Southern Indiana - Checking-In!

[hoosier foursquare (WavyGlass)]

Hey guys! Just wanted to stop by and say hello. I've semi-migrated from OHW and thought it proper to post an intro here as well.

My family and I purchased a 3 story over full basement, American Foursquare inspired home that was built in 1901. It sits on a large city lot (originally deeded as 2 parcels) and is part of our town's "Northside Historical District".

Prior to us, the house had been in the same family for it's entire life seeing three different actual owners. The man who built the house was Carl Furst, a German imigrant, who came to America in pursuit of the great American dream. He was a master stone mason and made his way to Bedford, Indiana by way of Chicago in the late 1800's to work in the fledgling limestone business. later, he and his cousin Henry formed a limestone company along with another man and so was born Furst & Kerber Cut Stone Company.

Back to the house. It's framed entirely of full-dimensional native lumber and is completely clad in 8"-12" limestone block with a very unique tooling feature on the surface called "6-Cut" which means it has 6 cuts or ridges per 1 inch of width. All of the limestone came from one of Mr. Furst's quarries and was laid by his own quarrymen/laborers. I was told that there was a mini-recession going on at the time in the area and to keep his men emplyed/paid he enlisted them to aid in the construction of his house. The house itself cost roughly $10,000 to build which was a lot of money back in that day and was even deemed a newspaper article worthy event! Mr. Furst even had an electrician come all the way from Chicago to wire the house. I can only imagine how long it took him to get there and also how long it took him to get the house wired-up. It takes us about 4 hours without stopping at 70 mph to make it to Chicago!

When we purchased the house it had been sitting vacant for 3 years. There was a caretaker/handyman that would come over to take care of the basics such as heating and cooling, maintenance and yard care but other than that it remained unused & empty. The PO was the grand-daughter of the original owner and had since moved to Florida. After a lot of looking, deciding and praying we closed on the house about 1 1/2 years ago and became the owners of a huge project!

After a lot of research and talking to people that knew the history of the house we embarked on what I call a resto-mod of the house. There was and is no way that we could afford to do a FULL restoration of the house to bring it back 100% to it's original state as built in 1901. We could have dropped $500,000 and that still probably wouldn't get it done. Over the years a lot of things were changed that took it from being original which would be either to costly or impossible to bring back, like the original red asbestos tile roof.

In the early 50's, the second family owner converted the Parlor into a bedroom which meant removing the colonnade entry from the Foyer and walling it off. I have no idea where the colonnade boxes went but the PO took the columns with her to Florida and currently uses them as plant stands and wouldn't let us have them. The Parlor originally had a 60" opening with oak, 5-panel pocket doors that opened into the Sitting Room. The doors were long gone and replaced with a single 32" hollow core luan pocket door. The Sitting Room had been converted into a full bathroom, hallway and closet to service the bedroom. The original fireplace mantel and opening had been bricked in and replaced with a vanity and the hardwood flooring removed and replaced with a 2" mortar bed and tile. The original 60" opening from the Sitting Room to the Dining Room once had pocket doors that matched the other set leading from the Parlor but they were gone as well. The only traces that remained of either set of doors was the bar on edge track that was still in the wall!

The Dining Room remained fairly original with the exception of the Crane Baseboard Radiators that had been added to most rooms in the house sometime in the early 50's. The kitchen was tiny to say the least! It had received the 50's update as well complete with white metal cabinets! The ceiling had been dropped from it's original 10' height in favor of 8'. There was a Butler's Pantry off of the Kitchen which had been converted to a Laundry Room when the PO moved it from the Basement. The largest project that was completed during the remodeling was the removal of the rear porch and the addition of a Sunroom that fit into the original footprint of the porch along with matching roof lines and partial limestone facade.

We moved into the house about 9 months ago and the work still continues. As much as I would like to get everything banged out as fast as possible I have come to the conclusion that slow & steady is the better course!

I've attached a few pictures of the house and of the Carriage House.

[Neighmond]

Are you going to put the parlor and sitting room back to their original uses?

[Lauren674 (WavyGlass)]

Hi! Really enjoy these introductions because I although we've shared posts at the OHW forum I never got such a complete understanding of the different homes. I'm glad youre here and keep trying to figure how to get other "neighbors" to come over here and share. Was at that forum today, and its just a spammy mess.

