It all started back in 1996 when my wife and I purchased our house from my parents. This colonial style house, which I grew up in, was built in 1910 and has been in my family since around 1920. It is located on a dead end road which has approximately twenty five houses of the same time period. The land was once farm land with the original 1880 farmhouse located directly across the street from us, which unfortunately was recently resided with vinyl siding. Anyway I have great memories of living in this house growing up with my siblings, my father's expansive vegetable garden, our small above ground pool and doing home improvement projects with my dad. I guess those projects are where I obtained my desire to do this kind of work, although I am finding out now that my dad had a bunch to learn. Oh and I don't think he knew what a permit was either! As you can see the house at this point in 1996 is fairly small at 1,350 square feet with three bedrooms and one and one half baths. The outside is aluminum siding and is in desperate need of a new roof. There was no landscaping to speak of except for some overgrown hedges, upright yews and some huge rhododendrons. My dad had created a crushed stone parking spot in front of the house which was overgrown with weeds, although it did complimented the cracked and deteriorating driveway nicely. Needless to say the house needed a lot of exterior work. The interior was no better, all you had to do was picture the 1970's and you would have a good idea of what it was like. The list of "deficiencies" is endless. Linoleum floors, orange shag carpet, panneling over plaster walls, gold appliances, swirled plaster ceilings, etc. The mechanicals you ask, 30 year old forced hot air furnace, 2 huge window air conditioners, 60 amp electrical service with screw in glass fuses, 10 year old electric water heater and no insulation to speak of. Once again the interior needed a lot of work. Stay tuned for the transformation of this neglected 100 year old house which is still an ongoing project but nearing completion almost fifteen years later.
