| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jun 28 2005 : 8:38:50 PM
Anyone done a major remodel project on your farm house or plan to? I keep thinking about adding a second story on a one story house by adding a couple of dormers. Anyone want to add a laundry room? A dining room? A bigger kitchen or family room? Or a porch?? If you knew you were going to live in your house forever, how would you change it??? Mollie |
| 23 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| newlywood |
Posted - Aug 30 2005 : 06:42:06 AM
My husband and I own a wonderful old farm house that is in such a state of disrepair, it probably isn't safe. However, I wish that we could renovate it. They just don't make farmhouses like they used to around here. All around us are little ranch-style homes that just lack all of the character of the farmhouses from to past. We actually live in one of the ranch-style on another piece of property. Sigh... if only we had a few hundred thousand laying around... (well, maybe not QUITE that much....but close) :) Right now, the cows get to use the porches for a rain shelter.
Erika in Nebraska
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| hapyhrt |
Posted - Aug 30 2005 : 02:12:59 AM
I so enjoy reading about others remodeling hopes and goals,as well as the love of living in an older home! How wonderful to own a home with history and whispers of the past held within it's walls.
If money wasn't an issue (as it always seems to be), I'd have a pretty little covered front porch and a bigger enclosed sitting porch on the side of the house off the kitchen, there I'd have old comfortable chairs with patchwork pillows, a porch swing with an old quilt draped along it's back, geraniums in window boxes, herbs and plants in old baskets, vintage knickknacks such as electrified kerosene lamps, an array of country crafts and grapevine, and a table or two to set drinks upon. Lastly, I'd love to have a colorful floorcloth or rag rug to set under the chairs to enhance a cozy, comfort atmosphere. I've dreamed of this porch for many years and still hope someday that it can become a reality. Then I'd move inside and make the kitchen much wider than the original 12' across, add hardwood floors, a large bay or bow window in the living room, add on an addition for one more bedroom and a laundry room (ours is in the basement) with room for an indoor clothesline and easy access to an outdoor line too. Dare to dream, eh! Oh well, isn't that what life is all about? Hopes and dreams along with determination and an attitude of "where there's a will there's a way!" Yep, that's what this country was built on, good ol' fashioned pioneer spirit. Thank goodness that spirit is still alive within our country loving hearts! ;)
"Think happy thoughts...any others aren't worth your time!" Ü |
| jenny louise |
Posted - Aug 29 2005 : 5:33:57 PM
Lynn, I also thought it would be fun to have before's and after's, but i am terrible with taking pictures and especially web stuff. The older woman that i mentioned did send a wonderful snapshot of the house with her mother standing outside near a sapling which is now and old maple that shades the front of the house! I guess that is something that connects so many of us here; the appreciation of old things, ways and houses. Kudos to all of you that have found and loved old abodes, and are breathing new life into them, especially when it would be so much easer to raze them and build new.
Jenny |
| Mari-dahlia |
Posted - Aug 29 2005 : 04:50:46 AM
I forgot about the lead paint. I had a long conversation with a women from HUD in NY state. Not all old houses have lead paint, so get it tested first. You can pickup test kits in Home Depot etc. Most of the danger in lead paint is from the dust which falls on kids toys etc. Kids toys in an old house should be washed regularly. Unless your lead paint is chipping, or you're afraid your kids would actually chew the moldings, you can paint over it. The State cannot,but it costs thousands to properly remove lead paint. Use a good primer first.
Marianne |
| Mari-dahlia |
Posted - Aug 29 2005 : 04:40:21 AM
Our house was built in 1820 and we have been fixing things for the 2 1/2 years we have lived here. We will never really be done and we are very careful to not really change the integrity of the home. We feel with a house this old, that we are only short term caretakers but we do have to make sure the house lasts for another 200 years. This is how we make all of our remodel projects decisions. So, my husband built the kitchen cabinets. He likes working with wood but had never built a cabinet before. It is not easy but it is very do-able for the average person, do not be afraid! You can also retrofit other furniture for kitchen use and just put in shelves for cabinets. I hate!!! spending money on things I can figure out by myself. All of my dishes sit on a large plate rack on the wall. My husband made this in an hour. I just realized how lucky I am, I always feel like we should be doning more.