Anyways, I just love your house, its splendid! I remember you replaced the colonnades...how does the house feel for you inside?

[CS in Low Hud]

Cool place! I never really realized it was limestone from the other site. So... 8 to 12" of stone, plus the dimensional framing must make for exterior walls that are, what, at least 14" thick?

Chris

[hoosier foursquare (WavyGlass)]

In some places the walls are ~14" thick., especially around the base of the house where it all ties into the foundation.

The main reason I found my way over here was due to the spam. I really like OHW but it was becoming difficult for me enjoy due to all of the crud. The house feels awesome inside now! Every project that we complete that restores/revives something original in the house is one step closer to a happy house. The colonnade install was a major triumph due to the size and impact that it had/has on both of the rooms that is impacts. I can still remember the first time we looked at the house I thought something was "wrong" with the Foyer/Parlor.

Both the Parlor and the Sitting Room are being put back to their original configurations with only a few small items being non-original. The Parlor had Crane baseboard radiators added in the late 40's/early 50's - those were left in the room. The Sitting Room fireplace was originally a coal burner. We opted for a woodburning insert that was close to the same size as the coal burner. The new insert is about 5" shorter in height but it was the only one that I could find that was close to the original dimensions of the original unit . The mantle isn't original to the house nor is the fireplace tile. I was given the hearth tile by a neighbor who had it stored in his attic and had no use for it so he donated it to us for our project. The fireplace install was a major milestone for that room.

I had to fix a few hole in the ash pit beneath the firebox with brick & mortar and then filled it in with a bag or two quickcrete. I then came back with a Mapei Self Leveling Compound to level out the firebox floor as well as the hearth so that I had a nice level substrate to install the tile on and eventually the fireplace insert. I then cut & laid the fireplace tile which took a while. Mainly the layout and placement, there were so many critical dimensions. I then grouted and sealed and sealed the tile to finish that portion of the job off.

The next step was to pour more Self Leveling Compound in the firebox to bring it up to the same exact level as the newly tiled hearth so that the insert would slide in smoothly with no obstructions. I did this the day before the insert install. The install went very smoothly except for the portion that involved lowering the liner down the chimney. I knew that the bedroom above the Sitting Room once had it's own fireplace but it was neat to get more confirmation by the experts. The liner was dropping down the chimney nicely untill it hit the 20' mark. It kept getting stuck on something! They pulled the liner out an took a look down and found out that they were actually hitting the smoke shelf on the inactive 2nd floor fireplace! Once they figured that out, they were able to snake the liner over the smoke shelf and down the chimney to the awaiting woodburning insert.

The most exciting part of the whole install was when they had everything buttoned up and the technician asked me if it would be ok to light a small fire to test the unit out. The huge smile on my face was probably answer enough but they still waited on me to verbally say "Yes!" It was so neat to see a lit fire and a working chimney after so many years of it lying dormant. Something like 63 years!

I still have a few loose ends to wrap up like tiling the surround, making and installing the 3 peices of oak to trim out the hearth tile and I still need to finish sanding the mantle down for staining. I also need to purchase a new beveled glass mirror for the matle top. The original was way beyond repair. Other than that, the room only really needs some window treatments to call it finished.

[Wackyshack]

Wow, great house and wonderful work!! My house was remuddled to the point I could never fix it all so I am going the same route you are and happy with the results so far...

Love the tile at the fireplace..... yum.....

[Kansas.1911]

Another vote here for the comprehensive introductions--I like them.

We are the 11th owners of our house; nobody remuddled to the extent your original family did. I hypothesize that original families fix things up ALL the time because they know there isn't another house down the road. Our families were either longterm and massively cheap, or they just squatted here for a few years.

[Don M]

Fine house & super fireplace reno; I hope you come back sometime soon to report further on your projects!

[Blue Farmhouse]

Hello from Historic Downtown Madison, Indiana!

[Wackyshack]

Glad you made the slide over here!! Formally Civil War Seamstress but now just known as the Wackyshack, my little remuddled monster house. Hope the rest of them make it over here.