I know after reading the first three posts you must be wondering if Carter's Tavern was the "Big One" that I penned the title of this blog after. Well, no it isn't! That one I will get to after this post. The Tavern is a dream compared to the nightmare we decided to take on almost five years after buying this one. Talking or in this case writing is a superb form of therapy when speaking of addiction. Friends in New England used to refer to my many restorations as my mistresses. I would say that was an accurate description. There is nothing like taking a rough stone, polishing and shaping it to a beautiful, sparkling creation! The satisfaction is overwhelming and the sense of accomplishment is unparalleled knowing that you did this with your own two hands along with others that helped to revive this long lost beauty. Enough about the psychological side of house restoration. I can drone on and on about that. Back to the physical world of it!
By the fall of 2006 the house was painted; windows re-glazed and painted; the shutters were almost finished being reworked or rebuilt as with most of them and readied for their gleaming coat of black paint. We had hired Barry Thompson to build the cabinets in the tap room for our kitchen. That was modified of course before we started, but the end result was amazing. Barry used very few power tools in the construction and most of it was done by hand. Since we did not want to harm the original moldings and if the house was ever turned into a museum, all the cabinets had a lip that went above the chair rail. They could easily be removed with no harm to the woodwork. He constructed all the components out of 200+ year old heart pine boards that he salvaged from a demolition. Even the countertops are made of this "golden" wood. The patina and aged look of these can not be faked! Only the real McCoy will do.
We then turned our attention to a hall bath that drove me out of my gourd! I would have liked to have redone all the baths the same way, but money always dictates what direction we take. We had visited numerous historic sites where the "necessary" was almost always a separate structure, but what would it have looked like if it were in the house? I took that to heart and designed an indoor, outhouse inside the house! I turned to Barry again to build an authentic "one-holer" for the bath. Kohler at the time was selling a hat box style, but it was a very expensive hat box. We then turned to a low profile water closet that could be concealed by a wooden seat and back. That was perfect, except the first one came cracked, second one came cracked and we decided to abandon ship on the third, so we went with another style. Matching all the same measurements, but a little more money, we had one piece of the puzzle figured out. This one came in unscathed! Next I designed a dry sink cabinet that we could make wet! Barry took the drawing and ran with it so to speak. I wanted it to look at least two hundred years old and have a dry painted finish. He did such a great job that one of his other clients came in and said "that will be a nice piece once you get done restoring it", perfect! That is all I needed to hear. We had a redware, basin bowl made in the Pottery Capital of the World; Seagrove, North Carolina. Found a bronze faucet that would blend and add to the 18th century illusion. Alice came and worked her faux painting magic on the newly installed wooden "necessary". We played off of the mahogany graining of the room and pulled that onto the "new throne"! We now had an authentic outhouse, indoors.....
The last frontier was starting to recreate the outbuildings that may have been on the property originally. Within a couple of years we added a log barn that was just down the street from the Tavern on an old tobacco farm. It was in danger of being torn down because a couple of rows of logs had rotted on one side. Barry salvaged enough to where we still have generous ceiling height and a loft above. He then found an smokehouse that was being torn down in North Carolina to make way for a new development. Classic in design with a conical roof, but unfortunately over half of it started to crumble when he tried to dismantle it. We at least had the dimension and some of the framing timbers and siding to duplicate a new one and a matching diary house. All three buildings have brick floors, which came from a tragic fire at a neighboring historic house. A dear friend who is like a second mother to us, generously gave us brick from her once great home to use. Something good did come from something bad. Not to be too cliché, but that's true.... The last building to be finished thus far is the well house, sort of! After purchasing the property we discovered a fairly deep hole in the backyard and quickly learned it was one of the original "hand dug" wells. A safety hazard now, but a perfect place to put the air handler for the main floor. A sturdy concrete pad was poured, floored in brick pavers, some magic from our carpenters and ta-da, a well house. A friend had bought us a well wheel and bucket, so naturally we had to have a place to put it and it is in the location of the old well. These photos were taken during a December snow, you will see our four-legged child racing around all the obstacles we have placed in her yard!
We then turned our attention to a hall bath that drove me out of my gourd! I would have liked to have redone all the baths the same way, but money always dictates what direction we take. We had visited numerous historic sites where the "necessary" was almost always a separate structure, but what would it have looked like if it were in the house? I took that to heart and designed an indoor, outhouse inside the house! I turned to Barry again to build an authentic "one-holer" for the bath. Kohler at the time was selling a hat box style, but it was a very expensive hat box. We then turned to a low profile water closet that could be concealed by a wooden seat and back. That was perfect, except the first one came cracked, second one came cracked and we decided to abandon ship on the third, so we went with another style. Matching all the same measurements, but a little more money, we had one piece of the puzzle figured out. This one came in unscathed! Next I designed a dry sink cabinet that we could make wet! Barry took the drawing and ran with it so to speak. I wanted it to look at least two hundred years old and have a dry painted finish. He did such a great job that one of his other clients came in and said "that will be a nice piece once you get done restoring it", perfect! That is all I needed to hear. We had a redware, basin bowl made in the Pottery Capital of the World; Seagrove, North Carolina. Found a bronze faucet that would blend and add to the 18th century illusion. Alice came and worked her faux painting magic on the newly installed wooden "necessary". We played off of the mahogany graining of the room and pulled that onto the "new throne"! We now had an authentic outhouse, indoors.....
The last frontier was starting to recreate the outbuildings that may have been on the property originally. Within a couple of years we added a log barn that was just down the street from the Tavern on an old tobacco farm. It was in danger of being torn down because a couple of rows of logs had rotted on one side. Barry salvaged enough to where we still have generous ceiling height and a loft above. He then found an smokehouse that was being torn down in North Carolina to make way for a new development. Classic in design with a conical roof, but unfortunately over half of it started to crumble when he tried to dismantle it. We at least had the dimension and some of the framing timbers and siding to duplicate a new one and a matching diary house. All three buildings have brick floors, which came from a tragic fire at a neighboring historic house. A dear friend who is like a second mother to us, generously gave us brick from her once great home to use. Something good did come from something bad. Not to be too cliché, but that's true.... The last building to be finished thus far is the well house, sort of! After purchasing the property we discovered a fairly deep hole in the backyard and quickly learned it was one of the original "hand dug" wells. A safety hazard now, but a perfect place to put the air handler for the main floor. A sturdy concrete pad was poured, floored in brick pavers, some magic from our carpenters and ta-da, a well house. A friend had bought us a well wheel and bucket, so naturally we had to have a place to put it and it is in the location of the old well. These photos were taken during a December snow, you will see our four-legged child racing around all the obstacles we have placed in her yard!
The next chapter, I promise will begin the real journey. This house was just a warm up for what we were in for!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment