Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Disappointments

You probably know that we’re intent on restoring this house to its original look as much as we can.  Why?  Because we love old details and quirky elements – that many people might want to tear out.  We prefer to highlight them and honor their history.
Which doors are original and which is replacement?

 

That’s why this is so distressing.  Since this is a 125 year old house, we assumed it had all plaster walls and original trim (which appeared to be simple woodwork, but that’s not unusual in old houses).  But once we bought it and had some time to spend in it, we discovered the house is all drywall and new trim.  Horrors!!!  We never thought to go around the house rapping our knuckles against the wall to hear that solid thud of plaster while we were looking at the house.  We just assumed the walls and trim were original!

If this isn't original trim, did they copy what was original??

 

And before purchasing, I had done a search of city records and didn’t find any permits pulled that said the house was gutted.  The previous owners had done some updates, but they pulled permits for the work.  They had lived there since the 80’s, so the house must have been completely reworked before they owned it.  Maybe it was redone after the 70's oil embargo, to better insulate the house?

 

Seriously, this is like a punch in the gut.  Instead of a great old house with lots of original details, we have one that was probably completely redone in the 70’s.  Was it done right?  Did they recreate the original moldings?  Why didn’t they update the electrical to include grounded outlets?  We have so many questions, but for now we’ll just have to wait until we do some exploratory demolition to figure out what’s going on!

Is this mantle original?  Or was it a new one they installed when they gutted the house?

Is this built in original? Maybe not, since the heat duct is part of the design...

Stay tuned for updates.  And in the meantime, I'm just going to feel sad, while I wonder what original features have been lost.....

We love this door - hopefully it's original!


 


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1 comment:

  1. Oh bummer. So sorry to hear about this. I'm sure you'll figure something out and it will be fabulous.

    ReplyDelete

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