Wife's ancestral home

[GDWoodbutcher (WavyGlass)]

Hello and Happy New Year !!! I've been looking at this site for a few weeks now, and figure I'd like to introduce myself. My wife and I have loved old houses forever, her living in them, myself working on them. My wife enjoys the search for historical information and considers the chase half the fun. I'm a carpenter. When I'm working on a old house, for myself or profit, it hardly seems like work. We were lucky enough in 2011 to buy her g.g.grandparents home in Dixon Il from a absentee landlord. We are now in the process of restoring it back to a single family home that we will live in. The house has had tons of changes over the years, but retains most of it's original fabric under these alterations. When we are done the home should be about 95% original (not counting bathrooms). The internet has made finding missing hardware so easy that with little effort we've been able to find everything that was missing. As you all know, it's a lot of work that never ends, but what isn't. Anyway- again HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!

[Don M]

Your home sounds interesting; we love pictures. Happy New Year to you all too!

[GDWoodbutcher (WavyGlass)]

I love pictures to, just don't know how to post. Our son put a picture of our house under "wood roof lifespan" and showed me how. After all his tutoring, still don't have a clue. Working on it! Sorry!!

[KJS (WavyGlass)]

Pictures! Pictures!

[Kansas.1911]

Welcome. That's a lot of history in that home. I imagine there are pictures of the relatives that go with the home. She might remember the home from when she was a little girl. I am 61 and I remember in detail my grandparents' home which they built in 1919.

[BungalowMo]

Happy New Year GDW!

Love that you're getting into a family home from way way back! I agree...please start a new thread with all the different rooms & such as you're working on them ! We love photos & we're full of armchair ideas! haha

When we're on here...we're not fixing our stuff!

[chadrjohnson (WavyGlass)]

Congratulations on your new old home. I can't wait to see pictures and hear more about it. In 2005 I bought the house that one belonged to my great great grandparents. It was built in 1885 and they sold it in the 1940's.

[GDWoodbutcher (WavyGlass)]

Just received another tutorial from my son on picture posting ( pretty sure he thinks we can't really be related ). So maybe here's some pictures of the house we bought in Nov. 2011, after being sold out of my wife's family in 1968. Were converting it back to single family but have a ton of work before we can live in it full time. We are still researching original build date (long story), but any guesses are welcome, we know it's between 1854 - 1882, with proof it's there by 1882, but seems older than that. It was always in town so it's not a vernacular farmhouse, and Dixon had saw mills by 1840. Any guesses as to a style or age ? Also the 2nd story on right half was added in 1924, prior to that it was a one story kitchen wing with a gable roof, front porch was added same time, as was window over front door. Originally there was no front porch at 2 story portion.

[Don M]

Sure looks a lot better with the porch reopened & the front door restored. What was the room you removed? I think your house is a simple Italianate style, popular from 1840-1885. The tall front windows & the hipped roof makes me think that. See also: http://www.wentworthstudio.com/historic ... italianate I say simple because it lacks wide roof overhangs & brackets although it may have had brackets at one time. Take a look at the current "This Old House" project house it has similar features to your house. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/hous ... 0,00.html#

[GDWoodbutcher (WavyGlass)]

Don M, thanks, the room removed was a sewing room added by the non family owner, as was the vinyl siding, all after 1968. There were never any brackets except for under the window hoods, and they strike me as wrong (can't say why?) for Italianate. The tall front windows mimic walk outs, but there was definitely no front porch to walk out to. There is a beautiful italianate 2 lots over, about same square footage, but lower pitch roof, brackets, side fireplaces, nice orig. front porch, etc, from 1860. Unfortunately some of things missing from our house, the front door and interior balustrade, would have gone a long ways to dating it. Also the interior is as simple as it gets, few machine made mouldings and any beadboard is actually 5/4 x 6 flooring with a bead scratched in the middle and one edge very crudely by hand. All the trim is positively original (at first thought it must have been replaced). Every door inside is a 30" x 6'7" x 1 1/8" . Only the front room has this 2 1/4" moulding with 2 3/8" corner blocks over the 4" casing.