Saturday, May 11, 2013

Introduction


I've created this blog to show friends and family the progress of my colonial cottage restoration. Due to the poor economy and and lack of work over the past few years my family and I lost our house which we owned for about 10 years. I was on a mission to find a super cheap fixer-upper which I could buy for cash and repair and rebuild as cash was available, no bank involved to take it away one day. I found this great little colonial cottage  property in the woods  within walking distance of a very desirable lake area. It sits on a great flat piece of land surrounded by acres and acres of woods. A very peaceful setting. After nagging the town attorney a few times I was able to get some more information and guidance as to how I could buy the property and after 3 town meetings I was able to buy the portion the town owned for $1. and hired a lawyer to tie up loose ends and foreclose on the back taxes due on the property for a cost of $4,000. with about $1,000. in extra misc costs. The town has the house listed as 1950, but the old 12/12 windows with wavy glass say otherwise, as does the framing materials and old hand forged square head nails. After stripping the siding off I came across a few notes on some boards, one states that the house was "built the first time 1803" this seems like a more accurate date of the house. On another board there is a note of a 1934 renovation.


I started cleaning up  the property in July of 2011, the people who lived there never used a garbage can or took anything to the dump, everything was just thrown in the yard in bags. As if the garbage and many, many years of weeds and overgowth wasn't enough, there was also a big garage that once sat next to the house which had burnt down many years ago and all the debris from that remained. I filled two of the biggest 30 yard dumpsers over the course of a few weeks and made many dump runs cleaning out the garbage all over the property and from inside the house which was completely packed with clothes, mattresses and tons of junk. Once the yard was somewhat cleaned up and the house was cleared out I started gutting the house. Typical drywall on the first floor, second floor has various wall coverings like clear plastic sheets and cardboard, no insulation, must have been cold winters for the poor people living here.

Heres some early photos before I started cleaning up


brought my lawn mower and cleared out a little space
































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