Marianne |
| greyghost |
Posted - Aug 29 2005 : 04:14:35 AM
WOW Jenny! Your house sounds neat (and like a project - I don't feel so alone right now in our remodel woes). I think you need a website dedicated to the house - the before and afters and the history is so interesting! |
| jenny louise |
Posted - Aug 28 2005 : 7:34:56 PM
Isn't it fun to disover the past in our backyards?
Our place is over one hundred years old and noone around can remember it not being here, or rather hearing of it being built. Actually the original house was one of the first in the area, and then in world war I, the folks that lived here had a fire. The house burned for days, as the basement was used to store honey. Supplies for building were scarce and the people found an old hotel that was to be torn down in a nearby town. So they took the hotel apart piece by piece and brought it back here and put it back together on the old house foundation. That explains the numbers on the doors of our bedrooms and bathroom. The funny thing to me is that the doorways are so narrow, and the stairway is quite narrow to the second foor. We have to duck to come downstairs also. Something you get used to, but the history is quite interesting, and since I like to recycle everything that I can, it is poetic that i live in a recycled house!
It was used as a rental for years and suffered abuse,and two more small fires, so when we did get it, it was condemned. We have been working on one situation at a time in order of priority. Bathroom was first, as we had none to speak of when we moved here. Then kitchen, and our family of five slept in the dining room for a winter. Then a bedroom, so we could work on the dining room, and so it went until we all had prospective bedrooms, and it is still not done. But is a house that is being remodeled ever completely done?
We don't like to create debt unless we absolutely have to, so we have done things the hard and slow way. My husband saw a huge ash tree that was dying, so he cut it down and had it sawn and planed by our amish neighbors. Two years later it was dry enough to use as flooring for our kitchen and dining room. Now THAT is slow!!Five years later, I am still waiting for a living room floor; the current one is an inch lower than the surrounding floors and visitors always trip.
But it is fun to do it all ourselves in due time and we feel so good when a project is finished. I think the best thing that has happened to encourage us is when an elderly lady stopped by during her vacation from Detroit and told us she was born here and thanked us for breathing new life into the place. She wanted a start from an old lilac bush that her dad had planted, and it had survived the fires and the abuse this place has endured. What a joy to grab a shovel and dig a shoot, like coming full circle! Good luck with all of your projects, I would love to come and visit each one and see what you are up to, it is so interesting to find what dreams are being fulfilled and becoming reality. Jenny |
| LJRphoto |
Posted - Aug 28 2005 : 11:55:35 AM
I have noticed that in some older houses the counters are actually a little lower than is standard today. I sometimes wonder if people used to be shorter, I think I may have even read something about how, in general, Americans are bigger people than they used to be.
Our house is a two bedroom ranch being passed off as a three bedroom. Someday, I want to move the kitchen, dining room, living room/family room to the walkout basement and put in a third bedroom upstairs as well as a real laundry room. Our washer and dryer are in the upstairs bathroom and it really isn't big enough for that. I can't open the dryer all the way because the toilet is in the way! But, it has been a long time dream to have the laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms. At our old house I'd have to walk up two flights of stairs to put the laundry away and I just find that I am better about it when it doesn't involve so much up and down the stairs stuff. I'd also like to put a nice patio on the back with a wisteria covered pergola where we could take some of our meals and enjoy looking out over new property.
citygoatlady, I love the sound of your kitchen. I wish I could see pictures of it.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." -Mark Twain |
| poppysmom |
Posted - Jul 10 2005 : 05:49:23 AM
Good point! I do a lot of trophy kitchens, but I always design them as if I would work in them. Most of our clientele are suburban homes and just remodeling for curb appeal. Also, to modify the height of a cabinet at the plant is an expensive modification, but an installer could just put a small platform under the cabinets on site. If you werent purchasing new cabinets, one could have an installer put a 1 to 2 inch filler strip along the tops of the cabinets in a matching wood or painted to match existing cabinets before installing a countertop. In my own kitchen we mixed new cabinetry with the existing and so had to modify the height of the old. We added the filler strip and painted the old cabinets. In this shifty old house it has held up pretty well. It would probably work out well if one were looking for a "country" look as you can see a seam whether painted or with wood as the wood grain of the filler strip will run perpindicular to the wood grain of the cabinet face.
