The Historic District

I am the excited new owner of an 1860 farmhouse on 5 acres. It was originally an apple orchard, and there's still some of the original apple trees out in my woods.

Like so many old homes around here, this one was advertised as a temporary solution while you build your "dream home" on another part of the property. I'd never do that! I want to restore the original home over time.

The house itself has been quite "remuddled" by multiple owners, but the layout is very comfortable. I love the house's simplicity. I want to restore some of the historic character to the interior, and my first discovery was beautiful wood floors nearly everywhere in the house under layers and layers of flooring! To get to the wood, I had to take out a 70s kitchen, and now I have to figure out what to do with it until I have time/resources for a bigger kitchen renovation.

I renovated a 50s tract home in the past, but never a historic home like this. I already have a lot of questions for the members of this forum!

Hello and welcome, beautiful property and a cool looking home. The one story part seems to be added on later, is that correct? Hopefully you can find older photos of the home and orchard.

Thanks for the welcome!

I hope I can find some older photos! I heard it has some interesting history.

The one room sticking out the back is a new addition. The rest of the single story part looks to be original to the house.

There's a few decades of quick fix renovations. It takes some of the pressure off of me to preserve everything perfectly, but I hope I can add back some features that are the right style for the house. All the original plaster, trim, and windows already got taken out by previous owners sadly. The original fireplace is bricked over. There's aluminum siding, and I don't know what is underneath. The milk house is wonderful. Layers of plywood and vinyl protected the original wood floors and subfloors really well at least.

I love very plain farm homes, and this one didn't seem like it probably had much ornament originally. I want to keep things very simple if I can.

Does anyone know what my house's architectural style would be called? "Vernacular farmhouse" maybe (http://www.oldhouseweb.com/architecture ... 1910.shtml)? I'm trying to figure out what kind of baseboards and window/door trim would be appropriate for the house.

Welcome to Wavyglass Oaktree, your home looks to be good livable condition and should keep you warm and dry for years to come.. Many of us suggest living with the home for a while, it will tell you what it needs and you can prioritize accordingly. Having previous experience with a 50's home should give you a one up..as far as the kitchen goes, it was probably a working kitchen with none or very little built in cabinet sect. You could fill it with antique stand alones. Intact original floors are a great find.

Welcome in! Neat place.

Cheers!
Chaz

Thanks much!

I completely agree about freestanding antiques for the kitchen.

I am not sure if the current location for the kitchen is even where the original kitchen was...I think probably not.

There was a ton of mismatched built-ins and an island that were not in great condition. I removed them all to get to the floors. I can't reuse any of them like I planned, so it's kind of a blank slate right now.




I definitely don't want to attempt a big kitchen renovation right now, so I decided to get the minimal amount of inexpensive base cabinets for the a sink and a dishwasher. I'm looking for antique freestanding cabinets to use for storage as well as a big table to replace the island.

I thought I was just going to paint and replace carpets and vinyl before moving in, but it's already turned into so much more work...that is definitely how renovations always go.

I really look forward to doing proper research for a more authentic renovation of this space in the future! My 50s house was fun, but this is even better!

Oaktree, this is Gothichomes kitchen. Built 1880'sh. Unmolested other than the paint a 1964 wall paper.

It's wonderful!!! This is exactly what I was imagining. I would love to see more pictures if you have them.

Two doors close together just like your kitchen

Beautiful doors!

This is also extremely helpful. I was contemplating how I was going to do the trim on those doors that are so close together. I read that you can design the trim to bleed into the trim of the adjacent door.

Some of the other trim in my house (not original) resembles the style in your picture. I also know someone with an 1888 foursquare in a nearby town that has original trim that looks like this too.

I am not confident about what style of trim would have been installed in such a simple farm home of this age. It seems like it was a plain house originally. I want to make sure I don't get too fancy.

Thank you!