
The house is quiet - you do hear a few creaks and groans as guests walk around, but the main house guest rooms are quiet, probably because of the thick walls. Generally, we hear from guests how soundly they slept because of the quiet!
All but one of the 11 fireplaces either has a gas log stove, gas logs, or is open for burning (we use the ecologs for guests). Only one has been plugged at the top of the chimney, and even that one could have gas logs added if the next owner wanted.
The kitchen refrigeration is commercial, and is amazing, as is the commercial coffee grinder and coffee maker. We serve a lot of coffee, so we got the best! I posted once a long while back about how much I will miss the commercial dishwasher...and that is totally true. It uses very little water, and a cycle is about 2 minutes.
Also good - the 'feeling' of the place. I was walking through the house last night, it's raining and you can hear it on the skylights, and the house was just lit a bit from a few table lamps - for a brief moment I wondered if maybe we shouldn't leave! Just kidding...my mother is already packing. It's just so pretty, and peaceful, and quiet. Every now and then, we get someone asking about ghosts - and the answer is no. I am pretty sure that every family who has lived here has loved the house, been happy here, and added to the happy 'feeling' that you get when you are here. I can't wait to meet the next happy owner!
Now, The Bad & The Ugly...It's strange, because what I consider to be good can also be seen as not-so-good...the original glass in the windows for instance. That means that many of the windows are old. If you haven't lived in an antique house before, that is synonomous with 'energy inefficient'. Same with the plaster - while I love the cracks and bumps, I have had several people advise to tear it all out and replace with nice, smooth drywall. Um, not me. But the next person may see that as easier to maintain, and clean, and paint. Certainly, the ceiling in 3 rooms, could use some love, and some new plaster. The skylights are old,- and the gutters are difficult to clean. That's a bad combination when it's stormy. Add trees that were planted too close to the house dropping leaves, and you have a recipe for leaks. It's a lot of maintenance. I'd be looking at a new cottage roof in the next couple of years, we were hoping to add a standing seam metal roof - would be adorable out there!
We painted EVERYTHING when we came here - and have since only retouched trim as needed, most recently about 2 years ago. The last 2 winters were very hard on the exterior - and it's time to paint again. There is a significant amount of gingerbread trim on the front house, so it's not for the faint of heart! (And here we go again - yes, that's kind of bad, BUT...what a stamp you can put on the place this spring! Are you wanting simplicity? or a colorful painted lady like we did? Since it's time for new paint job, you can do ANYTHING that suits you!) The basement rooms could use some real, professional remodeling someday. We made do after removing some previous attempts at renovation that actually added to moisture issues. A permanent dehumidifier (we have a good one that we move around as needed), maybe radiant heated floors, would help significantly. It's definitely the 'working' part of the house, and the part most in need of help to really make it shine.
There is an addition at the rear of the house, we use it as a garden shed, I think it used to be an office, that needs to be gutted, or perhaps even removed. It's fine to store pots and garden tools in - but it's not a functional room anymore, after significant water damage from a damaged roof. It's only about 8 feet square, with a concrete floor (and an inground safe we have never managed to open! treasure maybe?). On the floorplans in a previous blog, it's noted behind the kitchen as one of the 'storage' rooms. I also thought about stripping it back to the studs, and adding clear poly panels and turning it into a greenhouse...anyway, it's not a great space. Neither is the back door 'mudroom' area, I don't have any good ideas for that space - we just walk through it quickly. lol It's where we store toilet paper, cleaning supplies, outdoor shoes and basic tools.
Plumbing and wiring were all done with the major renovation in the mid 80's. As we have changed things, we have also upgraded pipes and wiring as we went. That's not to say there still aren't places that will need work - the worst thing being there are still some places in the main inn with Qest pipes. If you don't know what that is, a quick Google search will make your heart sink...it's awful stuff, and why it wasn't replaced in the 90's as part of the class-action lawsuit against the product, I have no idea. That said - the leaks we have dealt with have lead to us adding better stuff in those areas, and I can tell the winner where they will still need to keep an eye out, or better yet - replace. It didn't scare us away, and it shouldn't scare the next owner - but it's all good to know.
There is central air, which could be changed to a heatpump - and thought the ductwork is all here, and fine, some of the finish work could have been better...in some places, it's covered in a luan-type of wood instead of drywall - very DIY-ish. It's a cosmetic issue, like the acrylic showers in a few rooms, but it's bothered me all this time. Changing it out was obviously further down my list than other things - I'd have upgraded the showers to tile waay before worrying about how the duct system looks - but, it's kind of ugly. :)
So - it's a process, we have loved improving on what was here, very grateful for the solid structure and beautiful parts of the house that are original, and the other things we just work with - and on - as part of being lucky enough to live here. Living in an antique is an experience all it's own, and to do it - you need to love it. Really I suppose, nothing is totally Good or Bad, as it is in life - but if you love something, like we have loved this property, it all seems just as it should be. Feel free to ask questions on our Facebook page...happy to try to answer anything!
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