no day but today |
| poppysmom |
Posted - Jul 08 2005 : 7:37:17 PM
Thats cool. Every time we till the garden, we find more metal items, like if the tractor died in its tracks, they buried it there. Very strange. I wonder what the history is of people and their "dump sites" as there was probably no city dump in the late 1800's. Or maybe our land was the old city dump... ha ha.
no day but today |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jul 08 2005 : 05:46:31 AM
We found treasures in our back yard! Our house was built in 1985, and apparently there was a farm here from antebelllum days through the 30's. The land was once a plantation. We found high button shoes, a china doll's face, lots of bottles (because we think they had a cane syrup making area), old iron skillets, part of a bicycle, a horseshoe, etc. We thought we had found the base of an old well (antique brick in a circle), but an historian told us it was probably a cane cooker where mules walked in a circle around a hugh boiler to stir the syrup. All of it was found in two areas of our yard when we cleared out the understory. We still find things after a hard rain. What treasures!
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
| poppysmom |
Posted - Jul 08 2005 : 05:09:48 AM
Has anyone found any treasures in their houses while remodeling? Our house was put up here around 1845 and for how many people have lived here, we havent found much! The only thing we have found is a little piece of brown paper used to wrap a package with that has the postmark from 1917. That owner put in a new wood floor at the time and used that paper to lay over the old floor. We were laying a new bamboo floor and you should have seen the condition of the "new" floor he layed! A truly used farmhouse. The doorway floors were worn down to almost nothing with some holes even. Some other owner later on patched it with plywood and layed carpet on top! Our poor child had to learn to walk at a 45 degree angle in some spots!!
It is very interesting to me to hear that so many of you want taller countertops. I am a kitchen designer and I dont hear this request very often. Are you all tall or just feel like you are leaning over your counters too far?
no day but today |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jul 06 2005 : 08:15:45 AM
If I were pregnant, had a new baby, or a toddler, I'd want the lead paint GONE. This is not just a "women and children" problem, lead also is a concern with gamete production in males. You can have a professional "wet-strip" it and repaint the clean surface, but it isn't cheap. There are 2 products called "ReadyStrip" and "Peel-away" for do it yourselfers, but you got to be careful. I would recommend using a respirator while working with the paint, 3 M makes a good one. If you want the lead abated, I would hire a pro. I would stay away from strippers such as Kleen Strip KS3 as it has a significant quantity of methylene chloride. Here is my two cents worth, do not dry sand, scrape, or use power sanders, inside or out EVER with lead paint! Always wet the surface with a water and detergent mixture to minimize dust and don't use torches or high temp heat guns. You can seal off the other rooms with plastic and tape while working on the lead. I am not sure about how I feel about painting over lead paint and would be concerned it would eventually chip off, talk with pros about that. I would have a baseline lead test done BEFORE you start working on it. They CAN do a fingerprick to test for lead, they don't need to extract a whole tube of blood from your kids, ask the doctor BEFORE you make the appointment that you want the fingerprick test. Don't write me off as "hysteria" over lead as I'm an old science teacher and feel strongly about this subject. I'm sure my grown children have elevated lead levels from the daycare they went to as toddlers, left over lead from leaded gasoline, deteriorating paint on other buildings, and neighboring property owners scraping paint and letting it fly around. Remember "small" pieces of lead-based paint do matter. Mollie |
| lurban |
Posted - Jul 06 2005 : 04:24:33 AM
The house we're thinking of buying will need a few major improvements right away -- most importantly, turning a dark hole into a working kitchen. To do it, we'll have to knock down a wall. This is a 150 year old house and, although we'll have pros do the demo and rearranging the gas line, I'm a little concerned about lead paint dust in the air -- I've got two kids under four. Any suggestions? |
| citygoatlady |
Posted - Jul 05 2005 : 8:56:21 PM
Peg,
Don't worry about getting house repair done when your kids are little. I found I only could accomplish that once the youngest was 5.
