Mick_VT wrote:The previous owners of this place saved it from dereliction. They installed a well and a septic. When they bought it it had stood empty for a handful of years after being a rental. There were holes in the roof. They said that the water had been coming from a spring, which had dried up just after they bought the place, it had been piped into a cistern in the basement.
Still freezing tonight, too, ha ha! Only -6 here, so there's some improvement! My stove is working double-time...we rarely turn on the forced hot air, but I just gave us a shot to catch things up. Lots of work....
Your house sounds just like mine! The daughter of the family that built it had it til 1950...she was quite old and not able to fix the cedar shingle roof. Things ran down (you can see the siding in my link....). A recluse bought it in 1950-something, put on a metal roof, asbestos siding, some hacked windows, and then allowed it to continue downhill. The lot grew right in, up to the house, according to legend. At least the asbestos covered the siding for me to come later!! And prevented brush from impacting the walls.
A nice artsy historical couple got this place in the 80s, cleaned everything on the 1st floor up VERY well and restored, did not replace anything. They spent massive $ clearing the property back from the sucker brush, helping the apple trees to come back. The 2nd floor was never built; they didn't have the funds to do it. But what they did was done well, to completion, and not 1/2 @zzed...someday I'll have to put a new septic in, but the 1962 metal tank is still doing fine, they say! Drilled well, too.
For the last 10 years, a guy from 'away' had it...SEASONAL. Things got a bit messed up. Luckily, we bought it from him before too much of that 'sitting empty' happened....
So here I am, I am building the 2nd floor into a 'master suite' with 2nd bedroom, bathroom and big linen closet. I've restored the siding you see, so far, and will be done with that next year. We hope to be in the 2nd floor this winter!! Nice and warm up here now, I had it dense-packed. Last winter was "the experience" of no insulation and so on....altho it's a tight house, it DOES get cold! This AM it was 64 in here; do-able for only using a stove!