Circa 1884 McCuiston House

[SouthernLady]

Hey everybody! I don't have much to update on right now, so I have two rooms to show you that I haven't really shared. Mostly because they are not originally part of the McCuiston House, as they part of what was an original garage/barn/storage shed. The building was attached to the house in the mid-80s after it had been sold out of the family.

Here's a shot of the building from the late 1950s. The building is on the right, with the laundry room addition to the house seen to the left:



So far, there are no pictures of the original front to the barn building, but the family tells me the bottom floor was open with only three walls, there was a wood stove in there for a heat source, and they used the upstairs loft for dry food storage. There was a back door access for the upstairs as well as an access inside. You can see the handrail for the outdoor stairwell if you look close enough at the picture.

Here's how it looked when I bought the house:



Now let's see inside...


Look past the moving trash stuff... You are looking at the entry door and large windows. The great-granddaughter tells me this used to have a dirt floor. She and her husband salvaged the barnwood from very old barns that they found across the region that had fallen down. Behind the barnwood is the original horizontal plank walls to the building. I have looked through the cracks and it seems I can make out what may be old white milk paint on the boards. I debated removing the barnwood to go back to the original walls, but I am not sure... What do y'all think? Should I leave the barnwood or remove it?

Here is the wall the wood stove will go on:

[Don M]

I like the barn wood but it's your house, you need to do what makes you happy

[phil]

if it seems too dark then maybe you could just have one wall white. I'm just thinking the dark walls might make it feel smaller. I guess you could easily remove one board at random to have a peek? The barnwood might look nice and be a bit of a fire hazard? My sister had one of those makeup mirrors sitting in her basement and it just happened that the conditions got so that it was focusing the direct sun onto a cedar panel wall. it was made to be siding but in the 70's people put it in their basements for the rustic look.
that was a weird situation but it almost started the wall on fire. she smelled smoke and found the wall smoldering and the sun had moved and drew a burned line on the wall as the focus point moved with the sun. I doubt you;d have that situation but most walls are more fire resistant than barn wood so that could be a consideration? I guess drapes could present the same issues so Im not quite sure how much of a concern it is, but I'd consider the fire standards in your reno work.
maybe there is a way to treat the wood to make it more fire resistant?

So far as the wood stove is concerned you can check the regulations and you;d need a certain clearance and you;d need to make any wall that's near it more fire resistant I'd assume? maybe some brick near the stove?

you might also check your insurance company. Here old fireplaces don't' seem to be a huge issue but I don't even think they put them in new houses. or maybe they just went "out of style" We used to heat with wood when I was younger and my parents later removed the custom wood burning stove my dad had made. that house was out in the country. It worked super well we even had forced air heat from the furnace room but the fire insurance costs were too high with the burner. Perhaps you'll find the stove offsets what it saves when you consider the insurance cost in the picture. I'd check before you get your plan too far rather than being disappointed if it's an issue there. and I don't know if it would be or not.

I've always thought that one could completely bypass the fire issue by having a burner and hot water tank in a separate building to distribute hot water heat to the house. You might be able to get away with that in some areas but here it seems to be the same issue, they don't really care where the fire is even if it's outside the house. Maybe they'd even consider it like a steam plant where you might even need a power engineer to watch it ? I'm sure the rules are more relaxed in some areas so you'd need to check locally. maybe even the fire department could point you in the right direction or even give you a free inspection ? I bet they could give you some verbal advice and would likely know the local codes.

Phil

[Don M]

Your story about the sun causing the wall to smolder is amazing. I paneled my parents den in the '70s and many friends had barn wood paneled rooms but none ever caught fire. I suppose it's always a matter of being careful.

[SouthernLady]

What the what?? Almost caught the panelling on fire?! Wow... That sounds like one of those one-in-a-million things for sure. Boy, that would have been bad!

It is pretty dark, but I hope to have a light-colored sofa and chairs, white painted furniture with pine tops, and I already have a knotty pine media dresser thing I got from a yard sale. I don't have any pictures of that yet, but I am kind of using that as my design inspiration. The tile ceiling and flourescent lighting was added by the great-granddaughter when she turned this room into a small antique shop. She operated an interior design business, and the items she purchased that she didn't use for clients she sold out of this room. I will be removing the ceiling tile and the lighting ASAP. Thankfully, I have three friends who are licensed professional electricians, all of whom have offered to help me at any time. I know I will be having the wide floor planks upstairs for the ceiling, which I am actually going to like. I hope there are rough beams, too, but we shall see!