Just be involved with them, and as they grow they will join in with you more. By age 11 or so, they can do some very substantial helping; 14 is even better.
I did set up my farm when the kids were babies, but that was extremely difficult. |
| JoyIowa |
Posted - Jul 05 2005 : 8:50:23 PM
Peg,
I started laughing so hard when I read your post. You'll be happy to know you have a farmgirl sister in 2 years to paint a room! We started our living room to give it a homey feel exactly 2 years ago tomorrow. One wall is completely done. The others have a bit of paint on them. The east wall is perhaps the funniest: It has the words "Home of Squeeze Bottle Design" written in the color of paint that is supposed to be the entire wall. We saw this phrase on HGTV (when we still had it) The gentleman who was talking about it made the point that some people make sandwiches by getting out the mustard, getting out a plate, getting out the knife, carefully spreading the mustard in an even layer way out to the edges without slopping over, etc. Then there are those of us who grab a couple of pieces of bread and lay them on the counter, grab the mustard out of fridge and squeeze it out around the general direction of the bread. After you put the tops on, can you really tell the difference? Other than the extra dishes in the sink...no!
I had to write. Have a great day!
Joy
To live without farm life is merely existing, to live with farm life is living life to it very last experience. |
| citygoatlady |
Posted - Jul 05 2005 : 12:25:36 AM
PORCH: we bought this house partly because it has a large porch where we can play music with our friends. It is 8 feet deep and 24 feet wide. When company is over, 10 feet deep would make it easier to move around the chairs and not get stuck in one chair all night. For everyday, 8 feet deep is great.
KITCHEN: I removed a small wall and expanded the kitchen from 11 x 10, the smallest room in the house, to 11 x 16. We have trained all the kids to cook, and my husband cooks too; well, with everyone helping, we needed space to work!!!
CABINETS WITH DRAWERS: I put in lower cabinets with 3-4 drawers in each, so the kids can reach everything to cook independently wihtou asking me to get things down for them. Now they can cook or bake, set the table or put away the cleaned dishes easily. This large, easy to clean kitchen is heavenly! Now we can wash the canning pots instead of piling them (dirty) on the floor or in front of the door because that was the only empty space we used to have for setting things down.
Lots of drawers are usually expensive, but I revamped the Mills Pride Cabinets from Home Depot. You put them together yourself, so they are really cheap for the nice quality and big drawer size you get. There is a way to remeasure the base or 3-drawer base cabinets, drill a few holes and order a few parts and turn them into 4 drawer cabinets. We have a drawer for glasses, for plates, for herbs and spices standing upright with labeled lids, bowls only, silverware, utensils, a deep drawer for bottoms of plastic storage boxes, a narrow drawer for the lids only; drawer for baking supplies, one for potatoes and onions, phone books with pens (off the counter now), and my own PRIVATE mom's drawer ! It's all so easy to use and clean, especially by people shorter than 6 feet tall who are the only ones that can easily reach into a top cabinet!
Find local raw milk on www.localharvest.com. "If you complain about farmers, don't do it with your mouth full." |
| pegC |
Posted - Jun 30 2005 : 06:41:05 AM
Has it taken anyone else 2 years to paint a room? :) I have two small kids home with me, and as much as they would love to help I suspect they might not give the help I need, so I paint when they are asleep and I am not cleaning or cooking or canning or weeding or...
I love this life.
