Since 2006, Jeff and I have dedicated every weekend, every dollar, and all of our love to our beautiful 'Belle' upstate. But,many of you might not know that 'Belle' has a brother... we call him the Carriage House - which over the last year we have dedicated ourselves to saving.
This is what the carriage house looked like when we bought Belle.... it was so overgrown you really had to weed-whack your way to the door..... oh how things have changed! It was on the very back of the acre property - so very easy to ignore (too easy)
Out comes to floor and good bye to powder post beetles!
The original red stain of the carriage house from over 150 years ago... pretty cool is you ask me!
Floor is still coming out....
Floor is out and the piles of junk under it are gone.... now we are ready to fill this huge hole and build a new floor!!!
New floor is getting closer!
Where our new windows will go.... once we have a wall
Wall is built and windows are in (see on right side of photo)
New wall and windows from outside (there is where the old addition USED to be)
What will be our new bathroom..... see the new floor??? Cool huh?
We bought scaffolding!!! (no I am not kidding) and IT ROCKS!!! We spent 2 months painting the entire house this summer (2010) - and repairing all the old wood as we went.
Pretty cool huh? And yes, those are all new windows and doors..... pretty fancy!!!
The Carriage house had been deserted for over 15 years and was being taken back by the earth and the animals that lived in it. It was beyond scary! It was converted to a rental space back in the 80's and then let to rot..... but beneath all that drywall, ghetto rug, and garbage - we found a perfect post-n-beam 150 year old carriage house.
Over the last 2 years we ALMOST finished it - but had to take the 2010 fall/winter off due to personal health reasons. We also for the first time HIRED SOMEONE to help... thank god for Jay and Adam - or we never would have been able to save this little carriage house.
We will be back to work in the spring 2011 and our determination to finish our beautiful house will not waiver.
Can you say scary? This is what it looked like when we bought the property....
Yes, those really are spider webs.... like out of a Indiana Jones movie!
The floor in the downstairs was almost completely gone thanks to powder post beetles...
We began by taking down the addition that was being held up by the bookcase you can see in the lower right... and no, I am not kidding - and entire upstairs bedroom held up by a bookcase.
Once the addition was down - it was time to start trying to save the inside!
Bye, Bye addition...... there will soon be a neat new room where you once were!
Out comes to floor and good bye to powder post beetles!
The original red stain of the carriage house from over 150 years ago... pretty cool is you ask me!
Floor is still coming out....
Floor is out and the piles of junk under it are gone.... now we are ready to fill this huge hole and build a new floor!!!
New floor is getting closer!
Where our new windows will go.... once we have a wall
Wall is built and windows are in (see on right side of photo)
New wall and windows from outside (there is where the old addition USED to be)
What will be our new bathroom..... see the new floor??? Cool huh?
Our new storage room... which stands where the old addition used to!
We bought scaffolding!!! (no I am not kidding) and IT ROCKS!!! We spent 2 months painting the entire house this summer (2010) - and repairing all the old wood as we went.
Pretty cool huh? And yes, those are all new windows and doors..... pretty fancy!!!
More to come in 2011....