Loring House

More progress today. Interior framing is complete. Next up is plumbing and electrical.

Today’s adventure is old home ownership was the discovery that the washer and dryer would not fit through the door. So, we are rebuilding the bathroom wall to include a pocket door to enable the appliances to fit.

Removal of the windows in the kitchen revealed lots of structural deficiencies that needed to be addressed. A new LVL beam has been installed and the wall will be rebuilt.

Built a new assembly/out feed table

Happy Independence Day!

Old Houses Settle

After we removed the ceiling in the primary bedroom, we began to inspect the beams that tie the house together. As the name implies, a post-and-beam house is a series of posts and beams held together with mortise-and-tenon joints and pegs. As part of the roof structure, there are beams that run from the front of the house to the back. These keep the roof from pushing out the walls below.

As the house settles, as all houses do, the posts and beams move together unless they encounter something that prevents that movement. The beam pictured below came to rest on the header of the door. The door's structure runs through the floor down to the basement, where it rests on the foundation of the chimney. In other words, it was not going to move.

As the house continued to settle, immense pressure was put on the beam until it cracked. We have no idea how long that beam has been like this, but a new structure has been constructed to take the stress off the broken beam.

We came across these numbers in the window sills at the front of the house and not sure what they were for. After a bit of research, and a wonderful discussion with an historical architect, it turns out they are part of a numbering system for the storm windows and screens for the house.

Each storm window and screen would have been built for a specific window. In order to put them back in the right spot, they were numbered. We only have one surviving example of each window and screen and I have not checked to see if the number is on each one of those.

Post and beam houses are held together with mortise and tenon joints. The mortise and tenons are cut on the ground, fit togther, and then reassembled in place. The carpenters would number each joint for reassembly.

On these beams are cut 4 hash marks. I was in awe looking at these and remembering that these were cut circa 1658! The joint is still as tight as the day it was cut.

Edit: These are called marriage marks.

Any restoration project requires many decisions to be made and the most difficult are the ones that involve removing original elements. The ceiling in the primary bedroom was in bad shape so we decided to remove the original plaster.

Removing the plaster has allowed us to see lots of the original structure. It also gives us many more design options so stay tuned to see where we take this part of the project.

Although the other side of the kitchen is undergoing demolition, the finishes have started to go on around the fireplace. The wood being used was removed from the outside of the house and is believed to be original. It is nice that we were able to reuse this wood and that it will stay with the house.

Kitchen and bathroom demo has begun.

Today’s bathroom demo revealed a numbering system on the back of the wood panels. The panels must have been removed at some point and numbered. The house continues to reveal itself.

Happy Pride Month!

When restoring a nearly 400-year-old home, one challenge is balancing reverence for the past and modern convenience. In the primary bedroom, we converted previously unused space behind a wall into two functional closets without altering the room's layout.

An interesting aspect of the restoration project is uncovering how things were done by previous craftsman. While demoing the shower I notice a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of cement on top of the wall board. Today we would use cement board or even blue board.

I truly appreciate the craftsman and craftsmanship that came before me but, removing cement from walls is a work out.

I love the messages you find when you are restoring old houses.

I love working with a contractor that takes pride in his work.

Some of you noticed the stain in the lower right corner of the house. We had a mishap during painting with spilled paint. Try as they might, they just could not shift it.

Today, the clapboards were replaced. Rather than cut pieces in and have seems, they replaced each 20 foot section with new cedar clapboards.

Always work with a contractor that goes the extra mile and does quality work.

Selection of the nails we have removed from the house. These all appear to be hand forged/cut

Fixing a sagging ceiling. Original horsehair plaster and hand cut lathe. The ceiling has sagged almost 5”. The nails have pulled out of the boards due to the weight of the ceiling.

Phase 2 has begun!

Phase 1 (exterior restoration) is officially complete. Phase 2 (interior) begins tomorrow!

Before and after pictures of the exterior restoration.

Front light and house numbers installed. Another task crossed off the list.

Got things filled in around the power vent

There is still a lot of work to do but I needed to put up a flag!

Buy an old house tgey said. It’ll be fun they said.

Threshold between 2 rooms. One inch gap on one end and half inch on the other. Not sure about the middle.

But, we will figure it out. The old girl deserves to look her best.

Cut the grass

The realties of an old house and modern furniture is sometimes you need to make doorways wider. That was today’s task.

One more project off the list.