Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Welcome to my old house.

June 2008 - Captain's log of My Old House.

I am making a blog about restoring or renovating an old house; accomplishments, lesson learned, mistakes and helpful hints/tips. The crowning project of my years of home repairs and remodeling is renovating a turn-of-the century Victorian house in the small town of Manti, Utah. The project is not finished and might never be completely finished. There will always be "one more" thing.

I started on the inside to make the house livable and worked my way out from there. For several years neighboring residences thought the house might be vacant. What I have done is an example of what tenacity and perseverance can accomplish. I believe what made this project unique is I am a older single woman with a limited income and time restrictions who took a shabby old house and transformed it into a lovely lady. I refer to with a female gender, because like me, the house that was once ragged and worn around the edges has become a proud woman who is still improving in many ways with age. Age has certainly added charm and unique qualities to my old Victorian! One example is the divot worn into the floor between the dining room and kitchen where people stopped to push the two way swinging door open. When I refinished the old pine planks, I purposely left the worn place there to continue to help tell the story of the people who called the house their home over the years.

I will not claim I know everything about refurbishing an old home, but I have learned a thing or two. I welcome your stories about this subject and any helpful suggestions.

I still have to repair and repoint bricks on the outside, replace trim and gingerbread. I am torn between using some man-made material rather than wood. Upkeep is so difficult in extreme weather. So far I have used wood, trying to keep the integrity of the original structure. I am interested in rain chains instead of downspouts when I have rain gutter installed. What do you think? Finding transom hardware for 12 doors is a challenge, one I have not faced yet.

p.s. The previous owner of the house was required to declare to prospective buyers that it was haunted because of Utah's laws. No ghosts there now. But that is another story - maybe another blog.