Peg
Jersey Farm Girl in Training |
| PJJ |
Posted - Jun 29 2005 : 10:02:01 PM
I love it, too! Can I come live with you? :)
Paula J.
quote:
Originally posted by jpbluesky
Molly, I have a fairly deep porch that runs the length of my center hall, my living room and dining room. It looks like a front porch but it is on the back of the house and looks out on woods. It is about 10 feet deep and I wish it were deeper. I would love it so deep that there were parts that never got wet with rain, and that I could have lots of furniture on it, maybe even lamps. Right now I have a porch swing, a wicker rocker, a glass top bistro table, two wicker chairs, a wicker end table and a round end side table, plus a white iron plant bakers shelf for plants. That sounds like a lot, but I would love to have more room. So, make it as big and deep as you can and you will not regret it at all!
If I could have free feign for improvements to our house, I would put wood floors on the stairs and upstairs, install new counter tops in the kitchen, build a laundry room on the lower level (my laundry is on the second floor), perhaps gas in our fireplace (now we burn logs), put in a deep country farm kitchen sink instead of the double one, and re-inforce our roof trusses for hurricanes.
We have already, in the last two years, installed a new garage door, entirely re-sided the house with hardee board (we have a white farmhouse type home with three dormers), replaced one of the cooling units, repaired the roof and installed new bedroom carpet.
Now we are broke! And so much more to do! Oh well, I am so blessed to have this home, I love it more all the time, and we have been here 20 years.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl
Paula J., with Ty, Cara, Brody, Blue, and Fidget |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jun 29 2005 : 10:27:50 AM
Molly, I have a fairly deep porch that runs the length of my center hall, my living room and dining room. It looks like a front porch but it is on the back of the house and looks out on woods. It is about 10 feet deep and I wish it were deeper. I would love it so deep that there were parts that never got wet with rain, and that I could have lots of furniture on it, maybe even lamps. Right now I have a porch swing, a wicker rocker, a glass top bistro table, two wicker chairs, a wicker end table and a round end side table, plus a white iron plant bakers shelf for plants. That sounds like a lot, but I would love to have more room. So, make it as big and deep as you can and you will not regret it at all!
If I could have free feign for improvements to our house, I would put wood floors on the stairs and upstairs, install new counter tops in the kitchen, build a laundry room on the lower level (my laundry is on the second floor), perhaps gas in our fireplace (now we burn logs), put in a deep country farm kitchen sink instead of the double one, and re-inforce our roof trusses for hurricanes.
We have already, in the last two years, installed a new garage door, entirely re-sided the house with hardee board (we have a white farmhouse type home with three dormers), replaced one of the cooling units, repaired the roof and installed new bedroom carpet.
Now we are broke! And so much more to do! Oh well, I am so blessed to have this home, I love it more all the time, and we have been here 20 years.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 29 2005 : 10:15:00 AM
I have a couple chairs on mine right now..but is not nearly big enough..I think a new one would have to be at least 8 ft!! I want mine longer and room for a table too..at least..and lots of plants..I like herbs and flowers in pots on the front porch. I had a screened porch in Minnesota when we lived there years ago. It was neccessary there with the bugs, but I guess here I wouldn't. I would love to have willow furniture out there.... I could move stuff from inside..I want more though!! I just love porches..especially in the fall all decorated with pumpkins and leaves and corn stalks...I love to sit and read on the porch, visit and have a glass of lemonade and like that.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jun 29 2005 : 06:27:19 AM
How deep should a new front porch be?? 6 ft deep?? 8 ft deep? I am never sure about how deep it should be from the front door to the steps, some people have such a narrow space you can't get a couple of chairs on it. What do you want to use your front porch for? Would you put a table on it also? Has anyone ever screened their "front" porch? Mollie |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 28 2005 : 11:36:34 PM
The oldest part of our house is over 100 years old.That being said..it has had some changes over the years. The family that lived here since 1950 before we moved in 3 years ago raised 8 kids here..which I can't imagine..with 4 at home I feel like we are maxed out for space. We hope to add on a bigger front porch sometime..hopefully not too distant.
Lets see if I could change things (and money were not an object..which it IS) I would make the kitchen counters taller (they are sure short!) and do new carpet in most of the rooms that are carpeted and refinish the wood floor in the others. I would change the stairs back to the original way they were...hard to explain but it had to have been better. I hope we do live here forever..I love this old house, with all it's quirks and stuff.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
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