Here is the rest of the room:



There is another window identical to the one on the right directly behind the piano. If I remember correctly, it is still there between the aluminum siding on the outside and the barnwood on the inside. Although the outdoor staircase goes right in front of it, I plan to uncover it to allow more light into this dark space. Hopefully, it will help to center the room as well. I may choose to hang a flat screen TV between the two windows. Remember, I am trying to have the house as visibally historically accurate (yet functional) as possible, and this room is to be my "normal" living room. Since it's not part of the original house and has already been altered, I don't feel too bad about this.

I found a Karr cookstove almost identical to the one my grandparents had, except it is larger and has a water tank on the side. The chrome is a bit spotty, but the stove works fine so says the antique store owner. I talked him down $400 to $1,200. He says he would go lower because it's sat in his store for several years and he would love to have the space for other items, but that's what he bought it for and he don't want to take a hit. Does that sound like a fair price for a functioning cookstove? Here's a picture of the pretty girl:



My thought is to add some sort of rock facade on the wall behind the stove--if needed. I had a chimney expert look at the area a couple years ago and he said the metal area might be fine, but when I was serious about installing the stove just have someone do it who knows about that sort of thing and they can tell me for sure.

I don't care for the tile floor, so I am considering putting down the type of lamanite "wood" flooring that can go over ceramic tile. Does anyone have any experience with that type of flooring?

[SouthernLady]

Now let's go upstairs. Goodness, I don't like these stairs... I am thinking about spraying these...




Welcome to the old loft! I love these wide(er) planked floors. So squeaky... Please look past the ugly vinyl windows. It was done by previous owners who didn't know better. Thank God they ran out of money and didn't get to finish completely destroying remodeling the rest of the house once they got half the kitchen remodel done. I have five windows to have rebuilt thanks to this. Yuck.

The color is a selection for the Valspar National Trust for Historic Preservation that was available during the period my house was built. The closets to the left were added at some point, I suspect during the mid '80s as the doors match the doors in the connecting addition from the same period.


Behold. Closets. Currently used to store holiday decor.



For my birthday, my parents were very kind to suprise me with the shelving units I was planning to purchase myself. I will be buying baskets to store craft things in and those little chalkboard tags to label the baskets. I will also be using my antique Ball jar collection. Don't worry--I have two more units to add, and once I am finished it's gonna look a lot more put together than it does right now.

I am also strongly considering removing the drywall ceiling in this room. I am going to ask the great-granddaughter if she recalls if there were exposed rafters in this room. If so, the drywall is certainly coming down! My mom has my great-great-grandmother's quilting frame that hung from the ceiling of her cabin--it's the kind that you hang with a rope from hooks screwed into beams in the ceiling above, so you can pull it up to the ceiling when you're not working on it to save space, and then drop it down towards the floor to set chairs around it to quilt when you want to. There is an elderly lady at my church who still remembers how to put these back together and has offered to fix ours.

On my "to add" list for this room is a sleeper chair (for overflow overnight guests), floor lamp, corner table, window trimmings, farm table, rug, baskets, etc. You get the idea.

So, that's pretty much it for the moment!

[Gothichome]

Southernlady, your plans sound great, being a former shed/stable I would expect bare beams, although do to the size of the shed I think the framing will be dimensional lumber except maybe a few maim beams. You have purchased a fine stove, I have seen lots over the years, mostly in white and a few in off white. I don't recall ever seeing a blue one. If you like it, then you have't paid too much, at least that's my view of antiques. Look forward to the pics. One other thing, until you get it done, with all that open space you can rent it out for débutante balls.

[Don M]

I like your stove choice the color is great. Depending on the age of the former barn I agree with dimensional lumber too. My 1830s barn is timber frame but newer probably not.

[Texas_Ranger]

I'd have a chimney sweep or other expert check that stove for damaged inner lining. I'm sure it could be rebuilt but that'd add a lot of expense. The price sounds decent to me, those cast iron monsters are expensive, even the replica ones you can get! Actually even modern style ones are expensive.

I totally see why you want to get rid of that tile but please forget about laminate! It's fake, it's cheap, potentially toxic and damaged easily during installation. Look into engineered hardwood floors instead! They're basically plywood with a nice top veneer of real wood, not printed MDF like laminate.

[SouthernLady]

Texas_Ranger, that was what I originally hoped to put down, but I have had an issue with that room occasionally flooding. Is there any engineered hardwood that can withstand getting wet like that? I haven't done much research on it, but I would greatly prefer that to something with carcinogens... My family history gives me enough risk of developing cancer one day; I don't want any extra help with it!